There's no evidence of his ever hooking up with Moussaoui, just that he was seen in the company of Arab students, (not known to be contacts of terrorists) and that his e-mail account info was found in the possession of a man the FBI investigated after 9/11 because he was believed to be an acquaintance of Moussaoui. 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".
How do your assertions (links to support them, please...but I don't think you have any) ...
Well, I'm not lying. The sources of the quotes are all in my profile, anong many other sources.
Whether Ashcroft is lying or not, I wouldn't dare to guess. But his saying it was all over the news, and there were plenty of articles quoting him.
But here is CNN's article covering Ashcroft's report (he made it as a result of the article you posted):
Ashcroft: Berg, Terrorists Not Linked
CURT ANDERSON
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Attorney General John Ashcroft said Friday that U.S. authorities investigated Nicholas Berg for a possible connection to terrorists but determined there was no link.
Berg, a 26-year-old American civilian who was beheaded in Iraq, was investigated by the FBI in 2002 after an e-mail address traced to him was used by an unidentified person believed acquainted with Zacarias Moussaoui, an al-Qaida adherent now in federal custody and awaiting trial on conspiracy charges stemming from the Sept. 11 attacks.
"The suggestion that Mr. Berg was in some way involved in terrorist activity, or may have been linked in some way to terrorist activity, is a suggestion that we do not have any ability to support and we do not believe is a valid one," Ashcroft said at a news conference.
The 2002 investigation determined that an e-mail address once used by Berg apparently was obtained by the Moussaoui acquaintances while Berg was briefly an engineering student at the University of Oklahoma in 1999.
Moussaoui came to the United States in February 2001 and enrolled at a flight school in Norman, Okla., also the home of the university. The Moroccan-born French citizen left that flight school later in 2001 to attend one in Minnesota, where he was arrested on an immigration violation shortly before the Sept. 11 attacks.
Ashcroft told reporters there is no evidence that Berg knew Moussaoui or any of Moussaoui's contacts in Oklahoma.
Berg was detained by Iraqi police in late March, interviewed three times by the FBI and then released on April 6 after it was determined he was there to pursue business opportunities. He was advised to leave the country and offered a government flight home but refused, Ashcroft said.
Three days after Berg's body was found on Saturday, an Islamic Web site released a video, titled "Sheik Abu Musab al-Zarqawi slaughters an American infidel with his own hands."
U.S. authorities consider al-Zarqawi an ally of Osama bin Laden and say he is running his own terrorist operation.
And from:
The Washington Post
The FBI concluded that Berg had been one of numerous victims of scam artists who were stealing e-mail addresses and passwords at the main campus of the University of Oklahoma, where Berg had been a student, several officials said.... Ashcroft said the theft of Berg's e-mail address was unremarkable.