Posted on 05/19/2004 6:20:40 PM PDT by kristinn
Posted on Wed, May. 19, 2004
BERG CONSPIRACY THEORIES
WAR EXTRA! By William Bunch bunchw@phillynews.com
THE STRANGE life and brutal death of Nick Berg, the 26-year-old radio-tower repair whiz from West Chester, has prompted a din of Internet conspiracy chatter. Without endorsing anything, heres a guide:
Theory: Video was fake What theyre saying: If Berg was beheaded on live video, as purported, why wasnt there more blood splattered on the camer a and on his killers? Was he already dead? Why doesnt the audio portion match up with the video? What about strange jumps in the date stamp, and evidenc e that more than one camer a had been used?
How come the masked men, chubb y and pale -skinned and possibly wearing bulletproof vests, dont look like Arab terrorists? And why was Berg sitting in the same style white plastic chair seen in photos of the Abu Ghraib prison?
Theory: CIA claim that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is the killer is bogus What theyre saying: Why did both CNN translators and CIA sources quoted shortly after Bergs slaying insist that the alleged lieutenant of Osama bin Laden was NOT the killer.
Supposedly al-Zarqawi has a prosthetic leg, yet theres no sign of that. Also, al-Zarqawi is Jordanian, but fluent Arabic speakers say the speaker doesnt have a Jordanian accent. The killer appeared to be wearing a gold ring, supposedly prohibited in Islam.
Why does it sound like the killers are shouting in Russian at one point ? There have even been some credible news accounts that al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. bombing raid a long time ago. If he wanted the world to know that he killed Berg, why did he cover his face in a mask?
Theory: Nick Berg wasnt really who people think he was What theyre saying: Why would Berg abandon an Ivy League education and turn up in Oklahoma, where his e-mail password ended up with a terrorism suspect linked to 9/11 figure Zacarias Moussaoui? Why did he hang with other suspicious characters, including a U.S.-backed Iraqi ex-pat with a criminal past that included a Russian-emigre crime ring?
Why did Berg reportedly travel to Iraq with an Israeli stamp in his passport and brag to a U.S. journalist of his visits to Israel? Why did he admittedly carry literature in Farsi, the language of neighboring Iran? U.S. officials also say that Berg, who is Jewish, had the Koran and what they have described as anti- Semitic literature.
Who financ ed Bergs travels? Why was he climbing radio towers in sensitiv e areas, including near the Abu Ghraib prison? How likely is it that a Jewish kid from the Philly suburbs would have an uncle by marriage living in Mosul?
Why did the last people to see Berg alive in a Baghdad hotel report downing beers with him, when friends at home insist he didnt drink?
Theory: Bergs death is somehow linked to his dads anti-war activities Why was Michael Berg's membership in the anti-war group ANSWER posted on an enemies list on the conservative Web site freerepublic .org, and who saw it?
Is there any link between Nick Bergs firm, Prometheus Methods Tower Servic e, and the Philadelphia-based Prometheus Radio Project, a liberal low-power FM-radio group whose founder also is involved with ANSWER ?
Where to read more
_ http:// soj.dailykos.com/story/2004/5/17/174040/985
_ http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/04/05/con04214.html
_ http:// www.sianews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1718
_ http://marc.perkel.com/archives/000233.html Associated Press
Daily News mentions FR.
FreeRepublic.org is apparently under construction
I first discovered FreeRepublic (then Whitewater) and several other useful sources of information when the NY Times ran an article in their magazine trying to debunk the Vincent Foster conspiracy theories. There used to be jumps in the number of hits and members every time some media source mentioned this site.
I'd suggest maybe they called it Freerepublic.org to misdirect potential newbies, but I doubt they're that smart.
I also found it interesting that Bunch didn't provide a link to the 'Enemies list' thread on FR, but provided links to other sites' threads/articles.
I checked it too. "Under construction."
There is 'something' to the whole Nick Berg thing being suspicious, but they are reaching on the FR thing. I believe that ANSWER published Michael Berg's name before DFU did. I think he just cut and pasted the list off of the web site.
ANSWER is the one who had Nick's dad's name listed! Doug merely reposted their list here. Why isn't ANSWER being called the reason for his death the way FR is, huh?
The father belonging to ANSWER had nothing to do with his son's murder.
Because leftists project their behavior on their enemies.
Really. Like these terrorists would chose FreeRepublic- a site that pretty much wants them and the Mideast turned into glass, over an ant-war, terrorist-sympathetic website like ANSWER's... I think any intelligent, rational person knows that a terrorist would chose an anti-war leftist site before coming here. What fools we have in journalism today...
They just don't understand us Freepers.
As we all know Liberals hate Bush as much as most of us hate Bin Laden. But they have no legitimate basis so they invent insane sounding conspiracy theories to justify their hate.
Note to leftists: we may have some influence, but FReepers are not the source of info for our intelligence agencies. I suspect that they have background info on anyone associated with A.N.S.W.E.R. After all, I called them what they were --- America's enemies.
Shh, don't correct them...it adds a layer of tinfoil if they think the site has been taken down!
FWIW, here's my theory: Berg's death was somewhow linked to the Jewish-sounding name on his passport. (I know, I know--those wacky terrorists painted that Star of David on the remains of his orange jumpsuit-clad body just to confuse us.)
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