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To: livius
It's very possible that it wasn't incorporated anywhere, which is no doubt why the Bergs had a little trouble getting contracts in Iraq. In fact, because of the insurance and bonding requirements normally involved in any kind of construction or maintenance business, I'm surprised they got any contracts at all.

Agreed. But we know he got some work in the U.S. From dctrv.org:

Berg Did Area Radio Tower Work - 5/12 - DCRTV hears that 26-year-old Nick Berg, the West Chester, Pennsylvania man beheaded in Iraq, worked as a broadcast tower engineer in the DC-Baltimore area during the past four years. At radio stations WPGC, WHFS, WMAL, WWGB, and WMET. He also worked in south central Pennsylvania at WSBA, WARM, WSOX, WGTY, WGET, and WIOV, and at outlets on Maryland's Eastern Shore. According to the DC Post, Berg was employed by Prometheus Methods Tower Services and was in Iraq to inspect radio towers damaged by the war.....

That's why I checked Maryland.

Checking for insurance might be another way of finding out if this company really existed.

How can we do that?

Given the risks involved and technical knowledge required to do tower work, I doubt there are tons of people who do it. And I wouldn't be surprised if companies would try to hold on to anyone who can help them, regardless of insurance. But this is pure speculation.
86 posted on 05/14/2004 6:24:18 AM PDT by conservative in nyc
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To: conservative in nyc

I don't know how we could find the insurance information (without expending a lot more in time and resources than any of us here have).

I notice it merely says that he worked as a tower engineer, so it's possible that he was sort of a free-lancer who was employed on an individual basis by those stations (and hence probably covered by their insurance). In other words, possibly he did not go in his capacity as "working for Prometheus Methods," and hence being a contractor or subcontractor, but simply as an individual.

Prometheus Radio Project seems to have been a registered organization of some sort (a non-profit?) in order to accept those grants. I wonder if the "Methods" group was somehow legally part of the "Project."

I realize it's possible that there's no connection between the two groups - perhaps Berg Sr. just knew about the Prometheus Project and wanted to name his business after it as a sort of tribute. Which is still not a very positive sign!


96 posted on 05/14/2004 6:40:58 AM PDT by livius
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To: conservative in nyc
I followed your dctrv.org link; the paragraph included a link to a Washington Post article.
This is the end of that article:
According to a clerk at Baghdad's Al Fanar Hotel, on the east bank of the Tigris River, Berg checked in on March 22, left for Mosul the next day, returned to the hotel on April 6 and checked out on April 10.

Berg said he was going home, the clerk said, and walked down Saddoun Street, a major artery, because the road was closed to vehicular traffic. He left behind in his room a yellowed and folded page from a book by Jon Burmeister, a South African writer of thrillers who died in 2001.

The page carries a short prose poem titled "The War That Wasn't." It describes a man named Jericho, who is awakened by machine-gun fire, "his heart hammering thunderously against the ribcage as though trying to escape."

The poem ends: "What the hell was happening? God knows, he thought. But it seemed clear that the war had arrived -- the war that wasn't coming here . . ."


103 posted on 05/14/2004 6:54:33 AM PDT by calcowgirl
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