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.
Holy Cow. That's how Berg met Aziz, his business associate in Iraq.
Remember the scene in "The Godfather" where Sonny musses Michael's hair because he wants to kill all of the other mobsters who were responsible for The Don being shot, and Sonny says, "You're taking this much to personal."
Well I was not chastising you, I was just telling a sea story about the CJR and how it didn't live up to it's "reputation".
No biggie...
Well, your story was great. And the point about how Berg met Aziz is telling.
A lot of things about Nick Berg and his story, you couldn't imagine them if you were tasked to write it as fiction.
Fiction? No writer could invent all those twists and turns, and if he/she did, we would lose track of the plot halfway through it. I tried to tell my spouse the whole story yesterday and I could tell, by the way I was looked at during the telling, my spouse thought I was totally crazy. Talk about a cast of thousands...millions...tens of millions...maybe an entire political party, hey what?
What's a sane Democrat gunna do? That's if there are some left...whoops....
btt
Holy Cow. That's how Berg met Aziz, his business associate in Iraq.According to Berg's emails published by the Philadelphia Inquirer and others, Berg met Aziz in Iraq, not at a Business Conference. Below is the text as I copied originally from the Inquirer (no longer available online). Here is a link to the email as published by Associated Press. The text is the same, with the exception of the Inquirer's intro:
Following are emails sent by Nicholas Berg to friends and colleagues back home during a January trip to Iraq to secure business. Spellings appear as they do in Berg's e-mails. The names of the recipients of the e-mails have been removed. The e-mails were provided to the Associated Press by David Skalish, an engineer at Philadelphia radio station WPHT-AM.-----Original Message-----
From: Nick Berg [mailto:climbing_hand@hotmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2004 11:36 AM
(snip)
I’ve found a very competent and fairly reliable commercial Manager here. He’s actually been living in Philadelphia the last twenty years and just came back - so he’s similarly a bit out of his element. Imagine coming home to a country so different form where you grew up. We’re right now at an office near the sporting club where he played European Football as a kid.
Since then it’s been destroyed, rebuilt, run by Oday, son of Hussein, and finally privatized. The fact alone that he and I are just now sitting in a free and open internet shop is unbeliveable to most Iraqis. Even a year ago he would have been arrested upon his return. Neither of us would be seeing the un-restricted internet. At any rate, Aziz will do us well I think, and I’m happy I finally found someone I can strategize with.
Great job!
Thanks for saving all of this on Free Republic.
When some of the other Freepers started posting stuff from Moore's site, a few Freepers got upset.
I said keep posting entire sections as all of it would disappear when Moore and the liberals found that we were posting it.
A friend and fellow council member - Ahmad Kuba of Florida - said yesterday that Aziz left for Baghdad last summer, before any deportation proceedings began.
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"I believe the Iraqi people will welcome these troops with flowers," said Ahmad Kuba, who spent 40 days in a Baghdad jail in 1979, enduring daily beatings and torture for his political beliefs.
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The Iraqi American Council is dedicated to promoting, coordinating and conducting various activities and programs for the advancement of the civilrights and social, economic, educational, cultural and ethnic interests of Iraqi-Americans throughout the United States. The Iraq-American Council will support other local, regional and national organizations in pursuit of the stated goals. Let us join hands to present a united front for the betterment of all Iraqi-Americans and our progressive role in American society. By joining forces, we hope that we can influence the decision-makers in this country to support the establishment of a democratic government in Iraq.
Board of Directors
One source of that frustration, said Sam Kubba, chief executive of the American Iraqi Chamber of Commerce, are the competing views of how Iraq should achieve self-rule. The Iraqi Governing Council, appointed by the provisional authority, agreed in a vote Sunday that full national elections sought by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's senior Shiite cleric, would be the best way to choose an interim government. The council established a committee to examine whether it was feasible to organize full elections for June.
Mr. Kubba, whose organization of American Iraqi businessmen was set up this year in Washington, called their differences a potential disincentive to future investment, making them ''a very serious conflict that holds serious consequences if not resolved.''
Still, the uncertain electoral, financial and military landscape did not seem to discourage dozens of those attending the conference from pursuing their goals.
I vaguely remenber seeing Aziz interviewed. around the same time that Hugo and Andy Duke spoke to the media on a balcony in Baghdad. I thought Aziz mentioned he already knew NB before he came to Iraq and they made plans to meet up again when they were both in Iraq. I remember that that story was not something I had heard before, and it also didn't jive well with the story that Hugo and Andy were telling. So they very well could have met here in the States....
I have always found it hard to believe that Aziz was in Philadelphia, running businesses that sold computers and electronics equipment (as well as drug paraphenalia, lol), and never met Nick Berg, who was also living in the Philadelphia area during that time, especially since Nick was supposed to be an electronics and gadget wizard since youth. Instead, all the stories I've read had them hooking up in Baghdad. I've never seen anything that said they met in the states (and I've been looking!). If you see it again, please ping me!
The way that they met was through the conference. I believe the initial contact was Berg sending an email to Aziz. Not unusual for the organizers of such conferences to publish contact info for those that wish to trade info. Have seen that in conferences set up to facilitate "teaming" of primes, not just subcontractors.
I agree, and I think I posted a little something asking to leave the material where it was. NOW I suggest that those of us who have cd burners start saving that stuff to our cds, because the next step could be to howl to Jim Robinson about copyright violations, which would cause it to be removed from this site as well.
I'm on my way out the door for most of the day, but thought maybe I should throw this out there.
You are right!! Berg was sending....but what do you think he was sending??
I have read their first contact was by email. But I have also read from Bergs email (posted to you above) and in articles that they met in Baghdad. Also, Aziz left the U.S. in the summer of 2003, avoiding deportation hearings for his criminal record. I haven't read anything to say he has returned to the U.S. since then.
Beheading Victim 'Loved Adventure and Risk':[FINAL Edition]
Sewell Chan.
The Washington Post.
May 14, 2004. pg. A.01
One of the people Berg met in Baghdad was Aziz Taee, an Iraqi who studied electrical engineering at Temple University and has lived in the Philadelphia area for most of the past 20 years. Taee is chairman of the Iraqi American Council, a business group based in Annandale that encourages investment in Iraq.Berg had visited the group's Web site and communicated with Taee by e-mail. When the two men finally met, Taee was impressed enough that he agreed to start a small company with Berg, called Shirikat Abraj Babil, or Babylon Towers Co.
They printed business cards advertising their services in installing, inspecting and repairing telecommunications and utility towers. They rented a small corner office on the second floor of a building in Jamiaa, a neighborhood in western Baghdad.
Taee, 40, said he sometimes worried about his 26-year-old associate, who would wander freely around Baghdad.
Perhaps you read this account from the Inquirer as implying they met AT the conference... instead of Berg sending him email (in Iraq) AFTER the conference?
Aziz told the Associated Press that Berg had contacted him by e-mail sometime after attending a two-day conference in Virginia on business opportunities in Iraq last December. Aziz agreed to give him some space in an office he had in Baghdad to form a partnership seeking communications work.Berg refers to Aziz in an e-mail to friends on Jan. 18. "I've found a fairly competent and reliable office manager," he wrote. "He's actually been living in Philadelphia the last 20 years and just came back - so he's similarly out of his element."
Yes here I am. I'm somewhat frustrated because I'm only able to jump in and out of this thread occasionally as I have family and business "distractions". I knew the interview was strange but I had no idea it would come to this...very impressed with Freeper research. Well now I'm off to go hiking in the mountains of Montana. Looking forward to next development. Remember our troops.
Moore's website still down this morning...
Add me to this ping list, too, please.
I have a theory about all the white vans involved in so many attacks and conspiracies: they are used commercial vans: stripped, no radio, no a/c, manual trans and are the cheapest vans available even when bought new. The Islamists all seem to be very cheap.
Found reference to this on another thread, not bookmarked, within the past week or so. A car salesman mentioned these as the cheapest option for a utilitarian work vehicle.
That's great info!
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