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Moore interviewed Berg for "Fahrenheit" [index to thread at reply #1859]
Salon.com ^ | May 27, 2004 | Rebecca Traister

Posted on 05/27/2004 9:26:51 PM PDT by Rennes Templar

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To: A Citizen Reporter; ConservativeByChoice
To: nuconvert
Found in my inbox...

Dear Friends and Customers of Nick Berg and Prometheus Towers,

I am enclosing the following news release which my wife and I are about to release to the media for you. If anyone out there in the broadcast industry can do anything to help us spread the word about our son's disappearance especially to the Mid East, we would be very appreciative:

On March 14 our son, Nick Berg, left for Iraq to inspect some radio towers that had been damaged during last years war. His goal was to secure some contract work for his business, Prometheus Methods Tower Service. He planned to return on March 30 through Amman, Jordan.

On March 24, Nick was picked up by the Iraqi police in Mosul and held for questioning for no apparent reason. He was subsequently detained by the U.S. military and interrogated by the FBI until his release on April 6. No reason was ever given for holding him for these 13 days. Immediately upon his release he emailed the family and proceeded south to Baghdad where he was staying at the Al Fanar Hotel.

On April 9 he called us and said that he was seeking a safe route out of the country either through Jordan, or possibly Turkey. Most of the major routes were closed due to military action around Fallujah. Since that time we have had no contact with our son. No one we know in Iraq has seen or spoken to him, and we know that he has not accessed his email. We are extremely worried about his safety. We are asking anyone who has seen Nick or knows anything about his whereabouts to come forward and give us this information so that he can be safely brought home.

We extend our sympathies to all of the many families who are in the same situation.

Suzanne and Michael Berg

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Tower-pro/message/19321
7 posted on 05/07/2004 9:42:29 PM PDT by ConservativeByChoice

821 posted on 05/28/2004 2:10:51 PM PDT by Howlin
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To: Howlin
Oh, let's link that thread:

Hostages in Iraq Who Remain Missing

822 posted on 05/28/2004 2:12:14 PM PDT by Howlin
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To: sissyjane
What if Berg knew that he was going off the next day for his own Martyrdom?

A suicide infiltrator or martyrdom..hmmm. I wonder what his spiritual life was like. Was he the cult/follower type?

823 posted on 05/28/2004 2:12:21 PM PDT by Freedom2specul8 (Please pray for our troops.... http://anyservicemember.navy.mil/)
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To: Dolphy
Also, he is supposed to be the last man who saw Berg alive.

In Iraq????

824 posted on 05/28/2004 2:13:11 PM PDT by Howlin
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To: Howlin
"Stranger than that: Why would Moore or his crew interview Berg for "Fahrenheit 9/11" for 20 minutes, when Berg's family insists the slain contractor was pro-Bush and supported the American military action in Iraq? "

Its simple, really, Moore is lying. We know he lied about the deal with Disney. We know he lied about the interview with Fred Barnes. We know he lied about the President's conduct on 9-11. Heavens only knows what else he has lied about or if he has ever told a complete truth in his life. So, the question that ought to be asked is, Why would anyone believe him about anything ?

825 posted on 05/28/2004 2:13:45 PM PDT by Darlin' ("I will not forget this wound to my country." President George W Bush, 20 Sept 2001)
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To: Howlin

To: Rennes Templar
Berg not only found employment in Iraq, but he was part of a company in Iraq called "Babylon Towers," meaning communication towers. His alleged partner in this Iraqi company was Aziz K. Aziz, an Iraqi who spent much of the 1980s in Philadelphia, which is a short drive from Berg's native West Chester.

Aziz K. Aziz was convicted in the United States for marketing CRACK VIALS along with a group of Russian emigrees, which probably means Russian mafia. He has an extensive record of criminal charges and allegations. Aziz was part of a State Department sponsored group called the Iraqi/American Council, another group like the Iraqi National Congress. Aziz was interviewed by Fox News during the run up to the invasion advocating military action against Saddam Hussein.

Aziz alleged that he was the last man to see Nicholas Berg alive.

For more information, access the Web site of THE PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS for the articles by William Bunch about the backgrounds of Nicholas Berg and Aziz K. Aziz.



279 posted on 05/28/2004 5:13:25 AM CDT by roughrider
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826 posted on 05/28/2004 2:13:49 PM PDT by bonfire
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To: Grampa Dave; Rennes Templar

"Someone told Moore that Berg would be a good interview and could be helpful with his upcoming hit project in Iraq"

I don't know if this has been posted before, but I am positive that I read that Fahrenheit 911 contains video footage of the prison abuse at Abu Ghraib.

Now, that seems strange to me. How exactly did he get that, and when?


827 posted on 05/28/2004 2:14:01 PM PDT by proud American in Canada (A penny saved is two pre-tax pennies earned. At least here in Canada, it is.)
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To: Howlin

I am on my son's computer and must log off and go home. I will check in in a couple hours.


828 posted on 05/28/2004 2:14:25 PM PDT by Miss Marple
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To: Howlin

http://www.infowars.com/print/iraq/berg_shady_iraqi.htm

The next to last paragraph should probably be added to your timeline with an *.

BERG MET WITH SHADY IRAQI

Philadelphia Daily News
By WILLIAM BUNCH
bunchw@phillynews.com
May 17, 2004

There's another strange new twist to the saga of Nick Berg and his final days of Iraq before his savage videotaped beheading.

Berg teamed up in Baghdad with an ex-Philadelphia man who led a controversial group of Iraqi expatriates encouraged by the U.S. government - even as he faced deportation for his role in Russian-emigre crime ring selling millions of vials used for crack.

Aziz Kadoory Aziz, also known as Aziz al-Taee, hooked up earlier this year with the 26-year-old West Chester man to start a small company called Shirikat Abraj Babil, or Babylon Towers Co., that would install, inspect and repair telecommunications and utility towers.

In interviews with several news organizations in Baghdad, Aziz claimed he may have been the last friend to speak with Berg before his kidnapping and beheading by terrorists possibly linked to the al Qaeda network. The radio-tower contractor had come back to Baghdad after a 13-day detainment in Mosul, only to disappear again on April 10.

Aziz said that on April 10 Berg "surprised me by calling me at 9 or 10, to say that he found some friend to travel with to Jordan." Berg said he was en route, but Aziz doesn't know who he was with or what kind of vehicle they were driving. "He said they were nice people. I told him to have a nice trip."

After living in Philadelphia for two decades, Aziz arrived in Baghdad sometime last year. A friend said he left for Iraq before the government moved on the deportation case.

Here in America, Aziz was the highly visible spokesman for a group he'd founded called the Iraqi American Council and appeared frequently on major media outlets like Fox News Channel calling for the military ouster of Saddam Hussein.

Aziz' outfront role also included speaking at pre-war, pro-troop rallies. It continued even after it was reported the inner-city electronic entrepreneur had pleaded guilty in the crack-vial case in 1994 and later had legal run-ins involving stolen computers and bootlegged CDs.

His partnership with Berg deepens the web of intrigue surrounding Berg's time in Iraq, his detainment by U.S.-backed authorities, his disapperance and his videotaped beheading by masked thugs claiming revenge for the Abu Ghraib prisoner torture.

Before traveling to Iraq twice this year, Berg had been investigated by the FBI because in 1999 - while at the University of Oklahoma - an associate of jailed Sept. 11 suspect Zacarias Moussaoui had obtained Berg's e-mail password.

Attorney General John Ashcroft said Berg was cleared in that probe, but the apparent coincidence may have prolonged the Mosul detainment of Berg, who was interviewed three times by FBI agents before he was released on April 6.

Officials have told the Daily News that Berg also aroused suspicion because he was an unescorted American carrying a copy of the Koran and what they called "anti-Semitic" literature. Berg, who is Jewish, also told friends that his passport contained an Israel visitor's stamp.

Now, add the name of Aziz K. Aziz to Berg's strange Iraqi odyssey. Efforts to contact Aziz in Baghdad by phone and e-mail over the weekend were unsuccessful.

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."

Berg's first efforts to win radio-tower repair work were unsuccessful, and he was robbed on the streets of Baghdad.

"I was always pressuring him to keep a low profile, but he ignored all my caution and advice," Aziz said. "Berg kept a high profile, wandering around late at night or took public transport. Sometimes he got upset, looked at me in such a way, or said, 'You're not my dad' or 'I'm an adult, I can make my own decision." "

Aziz said that Berg left his equipment with him during a short trip back to the U.S. When he came back, the two spent an hour climbing tall buildings at Abu Ghraib, site of the infamous prison. Aziz said they re-recorded measurements that were in his stolen notebook.

The next day, Aziz said, Berg called to say that he was going to the northern city of Mosul, where the brother of Berg's uncle lives. "He invited me to go with him, but I declined because it was dangerous," said Aziz.

It's not known whether Aziz ever told Berg of his controversial past.

In 1993, about a decade after fleeing Saddam's Iraq for America, Aziz was in the electronics business when he was one of 25 people charged with distributing some 100 million crack vials on the East Coat. Prosecutors said that Aziz, who lived in Northeast Philadelphia, was tied to a network run by a Soviet immigrant named Valery Sigal. Most in the ring were immigrants from Russia or the former Eastern Bloc.

Aziz claimed he didn't know the vials were going to drug dealers. but he pled guilty. He was sentenced to three years of probation, fined $3,000, and forced to forfeit $17,673 in profits.

He was arrested again in May 2001, on charges that the chain of electronics stores he owns in Philadelphia was selling counterfeited compact discs. A judge dismissed that case for lack of evidence last March. The Inquirer also reported he received probation in a 1997 case for selling stolen computers to undercover cops. Current records show he owns a cell-phone firm called Page One Communications with a number of outlets in Philadelphia.

Aziz went by several names in Philadelphia. Sometimes called "Joe Aziz," he started calling himself Aziz al-Taee in the late 1990s, around the time he formed the Iraqi American Council. He said al-Taee was his tribal name and - in speaking out against Saddam - he was worried about relatives in Baghdad.

The group has an address in Washington's Virginia suburbs and a national board of directors, but there were differing claims of how many members or how much clout the group really had.

In December 2002, another key member of the Iraqi American Council - a California engineer named Bassam Ridha Al-Hulsaini - was reportedly one of 15 Iraqis flown to Washington by the State Department for two days of "media training" under a project known as Future of Iraq. A couple of months later, al-Hulsaini addressed a "pro-troops" rally in San Francisco, declaring that "The Iraq people are waiting for this liberation."

It's not clear whether Aziz received "media training," but the handsome, nattily dressed ex-pat, now 40, probably didn't need it. He addressed similar rallies in Valley Forge, St. Louis and Washington, where he claimed Hussein's henchmen killed both his cousin and brother-in-law. The rallies were launched by Clear Channel syndicated talk-radio host Glenn Beck, and the media giant sponsored many of them.

A friend and fellow council member - Ahmad Kuba of Florida - said yesterday that Aziz left for Baghdad last summer, before any deportation proceedings began.

"There are no cell phones in Iraq," Aziz told a reporter in May 2003. "That's the way to the future."

Now, Aziz is now getting publicity for monitoring the final cell-phone calls of his slain partner. He said this weekend he understands Berg's phone was used as recently as April 19, and that three calls were made that day to Jordan, to the United Arab Emirates and to a local number.

"He could still have been alive."


829 posted on 05/28/2004 2:14:55 PM PDT by Grampa Dave ( WHAT DID MICHAEL MOORE KNOW ABOUT NICK BERG? WHEN DID HE KNOW IT?)
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To: proud American in Canada

That is interesting. Will check in later.


830 posted on 05/28/2004 2:15:24 PM PDT by Miss Marple
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To: Saundra Duffy

Drudge is really missing the boat on this one.


831 posted on 05/28/2004 2:15:52 PM PDT by Junior_G
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To: MizSterious

Great minds think along the same line of research. I just posted that article while you posted it ahead of me. :)


832 posted on 05/28/2004 2:15:56 PM PDT by Grampa Dave ( WHAT DID MICHAEL MOORE KNOW ABOUT NICK BERG? WHEN DID HE KNOW IT?)
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To: bonfire
Would you have merrily sent your son to Iraq to wander about a terrorist country??

Michael Berg was Nick Berg's agent?

833 posted on 05/28/2004 2:16:04 PM PDT by Saundra Duffy (Save Terri Schiavo!!!)
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To: bonfire

You know what, I've wondered since 9-11 what Drew would have done.

I remember reading this thread

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/726273/posts

and being horrified to know that he probably would have done this..........and loved it! He worked with Outback on their Hospitality Team!


834 posted on 05/28/2004 2:16:16 PM PDT by Howlin
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To: Grampa Dave

from post 820: ..."and that three calls were made that day to Jordan,..."

Isn't Jordan where a chemical strike was thwarted? Why would Berg be calling anyone in Jordan? Perhaps it's just another coincidence.

Anyone remember the date of announcement that the Jordanians thwarted a chemical attack?


835 posted on 05/28/2004 2:16:30 PM PDT by BlessedByLiberty (Respectfully submitted,)
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To: Howlin

Try this: the kid really was a pro-Bush conservative. The dad is a nutbar who somehow gives his kid up to the jihadis (lefties love to romanticize "revolutionary" types and maybe he gets a connection to them through ANSWER) figuring that they'd set the kid straight by showing him the "atrocities committed by the occupation" or some such garbage. He has Moore interview him before he goes and intends for him to interview him after he returns to show how the experience has changed him to include in the film. Of course the Islamofascists queer the deal by killing Nick and the dad is driven even further around the bend by guilt and grief and doubles his efforts to bring down Bush so that, in his own twisted mind, his son did not die in vain.


836 posted on 05/28/2004 2:16:34 PM PDT by 91B (God made man, Sam Colt made men equal.)
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To: MizSterious; ravingnutter; Nita Nupress; A Citizen Reporter
Now, Aziz is now getting publicity for monitoring the final cell-phone calls of his slain partner. He said this weekend he understands Berg's phone was used as recently as April 19, and that three calls were made that day to Jordan, to the United Arab Emirates and to a local number.

Thee's a new date to add to the timeline.

837 posted on 05/28/2004 2:18:10 PM PDT by Howlin
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To: MizSterious

This just gets freakier and freakier......I missed all this when my father-in-law was in the hospital!


838 posted on 05/28/2004 2:18:45 PM PDT by Howlin
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To: Howlin
No one we know in Iraq has seen or spoken to him

They had lots of friends/contacts in Iraq, ey?

839 posted on 05/28/2004 2:19:07 PM PDT by Saundra Duffy (Save Terri Schiavo!!!)
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To: Howlin

yes, but Nick wasn't there for the troops. He was there to make money....supposedly.

My oldest's name is Andrew also. :)


840 posted on 05/28/2004 2:19:19 PM PDT by bonfire
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