[alloysteel]

So Nick Berg may have been a marked man before he ever left the US for Iraq. Fingered by Michael Moore. Word was flashed on ahead, sacrificial lamb coming your way, he hasn't got a clue as to what's in store. Sounds like a set up to me.

When it comes to Michael Moore and his motives, read every one of them with as malice as you can. Michael has no compunctions about the exaggeration of anybody else's agenda, so he is probably comparing what other people do with what he would be doing in the same situation.

What did Michael know, and when did he know it?

[Yaelle]

I don't give Al Qaeda credit for planning in advance which Americans to kill. When you look at Berg and Pearl, the main similarity is that they were willing to go off in a car with strange men. Pearl may have known he was getting into the car with a terrorist or associate in order to get the big scoop. Berg may have felt that he "understood" the Muslim extremist because of his exposure back in college in Oklahoma. I think it was just that they were presented with this great opportunity to kill a real live American.

I know they were both Jewish but I have a sneaking suspicion that the killers did not know Berg was Jewish. Otherwise I think they would have played up that fact for all their "buddies" to "enjoy" in the taping. (Middle Easterners often have less "Jew-dar" than Americans, no matter how much they hate them.)