Spokesman Says Berg Never Held by Forces

[RoyGBiv]

Spokesman Says Berg Never Held by Forces

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The young American who was shown being decapitated on a videotape posted by an al-Qaida-linked Web site was never under U.S. custody despite claims from his family, coalition spokesman Dan Senor said Wednesday.

Senor told reporters that Berg, 26, from West Chester, Pa., was detained by Iraqi police in Mosul. The Iraqis informed the Americans and the FBI (news - web sites) met with Berg three times to determine what he was doing in Iraq (news - web sites).

Senor said that to his knowledge, "he (Berg) was at no time under the jurisdiction or detention of coalition forces."

However, calls by The Associated Press to police in Mosul failed to find anyone who could confirm Berg was held there.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=721&e=7&u=/ap/20040512/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_berg

[TolstoyAndy]

1. Senor is a liar n/t

[saigon68]

6. Actually he is a Lap Dog of the Neocons

Read his biography on the whitehouse web site

then read Annie Coulter's bio

[AP]

2. Iraq is a US fiefdom. If Iraqi police officers were holding him, he was...

..under US jurisdication.

Didn't we train the police? Don't they report to a US viceroy, or whatever we're calling them?

[Just Me]

3. Explain the lawsuit filed by his parents, then,...you liar!!!

Explain interrogations by the FBI or CIA or whoever the hell they were!!!

Explain the prison garb!

Explain his sudden and unreported disappearance!

[ewagner]

4. Can this get any stranger?

I swear this is like a cheap mystery novel........except there's no end to it.

[RoyGBiv]

11. Unfortunately....

...I think it not only can, but will get stranger.

I've kinda sorta been waiting for this or something like it most of the morning. I woke up to a local talking head commenting on the Berg story with little more than the line that he had been "repeatedly" told to leave Iraq. So, my bullshit detectors were in high gear as I scanned for some sort of mutation to this twist.

And sure enough....

[progressivebydesign]

30. Why does Daniel Pearl's death keep coming back to me?

Are there some parallels in this strange story, somehow? I woke up this morning thinking of Pearl's death.. and the questions swirling around it. I'm not one for conspiracy theories.. but this story is too convoluted to be dismissed.

[LiberalCat]

44. Because both were probably a CIA operation.

The people in the Berg photo were probably CIA or contractors beholden to the CIA, not Iraqis. That's why they wore masks.

The bushistas are using this to make the sheeple believe that the torture was justified.

[Failure]

5. LIAR....Blasphemer! nt

[ze_dscherman]

7. They did not seem to have cared for him until he was killed

"Asked for details about Berg's last weeks in Iraq, Senor replied: "We are obviously trying to piece all this together, and there's a thorough investigation." But he said he was reluctant at this time to release details. "

This indicates the families claims that they were not helped by their own government are factual. He was a hostage to Al Quaeda - and they did not investigate the background?

[TahitiNut]

8. If the FBI has jurisdiction in Iraq ...

... then why don't US laws apply? The FBI's charter is domestic and the DOJ/Ashcroft has no extraterritorial legitimacy. The whole notion that we're a "nation operating under the rule of law" has been turned into a cruel joke by this madministration.

[underpants]

12. I think they lost track of him

No charges were ever filed so that would cut down on the paper trail but I get the sense that they might have had him tucked away somewhere and someone released him and one hand did not know what the other was doing. I think they lost track of him in the machinery and there is nothing to track him back to them (his parents seemed to think the US had him) which allows for this statement by Senor.

Just a guess.

[truthseeker1]

39. I believe he CALLED his parents to tell them of his experience

being held captive by either US or Iraqi forces. That's why they filed the lawsuit.

[DoYouEverWonder]

63. The FBI visited his parents

to ask them questions about him. That was how they found out he was in custody, after they had stopped hearing from him.

Then he called them around April 6th, to say he had been released and was making his way back home and that was the last they heard of him. Apparently, he disappeared around April 9th.

[truthseeker1]

65. Yes you are right

After reading more about the timeline, I believe you are right. The Bergs did not file the lawsuit until 4/5 and Nick was released the day after, at which point he called them and told them he had endured two weeks of FBI interrogations. (And yes, the FBI's visit to the Bergs on 3/31 is what alerted them that their son had been detained in Iraq by the Coalition.)

[birdbrain]

38. Excellent point -

Since Iraq is NOT a sovereign nation, and the U.S. IS the actual governing entity, U.S. laws must apply (presumably including laws against torture and wrongful imprisonment).

[northernsoul]

43. he has the rights of all U.S. citizens against the U.S. govt

The 14th Amendment guarantees due process rights to all citizens of the United States and does not specifyt that those rights are extinguished outside of the territorial U.S.

[Red_Viking]

9. This continues to stink

His parents say the FBI came to visit them, and brought up issues only Berg and his parents would know about.

I was suspicious yesterday, and it just keeps getting worse. They've managed to whip the red-blooded types into a frenzy, and everyone is now calling for Iraqi blood. Conveniently, they've forgotten about Abu Graihb. We're back to "kill kill kill" mode.

Sigh.

November can't get here soon enough.

:dem:

RV

[maddezmom]

10. Senor was also asked about the orange jumpsuit

the this story is developing......

[maddezmom]

36. reporter makes the connection of the orange jumpsuit and GITMO

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&e=1&u=/ap/20040512/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

~snip~
The video posted Tuesday showed a bound Berg in an orange jumpsuit — similar to those issued to prisoners held by the American military at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He was sitting in front of five men, their faces masked, as one read an anti-American text.

~snip~

[qanda]

45. There was also an 11 hour time lapse between

When the knife was pulled out and when they show his head being cut off-- which is just too horrific for words.

I don't know what to think of this whole thing and I believe that is where most DUers are. We have a healthy amount of scepticism about what we're being told and it's surprising that not more Americans are questioning things before they buy the "official line".

[Just Me]

51. Still no word on whether CIA has confirmed authenticity of tape.

I wonder why.

I also wonder what the CIA would do if they discovered both the prison thingy AND this video were productions by private mercs.

[theHandpuppet]

53. I also noticed...

... the "Al Qaeda" operatives in the photo looked as if they had been enjoying a steady diet of junk food, going by their surprisingly chunky appearance. Not what I would have expected, that's for sure.

[Just Me]

56. Did you see the posts comparing the yellow walls? n/t

[Lex]

13. On April 6th, Berg's parents said he called home

and I'm sure that in that phone call, I bet he confirmed that he had been held by Coalition forces.

When the FBI came and asked his parents lots of questions, I thought they led them to believe Berg was in Coalition hands, and that is exactly why they filed the lawsuit they did against Rumsfeld.

WTF is going on here?

[RoyGBiv]

14. WTF

Probably something more horrible than we currently imagine, and I don't think I want to try right now. I'm a bit overwhelmed.

[candy331]

17. PLEASE someone Answer what was he doing there as an

Independent worker and not with any of the contractors? I didn't think ordinary US citizens were allowed in Iraq. I would have thought he would have been more than suspiciously looked at as a maybe enemy combatant. I just don't get this a private citizen wondering around in a war zone and the US just says go home. If he wanted to work why didn't he hook on with some of the contractors of any of the countries there which to me would seem more legit. Has anyone in DU land found any answers?

[hang a left]

20. Not on this one.

It is a theory that has been tossed around though. Why was he there? What does he have a death wish or something, likes living on the edge? You think he would have at least had a buddy tag along. Did he speak the language? Do they take American Express in Iraq?

[underpants]

23. I'm guessing that that was part ofthe reason the Iraqis arrested him

Stay with me on this one.

We know that he went to Gambia to help either build or acquire a fresh water drinking source for at least one community. His father said that he was a Bush supporter who went to help bring democracy to Iraq but I think (just a guess) that when stopped at a checkpoint and asked what he was doing there that that answer (I am here to help you and your country) was so far outside the bounds of what they expected-he wasn't there with a large corporation to make mega bucks- they got suspicious and arrested him.

As I said above also I have a feeling that the US military lost track of him and someone released him while someone else might have flown him out of the country.

[markses]

40. Oh, c'mon: You think he answered that way?

I'm here to help your country?

He probably said something more along the lines of "I'm coming from the electrical towers at X where I'm examining them for Y. I've been in touch with A and B. I'm a businessman."

[underpants]

42. Okay maybe not those exact words but that sentiment

Let's see here you obviously aren't Iraqi and you aren't in the American military and you aren't a missionary and you aren't on any payroll or you would have some security around you.......what are you doing here?

I'm an independent busiman here to work on the communication system....

How did you get here?

Oh I just came over looking for work and trying to help your country out...

Now "independent businessman" working on "communications" probably set off alarms that he could be a spy ( I am NOT implying that he was-if he was we wouldn't have heard anything about this more than likely) and they arrested him. They probably hadn't came across anyone else with such a story.

[TahitiNut]

49. "Fugitive Slave"?

Are any American workers ("wage slaves") allowed to be in Iraq while not in the custody of their owner? How dare Berg attempt to compete with the Cabal Cronies? After all, the Corporate Plantation Owners must collect their 2/3rds of all taxpayer money paid for labor, right? :eyes:

[librechik]

15. so, Dan, at this point in time, who do Iraqi cops answer to? What

authority do they follow? IT'S THE CPA, YOU LYING BUSHSLIME!!!!!

this reminds me a little bit of the "we never said imminent" crapola.

They are always afraid of lawsuits. They know they are criminals, so they speak in lawyerisms.

[0007]

48. Talk about a can of worms -

Expect James A. Baker to be making an appearance real soon to explain how things indeed work.

[Neecy]

16. very strange

I watched the briefing this morning, and was surprised that suddenly Berg was held by Iraqi police forces, and not the military.

Bullshit. They probably read the AP wire yesterday where Berg's father blamed Bush for detaining his son without due process in Iraq, which led to him missing his departure date. This is a total cover-up to avoid responsibility for his unlawful detainment, regardless of what we think about the video.

[hang a left]

18. Why are they lying?

Trying to put a distance between the time he was released and the time he was last heard from. Hmmmmmmmmmm, sorry, this pushes me towards MIHOP instead of LIHOP.

[Just Me]

21. IF this wasn't aQ, whaddya' wanna bet it involved the same mercs,...

,...who were involved in the torture of prisoners!!!

[TahitiNut]

52. Who says that mercs don't sell their 'services' to other interests?

If there're mercs there (from all over the world) being paid by US interests (corporate and governmental), who the hell says there aren't mercs selling services to others? Who says one is any better than another? Furthermore, who says some don't "moonlight"? Killers for hire.

[Just Me]

62. No one says one is better than the other. To the contrary,...

,...if they are providing services to the Pentagon,...it makes the whole situation very explosive in terms of the corruption at the top.

[daleo]

69. This is a good point

A while ago a South African (apartheid era) mercenary was killed by Iraqis. An article sketched out his bio - very bad stuff, very hard case, assassinations, etc. I have no doubt he would have been capable of killing Berg in the manner on the video. That doesn't mean I think he came back from the dead, just that his presence is indicative of the type of psychopath available for hire already present in Iraq.

[TahitiNut]

77. Yup. Competition, in this kind of context, RAISES fees.

The highest bidders get the 'best' killers.

[jdj]

26. One article said that they had offered to exchange him

for some prisoners in Abu Ghraib and were turned down or ignored. It is so ironic his supposed captors were apparently al qaeda rather than Iraqi. The people who did the lynchings in Fallujah were Iraqi civilians.

If we are doing MIHOP or LIHOP on this, then what could possibly better underscore the original bullshit propaganda about Iraq and al qaeda being linked and fuel those 9/11 fires again. As the church lady would say, how conVENient.

I keep waiting for Thomas Hammill to start talking but you'll notice we've heard nary a peep out of him. Maybe he'll write a book some day.

[Just Me]

28. Did that article identify with whom they allegedly negotiated? n/t

[hang a left]

32. Actually I think the article is referring to the statement made by

the murdering perps justifying their act of slaughtering Mike Berg (may he rest in peace).

[jdj]

34. Here is an article where the hostage is offered for prisoners

U.S. soldier who disappeared a week ago shown captive on videotape

By Jim Krane / Associated Press
Tom Uhlman / Associated Press
An undated picture of Pfc. Keith M. Maupin is displayed at ceremonies supporting him, Friday, in Batavia, Ohio.
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Videotape broadcast Friday showed a tense and frightened U.S. soldier held captive by masked gunmen who said they want to trade him for comrades imprisoned by the U.S.-led occupation. The kidnappers also suggested they were holding other hostages.
Pfc. Keith Maupin, 20, was the first U.S. serviceman and second American confirmed kidnapped in a recent wave of abductions in Iraq. Wearing a floppy desert hat, he sat on the floor and appeared unharmed in the footage aired on the Arab TV station Al-Jazeera.
“My name is Keith Matthew Maupin. I am a soldier from the 1st Division,” he said, looking into the camera. “I am married with a 10-month-old son. I came to liberate Iraq, but I did not come willingly because I wanted to stay with my child.”
During the video, one of the gunmen was heard saying: “We are keeping him to be exchanged for some of the prisoners captured by the occupation forces.”
“Some of our groups managed to capture one of the American soldiers, and he is one of many others. He is being treated according to the treatment of prisoners in the Islamic religion and he is in good health,” the gunman said on the tape, a copy of which was dropped off at the U.S. Embassy in Doha, Qatar.

http://www.detnews.com/2004/nation/0404/17/nation-125547.htm

I didn't google to find out Maupin's fate because my computer is crawling today. I can't remember whether he was killed or released. Lame I know, sorry. If Berg was CIA, they wouldn't have released his name. Could have been LIHOP

[Say_What]

47. Quick Google doesn't turn up anything except captured infor n/t

[truth2power]

57. Maupin still being held AFAIK.

I live in the area and would have heard if there were any developments (for public consumption, that is.)

[Dhalgren]

33. I also thought about this:

If the men on the video are "foriegn" Al-Q, then the good ol' boys can't scream for Iraqi blood - yet they can easily tar the Iraqis with the same brush; see? All the rednecks can be whipped into a frenzie against those godless "ragheads" and it's all good for the criminal morans; later, they can redirect the bloodlust away from the "good" Iraqis by saying, "Hey, we always said it was foriegn Al-Q, not the good Bush-as-god Iraqi quislings we love so well." Anyway, it was a twist that seemed manufactured to me.

[LittleApple81]

19. Did you see that the Berg suit records have been scrubbed?

DU Post:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1584484

[Just Me]

22. Had anyone previously accessed the writ? n/t

[underpants]

25. I just did a search for that suit and found nothing

that explains why. I was trying to see if part of the action was to request that they return Nick Berg to the US if they didn't have anything pending on him.

[Just Me]

27. I wonder if the text can be accessed elsewhere.

I, too, would like to see the contents of that writ. I imagine they would be very telling.

[Minstrel Boy]

24. Saddened and sickened, but not shocked.

To shock me, the thugs would need to do something halfway decent.

We're living in very dark days.

[maxrandb]

29. Wait a blanking minute

Doesn't the coalition provisional authority have jurisdiction over the Iraqi Police Force that we have "created". Just who the blank is in charge over there? Oh almost forgot, "the adults are in charge"

Geez, are Amurikans this stupid?

[daleo]

31. Sounds like some kind of coverup in process

This story is going all over the place. Today on CNN I noted that they said he was "working in Northern Iraq". I thought he never did get a job or a contract. I also noted on another channel (just one of those text news things on cable, I am not sure of the ultimate source) that the U.S. military was vowing to find the "Iraqis responsible". Yesterday, I thought it was Al Queda, foreign fighters.

Also, I notice that he left Iraq on Feb 1, and re-entered the country March 14. I think the war had already gotten pretty hot and heavy by then, so going there at that time becomes even more inexplicable.

Bremer et al should be telling us when and where he entered Iraq on both occasions, and on what grounds. I can't believe people can just come and go there like a weekend trip to the beach.

There is so much to this story that is fishy, it could fill a salmon farm.

[frylock]

35. everything is as it seems..

enjoy a glass of warmed milk. Procreate. Consume. Your Government is here to help, not harm you.
.
.
.
.
<end transmission>

[Lex]

Frylock, apparently people still believe it.

I question EVERYthing I see now.

Hell, the White House lied their ass to get us into a WAR, so why not do a little psy-ops to get the American citizenry back on their side, now that approval was flagging for this mess.

[DU GrovelBot]

37. ## Support Democratic Underground! ##

==================
GROVELBOT.EXE v2.0
==================
 
The time now is 12:31:32PM EDT, Wednesday, May 12, 2004.
 
There are exactly...
4 days,
11 hours,
28 minutes, and
28 seconds left in our fund drive.
 
This website could not survive without your generosity. Member donations 
pay for more than 84% of the Democratic Underground budget. Don't let
GrovelBot become the next victim of the Bush economy. Bzzzt.
 
Please take a moment to donate to DU right now. Thank you for your support.
 
- An automated message from the DU GrovelBot

Click here to donate.

[tom_paine]

41. More Soviet-style Lies from the Busheviks

These people make me sick. Puking sick.

We wonder how the Germans did everything Hitler asked? Why did they tells the lies and turn the valves of the gas chamber.

And every day for the last 3 years since the Old Republic began to die we are treated to clear examples of the why's and how's.

Thanks for today's example, Gauleiter Senor. I now know that, if your Bushevik Masters told you to lie about the muruder of 5,000 Jews, errr, Liberals, that you would do it without a second thought.

Monsters. We are ruled by monsters. We are only lucky the Penultimate and Ultimate Transformations of Imperial Amerika haven't heppened yet.

We have a few years more unless the Imperial Family can be stopped.

[Nlighten1]

46. This is a dodge...maybe he wasn't held by the forces but...

he was held by the US.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040511/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_american_found_8

But if the FBI was holding him WHERE did they have him? I would be willing to make a guess that they would store him at a military compound.

[Politicub]

I hope someone in the press

with an investigative bent takes a close look at all of this information and tries to connect the dots.

There's something fishy going on. I hope America won't be blinded by emotion to point of not being able to think rationally.

Partisan garbage like Inhofe and Santorum are doing their damnedest to create interference and position the Iraq torture as nothing more than harmless pranks. Reich wing talk radio is doing its part by quoting the GOP talking points ad nauseam.

Let's hope the truth prevails.

[Politicub]

50. I hope someone in the press

with an investigative bent takes a close look at all of this information and tries to connect the dots.

There's something fishy going on. I hope America won't be blinded by emotion to point of not being able to think rationally.

Partisan garbage like Inhofe and Santorum are doing their damnedest to create interference and position the Iraq torture as nothing more than harmless pranks. Reich wing talk radio is doing its part by quoting the GOP talking points ad nauseam.

Let's hope the truth prevails.

[Just Me]

54. CNN just confirmed that FBI told parents their son had been transferred

to US custody AFTER having been picked up by Iraqi police.

[Politicub]

55. The plot thickens

This story is breaking hard.

[maddezmom]

58. April 10, Berg told US consular officer in Baghdad he wanted to travel...

State Department spokeswoman Kelly Shannon said that on April 10, Berg told a U.S. consular officer in Baghdad that he wanted instead to travel to Kuwait on his own.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=736&e=1&u=/ap/20040512/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

79. How does that square with what Senor said????!!!! WTF

WTF :wtf:

[UpInArms]

59. more spin in related article: FBI Saw Berg Before Beheading

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21300-2004May12.html

excerpt:

Daniel Senor, a spokesman for the authority, said Berg was arrested in the northern city of Mosul on March 24 by Iraqi police, who apparently believed he might be involved in "suspicious activities." Senor said U.S. authorities were notified of the arrest and that the FBI visited him three times in Iraqi police custody. The FBI "determined that he was not involved with any criminal or terrorist activities," and Berg was released on April 6.

"It is my understanding he was advised to leave the country," Senor said. He said other details of Berg's movements are under investigation by the U.S. Army's Criminal Investigation Division and the FBI.

<snip>

Kimmitt said there was no confirmation that Zarqawi, who has claimed responsibility for a number of suicide bombings and other attacks in Iraq, was involved in Berg's murder. Kimmitt said that in addition to the FBI visits, U.S. military police in the Mosul area monitored Berg's treatment at the Iraqi police station "to ensure that he was being fed and provided decent conditions."

Senor said, "He was not a U.S. government employee. He had no affiliation with the U.S. government, he had no affiliation with the coalition, and to our knowledge, he had no affiliation with Coalition Provisional Authority contractors." But, he said, Berg "still was an American citizen, and that's why we checked up on him. . . ."

<snip>

Michael Berg described his son as a Bush administration supporter who helped set up electronics equipment at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia in 2000, AP reported. The father said his son was a practicing Jew and that his captors probably found that out, the agency said.

...more...

[maddezmom]

60. Berg had an in-law in Baghdad

State Department spokeswoman Kelly Shannon said that on April 10, Berg told a U.S. consular officer in Baghdad that he wanted instead to travel to Kuwait on his own.

Berg apparently had an Iraqi in-law in the Mosul area, according to emails to his family.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=736&e=1&u=/ap/20040512/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

[daleo]

61. An Iraqi in-law

I didn't think he was married. So, was someone else in the family married to an Iraqi, I wonder. I don't know, it just seems like another curious detail in a curious chain of events. Maybe it is just a McGuffin, and doesn't mean anything (reference is to Hitchcock movies, a detail that seems like it should matter but doesn't, if I remember correctly).

[maddezmom]

64. the email part is interesting....

cryptic but interesting...did he send messages home about something that was going on in Iraq. Is that why his parents were visited by the FBI?

[Just Me]

67. This new info is tough to tie together.

More about the actual relationship with the in-law and the content of those emails, of course, would be helpful.

[maddezmom]

66. FBI: Agents Advised Berg to Leave Iraq

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=542&ncid=1276&e=1&u=/ap/20040512/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/fbi_berg

[Iceburg]

68. Arabic Journalist on CNN transcribed audio and says NO mention of al qaeda

anywhere on tape. She said pentagon had made a mistake on the transcription. She also said the accent was definitely not a Jordanian accent but did not speculate further. It seems that even certain elements within CNN have their doubts about the tapes origin and authenticity.

[crossroads]

76. I heard the program too

and that's what I heard. I wonder why this has not been brought out more!? :eyes:

[0007]

70. Hmmmm cough cough cough.....please tell me this is a joke!

"26-year-old telecommunications expert traveled widely and unguarded in areas of Iraq — a dangerous practice rarely done by Westerners.

The FBI (news - web sites) warned Berg shortly before his disappearance that Iraq was too volatile a place for unprotected American civilians but he turned down a State Department offer to fly him home, U.S. officials said Wednesday."

How did Berg travel, bicycle, Greyhound bus, motorcycle, hitchick or what? Does Berg speak Abraic? Or do most Iraqis speak english?

This is almost silly!!

[maddezmom]

71. new article: Questions Surround Slain American in Iraq

~snip~
Statements by American officials in Iraq (news - web sites) leave many unanswered questions, including why Iraqi police jailed Nicholas Berg for nearly two weeks and why U.S. officials repeatedly questioned him in custody.


Also unknown is where and under what circumstances Berg disappeared. He was last in contact with U.S. officials in Baghdad on April 10, and his body was found Saturday in Baghdad. Staff members at the $30-a-night Al-Fanar Hotel in Baghdad told The Associated Press that Berg stayed there for several days until April 10.


Two e-mails sent by Berg to his family and friends show the 26-year-old telecommunications expert traveled widely and unguarded in areas of Iraq — a dangerous practice rarely done by Westerners.


~snip~

His father, Michael Berg, told the AP that Michael's sister, now dead, married an Iraqi man named Mudafer, who became close to Nicholas. In one of the e-mails, Nicholas Berg describes going to the northern city of Mosul, where he introduced himself to Mudafer's brother, identified as Moffak Mustaffa.

~snip~

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=716&e=3&u=/ap/20040512/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_berg

[floda]

72. Police of Mosul denied knowledge of Berg case to AP

In Mosul, however, police told the AP they had no knowledge of the Berg case. Police official Safwan Talal said the only American arrested there in recent months was a woman who was released soon afterward.

Since Iraq remains under U.S. military occupation, it seems unlikely that the Iraqi police would have held Berg, or any other American, for such a length of time without at least the tacit approval of U.S. authorities.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=716&e=3&u=/ap/20040512/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_berg

[daleo]

73. Try this one

"During his time in Iraq, he struggled with the Arabic language and worked at night on a tower in Abu Ghraib, a site of repeated attacks on U.S. convoys and the location of the notorious prison where U.S. soldiers abused Iraqi inmates."

Another strange coincidence.

[maddezmom]

74. too many coincidences n/t

[Just Me]

75. ,...such dark times,... n/t

[maddezmom]

78. Excerpts From Nicholas Berg's E-Mails - mentions Abu Ghraib in both

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21951-2004May12.html

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

80. This WHOLE STORY just JUMPS OUT AT YOU as WEIRD WEIRD WEIRD.

I'm skeptical of everything. I don't think I'm any more tinfoil hat inclined that the rest of DU. But WTF???!!!???

Who is this guy? Lefty antiwar family but he's a Bush fan, Iraq War fan, who does humanitarian (?) work in Africa, and goes to Iraq WITHOUT A JOB? To Look for Work? 26 year old "businessman"? To work on communications towers? Takes pictures of Abu Ghraib from above and emails home about this?

Gets picked up and held by some kind of "Iraqi authorities"? What "Iraqi police" would pick up and hold an AMERICAN without contacting COALITION AUTHORITIES? And the Coalition authorities wouldn't take custody of him from the "Iraqi Police"? And now Dan Senor denies that "to his knowledge" US authorities ever held him? But General Kimmit confirmed that US authorities were in touch "Iraqi authorities" who were holding him? Family filed suit against the US gov't for holding him without charges? WTF WTF WTF???!!!???

:wtf: :wtf:

I don't know yet that this tape doesn't represent this guy being killed by some kind of Muslim terrorists. But there are only about 5 BILLION THINGS HERE that don't fit and smell weird as all hell!!!!

[RoyGBiv]

83. Ayup

That about covers it.

I wasn't very tinfoilish on this in the beginning, but it just gets curiouser and curiouser.

[dArKeR]

81. U.S. says it offered to help Berg leave Iraq - MSRNC - discrepancy?

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4953015/

“U.S. authorities were notified,” he said. “The FBI visited Mr. Berg on three occasions and determined that he was not involved with any criminal or terrorist activity.”

In a statement, the FBI said that its agents “encouraged him to accept ... offer to facilitate his safe passage out of Iraq. Mr. Berg refused these offers.”

-----------------

This sounds to me like the FBI was telling him to leave Iraq but they had him imprisoned. To be clear, we need to know which visit the FBI told him to leave. Obviously if it was the first or second visit something is very wrong here. If he's being told to leave they know he's not a threat so why are they holding him and telling him to leave at the same time? Is the FBI lying?

[Hekate]

82. And we should believe the mouthpiece, why? n/t

[maddezmom]

84. Mosul Police Chief Denies Detaining Berg :link

~snip~
However, police chief Maj. Gen. Mohammed Khair al-Barhawi told reporters Thursday that his department had never arrested Berg.


"The Iraqi police never arrested the slain American," he said. "Take it from me ... that such reports are baseless."

~snip~

Despite the police chief's statement, a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Berg was detained by Iraqi authorities "for his own protection" because his behavior in Mosul seemed unusual for a westerner.


He had been seen traveling in taxis and moving about the dangerous city without any escort, the official said. He added that Berg, who was Jewish, had written materials which were "anti-Semitic" in tone, the official said without elaborating.


All that raised suspicions about what he was doing in Iraq.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=736&e=8&u=/ap/20040513/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_berg