Just as Prometheus was hung out by his father (chained to the rock, with the birds tearing at his liver), I think that Nick Berg may have been hung out by his father.
I'm not a doctor, and I don't even play one on TV, but my theory is that Nick was one of those "Can't we all just get along?" types of do-gooder. He had contact with Muslims both from his time at Oklahoma and from his aunt marrying an Iraqi. He supported President Bush's decision to invade Iraq and wanted to go there in order to help build the infrastructure and make life better for the Iraqi people.
He also was naive to the point of stupidity.
However, that is not what did him in. He was unstable (he bounced from school to school) and he was troubled by the internal battle between his fundamentally conservative tendencies and his father's anti-American radicalism. In Iraq he tried to bridge the two, meeting questionable characters through his contacts, until finally he was put in touch with al Qaeda.
My guess is that he was with them for some time, and hoped to bring some kind of rapproachment between the sides, but al Qaeda didn't trust him (maybe because he had been jailed either by the Americans or the Iraqis) and ultimately decided to kill him and distribute the video as a recruitment tool.
Why did Nick give Moussoui a computer??
I'm with you. My husband heard on Janet Parshall's show the other day that Nick worked the Republican convention and was known to many in that capacity. I didn't hear it though, so I can't confirm this. Nor could I find anything at her website.
I worry about people smearing him because of his father. Freepers bitched louder than anyone when Mel Gibson was being attacked the same way. Unfortunately, Nick can't defend himself.
From here: http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/5/14/95211.shtml
Authorities tried to tell Berg to go home and offered to pay for everything, but he told them: "You don't understand these people like I do. You're here for a reason - and so am I."
Kind of cryptic, but I think he believed he could make a difference. He was young and optimistic.
He could have been a Freeper, fercryinoutloud.
This is a very good analysis. I have had pretty good luck with evaluating people both in terms of hiring/managing/firing and in my personal life. It's about 70% behavioral observation and about 30% general feel. Looking at all the facts, I think your analysis is very close to the truth, IMHO.
Yours is a nice assessment... but after reading the little I have, I think he was much less innocent than you suggest. Time will tell.