The victim: More than work drew him to Iraq

This is a repost of "Reporter says Berg held in custody entire time by US authorities" which was originally posted by AliceWonderland at 2:09 this morning and subsequently locked because the headline didn't match the story.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x551660

The victim: More than work drew him to Iraq — Berg took risks around the world
By John Woestendiek, Scott Calvert and Pat Meisol
Sun Staff
Originally published May 13, 2004

Reporter says Berg held in custody entire time by US authorities

U.S. officials say he was never in the custody of coalition forces. While in Iraqi police custody, they said, he was interviewed three times by FBI agents who were suspicious of his identity and warned that the country was too dangerous for unprotected Americans. He was offered a free flight home, but he declined, officials said.

But Hugo Infante, a Chilean reporter who got to know Berg in Baghdad, told Newsday that Berg recounted that Iraqi police had quickly handed him to U.S authorities in Mosul and that he had been held the entire time in a jail where U.S. soldiers were his guards.

More: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.berg13may13,0,1712176.story?coll=bal-nationworld-headlines

TYY

This is the good stuff, and we hated having to lock it.

. . . no worries. :thumbsup:

I knew you didn't want to lock it. Perhaps 'Alice' wasn't aware of the rules when she was posting early this morning. The old headline switchero guarantees a padlock every time.

TYY

:thumbsup:

http://www.infowars.com/print/iraq/berg.htm

Fishy Circumstances and Flawed Timelines Surround American's Beheading

UPDATE 12:45PM Central: This just in -- U.S. spokesman says decapitated American was never held by U.S. forces

With several news outlets reporting that Berg's family is angry from the US government over their son's violent death and revelations that "Berg was detained by Iraqi police at a checkpoint in Mosul on March 24. He was turned over to U.S. officials and detained for 13 days" (in other words, he was detained by the US military just prior to his death) -- (AP 5/11/04) we have to question what really happened and who was really behind Berg's horrific murder.

We have received several emails from listeners questioning what really happened including this one:

me and a friend were discussing recent news events and trying to piece together the information presented to us, thought you might want to look into this further, they said in the news that nicholas berg was killed 2 weeks ago (i think), however in the video the culprits who killed him said they were "avenging Iraqi prisoner abuse" but those photos weren't released until last week, so my question is how is that even a possible motive if he was killed prior to the abuse photos being released?? maybe i am misinformed but thought id ask the question to someone who would look into it

And this
UPDATE 12:45PM Central: This just in -- U.S. spokesman says decapitated American was never held by U.S. forces

With several news outlets reporting that Berg's family is angry from the US government over their son's violent death and revelations that "Berg was detained by Iraqi police at a checkpoint in Mosul on March 24. He was turned over to U.S. officials and detained for 13 days" (in other words, he was detained by the US military just prior to his death) -- (AP 5/11/04) we have to question what really happened and who was really behind Berg's horrific murder.

We have received several emails from listeners questioning what really happened including this one:

me and a friend were discussing recent news events and trying to piece together the information presented to us, thought you might want to look into this further, they said in the news that Nicholas berg was killed 2 weeks ago (i think), however in the video the culprits who killed him said they were "avenging Iraqi prisoner abuse" but those photos weren't released until last week, so my question is how is that even a possible motive if he was killed prior to the abuse photos being released?? maybe i am misinformed but thought id ask the question to someone who would look into it
More http://www.infowars.com/print/iraq/berg.htm

- victim wearing prison garb

- yellow walls in video similar to yellow walls at infamous prison

- "terrorists" who are identified by heading on video cover nearly inch of their bodies, demonstrate military stances, show "pale" hands

- father placed on a FReeper hit list right before disappearance

- victim happened to be working on towers located at/near infamous prison

- victim had been in US custody and questioned by FBI (for some unknown reason) yet US denies victim was in its custody

- victim appeared calm and unafraid during video which shows and 11 hour break between the time a "terrorist" pulled out a knife and the actual horrific deed

- translator indicates no mention of aQ or trade for prisoners and that dialect is different from that of the "terrorist" identified on the heading of the video

- Iraqis have stated that foreign terrorists are not entering the nation

- what am I missing?

I noticed this detail reported in my morning newspaper. He was working there, fixing radio towers on the night shift. You have to wonder ... did Berg see something at Abu Ghraib he shouldn't have?

. . . Also, he also had a relative that he stayed with in Mosul.

With a limited knowledge of Arabic and with a distant relative - possibly an uncle by marriage - living in Mosul, Berg spent January and February in Iraq and then returned for a second time in March.

He inspected radio towers that had been struck by helicopters during the war, and worked near the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in an ominous case of foreshadowing. He traveled through the dangerous Iraqi countryside but rarely conveyed his concerns to his friends in his frequent e-mails.

"My presence near Moffak has made him more concerned (about his own safety and probably mine too) than I've been the entire time I've been here," he wrote his friend Dave Skalish, an engineer at WPHT (1210-AM) here in Philadelphia, in January. "Mosul is very calm - except for the checkpoints, you can't really tell there is an occupation."

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/breaking_news/8654371.htm?1c

TYY

After referring to Abu Ghraib as the main political prison...

"I'll definitely share some of these pix with you and others next time I'm in the area-"

The pix seem to refer to the damaged towers, but if someone was monitoring his communications and took it out of context or just freaked over the mention of pix......

Gotta go find my hat.

That seems seriously like double-speak.

Government denying he was in US custody, a story that gets more convoluted with each article, released the day after the family files a lawsuit, etc., etc., etc.

From the article:

But Hugo Infante, a Chilean reporter who got to know Berg in Baghdad, told Newsday that Berg recounted that Iraqi police had quickly handed him to U.S authorities in Mosul and that he had been held the entire time in a jail where U.S. soldiers were his guards.

---

Declassified docs on the Horman case for anyone interested--better yet see the movie: Missing with Jack Lemon and Sissy Spacek--absolutely chilling.

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/19991008/

I say he did...and I'd about bet it had something to do with some sort of horrific torture being carried out in that prison! The pictures we are being shown are a distraction... only the surface skin of some sinister shit that no one is suppose to see!

Okay, maybe I'm being too sensitive to weirdness right now with this story, but Cornell, Drexel, Pennsylvania, and Oklahoma?

Engineering, perhaps?

Strange collection of universities to attend without getting a degree.

that someone else found this unusual. I remember when I first saw that list of schools and wondered what that was about. It would be interesting if some reporter followed up on just what subjects he took and how long he attended these various schools, especially Cornell.

And I'm glad to see I wasn't alone either. Kinda heard the crickets chirping there for a bit. :-)

If it were just Drexel and Penn, it wouldn't be notable at all. They're affiliated. But Cornell and Penn and Oklahoma? Oklahoma is the least prestigous among those three, but it has specific programs that are national centers. There is also quite a lot of, um, government recruiting that goes on there.

For anyone about to pounce, I'm not offering up a :tinfoilhat: theory here because I have no clue. It's just something that I think warrants investigation. I know a lot of people who have changed schools, but not with that kind of pattern.

According to the official timeline, Berg was held hostage for at least three weeks w/o anyone knowing. Does this gibe with the SOP re other hostages? I thought the media, etc., were advised pretty quickly when someone had been taken hostage. :shrug:

(Sorry, not trying to go off on a tangent here)

They could be one of our own.

The US used photos from the attack on the contractors to try to draw leads on who was responsible.

Under those circumstances it would make sense for anyone wishing to commit violence to hide their identity from here on in.

any identities,...yes?

For a man that was supposedly killed earlier this year, Al-Zarqawi looks rather alive. Or, if he was not killed, as reported, but has a prosthesis leg (rather recently), he moves rather nimbly for someone like that. Oh, and for a man that supposedly has a Jordanian accent, linguisists (outside the CIA of course), say that the accent is NOT Jordanian. But if you say he identified himself.. well, that's good enough for me. /sarcasm off.

It said al-Zarqawi was unable to escape the bombing because of his artificial leg.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4446084/

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/4FFA61A3-9C33-4597-A8D9-8079E91F2784.htm

excerpt:

Even at first glance, internet bloggers were asking on Thursday why Nick Berg was wearing an orange jumpsuit – just like US prisoners wear.

Other net-surfers point to the unlikely timing of the executioner's dubbed announcement that Berg was to die for "Iraqi prisoner abuse".

<snip>

Although the site has now been shut down, Aljazeera.net had looked at the site within ninety minutes of the story breaking – and could find no such video footage.

But Fox News, CNN and the BBC were all able to download the footage from the Arabic-only website and report the story within the hour.

...lots more...

- the site was shut down within 90 minutes of the story breaking (yet there were at least two different sites posted here on DU by new members which had the video footage)

- in addition to the 11 hour gap between the knife being pulled out, the victim was not struggling, not even instinctively during the brutal act

- for some reason, the victim's father believe he was killed on April 10 (about the same time as when Meyers demanded the prison abuse pictures be withheld) causing me to wonder whether an autopsy has already been performed

- the amount of blood seems small considering the act

- Iraqi militants report that the alleged, legless "terrorist" had been killed early in March

,...the site initially reported by Reuters to have the video ( http://www.al-ansar.biz ), there were two new posters on this site who provided the following links (I am not giving full link):

http://drivehostnow.biz/

http://www.soulsurvivors.net/

,...which both had the video, in full,...

...There are plenty of questions raised concerning the video too. The body is completely motionless even as the knife is brought to bear – not so much as an instinctive wriggle.

More graphically, some claim that cutting the throat's artery would cause a significant amount of blood. But little emerges and when the head was raised – not a drop of blood is seen to fall.

...Additionally, some have pointed out that his last email on 6 April to his family stated he wished to return home as soon as possible – yet the FBI claim he refused an offer of help to get home.

...Some bloggers focused on the accent of the purported executioner. Many deny the accent is either Iraqi or Jordanian - while claims the voice is Egyptian or Iranian have been made.

The Jordanian accused of the beheading Berg is himself believed to have been killed in March, according to two Islamist groups.

An eight-page leaflet circulated this week in Falluja, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in the Sulaimaniya mountains of northern Iraq during a US bombing.

But even if it was the Jordanian, one discussion room member observes his face is so well-known that "why would he bother to cover it?"

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/GMA/Investigation/nick_berg_clues_040513-1.html

excerpt:

The first focus of FBI forensic agents is expected to be the telecommunications expert's body, found on Saturday in Baghdad and now back in the United States.

Agents will be looking for any sign of what's called "trace evidence" — tiny hairs, fibers or fingerprints — that may have been left on Berg's body or the orange jumpsuit he was wearing when he was killed.

<snip>

Other key details found on the tape the FBI and CIA are studying include the height and weight of the five masked men, which can be estimated by calculating the known height and weight of Berg.

They are also studying four of the militants' shoulder-slung weapons, which appear to be AK-47s.

...more...

This article seems to miss quite a few things that should be investigated.

"That assessment was echoed by the White House: "Nick Berg wanted to build a free Iraq for the Iraqi people ... He was an innocent civilian seeking to help," spokesman Scott McClellan said."

President Bush also addressed the videotaped and Internet-posted beheading of Berg for the first time since his body was discovered Saturday near an overpass in Mosul in northern Iraq.

"Their intention is to shake our will. ... Yet by their actions they remind us of how desperately parts of the world need free societies. ... We will complete our mission," he said."


The man sitting in the Oval office is off his rocker...Call the white coats.