I know a little about the radio tower business. I know that you don't go to a foreign country on your own (by yourself without a full support staff) and try to get business building radio towers in a war torn foreign country.You would have to have connections on the ground, you would have to know the local people. You would have to know where to get materials and experienced laborers. Building a radio tower requires the use of heavy equipment and cranes and people who are not afraid of heights and are trained in this most dangerous business. You don't get that by calling up people in the white pages in Baghdad, especially when there are very few phones to begin with.
All I can say is that if Mr. Berg were in Iraq by himself, then he was most likely not freelancing to try to land contracts to build radio towers. IMO, that would have had to have been a front for some other activities.
Certainly there are a lot of freelancers in Iraq. But they do not operate by themselves. They operate in teams. Big teams. Complete with security guards and local connections. Berg didn't appear to have any of that. I'm not even sure he spoke the local language. Who was he trying to get these contracts with? Inquiring minds want to know.
469 posted on 05/13/2004 6:20:27 PM CDT by P-Marlowe (Free the GRPL3)
This is what I was based my comments on.
You are right, going solo is not the safest or smartest way to do it, but evidently that is exactly what Berg did. That's why he came on to the FBI's radar screen. And he did work some, anyway. At contracting wages, he probably made enough money to live on comfortably for a while, between jobs.
My take is that he was there mostly for the money, and also just for the adventure.