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 bureaus 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 Bergs business.
Companies are not legally required to register with the state, but McDonald explained it is usually the first step an owner takes.
"Youd 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 businesss 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 bureaus 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 cant 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 Bergs company.
Bill Cressman, spokesman at the IRSs 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.
"Theres 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, Ill 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 sons business, which was very profitable before he went to Iraq ..I will make good on anything the company owes anybody, but its 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.
Honestly? Color me stubborn on this one.. but to me, it sounds like one incoherant statement after another. I'd hate to think of what analyses of my father's blatherings would be if I were in such a fix.
I just look at the alternative... which is more likely that he meant to say? Is he actually "confessing"?
Considering that he also swears up n down that his son was a Bush and Operation Iraqi Freedom supporter, I don't think so.
But hey... I could be wrong. This is just my personal interpretation of things.
Ping
Thanks for that input on Corporations in Penn. FYI... there were no Corps (foreign or otherwise), LLC's, or FBN's filed with the state. Still a mystery (after 550+ posts... but we did go just a little off topic from time to time, lol).
bump
Gosh I wish. But the only thing zapping out of my head these days are zzzzzzzzzzzzzz's and ???'s. Nope, copied & pasted. lol
And you're right... nice to meet another neighbor from The Great State of Texas. ; )
The only people past the age of reason who don't know that "song" don't have to drive long distances to Grandma's house on Thanksgiving Day. They play it every year, which come to think of it isn't such a bad thing. It's cuts the appetite before dinner so after dinner I'm not doing my imitation of a beached whale. :-)
It wasn't Russian.
*100% Pure Speculation*, but I think AG Ashcroft (under guidance from President Bush) is possibly protecting the Bergs. Even if they are anti-war, anti-Bush leftists, they just lost a son in a most heinous manner. The President and Attorney General have kind hearts.
Of course! And, there are no overweight Arab terrorists with light skin.
Funny little man he was. His dad is even stranger.
Do we have any information on where Berg was up to and including 1996? OBL was holed up in Sudan with a few businesses and training camps until the Sudanese got fed up with him (or milked OBL dry, depending on differing opinions) and sent him packing in May of 1996 where he returned to Afghanistan to make sure the camps were running "at full tilt." ~Losing bin Laden
Just going to throw out some thoughts... perhaps Moussaoui and Berg met in Sudan before OBL left? Or Berg could have met any number of terrorists there who could have then given Berg Moussaoui's State Side information, phone #'s and the like. Then later in '98 Berg went to Uganda on terrorist business? Not necessarily the plot to pilot the planes but perhaps some of the other terrorist surprizes they had planned?
But guess who we know for sure was in Uganda in the Spring of '98? Bill Clinton.
Now it gets even smellier. Berg keeping an eye on Clinton? The fact that Berg and Moussaoui then "happen to ride the same bus" in the Fall of '99. And who gives a stranger their email password? Very smelly indeed.
Mobbed by welcoming Ghanaians, Clinton yelled "Back, back" to the surging crowd
Some say Clinton's smart, au contraire! Touring Ghana (just a hop, skip and a jump south of Sudan, that country clinton snubbed three times on OBL) with seemingly no security, so much so HE has to yell to keep the crowds back. I'm thinkin' old Blubby boy had to throw out the "briefs" and slacks he had been wearing.
I hope this hasn't already been asked, I wanted to get it down, it probably would have slipped the old noggin by the end of this thread.
"There is an email connection to Mousawi. Gee, it could happen to anyone. But it happened to Nick Berg. Has an AQ terrorist ever used one of YOUR emeil accounts and passwords? Me neither."No terrorist used Nick Berg's either, tho. Just a guy who two years after he got the e-mail addy/PW from Nick, hung around the Arabs there and "might" have been acquainted with Moussaui.
"Two Prometheus outfits out of PA, in the radio business. One for towers (for profit) one for broadcasting (non profit). Nick's dad (Prom. Methods) is an ANSWER wheel, so is Pete Tridish/Dylan Wrynn, the principal of Prom. Radio. Another coincidence.Texas alone has lots of businesses with the name "Prometheus". It is a fitting name for radio and communications, is used for a software communications program. The mythology is perfectly fitting with everything we know about Nicks ideas and his business.
"Mike Berg's sister marries an Iraqi and moves to Mosul, during Saddam's regime. Another coincidence?"Saddam's regime covers a very long time. She, Nick's aunt, is also dead. Not sure what this would imply.
"When Nick is picked up in Iraq, he's carrying antisemetic literature by some accounts, and a book in Farsi about Iran. Nick speaks and reads no Farsi. What's the book for?"I'm still interested in those accounts, and what books/documents he had. We haven't found anything, and would love to know more.
"After being released, Nick goes to Mosul to meet his former uncle in law, to help him set up an email account. Gee, nobody in Mosul understands email? Hmmmm? Was this rather specialized email instruction? He had to travel to Mosul to do this?"I have to help my dad just download his e-mail every time I visit him. Last time I was at my mother's, who is pretty savvy, I had to help her with hers because she messed with her settings and couldn't connect to here POP acct. In fact, I don't think ever gone to a relative's home, or certain friends', who half the time did not ask me to help them fix something to do with either e-mail or their browser.
"Why do you need to meet someone face to face in this day and age to set up an email account? A plausible explanation is that it is to teach new clandestine comm. techniques. You can't send an email explaining a new code or method, it can be intercepted. You must do this in person."Plausible, but unnecessary, IMHO. I couldn't or wouldn't do any of the above I mentioned over the phone, after trying plenty. I'd rather drive the 1-2 hours, get a visit in, and do it without the hassle of "ok, click the x, what do you see?" "Click the what?" lol
"Why else to make face to face contact? Courier duty? Delivering what? I don't know. I do know that post 9-11, AQ is reluctant to use electronic comms, for fear of interception and location. Instead, they are relying on human couriers, carrying messages, CDs etc."...see above
"In Oklahoma, it's an "email coincidence" which later ties Nick to AQ. Then he's traveling all the way to Mosul to help his ex-uncle with email. Nick's a bright young engineer, who presumably is up on the latest uses of WiFi, IM, cell phone and computer tricks. I think this is where he would have great value, not installing spy gear up towers or other schemes."
"It's just too damn many coincidences for me to accept at face value that his story was not a cover story. Obviously, a cover story has to be tight, and have some backstopping. But there are still way too many sore thumbs sticking out.
Sorry, but there it is.
That's even better and stronger for my point.
Look at the whole friggin quote. He uses the term AQ, whoop-dee do. He didn't say, "He was AQ's best friend." And you KNOW THIS.
He said, "He just didn't sense the danger in people. The al Qaeda that killed my son didn't know what they were doing. They killed their best friend. Nick was there to build Iraq, not to tear it down."
Ann--That should be even MORE CLEAR that he's not saying anything particularly about an AQ-Nick Berg connection, only that the father feels the AQ conflict is with soldiers or the like(he's wrong, but you get the point) Nick was there to build up NOT tear down.
How the hell do you get "He's a friend of AQ" from that!!?!?
Really!?
I just wonder if Nick was a spying and trying to infiltrate the muslim communities all along (being their 'friend' having a wierd corporation as a 'cover', being 'warned' by the US to get out of 'Iraq' ...then was found out...or suspected.
It's almost pointless.
Next, we're going to hear that Nick and Mohammad Atta met in Czechoslovakia when Nick was 12 years old, as he was just getting "jihaded in" to the AQ gang. And that they put him to work as a Jewish Trojan Horse in the west--American's only Jewish Al Qaeda terrorist.
Nick was on the grassy knoll. Nick, NOT Benedict ARnold, was spying for the British. Nick invented HIV and spread it throughout the world.
I heard Nick went over to Baghdad and met with Saddam Hussein and taught him how to breakdance.
Any other false crap people want to sling at the victim?
Are you losing your mind? Do you know how old I was in 96? 18-19! I'm a year OLDER THAN NICK! Do you really think this kid was getting hooked up with AQ back when AQ wasn't even well-established here--let alone let some white Jewish kid in on their secrets?
Yeah, Berg was a high level secret operative at age 15 and up. Bin Laden was courting his services back in kindergarten and finally Berg was "made."
God, some of your are REALLY being pathetic.
Again, some of you are cutting off the comments. Check the link--it is CLEAR that what he is referring to is Nick's intention to help build up not "Tear down." In the leftist's stupid mindset, AQ only has beef with soldiers or those there to fight--which is false but should not lead one to make a leap that he was AQ's best friend.
Only someone extremely willing to overlook the complete statement would read anything other than a stupid, naive(or worse) father's statement about his son's good nature.
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