Posted on 05/27/2004 9:26:51 PM PDT by Rennes Templar
May 27, 2004 | Filmmaker Michael Moore filmed an interview with American Nicholas Berg in the course of producing his documentary film "Fahrenheit 9/11" before Berg left for Iraq, where he was taken hostage and killed, Moore confirmed to Salon in a statement Thursday. The 20 minutes of footage does not appear in the final version of "Fahrenheit 911," according to the statement.
Word of the footage reached Salon through a source unaffiliated with Moore or his film "Fahrenheit 9/11," which is reported to feature stark images of U.S. civilians and soldiers grappling with conditions in war-torn Iraq, as well as examining the relationship between President George W. Bush and the bin Laden family. It received the Palme d'Or, the Cannes Film Festival's highest honor, on Saturday.
In a statement widely circulated by Moore's people after an initial request for comment by Salon, Moore said, "We have an interview with Nick Berg. It was approximately 20 minutes long. We are not releasing it to the media. It is not in the film. We are dealing privately with the family." Moore's camp declined to comment further on any aspect of the interview. Because the footage is not in the film, a spokeswoman for Miramax Films, the production company behind "Fahrenheit 9/11," said the company had no comment.
It was not clear from Moore's statement whether footage from the interview with Berg had ever been included in early cuts of "Fahrenheit 9/11." Reports about a film industry controversy surrounding distribution of the film first hit the news on May 5, a week before Berg's death. The film officially screened for the public and the press for the first time during the Cannes festival on May 17.
The news that Moore spoke to Berg while he was still in the United States only adds to the mystery surrounding the young man's presence in Iraq and tragic death. The interview was shot before the 26-year-old Berg left for Iraq late last year as a private contractor in the hopes of helping to rebuild the ravaged country. Though it was unclear what Berg spoke about in his interview with Moore, or how the two men met, unrelated reports following his death indicate that he headed for the Middle East with plans to work to improve the country's technological infrastructure and communication abilities. He ran his own company, Prometheus Methods Tower Service, in a suburb of Philadelphia.
Berg did not find employment in Iraq, and when he attempted to return to the United States he was detained by Iraqi police and questioned by American forces. He was released after his family complained. But shortly after, he is believed to have been kidnapped by Islamic terrorists. Video of his beheading was released on an Islamist Web site on May 11. Salon was unable to reach the Berg family for comment before publication.
Moore's film chronicles the United States' military, political and business involvement in the Middle East in the years before and after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. His previous politically charged films, including "Roger & Me" and "Bowling for Columbine," have created controversy and won him praise (including an Oscar, for "Columbine"). "Fahrenheit 9/11" has already sparked a media storm; in early May, Miramax's parent company, Disney, announced that it would not allow Miramax to distribute the film, which is highly critical of Bush and his administration.
Miramax has yet to make a deal with a distributor, though the film's warm reception at Cannes and the publicity surrounding the film have made it a hot property that is generating a lot of interest in Hollywood. "Bowling for Columbine" grossed $21 million, making it the highest-grossing non-IMAX documentary of all time.
A source close to "Fahrenheit 9/11" said that a new distributor will be announced shortly, and that the film is expected to be released in theaters during the first week of July, as originally planned.
Thanks, we need about another 995 Freepers to change their tag lines.
We ask the questions the mediots would never ask, even if the questions are in our taglines.
Berg went to Israel, then Jordan, then Iraq.
I'll keep reading through his bloviating.
Perhaps some judiciously worded signs should appear. Of course these are long signage suggestions but could be modified:
"What did Michael Moore know about Berg's death and when did he know it?"
"What does Moore have to hide about Berg?"
"Come Clean about Berg Michael Moore"
"Was Berg working for you Moore"
"Did Moore's adolescent "movie making" lead to the death of an American?"
This might be one way to change the tone and tenor of that planned media extravaganza.
Or how to make sure the media spends more time editing their video footage, than shooting it in the first place :-)
Seriously, this is an excellent idea. Real people will pay attention to this.
Hey guys, possible sign ideas for your next FReep. Bleeech, who's gonna dress up as Michael Moore?
Thank you. : ) I'll add it to my profile/nickfile now.
Brush up on that because the key to knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt the truth about Clinton lies in knowing about James Riady, Lippo and John Huang.
1. How did Michael Moore meet Nick Berg?
2. Why did he interview him?
3. Is there any truthful, legitimate source (this obviously excludes Moore) who knows exactly how long the original interview was (not the 'twenty-minutes' Moore says it is)?
3. Why did someone other than Moore reveal that this interview existed?
Your homepage is impressive :-) Thanks for the info. One question though, whose name was the company registered to?
Why not, the Clintons did. Travelgate?????
Link please? Thanks.
The person who posted the info stated that Israel has diplomatic ties with Turkey. That's why I remember the remark. I didn't know Israel had diplomatic ties with any of those countries. Turkey=Jordan? Either way, he didn't get into Iraq in the usual way.
Date: Fri, 26 Dec 2003 11:57:52 -0600
Subject: Prometheus Towers/Nick howdy from the Middle East
Hi folks -
Knowing in advance that most of you will madly delete this message due to
its generic form-letter quality, I submit this brief summary of my travels
thus far.
If you would like me to remove you from the receive list, or want to add
someone, please let me know. Sorry to clog the boxes of those who are
uninterested...
So I flew El-Al, just barely, on the 22nd (Monday). They were not able to
check my equipment on the same check, meaning I arrived at Ben-Gurion with
some climbing rope, my notebook, and a jacket. I did manage to scrape
together some olive leaves for rigging, but not much in the way of change of
clothes or anything. After a rather lengthy interrogation courtesy of the
Israeli Airport Police and then Internal Security, I set off to City Center
and found my way in to my first real gyp of the trip. Being tired and
anxious to set down my 200' climbing rope (wrapped around my head in a
manner suggestive of certain Palestinian tribes), I wimped out and got a
room at a "regular" establishment, rather than a C-W or C-H Motel as
those
of you familiar with Prometheus Towers SOP whilst traveling, will
understand. Anyhow, I ended up at the beautiful Metropolitan Hotel nearly
on the Mediterranean just south of City Center and (I found out the next
morning while running) adjacent to the US Embassy. It really was a nice
place and for the 300 some Shekels it cost I really rammed them for almost
two days worth of service and several free gallons of tap water.
Grandpop/mom Berg would have been proud... My conclusion after about 24
hours on the waterfront there is: coastal Tel-Aviv is sort of like Atlantic
City, only backwards, and not as much Yiddish.
Anyhow - those of you who recently consulted in the great clothes-buying
epidemic of December 2003 will be horrified to hear – rather than spending
my first (and last, for a little while) full day in Israel in the Negev
looking for a good rock to climb, I found myself in the common market buying
clothes. I left there looking rather dapper, I must say. Olive green
slacks and a khaki vest, sure to say "I might be a westerner but I won't
admit it" right away. On my way to Jordan I got several comments from the
many border guards I saw, so I am confident my mission succeeded.
OK – I'll summarize here. This anecdote will necessarily leave off before
my current location, so don't anyone get wise on me and pick up a map. I
left Tel-Aviv for the Jordan Valley Border Crossing, passing some beautiful
land and a large prison on the way. The crossing was not as involved as I
expected but still very lengthy. I had no problem leaving Israel and only a
little suspicion entering Jordan. At the time my combined Hebrew vocabulary
consisted of about five words, though, so I was in a weird way happy to
leave and get back into good ole' Arab-speaking lands (seeing as how my
pre-trip Arabi vocab sported at least 15-20 words). Five minutes into the
150 km-long taxi ride to Amman, though (it was too late for the public bus I
tried to catch), I realized how different the East African/Swahili accent
and the "true" Arabi are. I'm just now realizing that, although I can
write
words and expressions for a number of occasions, and say them, too, my
pronunciation is so off that I must sound to these guys like a Texan Mexican
does to a Peruvian or Spaniard.
So I safely reached Amman and found a really cool place called Firas Palace
which featured an Elevator and a tape recorded sound track reminiscent of
the Havana Inn in Kampala, circa 1998. (Michael Jackson, over and over
again). Other than several beautiful Minirets and a good 600' tower, I
can't say much about Amman.
I will give more detail on my next message. For the stockholders out there
– we've made some contacts and I am seeing some opportunities here. Bear
with me and I promise dividends. For the mean time I hope everyone had a
safe and happy holiday of whatever form you chose. Feel free to respond
anytime you like…
Sincerely
Nick Berg
Prometheus Towers
Their jobs were reinstated, remember?
Your [speaking to President Bush] blatant refusal to back up your verbal deception with the kind of fake evidence we have become used to is a slap in our collective American face. It's as if you are saying, "These Americans are so damn apathetic and lazy, we won't have to produce any weapons to back up our claims!" If you had just dug a few silo holes in the last month outside Tikrit, or spread some anthrax around those Winnebagos near Basra, or "discovered" some plutonium with that stash of home movies of Uday Hussein feeding his tigers, then it would have said to us that you thought we might revolt if you were caught in a lie. It would have shown us some *respect*. We honestly wouldn't have cared if it later came out that you planted all the WMD -- sure, we'd be properly peeved, but at least we would have been proud to know that you knew you HAD to back up your phony claims with the real deal!
This seems to be when he got wound up enough to stop harping on his movie reviews for Columbine and his book reviews for Stupid White Men enough to concentrate on the War in Iraq.
You know what? I hate looking at that SOB. If his mother was to lead a march advocating abortion, God help me but I'd be right at her side.
I was just reading a web journal kept by two British studio lighting contractors who went to Iraq. They were not independent contractors like Berg. In any event, I believe they went to Jordan and then on to Iraq. They met up with their Iraqi bodyguard in Jordan who arranged for a driver and car. In his description of the drive into Iraq he said they wanted to get to the border at daybreak to avoid the danger of traveling at night. He also discusses the border control wait, paying to get out of an HIV test and getting their passports stamped.
It is still hard to imagine that Berg negotiated all of this on his own.
He's quite the drama queen, isn't he?
There were numerous other students whose e-mail account info was stolen at the same time, so the FBI concluded that he was just one of them.
How do your assertions (links to support them, please...but I don't think you have any) comport with this report:
Berg's encounter with 'terrorist' revealed
Excerpt:
When Nicholas Berg took an Oklahoma bus to a remote college campus a few years ago, the American recently beheaded by terrorists allowed a man with terrorist connections to use his laptop computer, according to his father.
Michael Berg said the FBI investigated the matter more than a year ago. He stressed that his son was in no way connected to the terrorists who captured and killed him.
Government sources told CNN that the encounter involved an acquaintance of Zacarias Moussaoui -- the only person publicly charged in the United States in connection with the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.
According to Berg, his son was taking a course a few years ago at a remote campus of the University of Oklahoma near an airport. He described how on one particular day, his son met "some terrorist people -- who no one knew were terrorists at the time."
At one point during the bus ride, Berg said, the man sitting next to his son asked if he could use Nick's laptop computer.
"It turned out this guy was a terrorist and that he, you know, used my son's e-mail, amongst many other people's e-mail who he did the same thing to," Berg said.
Government sources said Berg gave the man his password, which was later used by Moussaoui, the sources said.
The sources said the man who used Berg's e-mail knew Moussaoui, now awaiting trial on federal charges that could bring a death sentence. But the sources would not disclose details of how the men were connected.
~snip~
I like to stick to facts, too. It says Berg gave this unknown-at-the-time terrorist (per the father) his *password*. I wouldn't call that "stolen". Michael Berg claims this happened to several students, but that part is not corroborated by the officials who seem to confirm other aspects of the story. I would not say we know what, if anything, the FBI "concluded".
Thanks for the Riady reminder ...It all comes back to me now
CORP-ID 0581329-0 CORPORATION NAME PROMETHEUS METHODS TOWER SERVICES, INC. STATUS/DATE ACTIVE 07/29/02
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