|
Who is Nick Berg?
From http://OpinionJournal.com
Best of the Web Today - May 14, 2004 By JAMES TARANTO Al Qaeda Hackers http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Northeast...erg.encounter/ Authorities insist it's nothing more than an eerie coincidence, but boy, it is eerie. CNN reports that Zacarias Moussaoui, who is awaiting trial on charges related to his role as the "20th hijacker," once used a purloined e-mail account belonging to Nick Berg, the American civilian murdered in Iraq by al Qaeda's Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. On a bus in Oklahoma a few years ago, he "allowed a man with terrorist connections to use his laptop computer," according to his father, Michael Berg: *** QUOTE *** 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," [Michael] 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. *** END QUOTE *** Adding to the high weirdness of the whole Berg saga are the strange and confused political views of the elder Berg, who is apparently some sort of far-left antiwar activist. (Reports such as one in the Philadelphia Daily News http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/8645584.htm?1c suggest he and his son did not see eye to eye on Iraq's liberation.) Agence France-Presse http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...heading_family reports on Michael Berg's sickening moral inversion: *** QUOTE *** "Nicholas Berg died for the sins of George Bush and (Defense Secretary) Donald Rumsfeld," Michael Berg, visibly upset, told ABC television. "The al-Qaeda people are probably just as bad as they are, but this administration did this," he said. *** END QUOTE *** Distraught people sometimes say crazy things, but this quote, from another CNN report http://www.fox11az.com/news/other/st...1bad661b8.html , bespeaks a genuine and astonishing ignorance: *** QUOTE *** Berg's father said Thursday his son was someone who simply wanted to "help people, not to hurt anyone." "He was not disrespectful of danger, he just didn't recognize danger in people," Michael Berg said. "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." *** END QUOTE *** Does Michael Berg really not understand that al Qaeda is in Iraq to tear it down, not to build it? |
I think his father indicates where he got his naivete, ignorance of evil, liberalism, and misdirection from.
I think back to the "reasonable man" theory, as in "What would a reasonable man do?" No disrespect to Mr. Berg, but it occurs to me that a Jewish kid with no connections and no job wondering around a country alone where heavily armed Americans and aid workers alike are shot at on sight is not acting in a reasonable and prudent manner. A Forest Gump quote is popping into my head, but in respect to the deceased, I will refrain from stating it here. TR |
The article suggests he may have been more than just imprudent. Perhaps this will draw NDD out of the medical forum during one of his brief visits to the site. The word "Oklahoma" should get him going full speed, I would think . . .
:munchin |
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2004May14.html
Ashcroft Says No Link Between Berg and Terrorists By William Branigin Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, May 14, 2004; 5:01 PM Attorney General John D. Ashcroft said today that Nicholas Berg, the young American businessman who was beheaded in Iraq, had been investigated by the FBI two years ago on suspicion of a link to terrorists but had been absolved of any such connection. Ashcroft vowed that the Justice Department would "work hard" to find Berg's murderers. "This barbaric murder of Nicholas Berg illustrates the kind of evil that we face in the war against terror," he said. "And the United States will pursue his killers and we will bring them to justice." He made the comments in a news conference at the Justice Department after Berg was buried this morning in a cemetery near his hometown of West Chester, Pa., in a private ceremony. Berg, 26, was found dead Saturday outside Baghdad nearly a month after he disappeared while preparing to leave Iraq following an unsuccessful search for work. A video posted on an Islamic militant group's Web site Monday showed him being decapitated by five masked captors, purportedly in revenge for the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. military guards. The CIA said the apparent leader of the group, a man who read a written statement before drawing a large knife from his clothing, is Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian terrorist connected to the al Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden. Before Berg evidently was captured by the terrorist group, he had spent 13 days in custody in the northern city of Mosul after being arrested by Iraqi police who believed his presence there was suspicious. During his detention, Berg was questioned three times by FBI agents, U.S. officials said. At the Justice Department news conference called to announce an initiative against child pornography, Ashcroft was asked about the FBI's involvement with Berg. He said that after interviewing him at an Iraqi police station in Mosul, FBI agents informed the U.S.-led occupation authority in Baghdad that they had "no derogatory information" about Berg that would warrant further detention. Ashcroft said FBI and Coalition Provisional Authority officials emphasized to Berg that he was in a "dangerous environment" and urged him to accept an offer to arrange his safe passage out of Iraq. He said Berg refused that offer, as well as government offers to advise his family and friends of his status. "We did not develop any interest in Mr. Berg or determine in any way that he had any relationship to any activities of terror," Ashcroft said. Ashcroft was also asked about FBI questioning of Berg in 2002 after a computer password he had used in college turned up in the possession of Zacarias Moussaoui, an al Qaeda adherent who is currently awaiting trial in the United States on conspiracy charges related to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Berg's family and U.S. officials said Berg had loaned his computer and e-mail address to a man he met while riding a bus to classes at the University of Oklahoma in 1999 and that the man turned out to be a terrorism suspect who was acquainted with Moussaoui. "The suggestion that Mr. Berg was in some way involved in terrorist activity or may have been linked . . . is a suggestion that we do not have any ability to support and we do not believe is a valid one," Ashcroft said. He discounted the significance of Berg's reported sharing of his e-mail address and the subsequent link to Moussaoui. "We do not believe that reflects any association with terrorist objectives or activities," Ashcroft said. "It's not uncommon for individuals from time to time to allow computer use by other individuals in university settings." Ashcroft said he did not know whether Berg ever knew Moussaoui, adding, "I do know that the matter was resolved, and it was resolved in a way that indicated that there was no inappropriate involvement in terror." At the White House, presidential spokesman Scott McClellan today brushed aside a reported charge by Berg's father, Michael Berg, that the Bush administration bore some responsibility for his son's death. "My son died for the sins of George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld," Michael Berg said Thursday in an interview with radio station KYW-AM. "This is a very difficult period for the Berg family," McClellan said. "This is a time to keep Nicholas Berg's family in our thoughts and prayers. And that's what we intend to do." The family has asserted that Nicholas Berg was held by the U.S. military in Mosul and that his nearly two-week detention caused him to miss a flight he had booked to return to the United States on March 30. The State Department has said that a consular official mistakenly informed the Berg family that their son was in U.S. military custody when he was actually being held by Iraqi police. But the family insists that Nicholas Berg himself informed them after he was released that he had been in military custody. |
Quote:
At least in the case of Oklahoma, the putative connection is between known home-grown terrorists and ME terrorists. I don't know that he had no job. He seemed to be an entrepreneur who specialized in building cell phone and radio towers out of mud and cement blocks in non-first world countries. |
Quote:
|
Quote:
from AP: "Al-Zarqawi appears to be seeking an increasingly high-profile presence. As late as March, U.S. officials said he was not known for making public statements or taking credit for attacks. But in the past five weeks, he has released three recordings, including the beheading." Zarqawi is said to have authored a letter on February 9th inciting sectarian violence. On March 2nd, suicide bombings at Shiite mosques in Karbala and Baghdad were blamed on Zarqawi. Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the April 24 Firebolt deaths. And now this. Is his presence in Iraq innocent? Why is he allowed to be there? |
Quote:
I'm sure NDD will be along soon to straighten us all out. LOL |
Quote:
let me try again though, just in case we are truly on our own. what some here are implying but do not want to say, is that Nick Berg was a part of a ME terrorist conspiracy. He gave Moussaoui his password, but the FBI (being a domestic firm) is not swift enough to prove it. Michael Berg would have us believe that Nick was not like him, not an "enemy" of America. They all mistook Nick's support of the war in Iraq. The reality is that Nick supports the war in Iraq because his buddies in the Zarqawi Network support the war in Iraq. Its good business for them, and besides, it takes the pressure of their cousins in Al Q'aida in Afghanistan. Nick goes to Iraq with the express purpose of martyring himself in the name of Allah, because even though he seems like an American Jew, he has been converted to extreme fundamentalist Islam. He is not terribly religious, but the terrorists are more likely to buy his radio and cell phone towers made out of mud, so economically it works out for him. The Zarqawi Network decided that it was time to make a snuff film with him because the abu ghraib prison issue was looking bad for Bush and the SecDef, and they wanted to enflame the world and garner support for America and its war in Iraq, because as we know, they love that war in Iraq. Berg, innocent? I think not. NDD please come soon |
I haven't read the links and Iapologize for that, I am simply not in a reading mood tonight. I was talking to a guy today that said he heard Mr. Berg was a converted Muslim and his sister or somebody had married an Iraqi?
I really don't know that much about the case. |
Quote:
DAMN! What the hell is going on down there? Run out of cope? |
Quote:
I am simply fighting off a cold and have recently become more focused on the physical - a passing phase as my body will remind me very soon no doubt. I will read them in the morning. |
Call me a skeptic...
... gents, some things are just TOO coincidental..
Me thinks that something stinks, I just can't put my finger on it. :confused: |
How about this possibility:
al-Zarqawi kills three birds with one stone -- 1. Silences someone with info on US al Qaeda operations 2. Sends message to other cell members who might think about talking to FBI 3. Terrorizes Americans who don't know what Berg really was doing in Iraq Hmmmmm . . . |
Quote:
|
1 Attachment(s)
Oh, and speaking of tribute:
|
A kid in the midwest tired to buy a car a little while ago. When they ran a credit check he was detained for an hour and a half because he had the same name as one of the September 11th hijackers' alias.
His birthday: Sept 11th. What do you conspiracy theorists make of that? Mr. Berg is dead because he was inexperienced and hard-headed and did not practice good personal security and he had almost zero situational awareness. |
Nick Berg, RIP was an idiot, and what Jimbo said...
Some additional info: http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/427137.html American Jew beheaded in Iraq was becoming more religious By Nathan Guttman, Haaretz Correspondent WASHINGTON - Nick Berg, the 26-year-old American who was brutally murdered by al-Qaida supporters in Iraq, was drawing closer to Judaism in the past year, according to friends. More details are available at the link above. I can't understand why anyone would go somewhere like Iraq without being sent there, or to work though an organised company??? Off to watch a movie now Keep well all Hoepoe |
Quote:
Don't be offended if when we finally meet I pat you down and ask you a couple of questions. You keep believing in coincidence and I'll keep being suspicious of everyone and everything - we'll see who lives longer. I am on the Team Sergeant's 0-3 meter plan. |
Quote:
Berg was a smart kid. Dropped out of Cornell and started his own business. He was well respected by people he dealt with on a professional level. He went to a small business in reconstruction conference put on by the USG. In talking with people there it became clear that he needed to be in Iraq to get contracts. He went to Iraq. He started a company in Iraq with a local. Some things worked out, others didn't. He went home to the US. He went back to Iraq. He started making contacts for contracts. He is consistently described by many as lackadaisical when it came to personal security. He wandered around without security. He would get into random cabs, instead of hiring a driver. And yet somehow this kid was leading a double life, linking up with terrorists in the US, telling people about it, converting to Islam from Judaism and then allowed himself to be beheaded on tape to the horror of his family. Seems like a lot of trouble to go through to not cover your tracks. |
Ernest was a smart kid. Graduated from medical school, then worked as a nurse on merchant ships. Never really took to his profession. He went on motorcycle trips, but was consistently described by many as lackadaisical when it came to personal security - so much so his motorcycle quit on him and he, having no money, was stranded. He went to another country because he heard there was a coup underway and he wanted to watch. He wandered around without security and without money. He started making contacts. He walked, instead of taking random cabs or hiring a driver. He was arrested by the police and almost blew the whole operation because he couldn't keep his mouth shut and because of a silly immigration violation. Never really told his family anything.
And yet somehow this kid was leading a double life, linking up with terrorists in Latin America, telling people about it, converting to Communism and then allowed himself to be hunted down and executed in a tiny creekbed in Bolivia to the horror of his family and communist revolutionaries everywhere. Seems like a lot of trouble to go through to not cover your tracks. Also seems like a round about way to see Cuba. Wanna talk about the Jackal? McVeigh?:munchin |
That's streatching it just a bit, don't you think?
|
LOL - why? True is it not?
|
Well, for one, I don't recall our boy Ernesto allowing himself to be hunted down.
|
You sound like a proponent of Hanlon's Razor. I am as well, but I am also a proponent of NDD's Razor:
"Never attribute to coincidence that which can be adequately explained by a lack of professionalism." Carlos is arguably the most famous international terrorist of all time until along came UBL - yet by many accounts, he was a bumbling idiot. What did he ever achieve, I mean really? On a strategic level, what has Zarquawi or whatever his name is accomplished? How much did UBL even really have to do with the actual event of 9/11? Did the ops success or failure hinge on his actions or lack there of? From a purely professional standpoint, how hard is it to kill 3k people if you are willing to die in the attempt? Che was an utter and complete failure. There are many more Richard reids than there are Jason Bournes. Never underestimate the Walter Mitty factor or the depth of the beliefs of some of these people. The fact that Berg was Jewish means nothing to me. I am reasonably sure there are Jewish people helping Hizbollah - there are always are some willing to help what seems to be the other side. That he went to Cornell would seem to be an indictment rather than a saving grace in today's environment - isn't Cornell Ivy league? How do you explain the coincidence of the email use? |
Quote:
|
The email use?
And if you say "The FBI investigated and cleared him", I'll scream. |
Quote:
The same way I explain how the grenade attack on BBC was the night it was instead of the night before. As I understand it, one of the attackers saw a cop and delayed the attack by a night. What if that cop had stopped to tie his shoe, or been called to a robbery or.... The same way I expain the FBI visiting a young man in Gaithersburg, MD in the wake of the DC sniper attacks. It just so happened that he owned the domain 'iamgod.com' ( a particular phrase left by the sniper) and his brother had experience with a rifle and an angry history. There was a number of coincidence, but it didn't make him the sinper. complexity theory is not my strong suit, but I prefer it to believing everything is a conspiracy. I could be wrong on this, but I doubt it. |
Quote:
And BTW, after linking up with the husband of his late aunt, who just happened to have married an Iraqi? I get it now. |
You could be right of course, but with the stakes, I would prefer to err on the side of the infidel. Just as you could be right, it could also be right that Mr. Berg was the naive and unwitting dupe of a cell in the US planning the next major attack.
It could also be right that he went to Iraq as the cell leader for final instructions and backed out when he learned of the target or weapon. And it could be right that the FBI rolled up the domestic terrorists that did OKC and everyone involved is either dead or in prison. And that terry Nichol's just happened to get a mail order bride whose best friend just happened to know an AS terrorist. It could also be right that UBL and SH really hated each other and there's no way they would ever work together. And maybe Che's foco theory really does work. But if we decide that random chance is grounds for closing the investigation, we don't stand a very good chance of ever really knowing do we? I get the impression that when we treat terrorism as a legal issue, we are very quick to get the conviction and wrap it up in a nice neat package for public consumption. White hats win, black turbans lose - next. |
Your just happened chain of events is wholly ordinary. He had traveled to crappy places before, even starting a similar company in Africa. Perhaps he thought that the aunt's husband could help him make some contacts. I don't not think AQ killed him (but that is a separate discussion that i don't want to get into).
I've e-mailed the FARC. If I roll into Colombia and get killed by the FARC are you going to start thinking that I was a FARC sympathizer? |
But did you let the FARC use your email and password? Big difference, very big difference.
|
No necessarily, but I will sure as hell want to know why you emailed the FARC before I pick you up at the airport.
He started his own communications company, yet wasn't savvy enough to protect his email? The trip to Africa was wholly benign? Teaching people in Ghana how to make bricks? The people of Ghana need a white boy from Pennsylvania to teach them to make bricks? He traveled to Kenya? Didn't something happen to one of our Embassies there a couple of years ago? Uganda? Yep, that's the first place I would think of for a telecom start up. Lot of rich folks just waiting for broadband in Uganda. Like I said, you could be right. But I don't expect our investigative agencies to accept the first plausible answer that comes along - that tends to get us in trouble. |
Quote:
|
That retort will only work on the people that watch WWF and Jerry Springer.
I’ve never let anyone “use” my email password. How stupid can Americans be? |
I don't know about Jerry Springer, but 'raslin' is as real as SPAM and Rice a Roni cassarole.
|
We can go back and forth on this forever.
Let's agree on this: healthy skepticism is very good and necessary. |
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
| All times are GMT -6. The time now is 19:55. |
Copyright 2004-2026 by Professional Soldiers