Apparently, Nicholas Berg lived with the family in West Chester, but according to a 5/15 story by the Lancaster New Era, Prometheus Methods Tower Service Inc. (Inc.'d where, nobody knows) "officially operated " out an an 11-acre farm in New Providence, owned by Scott Hollinger. Hollinger, according to the interview, "a lifelong mountain climber who taught climbing in the Marines, answered a newspaper ad 14 months ago to work for Berg's company, Prometheus Methods Tower Service Inc." (which would be just about at the start of Op Iraqi Freedom, by my reckoning). There is no explanation of this odd arrangement (an employer's business located on an employee's property) other than the statement that "While the business officially operates out of Hollinger's farm, it is in reality a mobile office, and the two spent many a day climbing and maintaining communications towers up and down the East Coast." Now, if one needed to meet with certain people that might be noticed in one's neighborhood, an 11-acre farm, described as reachable by "back roads," would be a great alternative rendezvous point....
The article, written after Berg's funeral, goes on to say that "Hollinger and Berg's father, Michael, are going to have to sit down and discuss what's going to happen to Nick Berg's business, his vision." No mention is made of Michael Berg's status in the corporation. Of course, the elder Berg and Hollinger can make claim to any corporate position they desire, since there are apparently no corporate papers on file.
Hollinger also (conveniently) backs up the Berg family's story of Nicholas being "a huge George W. Bush supporter," (the first mention I've seen outside the family), but also says that he "plans to go kayaking with Michael Berg in a few weeks, and he plans "to maintain a relationship, and be there for them,'' (Berg's family).
An even more interesting statement by Hollinger appears in yesterday's Philadelphia Inquirer: "Nick never had a beer in his life. He was absolutely vice-free."
This statement doesn't jive with eye-witness accounts from those who stayed at the same Baghdad hotel as Nick. The much-quoted businessman, Andrew R. Duke (who claims Berg told him he made a lot of money in Iraq and planned to go boating in Turkey) says Nick had a beer with him at the bar the night before he left, and a hotel employee told the AP "He usually left the hotel in the morning and returned late, around 10 p.m., usually carrying a sack of beer and mineral water." The LA Times reported that "Berg told friends he was arrested after a night of drunken mischief (in Mosul)."
It seems rather convenient that in the last 48 hours we've had a statement supporting the father's contention that Nicholas was a Bush supporter, along with a bizarre AP story about Aziz Taee, an Iraqi exile/businessman who lived in Philly before the Iraq war, popping up to explain that he was Berg's contact/associate/pseudo-partner/whatever in Iraq, and that they climbed "tall buildings at Abu Ghraib" one night (I assume the reporter means towers, but what the heck), in an attempt to re-record measurements that were previously stolen when Berg was mugged on a Baghdad street, per Taee.
Whoraldo interviewed this guy by phone from Baghdad last night, and wound up hanging up on him because his answers to questions were so evasive.
Whatever was/is going on, I'm guessing involved parties have a vested interest in letting this story die.
Have you seen this? He doesn't seem to be much of a fan of that inquiry of Iraqi expats that went on a while back.
Monitoring puzzles Iraqis in US
Some of those who fled Saddam Hussein's Iraq for the United States said that they believe a U.S. program that aims to identify terrorist threats by monitoring Iraqi Americans is as perplexing as it is disturbing. "If there is one group in America that wants to remove Saddam Hussein, it's Iraqi Americans," said Aziz Taee, a spokesman for the Iraqi-American Council in Washington.