His father, Michael Berg, said his sister, now dead, married an Iraqi man named Mudafer, who became close to his son. 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.
...and see tie-ins with other names and places and players, it all looks suspicious.
I will try to track down more info on that "dead sister" a little later.
Thanks once again for putting all this together. No one does it better than you!
PKM