The Last Witness To Talk To Nick Berg Alive

[stickdog]

Here is a picture of Aziz Al-Taee (aka Aziz K. Aziz), who was Nick Berg's business partner in Iraq and the last guy Berg talked to before "leaving for Jordan" with a "friend", never to be heard from again:

http://community.webshots.com/photo/61282220/61285955AKXtsx

(If you can't make out what the placard in front of him says, let me help you. It says "http://FreeRepublic.com")

Here's Aziz posing with some "random" dude you folks just might recognize:



All google images of Nick Berg's Iraq business partner:

http://images.google.com/images?q=Aziz+al-Taee&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search

More:

The Pentagon, the State Department and the U.N. are fighting over who controls postwar Iraq. It's a battle that could be more critical than the military campaign.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Michelle Goldberg

April 14, 2003 | The bloody fighting on the ground in Iraq may be drawing to a close, but in offices and back rooms in Washington, London, New York and Kuwait, the battle to control the country's reconstruction rages. Three groups are vying for dominance -- the Pentagon and its neocon proxies, with their grand dreams of a new Middle East, the State Department realists, who fear Iraq could become a new Lebanon, and the United Nations, fighting the Pentagon's efforts to marginalize it. Which group prevails will determine, in part, what the next government of Iraq looks like, and whether the liberal democracy many exiles dream of is born and whether it survives.

Ultimately, there will be elections, so no group will be able to simply install Iraq's new leaders. But there are important open questions about when those elections will take place, under what kind of constitutional system, and who will rule the country in the interim. Whoever is running the country while the groundwork for democracy is being laid will be able to place Iraqis in temporary positions where they can consolidate power. According to Aziz Al-Taee, chairman of the Iraqi American Council, 36 exiles, handpicked by Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, have spent the past four weeks in Virginia training for prospective roles in a transitional Iraqi government. Whoever ultimately has the power to fill such roles will have the power, at least in the short term, to shape Iraqi politics.

On Friday, Wolfowitz told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Iraq's transition to democracy would happen in three stages. America's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance will run the country in the immediate aftermath of the war. Meanwhile, Gen. Tommy Franks will hold meetings across the country to identify potential local leaders who can join Iraqi exiles in an interim authority. Once basic services are up and running in the country, Iraq's administration will be turned over to the Iraqi authority, which will govern until elections can be held.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/04/14/reconstruction /

[trumad]

1. So now Bergs buddies and a partner with a key ass kisser to the neo-cons?

The coincidences are enormous with this saga...

[stickdog]

3. With connections to the Russian mafia.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-05-16-berg-last-days_x.htm

Berg e-mailed Aziz Taee, Philadelphia director of a group called the American-Iraqi Council, and said he wanted to do some business in Iraq. Aziz agreed to give him some space in an office he had in Baghdad; they would form a partnership, seeking communications work.

And in January, he went to Iraq.

"I was always pressuring him to keep a low profile, but he ignored all my caution and advice," Aziz says. "Berg kept a high profile, wandering around late at night or took public transport. Sometimes he got upset — looked at me in such a way, or said, 'You're not my dad' or 'I'm an adult, I can make my own decision.'"

(snip as Berg goes to prison for two weeks and is then released)

Perhaps he was becoming more wary. He called Aziz and warned him to keep a low profile, surprising his cautious colleague. The morning he disappeared, Berg "surprised me by calling me at 9 or 10, to say that he found some friend to travel with to Jordan," he says.

Berg said he was en route; Aziz doesn't know who he was with or what kind of vehicle they were driving. "He said they were nice people. I told him to have a nice trip."



Yes, Nick. Have a nice trip with those nice people. It was nice knowing ya.



More:

ttp://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/8684646.htm?1c

There's another strange new twist to the saga of Nick Berg and his final days of Iraq before his savage videotaped beheading. Berg teamed up in Baghdad with an ex-Philadelphia man who led a controversial group of Iraqi expatriates encouraged by the U.S. government - even as he faced deportation for his role in Russian-emigre crime ring selling millions of vials used for crack.

Aziz Kadoory Aziz, also known as Aziz al-Taee, hooked up earlier this year with the 26-year-old West Chester man to start a small company called Shirikat Abraj Babil, or Babylon Towers Co., that would install, inspect and repair telecommunications and utility towers. In interviews with several news organizations in Baghdad, Aziz claimed he may have been the last friend to speak with Berg before his kidnapping and beheading by terrorists possibly linked to the al Qaeda network. The radio-tower contractor had come back to Baghdad after a 13-day detainment in Mosul, only to disappear again on April 10.

Aziz said that on April 10 Berg "surprised me by calling me at 9 or 10, to say that he found some friend to travel with to Jordan." Berg said he was en route, but Aziz doesn't know who he was with or what kind of vehicle they were driving. "He said they were nice people. I told him to have a nice trip."

After living in Philadelphia for two decades, Aziz arrived in Baghdad sometime last year. A friend said he left for Iraq before the government moved on the deportation case.

Here in America, Aziz was the highly visible spokesman for a group he'd founded called the Iraqi American Council and appeared frequently on major media outlets like Fox News Channel calling for the military ouster of Saddam Hussein. Aziz' outfront role also included speaking at pre-war, pro-troop rallies. It continued even after it was reported the inner-city electronic entrepreneur had pleaded guilty in the crack-vial case in 1994 and later had legal run-ins involving stolen computers and bootlegged CDs.

[Junkdrawer]

6. As soon as I heard one of the killers spoke Russian in the video..

I thought Russian Mafia. The Russian Mafia makes the Sicilians look like a sewing circle.

BTW: I've been posting that Sy Hersh is hinting that Rumsfeld tried to make contact with, "basically Murder Incorporated"...

In this interview with Diane Rehm - about 29 minutes in...
http://www.wamu.org/ram/2004/r1040504.ram

[kentuck]

2. Well, that is interesting, isn't it?

Oh what a tangled web we weave......

[maddezmom]

4. glad you found my post in LBN helpful, stickdog

:)

[stickdog]

5. Damn straight!

As the saying goes, a clear picture is worth a thousand blurry Ed Wood videos.

And this picture is starting to come in quite clearly now. Great find.

[maddezmom]

14. Means, Motive and Opportunity?

me thinks he has all 3... :shrug:

[goodhue]

7. Berg & Aziz spent an hour climbing tall buildings in Abu Ghraib

Berg & Aziz spent an hour climbing tall buildings in Abu Ghraib

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/8684646.htm?1c

Berg's first efforts to win radio-tower repair work were unsuccessful, and he was robbed on the streets of Baghdad.

"I was always pressuring him to keep a low profile, but he ignored all my caution and advice," Aziz said. "Berg kept a high profile, wandering around late at night or took public transport. Sometimes he got upset, looked at me in such a way, or said, 'You're not my dad' or 'I'm an adult, I can make my own decision." "

Aziz said that Berg left his equipment with him during a short trip back to the U.S. When he came back, the two spent an hour climbing tall buildings at Abu Ghraib, site of the infamous prison. Aziz said they re-recorded measurements that were in his stolen notebook.

The next day, Aziz said, Berg called to say that he was going to the northern city of Mosul, where the brother of Berg's uncle lives. "He invited me to go with him, but I declined because it was dangerous," said Aziz.

[keithyboy]

65. What did Nick see and hear that made him a danger to the Bushcos?

The media won't touch this story and all it's unanswered questions because the truth might really come out and might just set off a revolution in this country.

Remember, no one has stepped forward to DISCREDIT the line of questioning or the suggested answers.

[supernova]

8. Well, isn't that special?

We just go further and futher down the abyss.

[tom_paine]

9. What a surprise! A Bushevik Operative was poor Nick's "chum"

Of course, to a Freeper Brownshirt, "chum" refers to the bloody shit you ladle into the water to attract sharks.

Yeah, Berg was Aziz's "chum" all right.

And he'll be getting a "role in the new Iraqi goverment" or perhaps some other payoff.

This scenario is becoming more likely every day.

[ArkDem]

10. Any connection with the white chair?

.

[stickdog]

13. I'm not sure.

Does the chair have a hole in it for a bucket?

[ComerPerro]

11. Funny, because Free Republic considers Berg and his father to be enemies

of the United States. You know, "America haters"

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

12. Gee, I wonder whose word we have aside from this guy that he

was Berg's "friend" and that he was actually ever "released"? Wonder how he looks in a ski mask?

[Eloriel]

16. He WAS released

His parents, three eye witnesses at the hotel including two journalists and a porter who carried his bags the morning he left, and now this guy.

[goodhue]

17. Bergs own parents claim Berg was "released" from US custody,

According to their account he called them immediately after his release, and further e-mailed them from Baghdad before his subsequent disappearance. Problem is US now denies Berg was ever in their custody.

[sallydallas124]

15. Little more about his shady past and reputation

Al-Taee pleaded guilty in the 1990s to selling empty plastic envelopes commonly used to package crack. He also pleaded guilty to buying stolen computers. He was sentenced to three years of probation, fined $3,000, and forced to forfeit $17,673 in profits.

He was arrested again in May 2001, on charges that the chain of electronics stores he owns in Philadelphia was selling counterfeit compact discs. A judge dismissed that case for lack of evidence on March 4. Al-Taee blamed the compact disc counterfeiting case on unscrupulous employees, who he said had acted without his approval.

By law, permanent residents with certain criminal records can be deported. It is all up to a judge, and some Arabs in America say that Al-Taee does not represent them. They claim the Iraqi-American Council is simply a Web site and a phone number designed to benefit Al-Taee.

"He doesn't represent anyone except himself," said Tawfiq Barqawi, a spokesman for the Philadelphia chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, which has opposed the U.S. invasion. "What we are all trying to do is change the image of Arab-Americans, and he is going to undo all of our work."

http://www.nbc10.com/news/2098489/detail.html

[tom_paine]

19. Sounds alike a Monstrous Totalitarian Bushevik Freeper

Lies. Lies ALOT. Makes up a phony website claiming to be the voice of hundreds of thousands who's voice represents one guy with 20 phony e-mail addys.

A Liar and a Thief, like most of the rest of the Busheviks.

I wonder if he's ever done wetwork for his Masters.

I wonder if he's every betryaed a friend for his Masters.

Like almost all Freepers, he would kill someone if only he was ordered to by his Totalitarian Masters.

Just saying...

[DoYouEverWonder]

39. So if Al-Taee knew how to set up a website

I bet he knew how to upload a video?

[Junkdrawer]

18. My, this is getting "dead pig locked in a car for a month" stinky...

Anyone who watches MythBusters will understand....

[nomaco-10]

20. You couldn't write a Hollywood script....

that would rival this story. Truth really is stranger than fiction.
I knew when I started reading the facts trickling out concerning the execution of Nick Berg and then watched the video to see if I could discern anything that looked odd, I knew then that we may never know the range and depths of the true depravity that exists in our government. A sixth grader could connect the dots on this one.
Be afraid, be very afraid...

[SeveneightyWhoa]

21. Keep in mind:

Nick Berg was a Bush supporter and pro-war.

If you keep that in mind, this isn't so *shocking*.

[Junkdrawer]

22. Yeah, and he also helped villagers in Ghana make bricks...

so his actual background is clear as mud.

[nomaco-10]

23. Nick Berg was also...

Jewish. Nick Berg's aunt was married to an Iraqi. Nick Berg felt comfortable traveling thru the Middle East on his own. What do we really know about Nick Berg's personal and political beliefs at this point? Do we believe the "news" media just because they said Nick was for this war? Nick Berg is an enigma at this point, a dead enigma. I'm not accepting that Nick Berg was in the wrong place at the wrong time, I'm not buying that for a minute, not this time, no way.

[DoYouEverWonder]

40. But he was in the wrong place at the wrong time

Like in an Iraqi prison, where he might have seen what was really going on. And we know the last thing in the world, Bu$hCo needed last week was to get stuck with an articulate American Jew, with anti-war parents, coming back to the US, to blab about what he saw in jail. Seems some of his buddies got nervous and decided it was time to shut him up, permanently.

[stickdog]

24. Come on, folks. Just the read the initial post & response #3 carefully.

Aziz = two bit gangster trying to impress his new mob bosses (the BFEE)

Berg = rube, patsy, sacrificial lamb

Remember, we are talking about the simplest possible explanation here. Aziz has the means (his gangster connections), motive (a prime seat at the interim " government" table), and opportunity (Berg has NO idea what kind of a shark he's "partnering" with).

The questions that remain:

How much of the job was a freelance "favor" and how much of it was advance contracting?

Why was Berg held in US custody for two weeks?

Finally, if this was a contract job, were there any reasons other than convenience, propaganda and his parents' lawsuit that made Berg specifically the unfortunate victim of the "fog of war."

[KC]

44. I read

somewhere that his business Prometheus Methods Tower Service was never registered in the state of Pa.

KC

[stickdog]

47. Well, since it was basically a one man operation, I'm guessing

red herring.

However, we've got "Prometheus Methods" in PA and "Babylon Towers" in Iraq, so I suppose anything's possible ...

[lockdown]

68. Seems it wasn't a one man operation

He apparently had a site foreman in the US called Scott Hollinger. That stuck in my mind because of this quote:

The days after his release are murky territory. One guest at Berg's hotel told a reporter they had had beers together and Berg had told him he intended to go sailing in Turkey.

Hollinger can't believe it. "Nick never had a beer in his life. He was absolutely vice-free."
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/breaking_news/8679413.htm?1c

There's more than one witness says Berg was drinking over there (a UPI reporter for one), so I think it's more likely Hollinger didn't know him as well as he thought. Or maybe they're both right... travelling young and carefree in a foreign land, you can in ways be a different person quite naturally I think. Plus, where better than a watering hole to pick up work.

Anyway, registered or not, doesn't appear to have been a one man operation.

[stickdog]

75. Or else Andy Duke was lying.

He's the only witness I've seen who said Berg was drinking over there.

[stickdog]

25. Kick for the debunking crew.

Come on, rational thinkers out there.

Let's hear why it's unconscionable/moronic/disgusting/disrespectful/absurd/ridiculous to question the official story about Berg's beheading again.

Come on. It's no fun without you.

[Nlighten1]

26. kick again

[immune2irony]

27. This is really stretching the tin foil

Trying to somehow link Wolfowitz to Nick Berg's decapitation?

More likely, someone in the Iraqi police that arrested and detained Berg had contacts to the Iraqi resistance. This is not unlikely, the four mercenaries in Fallujah were led into an ambush by Iraqi police, a convoy containing the new Iraqi currency was ambushed in Samarra. The only way the resistance could have known where and when the convoy was coming was if someone in the Iraqi police talked. Stands to reason this is the case all over Iraq.

Nick Berg had Israeli stamps on his passport, some Jewish literature, and remarked in an email home that he felt very uncomfortable and threatened when the guards told inmates he was an Israeli spy.

I think one of the police told al-Zaqwari about Berg, and when he was to be released, and all relevant info about him. Berg was then snatched after being released and refusing the US offers of escort and safe passage back home.

[Beam Me Up]

28. Other than a masked man identifying himself as al-Zaqwari

what EVIDENCE do we have that he was, infact, al-Zaqwari?

Why should I believe a masked identity who is about to commit murder for all the world to see?

[immune2irony]

29. You're right, it could have been Wolfowitz under that mask

Or maybe it was the chairman of the local Rotary Club.

I dont really care if it was al-Zaqwari himself or not, that's not the point. It's plain the murderers were muhajadeen jihadis. They videotaped decapitating Russian soldiers in Chechnya, they videotaped decapitating Daniel Pearl, why is it so hard to accept that these aren't militiant Muslims videotaping the decapitation of Nick Berg? Why spin these tortured, improbable theories when Occam's Razor works so well in this case?

[stickdog]

31. What kind of logic is that?

It's plain that the LA cops set up OJ because they beat Rodney King.

It's plain that all copycat crimes are committed by the criminals who inspire them.

Nobody said Wolfowitz had anything to do with anything except "specially training" a number Iraqi exiles -- Aziz among them -- to play the role of "neocon shadow government" in Iraq's coming interim government.

Aziz's relationship with Wolfowitz speaks to Aziz's putative motive, not Wolfy's putative involvement.

[RapidCreek]

52. It's plain the murderers were muhajadeen jihadis?

What exactly is plain about it? Occams Razor works so well? Works so well for who? You suggest plurality should not be posited without necessity? The fact is is that plurality is not being posited. It plainly exists....and as such blows your argument right out of the water.

Your assertion that there are no distinguishing factors between Bergs murder and the others you mentioned is demonstrably ignorant.

RC

[atre]

46. Actually

I don't think the figure identifies himself in the video.... I haven't read that before. All I've ever seen is that the CIA "thinks" that was him... which is an unusual conclusion to reach since there appears to be no supporting evidence made public.

[RapidCreek]

53. Yes he indentifies himself in the video

absolutely he does....which is why it is so odd that he wears a mask while doing so.

RC

[stickdog]

56. I don't think this is true. I think the video was simply posted with his

name in the title.

This is why the CIA's almost immediate insistence (without further explanation) that there is a "high probability" that Zarqawi himself appears in the tape is so fucking bizarre.

[stickdog]

30. But why Berg? Because they are too stupid to understand that

beheading a civilian target would be the WORST PR gambit imaginable?


Nick Berg had Israeli stamps on his passport, some Jewish literature, and remarked in an email home that he felt very uncomfortable and threatened when the guards told inmates he was an Israeli spy.


No. He had anti-Semitic literature according to two sources and Iranian literature according to his own emails. And the guards gave him his own cell when other inmates started calling him a Jew, not an Israeli spy. Where are you getting your disinformation from?


If Zarqawi did it and he thought or even suspected that Berg was an Israeli spy, why in the hell didn't he mention this fact in the video? Have you even watched the Ed Wood produced Berg beheading video?

Do you really think the one legged, tattoo handed (and quite possibly dead) Zarqawi appears in the video? If so, why did he cover 98% of his body -- including his mouth -- while at the same time broadcasting his identity as loudly as possible? And why did Zarqawi have to be replaced with a guy wearing a white head covering when it was time to show off the head? And why wasn't any blood draining from the head?

Note that Aziz said that Berg had befriended some "nice people" who were going to give him a ride to Jordan. Are you really contending that these "nice people" were Zarqawi and/or his men?


*****


Do you understand the basics of criminal investigations or the principle of Occam's Razor? I'm not involving Wolfowitz in some sort of X-Files plot. What I'm suggesting is that a proven acquaintance of Wolfowitz -- who just happens to also be a known associate of gangsters as well as Nick Berg's business partner -- may have been involved.

First, note that it's a lot more common (and simpler) for your business partner to be involved in planning your death than it is for some unknown cop who works in Mosul to tip off a criminal mastermind he just happens to have befriended about the details of your daily life hundreds of miles away in Baghdad. Second, note that Aziz claims he was the last one to talk to Berg alive. This is generally the place to begin any serious homicide investigation. Third, Aziz had far less ambiguous means (his mafia connections), motive (to get a lucrative seat at Iraq's interim government table) and opportunity (he'd already gained Berg's full trust) to off Berg than any putative terrorist mastermind, with or without any putative terrorist spy planted among the Mosul Iraqi police. Finally, the actual video file that was posted fits much better with an amateur dress up "beheading" than it does with an actual ruthless, real time beheading performed by actual radical Islamic fundamentalists.

You do realize, don't you, that many more victims are killed by people they know who try to make the crime look like the work of unknown assailants than actually get killed by unknown assailants?


*****


Plus, don't forget the anomolies that started this line of questioning in the first place:

1) Fat, white fidgety terra'ists wearing tennis shoes, the leader of which:

a) is wearing the sort of large gold ring that is expressly forbidden in fundamentalist Islamic communities, and

b) starts cutting the head, but is replaced (as the camera time signatures change) by someone wearing a white head covering when it's time to show off the head.

2) Out of synch soundtrack, out of focus camera work, low resolution and jumping time signatures across the entire video production.

3) A supposedly live beheading without any visibly spurting or draining blood -- conducted by supposed Arab terra'ists who obviously have no clue how to efficiently decapitate a living (or more likely recently killed?) mammal.

4) For the first time in recorded history, Arab terra'ists post a video of an atrocious murder on a website -- right in the middle of Bush Admin's most damaging national scandal, a scandal driven completely by its own disgusting pictoral and video imagery. And this amateur video somehow immediately becomes huge BREAKING NEWS across all corporate media outlets -- giving any putative terra'ists a boatload of free publicity before anyone has a chance to even begin analyzing the video's authenticity. Furthermore, US officials have seemingly no ability (or interest?) in tracking the video's posting back to whoever was responsible.

5) Berg had been held in US custody (in the Abu Ghraib prison?) for two weeks without charge or access to phones or legal help just days before he was last heard from. And the US now denies this, despite the family's insistence and overwhelming evidence that he was in fact held in US custody.

6) Berg just happened to have an FBI file because he somehow gave his email address to the guy the US government calls 9/11's 20th hijacker.

7) Berg was an American Jew traveling alone in Iraq without a job. He reported that he was climbing radio towers and taking lots of photos around the suburb of Abu Ghraib.

8) Ugly yellow paint, orange jumpsuits and, yes, white plastic Walmart chairs -- all of which appear in both the Berg video and the Abu Ghraib prison videos.

9) Zarqawi rises from the dead, has a letter fall into coalition hands that just happens to confirm everything BushCo is dreaming about the Iraqi situation, grows another leg, loses his Jordanian accent, puts on a forbidden gold ring, reads from a long speech that he's written in a mysterious mobius fashion across both sides of a single sheet of paper, decides to give up his hobby as a poison expert to get down and dirty with a dull knife, and carefully hides his face while screaming, "Yoo hoo - Zarqawi here!"

[trumad]

32. Excellent work Stickdog...

[Junkdrawer]

33. Great answer, stickdog...

Pummel them with logic and facts...

:thumbsup:

[Djinn]

41. stickdog pretty much covers it

but there's also the fact that the website purported to have originally posted the tape has been uncontactable ever since - I've asked on several websites and NO-ONE actually saw this on the website it was supopsed to have come from.

If the world media announces that on Djinn's website there's a video of me killing someone - and then my website is offline but copies are posted on numerous other sites - most people will just beleive the video DID come from me whether it did or not.

Did anyone actually get onto al-ansar.biz?

[RapidCreek]

51. Why?

Give me one GOOD reason.

What did al-Zaquwari have to GAIN with the public murder of Berg?

What did Wolfowitz have to GAIN with the public murder of Berg?

Break it down logically for me.

RC

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

61. Wolfowitz/shrubco: Gets Abu Ghraib off the front page. That was their

number one benefit from this, and becomes a RW pro war talking point. "This is going to remind everyone why we are over there in the first place!" "Look what these animals do and they want us to care about a little frat hazing!"

Al-Z: Assuming that this person is who they are portrayed to be, if they are a terrorist, trying to fight Americans and disrupt the U.S. war effort, other civilian contractors are made fearful (like the 600 Filipinos that one news item noted bailed out, not because of Berg but because of a mortar attack that killed one of them), and with a loss of contractor types the war effort becomes increasingly unmanageable. That's what he "gains" from it.

[RapidCreek]

62. I'd say Al-Z gains nothing

in fact quite the opposite. See your point number 1.

As to your second point....let's consider it a bit more deeply. Berg WAS NOT a contractor. To call oneself a contractor one must be working under contract. Berg was not. He was a tourist looking for work. Work which otherwise might be done by an actual contractor. A contractor who is registered and holds a contract....like Haliburton or one of their subs.

The message this sends is that those coming to Iraq sans an inked contract might very well get their heads sawed off.

Further, I would suggest that with the loss of the contractor types the war becomes VERY managable....it's because of the contract jobs that the war was started and is still going on. If there were no contracts there'd be no war.

RC

[Junkdrawer]

34. I'm starting to wonder if Berg was some sort of freelance investigator...

I mean if you wanted to snoop around Iraq, you'd be hard pressed to find a better "partner". But if your "partner" ever found out you were double-dealing him....

[Beam Me Up]

37. Yes. I suspect Berg's death accomplished several ends:

It got rid of a problem.

It sent a message to those who were running Berg.

It gave the media something to focus on besides the prisoner abuse scandal.

[Beam Me Up]

35. Aziz Al-Taee at Free Republic rally PICTURE

You link to it in your original post, stickdog.

Isn't it interesting that this man speaking at a Free Republic rally--a petty criminal with ties to Wolfowitz and Russian mafia--befrinded Nick Berg and that Nick Berg's father was ridiculed and publicly exposed on Free Republic as a peace activist and member of International ANSWER.

I think it is time we got THIS information to the press, don't you?

See:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1577936

[grasswire]

38. well....

...I sent the stuff to a contact at The Washington Post, and to a couple of e-zines.

If you want to get this circulating, start typing.

Think of the reporter most likely to be interested, and send away.

The freeper connection should not be underestimated, nor should the fact that Talon News (bogus front operation) is linked.

[wicket]

36. Holy shit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[eridani]

42. Can anyone connect him to the following website?

This is the website and physical address of the parties who FIRST RELEASED THE BERG VIDEO. Therefore this decapitation is irrefutably linked to:

Saudi Research and Publishing Limited SPRC Contact Information
184 High Holborn, London WC1V 7AP
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Web Site: http://www.arab.net/srpc/

History
Founded by Hisham Ali Hafez and Mohammad Ali Hafez in 1972
http://www.arabdecision.com/show_func_3_11_21_0_5_10015.htm


Yet Her Majesty, Queen Elisabeth, appears to be satisfied with the quality of services provided by this company which has apparently worked in her interests for at least five years.

ArabNet is owned by ArabNet Technology (ANT), part of the Saudi Research and Marketing Group, publisher of the leading newspapers and magazines in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia including Asharq Al-Awsat. http://www.arab.net/sections/about.html

[leftofthedial]

43. do you think freepers killed Berg?

maybe it wasn't the bushgang, but a rogue group of freeper whack jobs.

(I can't believe I said that, but you know what I mean.)

[stickdog]

45. Well, since it would be extremely polite to call the video amateur psyops,

I'd say the shoe fits.

The question that remains, of course, is if the job was freelance or subcontract.

[stickdog]

48. I must say that I'm extremely disappointed with the lack of response

from all of the DU'ers whom I'm constantly embarrassing by questioning the official version of events.

:cry:

[Straight Shooter]

49. What proof has anyone proffered that Aziz actually spoke with Berg?

AFAIC, all we have is the word of one man, and a very disreputable man, that he is the last one to speak with Berg. Was this a cell phone call? Then there are traceable records. Might even be traceable records with a land line. Anyway, why would Berg call Aziz of all people to let him know of his final travel plans? Why wouldn't he call his parents, "Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad. Don't worry about me, I've got a ride to Jordan with a friend." He must have known his parents were worried sick about him.

As far as the friend who was giving him a ride, excuse me, but what friend? With all the shit that Berg had just recently been through, seems to me he would have left a trail of information that anyone could follow. He would have given the estimated time of arrival in Jordan, which flight (if he knew), his ETA in the States, a name of someone to call if he did not show up, and more to the point, the name of the person or some clue of their identity as to who was giving him the ride.

Nick Berg was not naive. He was not stupid. Neither is Aziz. He's covering his tracks with one of the deepest piles of BS I've ever seen.

edit typo

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

50. I agree, hence my question, how many people actually SAW him

aside from this scum, outside of US custody, and when?

I hope the reporters on this are good, and tenacious, and follow the story through to the end.

[stickdog]

54. Don't hold your breath.

There are perhaps 5-10 investigative reporters among the entire major US media core of journalists.

Thank God that one of them (Will Bunch) works in Philly. Otherwise, there'd be no hope whatsoever.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

60. Yeh. Broadcast "journalism" seems to be mostly showbiz to me

these days. Made up pretty boys and girls. I don't know how much investigating any of these guys actually do. That's why they're so dependent on "access" from the official sources and eat out of their hand.

You can see the difference with an old school journalist like Hersh. Still getting it done.

[mopaul]

55. berg was interrogated to death, & the video beheading staged

in the notorious prison. i said that, but you didn't hear me say it, and i didn't say it.

[ima_sinnic]

57. regarding the gold ring: it is on the LEFT hand

--there was some ridicule here on the board a couple of days ago about the significance of the gold ring, with the conclusion being that it proved only that the assassin was not a fundamentalist Muslim. Can the Middle Eastern people on the board please confirm that someone from the Middle East probably would not wear a ring on their left hand (because of the significance of the left hand as the hand that, well, you know . . .)--I saw this conclusion on some other forum somewhere--am I just ignorant? is this another nothing? or does it strengthen the argument that the killer, at least, was not ME?

btw, I apologize for sticking this in the middle of a thread about Aziz. It didn't seem worth starting a whole other thread for and I don't think there's any other Berg-conjecture threads going right now.

also btw I still have not seen the video, mainly because I never have the patience to wait for it to download through my dial-up connection. I only heard that the ring was on the left hand.

[Straight Shooter]

58. Kick

:kick:

[PotatoBoy]

59. Here are my judgments based on my analysis

OK, I've analyzed the video and audio. Here are my own conclusions, I'm not saying they're hard cold facts, but this is what I believe based on my observations:

* Berg was alive and well when they cut his throat and beheaded him, I'm really sad to say. Lack of blood? The neck was aimed downward into the tarp, so I think any spurts of blood from the carotid artery would've shot downward into the tarp, which we can't see clearly due to video codec compression.

* Fat and white-skinned? That doesn't mean they're not Iraqis. Lots of Middle Easterners (ME) are fair- or olive-skinned. And there's a lot of oils and fats in their diet, so of course there can be fat MEs. However, FOR the conspiracy argument, I will say that I don't believe fat terrorists exist--or at least ones who are "active" in the field. They have to run and fight and keep on their toes. These are active guys. I HIGHLY doubt they would have the time or resources to get fat.

* Russian theory: forget it. I couldn't hear "davay pozhivee" anywhere in the audio. When they say "Allahu Akbar,"(sp?) it sounds like "All-ooh-ahh Oik-ba" which sounds really bizarre, and yes it does sound like a Slavic accent, but I don't know how a ME sounds when saying Allahu Akbar. So I can't really judge. Certain words spoken by a person of a certain language might easily sound like an accent from another language. Example, you could have a Russian speak just a couple words, and it might sound like an Irish accent, depending on the words. So "Allahu Akbar" is not a large enough sample set to judge.

* Terrorists carrying H&K MP5s. Very weird indeed. And why carry the guns in the video anyway? And why wear the body armor? MP5s is a weird choice of weapon for a ME terrorist.

* Filmed at Abu Ghraib. I really do think it was filmed there. It's just a weird feeling. I know there could be dozens of other buildings with yellow paint and white chairs, but something just feels weird. Plus, check out the video in the very beginning. Notice the glare on the wall of a wall-light? And notice the direction of Nick's shadow? Now look at the Abu Ghraib photos and note the placement of the wall-lights.

* Rough beheading. I agree, MEs would've lopped it off in one clean swipe. These dudes are clueless and apparently have no experience with beheading.

* The gold ring. How do you know it's gold? Come on. At that distance, and at that video quality, could you really tell the difference between a gold ring and a brass ring?

* al-Zaqarwi missing a leg. He could have a prosthetic limb, you know. However, I don't believe that's him either. They just needed a name to pin this on, that's all.

That's about all I could notice. Comments are welcome.

[eridani]

63. Language and culture comments

From an American woman married to a Jordanian

I will tell you what Mohammed said about this video.

First, the killer shouted "bahkteer!" before he started anything. Mohammed said his entire life in the Middle East he never heard anyone say that. Only when he came to the United States did he hear it. He says that is not said in the Middle East that he knows of. It is a call to have everyone around say "Allah uh Akhbar"

Then, Mohammed was very upset saying that it is very inappropriate to have the people around saying "Allah Uh Akhbar" repeatedly. He said you only say it once.

He was emphatic from the start that that video was not authentic.

A reply on another thread from a woman living in UAE

For the records and without implying anything, only as an FYI from
an Arab and a Muslim:

The word is "Takbeer", and it means "Say Allahu-Akbar." It is
usually used by someone in a group to cue the rest to say Allahu-
Akbar. In my experience (of having done the same on many occasion -
but not while slaughtering anything <BG>) the "takbeer" cue is
followed by THREE Allahu-Akbars (but there is no law governing this
per se) followed by another phrase, "Wa lillahil'hamd", meaning
praise to Allah. It's has a kind of cheering function, is all.

Which is why, I cannot stomach hearing it being said while in the
process of slaughtering a human being.

Different customs in different parts of the ME?

[slaveplanet]

64. interesting

///Only when he came to the United States did he hear it. He says that is not said in the Middle East that he knows of. It is a call to have everyone around say "Allah uh Akhbar"

Then, Mohammed was very upset saying that it is very inappropriate to have the people around saying "Allah Uh Akhbar" repeatedly. He said you only say it once.///

There does seem to be some precedent for the repeated chants in the US:


In connection with the burgeoning anti-war movement, it is worth noting that an organization named International ANSWER (an offshoot of the International Action Center) invited Ahmed Huber associate Musa to participate in a recent antiwar rally in Washington, D.C. Musa led the crowd in a provocative chant that (like much of what the so-called progressive sector is doing these days) plays right into the hands of those who would equate sincere sentiment against war in Iraq with terrorism and treason. Speaking of International ANSWER, the program relates: “It marches with, and stands with, and cheers on, people like the speaker at the Washington rally, Imam Musa of the mosque Masjid al-Islam, who declared ‘the real terrorists have always been the United Snakes of America,’ and then led the crowd in the Islamic bombers’ chant ‘Allahu Akhbar!’” (“Marching with Stalinists” by Michael Kelly; The Washington Post; 1/23/2003; accessed at www.msnbc.com .)

[starroute]

70. But ANSWER is the group Berg's father belongs to

As mentioned in post #35 above.

It's starting to feel like we're in Kennedy assassination territory, or maybe one of the more paranoid H.P. Lovecraft stories, where it's impossible to tell the significant facts from the bizarre coincidences, things turn into their opposites as you stare at them, and everything makes either a hideous kind of warped sense or else no sense at all.

[eridani]

71. Not a 'terrorist' chant--

--a general Islamic chant, used by some terrorists along with a bunch of other perfectly normal people.

[southlandshari]

76. comments on the cultural and language context

from my Palestinian husband, who after much coaxing agreed to watch the Berg video and give me his reaction.

Unlike me, he felt like the speaker could well be a native Arabic speaker, but said with the classical dialect being used it was impossible to say for sure. He did say that the "statement" ended really abruptly and didn't sound like others we have heard on Al Jazeera.

He focused less on the speaker than on the others in the lineup, and said the body language and mannerisms were what struck him as most odd. The two things he mentioned were the same many others have focused on - the "national anthem attention" sort of stance of a couple of the guys, plus the guy on the far left with one hand behind his back, were the two he cited.

[hexola]

66. Has this been posted at FR? I dont see it...somebody do it!

And you need a better title for this post...this is really crazy!

[hexola]

67. kick nt

[lockdown]

69. Wanna buy a house in Baghdad? Aziz is your man!

Dear All :

I am very glad to inform about Al-Taie Group Co. located in Baghdad to service the need of All Iraqis world wide in regards to realstate or any other business maters in Iraq.You will recieve a VIP tretment and we will work to protect your interests here in Iraq.Attached is a great opportunity to own your own modren house in Iraq in a great neibourhood and there will be many other properties, lands, buildings factories ...etc posted to you on regular basis.The house that I have it is pictures with this e-mail is located in Hai Al-Adel Section of Baghdad in a very quite and secure suberban area. We will try to accomidate all your needs in Iraq and base on your budget and incom.This house has the following features:

Area : 325 Sq Meters
Bedrooms: 1 master+3 =4
Bthrooms: 3 full + 1 half=3 1/2
Halls : 2
Guset rooms:1 super size
Kitchen: 1
Garage: 4 cars
Telphone: Available
Electric: Available (all area houses conected to a centeral Generator)
Water: 2 types
Others: outside doors and windows are Aluminum and the house has a great Decorations (see Pictures)

Asking Price:$ 179, 000 (One Hundred and seventy Nine thousands)

If you are interested in this or any other properties or Consulting please call

Aziz Al-Taie at Baghdad Office of Al-Taie Group Tel# [phone] or 01188216-63225002 . You can Also send your e-mails to [email protected] or you can stop at our office in Baghdad , Hai Al-Jamiaa ,, near Hai Al-Jammia Private Hospital.

Thank you ...I was there for you then ..and I will be there for your service now

Aziz Al-Taie
Baghdad , Iraq
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IRAQIAMERICANS/message/2822

Bargain!

That's one message among many at the Iraqi-American Council's very own Yahoo Group.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IRAQIAMERICANS/

Maybe worth digging for interesting stuff in there..

[eridani]

72. Put on your tinfoil hats

The 9-11 connection is probably spurious, though the arrest record seems to be real.

May 19, 2004

http://www.legitgov.org/
http://legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news

Nick Berg Was Arrested Twice At OU During Spring 2000 --by Michael P. Wright "Today from the Norman city court clerk I obtained a document confirming that Nicholas E. Berg, who reportedly was decapitated by militants in Iraq, was arrested twice for trespassing on the University of Oklahoma campus during the spring of 2000... The OUPD actually contacted him six times. Today I gave the arrest record to the editor of The Norman Transcript. Friday, I ascertained that Berg had been an OU employee during academic year 2000-2001. The OU personnel directory for that year listed him as a facilities attendant at the Lloyd Noble arena. The thought crosses one's mind that Berg might have been the one who bought the 9/11 hijacker's airline ticket from the OU library computer terminal

[Must_B_Free]

73. Of Course

that is why he was investigated by the FBI. The the excude was " Oh - I gave someone who wanted to send an email; from the bus my password."

Perhaps Michael Berg can confirm if his son had wireless internet access that someone felt would work from a bus. I know I didn't have it in 2000 - it was very expensive then.

[Straight Shooter]

74. Colin Powell speaks at Lloyd Noble arena on March 29, 2000

http://www.poncacitynews.com/NewsArchives/0300folder/lo032900.html#Colin%20Powell%20Proves%20To%20Be%20Engrossing%20Speaker

This article is dated March 29, 2000

"NORMAN — “You are not Generation X — but you are the Generation of Excellence,” Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of America’s Promise — The Alliance for Youth, said Tuesday as he saluted student volunteers at the University of Oklahoma.

Powell was speakng at Lloyd Noble Arena at OU.

On Saturday, over 2,000 OU students will scatter into the communities of Norman and Moore to take on needed volunteer projects.

Tagged as “The Big Event,” the student initiative has young volunteers doing service projects for more than 60 agencies. The service-oriented activities range from weeding yards to painting homes.

For Powell and OU president David Boren, Tuesday’s rally was the renewing of a close association. Their friendship was formed when Powell was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and then Oklahoma Sen. Boren was the chairman of Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

Powell praised Boren as “one of the greatest public servants I’ve met in my life.”

- snip -

How does someone who is arrested in the spring of 2000, someone who is an attendant at Lloyd Noble Arena, find his way to working at the 2000 RNC?