THE JOHN LOFTUS REPORT, 5-13-04 (Loftus comments on Berg, the "Enemies List" and this website)

The John Batchelor Show
WABC 770 AM News Talk Radio
New York City
Thursday, May 13, 2004
7:35pm, EST

JOHN BATCHELOR: I'm John Batchelor, ABC radio. John Loftus is "The Secret War Against the Jews" at John Loftus, [pause] John hyphen Loftus dot org, joins me. We have several stories. We are going, going to approach them circuitously because we are going to get back to the Berg story, eventually. We're going, going to start with Zarqawi and get back to Berg in the second segment because we have combat information from the ground in Iraq. This is a war on terror, there are combat troops in action, right now, as we speak. It is lighting up its theatre. There are combat troops at Fallujah, there are combat troops in the South of Iraq. First we start with Zarqawi. Uhh, information today that Zarqawi IS ON the video tape of Berg's murder and that it's Zarqawi's voice. I go to you John because is that confirmed? What else tells us that it's Zarqawi, the Jordanian mastermind of the chaos in Iraq?

JOHN LOFTUS: Well, a couple of things. First of all, the tape that, uhh, is on the internet, and by the way, I do NOT recommend that you watch it. Umm, the last forty-five seconds are nightmare material, you don't even want to see it. But, the tape is in two parts, first was Berg's message, then apparently, uhh, twelve hours later, approximately, they line him up again in the same chair, and that was when Zarqawi came out and killed him. Now, the voice that spoke in the first tape is pretty conclusively identified as Zarqawi's. Now, the person in the second half of the tape looks like the same man as in the first part of the tape, and the, uhh, the text gives credit to Zarqawi kills an American. So, you know, the CIA is probably on pretty solid ground saying, "yeah it looks like Zarqawi killed him". Umm, a few odd things, he's wearing a gold ring on his hand, which is unusual for a Moslem. He's got the little bit of a limp, which is consistent with Zarqawi's, uhh, a little bit of a shape shifting posture, which is consistent with a guy who's lost his leg. He had that from previous surgery. The Zarqawi beheading tape is sooo sickening to Moslems there's a huge backlash. Now, this for the rumor that this was an American, umm, false tape, that Zarqawi himself was actually killed, someone else is claiming credit for it, they're backtracking all over the place, but the damage has been done.

JOHN BATCHELOR: Alright, Zarqawi's identified by the OGA's [refers to either: Other Government Agency (slang for the CIA), or the private CIA spec-ops subcontracting firm, OGA, Inc.] as on the tape. I...

JOHN LOFTUS: [talk-over, unintelligible] will publicly acknowledge that they believe the voice prints confirm that the person who spoke on the first part of the tape is Zarqawi. Uhh, the man who screamed: "ala akbar", while sawing off his neck, in the second part of the tape, looks [pause] almost certainly to be the same man as the first part.

JOHN BATCHELOR: Alright, I read them backwards, John and you just let me read them backwards here, because there's information in all directions, and these are still early moments here of this video tape. It, it is passing [sic] strange to me that they, the enemy wanted to give us the video tape, but now that it's here, let's look at it. Zarqawi is said to kill Berg on the tape, video tape.

JOHN BATCHELOR: They don't have it with...they don't [sic] running a clock when they do that, but at some time of last weekend, which is five days ago...

JOHN BATCHELOR: ...Berg's body is found last weekend in Baghdad, on the roadside outside of Baghdad. And he's said to have been found, his body's said to have been found within the, a day of having been killed. That means, reasoning backwards, that Zarqawi is somewhere within a day's drive, because the...

JOHN LOFTUS: No, I know the roads you're talking about, 250 miles, maximum...

JOHN BATCHELOR: ...of Baghdad. And Zarqawi wants us to know that. We can not presume the enemy is stupid here. So Zarqawi wants to signal that he is within striking distance of Baghdad. All that goes out to his forces. They see him as a powerful, ahh, a Saladin figure, an avenger, who is not frightened of the Americans, who taunts the Americans, within a driving distance of Baghdad.

JOHN LOFTUS: Well, the intel is coming to the opposite conclusion, that Zarqawi has been chased from pillar to post, his organization's getting chewed up, uhh, people are in prisons, people are being, uhh, captured or killed and he had to do something to show that he's still in charge. Zarqawi apparently convinced what remains of leadership of al-Qa'ida, that he should be given command of a whole new department of al-Qa'ida for Iraq. And this is a very rare bureaucratic shift in their organizational structure. So Zarqawi says I'm the big fish, I have to prove to my followers I'm still here, I'm doing something, therefore let me do something outrageous.

JOHN BATCHELOR: Alright, that's what he's done. So, now, now that we've fixed him, we'll come back to this, we'll come back to Berg in the next segment, I want to go to Fallujah. Ahh, the combat situation on the ground is very quiet, John. Perhaps the prison abuse scandal overwhelmed the media. What do we know that's going on in Fallujah?

JOHN LOFTUS: Well, about eighty percent of the city is, uhh, being patrolled by the new Iraqi forces and as of today we had American forces going in with them, no one was shooting. So, it looks as if the tactic has worked. That eighty percent of the city didn't like the Americans coming in, but now that we have, umm, a force recruited, in substantial part of, ahh, native Fallujans, working for, native Fallujans working with America, that seems to be the magic formula to save face. Now the Fallujan answer is that, "oh, there are no more foreigners here, they left a month ago, they all took off and hid". It's possible. Umm, the new, ahh, Fallujah brigade is notoriously lax on checking the papers of cars going in and out. A lot of that is probably a good thing, you want to give the city a sense of calm. What I hear is that its going to take another week and then the hammer will fall, that some of these guys may still be in there, but, uhh, you know, we're trying to make that we're not fighting the entire city of Fallujah, just the little bad guys in one little corner of it.

JOHN BATCHELOR: Moving to the South. Sadr. I played a clip from several days ago about a strike against Sadr, Sadr's forces in the South. It, it's spread out over sev... several cities, Karbala, Najaf and others in the South...

JOHN LOFTUS: It's everywhere, but Kufah. It's Karbala, Najaf, we had U.S. troops in tanks rolling into, uhh, the center city today. And, umm, the people in the street are just overjoyed, they're saying, look, you know, umm, we've been without food for three days, we can last another week, we've gotta get these guys outta here. There is just real disgust. The test comes tomorrow, there's supposed to be a massive march of, umm, Najaf Shi'ites to protest al-Sadr's continued presence. We'll see if that happens, uhh, last time they attempted this, uhh, al-Sadr's supporters started firing guns in the air. There was a similar rally with a shoving match where, you know, al-Sadr's people were chanting: "all the people are behind al-Sadr", and the whole crowd started roaring back: "all the people are behind al-Sistani".

JOHN BATCHELOR: Al-Sistani is the, is the Shi'ia Imam leader of Southern Iraq.

JOHN LOFTUS: Yeah, he is the leader of the four grand Ayatollahs and they really, really don't like al-Sadr. So his troops are being attrited substantially in Karbala, substantially in Najaf, umm, they're blowing up their ammo warehouses, they're taking them out, we have Marine snipers and military snipers on every three and four story building in Najaf and Karbala and they're doing a really good job of attriting these guys.

JOHN BATCHELOR: Now, it is Friday morning, it is coming Friday morning in Iraq, there'll be prayers this morning, so for the last many weeks, Sadr comes out and makes and inflammatory and accusatory and threatening and damaging, umm, umm, speech and that played in al-Jazeera and that lead to, ahh, a weekend of violence.

JOHN LOFTUS: You know John, this may be one of the best weeks we've had [laughter], coming up. And here's this guy al-Sadr, who says: "everybody rally behind me, let's kill the Americans", and al-Jazeera jumps on his bandwagon, the Europeans jump on his bandwagon, and you know what? The Iraqis didn't.

JOHN BATCHELOR: ...it's the dog that's not barking, at least in terms of Najaf and Karbala and Southern Iraq and that, uhh, that attack on the, uhh, British troops as Basra did not continue. So, so we're going to come back to Zarqawi, Zarqawi who may be within a day of Baghdad, uhh, you don't have to comment, John. But we'll come back to this, because I want to talk about Berg. Some of the information that's coming out about Berg, the murdered Nick Berg, that is, umm, that, that has to be dealt with. We have to deal with the information, because it's been all pieces all over the place.

JOHN LOFTUS: Yeah, its, a lot of it is screwy stuff. Nick Berg's father was a, umm, an opponent of Bush's war and Nick Berg, the late Nick Berg, was, umm, a supporter of it. He thought the that, well, to be fair, he was a kid that went to a lot of areas where people were beleaguered, umm, he was a microwave tower specialist, who would climb up microwaves [sic] and repair them, a very rare specialty, you know, it seems he'd made seventy thousand bucks in the last month, he was doing well. The FBI said, you know: "come on kid, get out of town" and he said: "alright, I will". So, he was getting ready to go and he got grabbed.

JOHN BATCHELOR: When we come back we are going to deal with some of the details that are emerging about Nick Berg, Nick Berg's last month...

JOHN BATCHELOR: This is John Batchelor, ahh, with John Loftus, "The Secret War Against the Jews". I'm in Stanford University, the Hoover Institution. This is ABC radio.

JOHN BATCHELOR: I'm John Batchelor, ABC radio, continuing with John Loftus of "The Secret War Against the Jews", I want to speak of Berg again, John. We have Zarqawi identified as the killer. Berg, uhh, he's in Iraq and then he leaves and then he comes back to Iraq. Uhh, the details emerging today, his sister, his deceased sister was married to an Iraqi and he may or may not have traveled to Mosul to meet with his sister's, umm, husband.

JOHN LOFTUS: Yeah, he did. He met with his uncle, it took a three week search, they finally hooked up. He spent a couple of days when the uncle was very nervous about his presence because he was a white American, uhh, in a dangerous neighborhood. Umm, this is a kid that just loved adventure. Now something odd has happened in this case. Umm, they've found that the used computer that Moussoui bought, he was one of the, uhh, you know, al-Qa'ida terrorists captured in America. The computer that he bought came from Richard [sic] Berg. Now what do we make of that? Well, umm, perhaps, uhh, nothing more than one guy bought a used computer from another one. Uhh, perhaps it mean that, uhh, you know, maybe there is, uhh, a leftist group supporting al-Qa'ida within the United States, helping them out with things. Uhh, his dad's name, uhh, popped up on an enemies list from an ultra-right wing site listing all of the groups and organizations, that according to their sad little likes, are anti-American... [emphasis added]

JOHN BATCHELOR: Uhh, I understand intelligence gathering is just putting a lot of dots down and not making any connection until you're, you're, until you can...

JOHN BATCHELOR: ...But a computer, we know that, that, computers have been critical for a lot of, ahh, ahh, a lot of intelligence gathering here, I, I remember that CD that Zarqawi wrote in February about the, the battle plan for what is now Fallujah and, and the, and Najaf and other attacks on America. So, the, the computer owned by Nick Berg is bought by Moussoui, Moussoui who has now been under, in custody in America since August of 2001. Is that the same Moussoui, or have I got this wrong?

JOHN LOFTUS: Same guy. It's, uhh, the FBI investigated this previously and said there's nothing to the story, it's just one of those weird little coincidences of life.

JOHN BATCHELOR: John, is this a weird coincidence that we need to come back to? [pause] That's what's bothering me about it.

JOHN LOFTUS: Yeah, I know it, it may be nothing more than that, John, something, sometimes these weird things happen. Umm...

JOHN BATCHELOR: I know, but of all the, of all the gin joints in all the world, you had to walk into mine, [unintelligible]...

JOHN BATCHELOR: I know, well just put it down it down as coincidence, but Berg, we can presume, John, that out there are some major league journalists, who are pursuing the last days of Nick Berg, to see what happened to him after April 9th, when he [talk-over, unintelligible]...

JOHN LOFTUS: And his friends are coming forward, they're saying: "yeah, he spent time with us. We stayed at this flop house used by poor journalists and aid workers." and, uhh, he said: "Oh yeah, I was imprisoned, it was really cool" and uhh, you know, he had an enjoyable [unintelligible] time. Didn't seem to be particularly political, he, uhh, supported what we were trying to do over there, and was, quite frankly, trying to make himself a little bit of money. That seems to be the gist of what his friends and acquaintances are saying about his last days. But then up pops this Moussoui computer, up pops his dad being listed on this, uhh, ultra-radical right wing site on the internet... [emphasis added]

JOHN BATCHELOR: And what does the FBI think John? Because, we do know, we have known for several days, that they talked to him. Did they, did they, in the inter..., I mean they take a form out, what is it called, a four thirty five, or whatever the FBI has to fill out? Why is the FBI in Mosul talking to Berg? I mean, are they, are they just, is this, are they, are they tasked for, for Iraq, is the FBI over [talk-over, unintelligible]?

JOHN LOFTUS: Yeah, that's a normal assignment, umm, Legats, Legal Attaches, they will be there because, you know, there might be things happening in Iraq that affect American FBI operations, and so it's not unusual to have them there. I...

JOHN BATCHELOR: Is it, is it unusual that you get to the level of being called upon by the FBI if you're in custody...

JOHN LOFTUS: Well, he was an American citizen. What happened, I guess, was that the kid was out celebrating, was kind of, he admitted to one of his friends he was walking drunk on the streets, he got picked up, he had a Jewish sounding name, he had an Israeli stamp in his passport and the Iraqi said: "Oh, you're an Israeli spy". He threw him in prison and the FBI visited him a couple of times and said: "No he's not, he's just a kid and twenty-eight years old and looking for some adventure". And the, but the FBI said: "get out of town". That seems to be the story that is consistently coming down from U.S. intel tonight.

JOHN BATCHELOR: So far. Alright, just a moment here, John. Ahh, because we only, and we'll come back to the prison story that Rummy's been dealing with and we're running out of time. I'm sorry I went so, 'cause the computer just threw me off, John.

JOHN BATCHELOR: Yeah, ahh, more than weird, John. I mean, ahh, you understand I come from the world of novels. If I'm writing a plot, I don't put that in the plot, unless I can control it.

JOHN LOFTUS: You know, but, the real world is so bizarre, that coincidences like this are normal. It's, it's, this stuff happens.

JOHN BATCHELOR: Alright, let's, let's just for a moment go to the fact that yesterday, a video, another video was released, of England, the accused woman in the ring in the, in the prison responsible for those, uhh, for those photographs. It looks like she's got a lawyer and he's going to be aggressive about putting her on the talk show circuit.

JOHN BATCHELOR: So, where's this investigation going? We just have a minute. This investigation, are they all talking, all the accused non-coms, are they all pointing fingers at each other?

JOHN LOFTUS: Well, they're trying to say our bosses told us to do it, but the problem with that is they've done a triple check today, the standing orders that came down were very strict. General Abizaid never signed off on any permission for any sort of abusive interrogation...

JOHN BATCHELOR: And the off..., and the non-coms don't have any paper to prove off their acc..., to prove their accusations, do they?

JOHN BATCHELOR: Alright, alright, we'll come back to the prison abuse story, because Rumsfeld went over for that. And we'll come back to the computer again tomorrow, John, as I do a little more thinking about this one. I'm going to, everybody out there, you participate in this: Moussoui, arrested in Minnesota in August of 2001. He's got a computer, in that computer, which we've talked about for two years, was some evidence that could have stopped nine-eleven, but now it turns out that computer came from Nick Berg. Thank you John. This is John Batchelor, ABC radio. I'm going to India next, because there's a surprise and stunning reversal of fortune. Major democracy on the earth, India. This is ABC radio.

"Thanks for the additional info on Loftus."

Glad to oblige. Nothing quite as satisfying as shining a little light of day on these self-appointed intel experts.

(Especially the ones with a left-wing agenda!)

--Boot Hill

Something comes to mind.

About two months ago, the US shut down an Iraqi newspaper. There was one snide question about it during a white house press briefing.

The newspaper was shut down because it was printing stories that Israeli's and other jews were buying up all the real estate in Iraq.

The media hack that asked the question was quite sarcastic in his question regarding shutting down the newspaper...oh, free press, etc etc.

Was this kind of outright lying reporting in the Iraqi paper something that made Berg even more of a target?

Not only is Loftus a democrat, he is also suing Saudi Arabia on behalf of some of the 9/11 families.

Nearly every comment on the Iraqi war leads him to blaming Saudi Arabia.....

He has an agenda and he also has some agenda driven sources.

• "How do we know that Loftus is referring to FR?"

See underlined part below...

"Uhh, his dad's name, uhh, popped up on an enemies list from an ultra-right wing site listing all of the groups and organizations, that according to their sad little likes, are anti-American..."

• "What listing is he referring to?"

This should bring you up to speed in a hurry: "salon.com contacts DFU over FR's role in murder of Nick Berg by Islamofascist Terrorist b*st*rds"

--Boot Hill

I've missed something. Am I reading that Nick Berg has a deceased sister who was married to an Iraqi? Is this true? I haven't heard this anywhere else.

Lunatics......does that describe those who find the truth of a story before the lamestream media gets around to it?

Does it describe those who are often more knowledgeable than the media reporting on an issue?

Does it describe those who get out to support their candidates, often at great sacrifice to themselves?

Speak for yourself, this site is right a thousand percent more times than the print and electronic media trying to destroy this country.

Someone ought to email Loftus and ask him if HE considers ANSWER a reputable organization. A little research into the funding and those sponsoring that organization is in order.

Loftus owes us an apology if in fact he meant FR.

"Was this kind of outright lying reporting in the Iraqi paper something that made Berg even more of a target?"

LOL, I don't think there is anything that the media could ever say or do that could ever make the Arabs hate the Jews more passionately than they already do! (But who knows, maybe what you suggest did make a difference in Berg's case.)

--Boot Hill

"this site is right a thousand percent more times than the print and electronic media trying to destroy this country."

Amen and amen and amen.

Boot Hill

A congressional investigation into the Bush-Nazi family ties.

Hmmmm...just posted...< donning tin foil hat >

U.S. tipped to Holocaust in '42

Prelude to coming attacks on the Bush family?</tinfoil hat>

"Loftus owes us an apology if in fact he meant FR.

Oh, you'd better believe he was referring to FR. We are the only website with an "enemies list" that the paranoid, lying, left tried to connect to Berg's death. If you're not familiar with that controversy, check out the link in #24.

Does he owe FR an apology? Of course he does, but I'll expect to see that apology about the same time cows learn to fly.

--Boot Hill

Sure is weird. But with something so easily verifiable, why hasn't it been picked up by the media. That's indeed an important circumstance.

I understand. I do tend to believe one thing that he & others(?) have been saying for months...& that is that Iraq's WMD were moved to Syria & Lebanon.

gee, here I thought I was mainstream!

But what gets me is - there is no one more pro-war then Loftus. He wants everybody hit over there, he routinely expresees hatred for them all - Syria, Iran, the terror groups like Hezzbollah & Hamas, Sadr, AQ, the Taliban, Pakistan. And he despises the Saudis. He wants everyone taken out over there.

So what does that make him?

I have never gotten a response from emailing Batchelor. Monica Crowley has answered my emails, so has Phil Boyce from WABC. But not Batchelor.

He is a huge supporter of Israel and everything he says with regard to the war is colored by that support. This is not meant as a crictism of his views but to answer your post.

It may not be readily apparent from the written transcript above, but both times Loftus tried to talk trash about this website and connect Berg's death to that enemies list, Batchelor cut in forcefully and diverted Loftus to other topics.

Batchelor knows that some part of his listener-ship comes from here and the conservative right wing (sad to say), and he doesn't want to risk offending or losing those listeners. Loftus, on the other hand, could care less about offending conservatives, and would have identified this site by name in a heart beat, had Batchelor given him the chance.

--Boot Hill

I prefer "ultra mega right-wing" myself, when not working under cover of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.

Either that or just a bit right of middle when not viewed from the penultimate wacky left point of view.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.