Coalition: Berg was never in U.S. custody

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

Businessman's family, friends say he told them otherwise

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/05/14/iraq.berg/index.html

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A coalition spokesman said Friday that U.S. military police may have been at the Iraqi facility where Nicholas Berg was held before he was killed, but he insisted that Berg was never in U.S. custody, despite reports to the contrary.

"To our knowledge, he was detained by the Iraqi police in Mosul," coalition spokesman Dan Senor told CNN. "He was in Iraqi police custody. He was met by U.S. officials, he was visited three times by the FBI, but at all times, he was in Iraqi custody."

"I think some of the confusion emanates from the fact that a number of the detention facilities throughout the country, there are American MPs who play a support role there," Senor added. "But it doesn't detract from the fact it's still an Iraqi facility, and I think once we do a little more investigating, we can hope to provide more clarity."

(snip)

EDITED BY ADMIN FOR COPYRIGHT REASONS

[Occulus]

1. In other words

"We might be lying. We might be telling the truth. You'll never know, because the only one who knew for sure is dead."

This STINKS. It stank from the start, but now the smell is drawing several species of fly.

[fearnobush]

9. Just more Bush Shit to feed the empty minds of the Fox News masses.

Bush Shit stinks worse because it is so transparent.

[lebkuchen]

2. Has Beth A. Payne been interviewed??

She was the Baghdad Consulat officer who'd sent the e-mails to the Berg family. She's the go-between. What does she have to say?

[pinniped]

3. Iraqi police is a separate entity...

ya right.

Someday this mystery will unravel.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. As they change the story, more and more

doubts are raised, this stinks to high heaven

[orthogonal]

5. This only raises more questions

But... the Iraqi police are entirely a creature of the Coalition; the Iraqi police are in no way independent. And The fact that Berg was released one day after his family filed suit argues tat the Coalition effectively controlled Berg.

The only reason that the Coalition wouldn't collect Berg itself -- if for no other reason than making the FBI's access to him more convenient -- is if the Coalition wanted Berg at arm's length, far enough away for "plausible denial".

Now whether that's that somebody hoped an inconvenient Berg might get a shank in a dingy Iraqi police jail, or whether like Maher Arar being sent to Syria to be tortured, somebody wanted Berg to be technically in Iraqi hands so that U.S. law would not apply to him, or whether someone just wanted to be able to literally claim that Berg was not under U.S. control, it seems that somebody in the Coalition had a very strong desire to be able to pin what happened to Berg in jail on the locals.

And that raises a lot of questions.

[Elidor]

6. "Some of the confusion is because a number of Bush officials"

"Have to lie to keep their heads. Don't wait for the truth from us."

"To our knowledge, he was detained by the Iraqi police in Mosul," coalition spokesman Dan Senor told CNN.

To our knowledge being the key phrase. Plausible deniability and all...

Translated as: "We fucked him good. But we'll never admit it."

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

8. To OUR knowledge, you and all your shrubco homies are lying mofos. EOM

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

7. What's not clear to me is what evidence actually exists that he was ever

released from U.S. custody (and I would include "in the custody of Iraqi Police" as U.S. custody, I mean WTF!?!)?

He supposedly emailed his parents, but this could have been faked. They could have obtained access to his email account through the usual spookery or extracted through torture, and sent fake messages. ("Mom and Dad. Everything OK. I am NOT, repeat, NOT being brutally tortured by the U.S. gov't. over here. Don't worry about me! Be home in a few days!")

Did he speak with them by phone? Especially if answering machine messages were left, they could be fake or prerecorded.

There are "friends" who report having spoken with him after his released, before his final disappearance. How reliable are these witnesses?

Congress, or Sy Hersh, should do an independent of shrubco investigation of this.

Could it be that his headless body was discharged from US custody to the bridge where it was found?

[shamanstar]

10. isnt iraqi custody just a nice way of saying

iraqi custody is the same as US custody, right?

[AliceWonderland]

11. Berg told Chilean reporter he'd been in US custody all along

link

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.

[girl gone mad]

12. "Berg also turned down offers to advise his family of his status,

Ashcroft said."

This statement is incredibly difficult to believe, and not just because it came from Ashcroft.

[Minstrel Boy]

13. "U.S. military police may have been at the Iraqi facility

where Nicholas Berg was held before he was killed"

This, I believe.

[Darranar]

14. US custody, US puppet custody...

does it really matter?

[MGKrebs]

15. Why is it important for them to make this distinction?

"It's an Iraqi facility"??? WTF does that mean? As opposed to the non-Iraqi facilities? But US MP's are there?

It seems to me that the "custody" distinction would only matter if there were some paper trail that showed who "technically" had custody at any given moment. If there is no "official" record, i.e. arrest report/booking/ transfer, then there is no technical "custody" and this is all some word game. Which sets off the BS alarms.

[Miss Authoritiva]

17. That's it exactly: a word game.

n/t

[Moderator]

16. Mayberry Machiavelli

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
news source.

Thank you.


DU Moderator