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.
LOL... With my beard and balding-head ponytail, I often get very similar pleasures... Liberals are incredibly strong stereotypers, and they completely reel when they discover how conservative I am...
I get loads of opportunity for this fun around here...
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Ordinarily, "annual sales" would refer to gross revenues of a business before any expenses. When taking into consideration equipment/supplies, travel expenses, payroll taxes, workers comp insurance, other insurance, business licenses, etc., that doesn't leave much left over for "payroll" itself. Even with only one employee, $65,000 in "sales" doesn't sound like a business of any substance whatsoever.
"setting up a lib radio outlet" just doesn't mesh with his dad's statements about his being a "big Bush reporter". That must be exposed as a lie, or there is a huge problem with most of the hypotheses...
Well, he has links to Moussaoui (sp???). How many people would have links to a terrorist?
This is certainly a mystery.
They sound local to PA... don't know.
Ridder/Tribune News Service, May 11, 2004 pK6820
Pennsylvania community shocked by death of `real nice kid'.
(The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.)) Pervaiz Shallwani; Dan Sheehan.(snip)
He was very active in the Science Olympiad team that took home a lot of medals and was placed in both state and national events over those years," said Florence Miller, a spokeswoman for the West Chester Area School District. Berg was a 1996 graduate of Henderson High School.His father, Michael, taught at East High School in the district, retiring in 2002.
I agree with your straight interpretation - the dad said he was an alQueda friend. There are some true anomalies here though: the "Bush supporter", "yamaka-wearing conservative Jew", etc...
Still, I'm not entirely convinced that he was simply trying to be a philantropist in Iraq while making a buck or two, but I'm still having trouble ripping off the tin foil I wrapped around my head when I made my first comments about this a few days ago. I should definitely not have used super-glue for that...
Pete declared in an interview (sorry, it was just a thing I saw Googling around but did not keep the link) that he created his alias to "avoid $10,000 fines" [e.g. for his pirate radio activities]. I tend to believe his claim that he was involved in typical early - mid 1980s Marxist activities as a late teen. He fits the profile and the stuff he's into now really does point to someone who was railing against our favorite President [great handle you've got BTW!] while in his youth. He reminds me of similar folks who were anti Reaganites during Ronnies 1st term when I was in school a few years before that. I sure hope they are investigating this hard, in spite of Ashcroft's statement today about "no connection" to terrorists.
You know, I could see that any guy working in Iraq would want to look more like an average citizen than stand out as an American.
That may be common practice amongst the civis working there.
What I was implying was that the Chi Com reporter got it wrong. That the reporter might have mistakenly wrote that that particular Mike Berg was a teacher from SC when in fact he was from PA. It just seemed like yet another coinkydink, although I do realize Mike Berg is a fairly common name in the US.
I don't remember there being a mosque there either. I've been living here all my life and going to games there since I was a kid. But maybe it's there?
Gotcha... I was just trying to reinforce your conclusion... PA it is! :-)
bmp
One other thing, from what I have seen of the ANSWER crowd here in the SF Bay Area, I could well imagine a retired teacher, when asked by a "glorious" reporter from the PRC to give an interview, neglecting to mention the "retired" part and simply claiming to be a teacher.
On a different thread, there was strong evidence that daddy was a Deaniac... not simply antiwar...
As far as "terrorist connections at Cornell"... I've been no where in the country that is more virulently antiwar than Ithaca is. I've not gotten wind of "terrorist" crackdowns here at all, but in many ways it would be very difficult to tell the difference from the average fringe liberal here.
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Correction `"glorious" reporter from the PRC' should be `"glorious" reporter from Reuters' - truthfully not a great difference there, but I wanted to stay factual.
According to his fellow workers, he would wear a yamaka (sp?) to work, even up on the towers.
I'm not convinced that the "stolen" computer password and other information are not simple "plausible" cover stories, though.
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Had the same passing throught when I found out the roommate that drove Moussaoui to MN was a Math major (junior). Math majors would have access to the super computers here at OU. They were all friends with three Pakistani students who lived next door and one of the was a computer engineering major.
OU is a large research university in many fields. One of the leaders in the world in not only meteorology but in petroleum engineering. Sarkey's energy center is a real draw for the University.
Certainly there are dots crying out to be connected.
I do not think he is a" yalmulke wearing conservative jew". His memorial is at Cogregation Beth Israel of Media. This is a reconstructionist temple. See
http://www.bethisraelmedia.org/WhoWeAre/WhoWeAre.htm
The reconstructionists are an ultra liberal american offshoot of reform Judaism.
Ummmmm, no.
Y'know I've big arms.
They're even bigger now, a virtual pitching machine.
Come here to learn from others, do ya?
Good God man, you're in for some real woe.
BTW before I forget, again.
...Happy Birthday.
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