Posted on 05/14/2004 3:43:32 AM PDT by calcowgirl
Prometheus Methods Tower Services Inc., the business that cost Nick Berg his life in Iraq, has no records with the Pennsylvania Department of State.
The company that specialized in building communications towers never registered with the Pennsylvania Corporation Bureau, said Brian McDonald, spokesman for the state department.
McDonald conducted a search of the bureau’s online list of registered businesses, but found no matches.
The same search done by a Daily Local News reporter produced the same results -- several businesses contained the word "Prometheus" in their names. Only one is located in West Chester, and it is not related to Berg’s business.
Companies are not legally required to register with the state, but McDonald explained it is usually the first step an owner takes.
"You’d be very foolish not to register your business with the department," he said. "It is nearly impossible to exist without doing it."
Registering allows an owner to set up his business’s tax structure. It also establishes how the business is run, for example, whether or not it is for-profit or nonprofit.
"It is basically the infrastructure by which businesses are set up in the commonwealth," McDonald said.
McDonald added it is possible the business could be listed in the bureau’s records under a different name.
Searching the statewide yellow pages online found two company names containing the word "Prometheus" in Philadelphia. One is an Internet consulting business.
An employee at the second one, which is called Prometheus Radio Project, said it was not affiliated with the business owned by the local man slain in Iraq by members of al-Qaida.
Officials at the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue and the Internal Revenue Service said state and federal laws prohibited their agencies from providing any records they had of Prometheus Methods Tower Services -- even whether the company had ever filed a return.
"Any information that we get or is contained on a tax return I can’t release," said Steve Kniley, press secretary for the state revenue department. "It is considered confidential under tax law."
Tax records become public information only if a lien is filed against a business. According to Kniley, there are no liens against Berg’s company.
Bill Cressman, spokesman at the IRS’s Philadelphia office, said the only companies with public tax records are nonprofit corporations.
At least one person claims he can confirm Prometheus’ existence.
Jay Shur, who works at the radio station WCHE 1520 AM in West Chester, said on Wednesday he was in the process of hiring Berg to build a communications tower for the station when news of his death came out.
The station was awaiting approval of plans from both the borough and an environmental agency before construction could begin, according to Shur.
"There’s a lot of paperwork to go through, and the area we were looking at was a marsh- land so we had to get clearance," he said."When I do get the OK, I’ll have to look for another contractor."
Michael Berg briefly spoke about Prometheus during a press conference Thursday morning outside his home.
"My son was not over there to make money," Michael Berg said. "My son’s business, which was very profitable before he went to Iraq ..I will make good on anything the company owes anybody, but it’s pretty much going to be defunct."
It is unclear how many employees Prometheus had. Michael Berg spoke of a "foreman" during the press conference. However, Nick Berg traveled to Iraq alone.
Staff Writer Jill Nawrocki contributed to this article.
Not carelessness on your part, you probably just heard the story wrong. And actually it seemed to me that it was unusual that they shot him, rather than cutting his throat with their stupid big knives.
I only remembered because something about the story stuck with me, how he was so brave and told them he'd show them how an Italian died, probably trying to take them on, when one of the cowards just shot him in the back of the head.
It does get more bizarre. Something else just hit me -- Gore and the Clintons seem to know everything the Republicans were doing at their convention. I can remember thinking there must be a mole as Gore would give a statement about a topic and then it would be covered at the convention.
I had surgery right before the convention so I watched all of it from the couch.
Had the feeling all during the campaign that the RATs knew what the Bush campaign was going to do and say.
Thanks for the local reports!
You come to Norman for football games. I just read an article about the mosque that can be seen from OU behind the gates. Where is it at? I don't remember seeing anything resembling a mosque around OU. I cannot find anything in the Norman telephone directory either. Supposedly Moussaoui and his friends met at the mosque and then would go to the Huffman!
I just had a terrible thought. The one thing I know about Norman is that there are some tremendous supercomputers at the University (for weather and climate modeling). Supercomputers .... Iraq ..... AQ "students" ...... WMD.... sorry, this is off topic, it was just a passing thought. For another thread on another day.
The mosque in Beaverton OR that lawyer Brandon Mayfield attended is just a plain wooden boxy windowless building - doesn't look like a mosque at all.
The mosque in my town is an old banquet hall and has no specific markings indicating that it is a mosque.
Point One, which I suppose I must make at this juncture, is that I cannot brusquely dismiss this conspiracy theory out of hand. As you and others have said, something doesn't smell right and the offensive odor is hardly unidentifiable. The father's reaction to the grisly murder of his boy is indeed difficult to fathom. I find it exceedingly difficult to chalk this up to differing world views, hence my own confused and tortured logic as I wrestle with the comments I've read from the father. Do I contradict my previous thoughts here?
Point Two (which quite frankly I should not have to reassert to you) is that am I not glossing over the extreme & outlandish lengths some Liberal-Socialists will travel to force their worldview & companion agenda upon us. Perhaps I should have italicized the words, this leftist, in my previous post for the sake of clarity. This leftist, the father doesn't strike me as the person who could plumb the extreme & outlandish lengths, rather an embittered socialist mourning the loss of his own son, embued with a taint of personal regret over how some of his own decisions have factored into the equation. I could very well be wrong about this; we shall see. (BTW, I don't haunt this forum to display my own faultless reasoning; I am here to learn what I can from others.)
Bottom line, I believe Occam's Razor applies here. The principle that entities should not be multiplied needlessly; the simplest of two competing theories is to be preferred. This is what steers me away from the conspirancy angle. You're not very convincing when you state you're perfectly content to watch me flounder about (contrary to very real reaction of the United States Coast Guard - LOL!). Have your arms tired from crushing softballs already?
I'm not convinced on the conspiracy angle.
But as each "coincidence" and questionable connection pops up, conspiracy looks progressively simpler vis-a-vis playing Six Degrees of Nick Berg and wondering when Kevin Bacon's going to enter into the fray.
Pete appears to be a bit older than Nick was. He mentions something about being involved in the Sane Freeze movement and anti Apartheid movement in high school, that would place him in the mid - upper thirtysomething range by my reckoning. One thing is for sure. Pete is no stranger to the circle of hard core Commies in Philly, which would make it difficult to believe that he does *not* know Mike Berg. Therefore, I postulate he also must have at least been acquainted with Nick. Now what's the chance this Prometheus name being shared is a coincidence? Also, one thing which has not been made clear at all. Since Mike Berg is the "business manager" of Prometheus Method, then who named the company, Nick or Mike?
Sorry for the delay in responsding. I posted and then left for lunch. Here are the pictures from the Prometheus site,
http://www.prometheusradio.org/pirate.shtml
http://www.prometheusradio.org/barn_photos.shtml
and here are the pictures from the WYRY - LR site, a low power station apparently set up by Prometheus,
http://www.wryr.org/studio_construction_album.html
In some of the pictures Pete TriDish looks older than Nick Berg. It's possbile they are the same person, but probably not.
I think I could have written exactly the same thing, but I never have thought it seemed like CIA.
No matter what else, this guy's death must not be passed by, though.
I'm still baffled by the dad and family's reactions ... something just seems real out of kilter.
.
Yes I'm thinking the same thing, but Pete is clearly trying to hide his identity in a coy sort of way, with the phony name, the beard, cap and no clear pictures of his face. His bio might also be phony. If someone is trying to hide their identity by deception, age can be one key element in the deception.
The videotape of Nick Berg's beheading pushed the Brandon Mayfield story off of the radar. Here is an update for today, though. I will post it in a moment:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/chitribts/20040514/ts_chicagotrib/arrestinmadridblastdoesntdimfaith
On your first link, the pic about halfway down the page has a guy in a green jumpsuit? walking in a parade. There seem to be a resemblance.
"something just seems real out of kilter. "
This story produced the same feeling in my gut as that MN chick that "faked her abduction" a couple of months ago. My wife thought I was being an ass when I said something does not seem right (I mean how many chicks get knocked out..dragged a block and not robbed or sexualy assualted)? It's the same exact feeling wit this story. We will see (I hope).
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