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.
NOTHING has been De=Bunked....NOTHING!! If anything many many more questions have been raised. Tell me ONE thing that has been De-Bunked!! Be careful.
You might want to take a look at Berg's picture a couple of posts up. There's plenty of evidence of his company. But then you don't want to see it. You only want to see his name dragged through the muc.
You are a FOOL....an Uncurious Fool....MAYBE so was Nick Berg...we don't KNOW FOR SURE, but he had lots of coincidences.
You are a doofus...no one here said he sliced his own throat. Get real.
I examine evidence for a living. What do you do?
Now, his parents -- who haven't heard from him in a month -- are worried, and aren't getting a lot of help in their quest to track him down.
26-year-old Nick Berg didn't sign a privacy waiver when he went over there.
And even though the State Department is using its one person in Iraq to help track him down, they can't tell anyone -- including Berg's parents -- what's going on.
I have concluded that he was on legitimate business in Iraq. Maybe he was working for the Military on a top secret project. I don't know, but i have found no evidence to suggest he was anything but a patriotic and ambitious American who was butchered by a bunch of Anti Christian, Anti Jew, Anti American animals. That is where our focus should be.
Berg's encounter with 'terrorist' revealed
WEST CHESTER, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- 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.
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. ...
Berg said his son cooperated fully with an FBI investigation into the matter.
"He was happy to cooperate, and that was never an issue," he said. He emphasized that the individual was not a friend of his son's or even an acquaintance -- "just a guy sitting next to him on the bus."
http://wizbangblog.com/archives/002476.php
It appears you are the gullible one--why?
Because you take bad reports, out-of-context statements and flat out refuse to look at the ACTUAL evidence so that you can formulate your theory. When challenged on inaccuracies, out-of-context statements and the fact that his father NEVER said anything about "al qaeda" oh I SAW THE DAMN VIDEO--you refuse to listen and call other people names.
What the hell is wrong with you? With the Japanese "hostages" at least we had nearly immediate DIRECT proof they were anti-war and lefty. Where is your proof? Where is the Nick Berg anti-war site? Where is the corroboration of Islamist or anti-American or anti-war statements by Berg?
YOU HAVE NONE.
So you go on an unfortunate email account and----what? I don't know. BUt you are way too hostile to be thinking straight right now.
The reasonable man(or woman) requires extraordinary evidence for extraordinary conclusions or theories. You don't have that evidence, not even a wisp of anything direct. You have innuendoes and tinfoil connections.
And that satisfies your desire to destroy this man's name.
A reputation for goodness and honor is not made or broken in courts of law--it is in the court of public opinion that this is done.
For you, he is already guilty.
You know, I know somebody who knows George Bush.
It is reported that the U.S.A. authorities in Iraq wanted him to leave Iraq, but he was "too afraid to go with them to the Bagdad airport."
I think your post was misdirected. :-) I think it was supposed to be directed to one of Ann Archy's posts. At least I hope so.
Sad...bt his father DID say that Nick was the Best Friend Al Qeada had!! What's with you....go HEAR the tape if you don't believe me !!! I've heard it 5 times at least! Sorry if this bursts your little bubble....facts are facts.
}|The father said that Nick was Al Qeada's Best Friend!!!!! Go listen to the tapes!! I've heard them 5 times...and I'm stll shocked!!!
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