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.
Aziz was reported as having gone to Iraq in "summer 2003", avoiding deportation hearings due to his criminal record.
Your post #1482 is great research. Very thought provoking indeed!
sounds kosher. I have my doubts Berg is dead. I don't think he was beheaded. The video I saw never showed the knife penetration or anything like that. I have seen a true beheading and there was no doubt it was real.
Why would Moore even make public he has an interview with Berg? HMMM! I just don't trust a word he says, or any dim. They could be just making it all look suspicious.
One lie they have definitely made is that Nick Berg was a Republican. No Way.
He was on Moore's payroll.
Very interesting stuff about Aziz Taee. It certainly looks like Philadelphia was the hub of this whole thing.
Interestingly, the Feds have been investigating and arresting a number of people in Philadelphia city government or people who somehow got funds from the government (including at least one of the leaders of a local mosque). There's probably no connection, but it would be interesting to see if any of the names of these "community leaders" turn up anywhere in relation either to Radio Prometheus or to Berg.
The leftists might be very much inclined to get involved with a local mosque; Carlos the Jackal, who converted to Islam and is still in jail in France, recently wrote a long screed telling leftists to adopt Islam. The summary I read reporated that he said that Islam is the religion of the poor and the rejection of the West, and that becoming a Muslim was displaying "solidarity" with them.
The Berg story is just turning out to be the strangest thing. I'm not sure what to make of it at all, except that it just might be the most extraordinary string of coincidences that I've ever heard.
So I started poking around on the Internet ... I only got halfway to finding an answer, but someone else might be able to supplement the details.
Diaries :: Aaron Gillies's diary ::
|
I was curious foremost about al-ansar.biz, the website where the original video was said to be posted. Of course, the website is long gone by now, but ...
Using Google's cache and a little bit of cut and paste magic, I was able to view older copies of the website. Unfortunately, all of the pages that I looked at were in Arabic, which I am unable to read. Here is Google's cache of the former main frame of the website's front page. I clicked around through here, using cut and paste and Google once again, but really didn't come up with much that was interesting. Except for this one page which gives the domain name al-ansar.net, rather than al-ansar.biz associated with an e-mail address. So, I did a WHOIS lookup of al-ansar.net, since apparently the two domains are linked, and came up with the following information: Registrant: Registered through: GoDaddy.com Administrative Contact: Domain servers in listed order: Hmm! A further Google search using some of this data led me to a description of Al Ansar from a pro-Israeli website. Apparently, Al Ansar is a radical Saudi group involved in various counter-government activities in Saudi Arabia and believed to be linked to the Al Qaeda network. It seems that there are a number of guerilla groups named Al Ansar operating in Kurdistan, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. No idea about possible links between them, but this one appears to be different from the one operating in the Kurdish regions of Iraq. Digging a bit further, I found that the address used to register the al-ansar.net domain name is shared by a London media outfit called Al Jamilla. Could it be this London-based magazine? Seems kind of weird, though. Unfortunately, that is where the tracks ended, as far as Google is concerned. Still, the information that I was able to find shines some light on the subject of who was responsible for posting the video. Someone want to e-mail Raschid at alansar_net@hotmail.com and ask him where he got the video? |
Music to my ears! Many thanks. Let me tell you how I came across Freerepublic. 'Fred Nerks' was 'selling ice to the eskimo' when he wrote three articles (somewhat tongue in cheek) for an Israeli site - yes, there are many folks in Israel who don't know anything about islamic history either - and a FReeper picked it up and reprinted the story!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1008496/posts
The original, including links to other articles by 'Fred' can be found on:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/article.php3?id=2873
placemark, and thanks to all for the research.
Thanks for the timeline tho.....we nned more info about Infante, Aziz. Andy, ANSWER. Soros, the UNCLE, the AUNT, Dylan WRYNN, and all the other coinkidink names associated with Nick Berg and Michael Moore!
"How do we know that Nick Berg had NO idea that Moussoui was a terrorist??" .. you asked.
Just a thought from me; Neither Moussoui nor his friends, nor anyone connected with them, would have been considered to BE a terrorist by Berg - if he shared the idealogy of his father Michael. The mooselimbs are 'freedom fighters' terribly oppressed by the 'evil capitalistic West'!
Remember, 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'.
Anarchists and islamists sleep in the same bed, they dream the same dreams.
Do not see anything unusual here or anything that contradicts what has already been explained about Berg. If in fact this is true and Berg was interviewed; it was in the hopes that he would support Moore's anti-Bush/anti-war thesis. He did not. His friends and even his Father attested to this. So, it would certainly makes sense that Berg became no more than an out take. Moore certainly was NOT going to use this footage.
If true, this probably killed Moore, for not being able to show this; imagine his film, including this interview - but with Berg attacking Bush as per Moore's design.
But alas, Moore can only mention the interview and try and try to reap whatever he might, from the death of Nick Berg. . .
Need more ifo on the relatives.
The prisons operated in part on: If you can have someone who can vouch for you, you can be released. So where was the "voucher"..."the close relative of Michael Berg" AND who is he....REALLY????
Yes, absolutely. They don't use English there so the number of es's varies from translation to translation. I meant to standardize all of the occurrances of Yassin with either one or two es's, but I botched it.
>>Yassin/Yasin is a very common name.
I know that, but within a single town like Mosul they feel a kinship with the same name even if they're 20 generations apart.
>>the following early news report: Berg’s aunt ...married to Mustafa al-Muzfar
Yes, I know that too. The al-Whatever names are regional(tribal) names. Sometimes they list just First and Surname, sometimes First and Tribal, and often all three. Frequently it is shortened to just first and tribal due to ignorance of the American/English reporter or editor.
In a larger town like Mozul, the al-Muzfar refers to neighborhood or 'tribe' within Mosul. So by the tribal method, the former dictator's name could have been written as Saddam Al-Tikriti because he was from Tikrit.
Even without the 'tribal' name, another possibility is the use of the mother's family name as a 'middle' name. Hence Saddam's two half brothers (with a different mother) both had a different middle name than his.
The DOD website gave a good description of Iraqi naming conventions on their joker card.
By the way, this announcement/email is 48 hours earlier than ANY other announcement, that I've seen, that Nick Berg had gone missing.
[Thu, 06 May 2004 12:43:54 -0400]
http://www.broadcast.net/pipermail/broadcast/2004-May/218634.html
FREEP researchers; If you browse early original sites about Nick, consider 'saving stuff' in some cases...
Some of the professional or blogsites that mention Nick are already being scrubbed. Note that mewzilla found Nick listed on one, but now its gone. (#29, 30, 177, 191, 315)
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1135409/posts?page=29#29
[===== I started a NICK BERG ARCHIVE area here ============]
#1: This phenomenal, excellent, outstanding rant on the media's mis-handling of Nick Berg... THANKS Pukin Dog !!!!!!!
#2: This 'alternate' movie to 'Fahrenheit' ... Summer 2004!
[see the trailer]
Thanks for the ping. So much for the paperless society, eh?
>>Is this a relative?
>>http://www.sunypress.edu/details.asp?id=53460
Thanks, but there are tons of Bergs, and lots of people have asked
about 'this Berg' or 'that Berg'. The Bergs we are trying to understand
here seem to be more anti-Israel than that author.
But don't let me stop you or anyone else from digging!
SHE coverted to Islam....and Michael Berg kept his connections with them????
Main research on Hugo was at #1216. Duke may only be as a gullible businessman/drinking buddy that Nick was lying to over beers, and trying to impress. His report of where Nick was going matches hotel staff the closest, ie, that Nick was headed somewhere else first, before returning home. (see #1618 for Duke).
Nick told the hotel staff he'd be back in a few days (god willing), and he left personal things behind that seem to confirm that, like his weight-lifting stuff and business-contact cards.
I suspect Nick had been sent back there in March by Moore, and had not yet accomplished his goal (of interviewing Al Qaeda?), because of the 13 day lockup.
I trust Hugo's report of what Nick had last-said the least, followed by the shady business partner Aziz.
>>SHE coverted to Islam....and Michael Berg kept his connections with them????
Yes, it pegs the b.s. meter doesnt it?
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