Posted on 05/13/2004 4:50:22 PM PDT by KQQL
A CIA official said Thursday that U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was, in "high probability," the person shown on a video beheading American Nicholas Berg, based on an analysis of the voice on the video.
The speaker on the video, now believed to be al-Zarqawi, reads a lengthy statement criticizing Islamic scholars and taunting the crusaders. Standing alongside four other militants wearing headscarves and masks to disguise themselves, al-Zarqawi then kills Berg.
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, told reporters Thursday in Baghdad that it appears al-Zarqawi was responsible. The U.S. military has already posted a $10 million reward for Zarqawi for having orchestrated some of the deadliest terrorist attacks in Iraq.
Initially, Berg's murder seemed to be a case of an eccentric young American who was in the wrong place at the worst possible time -- just as the revelations of American mistreatment of iraqi prisoners were coming to light.
But CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin reports on what is turning into a bizarre mystery with a connection to 9/11.
U.S. officials say the FBI questioned Berg in 2002 after a computer password Berg used in college turned up in the possession of Zaccarias Moussaoui, the al Qaeda operative arrested shortly before 9/11 for his suspicious activity at a flight school in Minnesota.
The bureau had already dismissed the connection between Berg and Moussaoui as nothing more than a college student who had been careless about protecting his password.
But in the wake of Berg's gruesome murder, it becomes a stranger than fiction coincidence -- an American who inadvertently gave away his computer password to one notorious al Qaeda operative is later murdered by another notorious al Qaeda operative.
Berg's body was found Saturday in Baghdad. Two e-mails he sent to his family and friends show he traveled widely and unguarded throughout Iraq, an unsafe practice rarely done by Westerners.
On Tuesday, an Islamic Web site released the video, titled "Sheikh Abu Musab al-Zarqawi slaughters an American infidel with his own hands."
Al-Zarqawi is thought to be in Iraq, operating his own terrorist network, known simply as the "Zarqawi network." A specialist in poisons, he is thought to have extensive ties across the militant Islamic movement and is considered an ally of Osama bin Laden.
As recently as March, U.S. officials said al-Zarqawi's practice was not to make taped public pronouncements or take credit for attacks. However, in the last five weeks, he has increased his public profile with at least three recordings, including Berg's beheading.
Al-Zarqawi is believed to be behind well over a dozen high-profile attacks in Iraq, and many other acts of violence, which have killed hundreds.
Martin reports that in at least one other case, a high-level al Qaeda operative has personally carried out a brutal killing. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the suspected Sept. 11 mastermind now in U.S. custody, is widely believed to have killed Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
Meanwhile Thursday, new details emerged about Berg's last weeks in Iraq — a timeline that has been contested by his family and the U.S. government.
Authorities in Baghdad denied that Berg, 26, was held in U.S. custody before he disappeared in early April, despite claims to the contrary by his family. The authorities said he had been held by Iraqi police for about two weeks and questioned by FBI agents three times.
In Baghdad, U.S. spokesmen Dan Senor said that "to my knowledge" Berg was not affiliated with any U.S. or coalition organization, nor was he ever in U.S. custody.
Iraqi police arrested Berg in Mosul on March 24 because local authorities believed he may have been involved in "suspicious activities," Senor said. He refused to elaborate, except to confirm that the Americans were aware Berg was in custody.
Berg was released April 6 and "was advised to leave the country," Senor added. Instead, Berg checked into a Baghdad hotel.
Berg had told friends he was arrested by Iraqi police in Mosul because he had an Israeli stamp in his passport. In e-mails released by his family, Berg wrote about his experiences in trying to track down and later meet an in-law in the Mosul area.
In Mosul, police chief Maj. Gen. Mohammed Khair al-Barhawi insisted Thursday that his department had never arrested Berg and maintained he had no knowledge of the case.
"The Iraqi police never arrested the slain American," al-Barhawi told reporters. "Take it from me ... that such reports are baseless."
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.
"The Iraqi police do not tell the FBI what to do, the FBI tells the Iraqi police what to do," Berg's father, Michael Berg told the AP. "Who do they think they're kidding?"
The younger Berg told his family that U.S. officials took custody of him soon after his arrest and he was not allowed to make phone calls or contact a lawyer, his father said.
Kimmitt said U.S. forces kept tabs on Berg during his confinement to make sure he was being fed and properly treated because "he was an American citizen."
But the three FBI visits suggest American authorities were concerned about more than Berg's well-being. They may have had their own suspicions about what the young American was doing in Iraq.
Two e-mails Berg sent to his family and friends show he traveled widely and unguarded throughout Iraq, an unsafe practice rarely done by Westerners.
Shortly before Berg's disappearance, he was warned by the FBI that Iraq was too volatile a place for unprotected American civilians and that he could be harmed, a senior FBI official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Wednesday.
Officials said the U.S. government warned Berg to leave Iraq, and offered him a flight out of the country, a month before his grisly death.
On April 10, four days after Berg was released from an Iraqi prison, an American diplomat offered to put him on a flight to Jordan, State Department spokeswoman Kelly Shannon said.
But Berg told the diplomat he "planned to travel overland to Kuwait and would call (his) family from there," Shannon said.
Michael Berg, said that although his son wanted to leave Iraq, he refused the flight offer because he thought the travel to the airport would be too dangerous.
Deceased.
Have you met a truly embittered and hateful leftist before man?
There are people in the world who lie about anything, the Arabs had fake funerals to boost the Jenin myth. Some kill their own people and then blame it on Americans.
There are MANY MANY Americans, more than you know, that hate Bush or the right to such a degree, that they would meet with Kerry if he came to them.
It sure does sound like that's what he's said. How come Berg was friends with these guys --- but supposedly pro-war and pro-Bush like we first heard? That would make no sense at all.
Thanks for all the replies regarding the "in-law".
kcvl, especially interesing that the sister is now deceased. What is your source for that? I trust you, but am curious.
But I would suspect the circumstances around their kids' death with so many "coincidences" AND that rabid kind of hatred. You have to admit something is a little off in this.
"Other fascinating thing is that the father already had a meeting with Kerry..."
I heard on FOX today that Kerry had called the father...just to extend his condolences, of course.
He is also, in all probability, NOT a US agent in any manner or interpretation.
He was NOT doing anything a rational adult might do in a war zone between 16th and 21 centuries.
AND there is more and more of his history coming out that denies the stories his anti-American old man has been preaching.
I'm leaning hard on wondering just who he was getting contracts from while in Iraq.
I'm also leaning hard on the question of code words and masked communications in his emails home.
From what I understand his dad is very anti war and always has been. But I read that his dad said his son was very much pro Bush and an "idealist" who believed in the effort to transform Iraq. I don't know what to make of this bizzarre link- so I am not going to speculate and just chalk it up to coincindence.
What's your take on this article?
I expect you're right. The FBI/CIA probably didn't anticipate losing track of him, or that he'd be kidnapped.
What are you proposing?
Some people seem to think Berg isn't in the video. Others that he was but that he was sympathetic to AQ. Others that something is strange but he was still innocent.
What is YOUR theory.
Because if it involves him being a symp with the terrorists, then you are engaging in smearing of this young man's memory without any decent evidence.
Seems he was detained partly for his wandering around and his father's politics.
It IS possible that NIck berg was incredibly naive or foolhardy. Plus, he was in baghdad in a hotel, it's not as if he was hanging out in Fallujah with some buddies.
"They did not know what they were doing." "They killed their best friend."
I wish Michael Berg would explain what he meant by the statement "They killed their best friend." How can a terrorist be your best friend....unless you are there to help the terrorist! And I am not equating the terrorists with all Iraqis.
He may have been drugged. After all, it wouldn't have made a good video if the infidel had put up a decent fight before having his head sawed off.
i never heard once "friend of al qaeda." Right now we have a ton of print sources and the video I watched on Fox news, OR we have one person on this board who chooses to hear what they want to hear.
It seems clear to me that if you listen to the COMPLETE statement of the father, that he is saying his son saw the good in people and "they killed their best friend" is his lame attempt to say his son would have been their friend. Maybe the father was not yet aware of the murder being committed by AQ, esp as leftist since he's apt to believe it's all patriotic IRaqis.
I can see someone just going someplace for the adventure of it ---- but with the new information about the college friend using his password and the father's remarks lately it is starting to look like something else --- plus we were getting that the victim was just there to work -- make money, and then on the other hand that he was "helping" Iraq --- an idealist.
Well, that's the first time I've heard Zarqawi's group called that... normally it's called Ansar al Islam.
Is the press now too PC to connect the guy who beheaded Nick with Ansar al Islam for fear of backlash against Islam?
I saw one post that, while out there, makes as much sense as any in this bizarre tale. Was he a bounty hunter?
Maybe the FBI --- who apparently was used to interviewing this guy met with him to check him out again which made his best friends suspicious he was a double agent and they decided it was best to get rid of him --- and that's why his dad blames the US and not the terrorists who killed him.
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