Bizarre New Link In Berg Murder (FBI had questioned Nick Berg for Moussaou connection in 2002)

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.

The evidence seems overwhelming that Berg was an agent of Al Queda. Moussaoui was found with his e-mail, supposedly given to him by accident. With the billions of e-mail addresses in the world, how much of a coincidence would it be that a guy "accidentally" encountered Al Queda twice on such a personal level, once at school with his e-mail and once while "wandering around" Iraq? Apparently the FBI found no other evidence to link him to Al Queda besides the e-mail, but do we have that much confidence in the FBI now, given the "Gorelick"-era constraints on what information they can gather. Obviously we know our intelligence agencies are either incompetent or barred from doing what they need to do or both after all that's happened.

Today his father says he was the best friend the people who killed him ever had. Either his father is in with Al Queda too, or more likely listened to his son rail against the US saying we deserved what Al Queda gave us time and time again. At the very least this tells us Berg and perhaps his family was an Al Queda sympathizer...who also apparently gave his e-mail address to an Al Queda member and spent time with them in Iraq.

Then there is the question of why he was wandering around Iraq "looking for work," when no foreigners seem to be there except for journalists, military, and paid contractors. John Gibson said this was clearly a bogus story today, while he and a caller talked about whether he might have been an American spy. The propaganda lies about him being held by the U.S. military and the military's claim that he refused transportation home only raise more questions about why he was in Iraq.

Also, look at the timing of this video. Supposedly Berg "disappeared" in late March. Yet we never heard anything from this group about them holding him as a hostage, threatening to kill him, or anything else, despite seeing many more of these hostages displayed before cameras last month, from mostly other countries. Not to mention most of the hostages seemed to be taken by ad hoc local Iraqi groups who couldn't even afford decent locks on their doors, not by top level Al Queda. Al Queda claimed they offered to exchange him for our prisoners, but the U.S. military denies it. That alone seems like an all too convenient focus on Arab prisoners just days after the Abu Ghraib prisoner scandal erupted. It seems like Al Queda wanted a propaganda response to the Abu Ghraib pictures in a hurry. In their line of thinking they probably felt they needed to show their strength after being humiliated so publicly by the release of the photos (the release of which was without a doubt FAR MORE humiliating than the activities that happened in the photos, thank you, CBS, for your deep concern for the Iraqis). Berg was an American who they could get their hands on quickly because he was already with them. Maybe they didn't even tell him they were going to kill him...just asked him to be tied up for a staged propaganda video. At any rate, Al Queda, especially this Zarqawi group seems to care nothing about killing innocent muslim Iraqis in car bombings, so why would they care about killing an American Jew just because he happened to sympathize with them?

How he could have been an Al Queda member while not exactly fitting the profile as a Jew needs to be addressed though. Obviously there is extreme sympathy among American leftists for Al Queda, and judging by his family's comments they fit that profile. Certainly American Jews are frequently rabid left-wingers. If Al Queda could look past the fact that he was Jewish, he could have had value to them. At the same time, there may have been less than universal agreement within Al Queda that they could trust him. We have heard for some time they have been trying to recruit more members who don't "fit the profile" of middle eastern men, although Berg's connections pre-date 9-11. Would he have been too useful as an agent to expend this way? Perhaps, but they probably had long since figured out he was more of an idiot then he was useful. We saw all the brilliance Jihad Johnny had to offer...leftist American morons are obviously going to be too stupid to be that indispensable to a foreign terrorist group. As a prop in a propaganda video, Al Queda probably got the best use out of him they could.

This reminds me of the story about how Saddam Hussein's staff lied to him that they produced WMD and then Saddam, thinking he had them, lied to the world about not having them. When it comes to islamics, you're always dealing with lies on top of lies upon lies inside other lies...

Now I wonder if the right-wing side of the media is going to pursue this story, or are they all too happy that the focus is again on the evil of Al Queda and off the Abu Ghraib scandal? Well, if they do pursue this, they could certainly keep some competition with the Ghraib scandal for American attention out there a little bit longer. Frankly, I think it's more important to pursue the strongest and clearest case yet of American leftists collaborating with our latest brutal foreign enemy than it is to try to bolster the war effort on Al Queda by showcasing their brutality against an "innocent" American. We can't let the way this story has been portrayed by both Al Queda and the press so far distract from the foul stench of liberal treason we are almost certainly witnessing here...

Anyone else in Pennsylvania think we can put together a petition to have the Berg family investigated for treason or at least expelled from the state, if possible?

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