Michael Berg, is seen in this June 29, 2004 file photo. Berg, whose son Nick was beheaded in Iraq in 2004, said on Thursday he felt no sense of relief at the killing of the al Qaeda in Iraq leader blamed for his son's death. REUTERS//Kieran Doherty
Posted on 06/08/2006 5:41:15 AM PDT by SkyPilot
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Michael Berg, whose son Nick was beheaded in Iraq in 2004, said on Thursday he felt no sense of relief at the killing of the al Qaeda leader in Iraq and blamed President Bush for his son's death.
Asked what would give him satisfaction, Berg, an anti-war activist and candidate for U.S. Congress, said, "The end of the war and getting rid of George Bush."
The United States said its aircraft killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the insurgent leader who masterminded the death of hundreds in suicide bombings and was blamed for the videotaped beheading of Nick Berg, a U.S. contractor, and other captives.
Michael Berg, is seen in this June 29, 2004 file photo. Berg, whose son Nick was beheaded in Iraq in 2004, said on Thursday he felt no sense of relief at the killing of the al Qaeda in Iraq leader blamed for his son's death. REUTERS//Kieran Doherty
"I don't think that Zarqawi is himself responsible for the killings of hundreds of thousands of people in Iraq," Berg said in a combative television interview with the U.S. Fox News network. "I think George Bush is.
"George Bush is the one that invaded this country, George Bush is the one that destabilized it so that Zarqawi could get in, so that Zarqawi had a need to get in, to defend his region of the country from American invaders."
Berg said Bush was to blame for the torture of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.
"Yeah, like George Bush didn't OK the torture and death and rape of people in the Abu Ghraib prison for which my son was killed in retaliation?" he told his Fox interviewers.
In a telephone interview with Reuters from his home in Wilmington, Delaware, the father said: "I have no sense of relief, just sadness that another human being had to die."
Berg, who is running as a Green Party candidate, has repeatedly blamed Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for his 26-year-old son's death.
Nick Berg's videotaped beheading by hooded captors was posted on the Internet, and the father said he could understand what Zarqawi's family was going through.
"I have learned to forgive a long time ago, and I regret mostly that that will bring about another wave of revenge from his cohorts from al Qaeda," he told Fox.
Zarqawi's organization took responsibility for the execution of Nick Berg in May 2004. The video was published with a caption saying: "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi slaughtering an American."
When an Islamist Web site showed the video of a man severing Berg's head, the CIA said Zarqawi was probably the one wielding the knife. The father said he was not convinced.
"I have been lied to by my own government," he told Reuters on Thursday.
I figured Berg would have something stupid to say. Next up Cindy Sheehan and a parade of DUmmies with a wide and entertaining variety of conspiracy theories.
If so, then why all this hatred against your President?
Is this guy really this stupid? Z is not even an Iraqi.
Fox has no business providing a forum for this hate-filled, delusional moron.
Reuters. What did you expect?
Actually, I am waiting for the reaction of the "Jersey Girls."
"Ann Coulter Murdered Zarqawi!"
This man is a loon. I understand the desire to blame someone for the loss of a son, but to blame the Prez instead of the man with the knife is delusional. This delusional thinking seems to permeate the left. I wonder if they have a medical name for it?
Dear Mr. Berg:
Zarqawi would have cut your head off too, if he had gotten the chance.
Denying reality for too long will eventuate in your being permanently stuck outside of it............
Well MoonBat Berg, in addition to your son being beheaded, here is a few more 'incidents' CLAIMED by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (read claimed by) for which you or the drive by media will try but will not be able to blame President George W Bush.
Major attacks, killings claimed by Jordanian terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his followers:
2005:
Dec. 27: Volley of rockets fired from southern Lebanon into Israel.
Nov. 9: Triple suicide bombing against hotels in Amman, Jordan, killing 60.
Aug. 19: Rocket attack in the Jordanian port city of Aqaba, killing Jordanian soldier. One Katyusha rocket lands in neighbouring Israel — causing no casualties — and another misses a U.S. Navy ship docked at Aqaba.
May 7: Two explosives-laden cars plow into an American security company convoy in Baghdad, killing at least 22 people — including two Americans.
Feb. 28: Suicide car bomber strikes crowd of police and Iraqi National Guard recruits in the southern city of Hillah, killing 125 people.
2004:
Dec. 19: Car bombs tear through funeral procession in Najaf and main bus station in nearby Karbala, killing at least 60 in the Shiite holy cities.
Oct. 30: Body of hostage Shosei Koda, 24, of Japan, is found decapitated in Baghdad, his body wrapped in an American flag.
Sept. 30: Bombings in Baghdad kill 35 children and seven adults as U.S. troops hand out candy at the inauguration of a sewage treatment plant. Al-Zarqawi's group claims responsibility for attacks that day, but it is unclear if these include the explosions that killed the children.
Sept. 16: British engineer Kenneth Bigley, and U.S. engineers Jack Hensley and Eugene "Jack" Armstrong kidnapped in Baghdad. By Oct. 10, 2004, all three men have been confirmed beheaded.
Sept. 14: Car bomb rips through a busy market near a Baghdad police headquarters where Iraqis are waiting to apply for jobs, killing 47.
Sept. 13: Video purportedly from al-Qaeda in Iraq shows Durmus Kumdereli, a Turkish truck driver, being beheaded.
Aug. 2: Video from followers of al-Zarqawi showing shooting death of hostage Murat Yuce of Turkey.
June 29: Bulgarian truck drivers Georgi Lazov, 30, and Ivaylo Kepov, 32, are kidnapped. Al-Zarqawi's followers suspected of decapitating both men.
June 22: Kidnappers behead South Korean hostage Kim Sun-il; Al-Jazeera television says the killing was carried out by al-Zarqawi's group.
June 14: Car bomb attack on a vehicle convoy in Baghdad kills 13, including three General Electric employees.
May 18: Car bomb assassinates Iraqi Governing Council president Abdel-Zahraa Othman.
May 11: Kidnapped American businessman Nicholas Berg is beheaded while being videotaped, and the voice of the knife-wielder is identified as al-Zarqawi's.
March 2: Co-ordinated blasts from suicide bombers, mortars and planted explosives strike Shiite Muslim shrines in Karbala and Baghdad, killing at least 181. U.S. and Iraqi officials link the attacks to al-Zarqawi.
2003:
Aug. 29: Car bomb in Najaf kills more than 85 people, including Ayatollah Mohammad Baqr al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
Aug. 19: Truck bombing of U.N. headquarters in Baghdad kills 23, including top UN envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.
2002:
Oct. 28: Laurence Foley, a diplomat and administrator of U.S. aid programs in Jordan, is gunned down outside his home in Amman.
Who wants to bet he's a democrat.?
While Michael Berge self-righteously says "I have learned to forgive a long time ago," he continues to demonize Bush. Michael Berg is clearly a bit wacky.
One might just as well claim that his son was responsible for his own beheading: after all, Nick was in Iraq, and he must have irritated the poor terrorists so much that they just could not take it.
One wonders what poor Nick would have thought if he had known in the last momemnts that his befuddled father would blame the US for his beheading, and would express sympathy for al-Zarqawi?
Running as a Greenie. It is stated in the article.
I don't expect rational thought out of Berg. After all, he says his son saw the good in his killers to the last seconds of his life.
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