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

cbsnews.com ^ | 05/13/04 | CBS/AP)

[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.

[js1138]

John Gibson on Fox said he had talked to some U.S. contractors back from Iraq and was told there is no way any American would be running around the country with no attachment to any business or institution. Sounds a bit like a character in a graham Greene novel.

Perhaps he was working for Michael Moore.

[piasa]

Don't forget to add "stupid CIA agent gets Israeli stamp on passport and goes by Jewish name"

[null and void]

If he was working with them, why would they kill him?

Ever hear the story of the scorpion and the frog?...

[undeniable logic]

The most suspicious thing of all is that I haven't heard the father condemn the killers once, yet he has condemned Bush several times. You would expect him to have something to say about the killers and in addition something to the extent of "We really have to catch these SOBs."

Isn't it odd that he hasn't said anything bad about the killers or expressed any desire that they be caught?

[Colorado Doug]

if Nick Berg was pro- Bush, I'll eat my tinfoil hat!

I'm with you. Nick's father did not sign the A.N.S.W.E.R. endorsement as an individual he prominently listed the name of his son's business as well. I continue to smell a rat.

Remember that guy that thought he could lay down with grizzly bears? Of course they ate him. I don't know why but something about this story reminds me of that one.

[ambrose]

good point..

[null and void]

Yeah. Unfortunately.

If, as Michael Savage says, Liberalism is a mental disorder, Islam is at the end of that road...

[abigailsmybaby]

It certainly is. I haven't been able to bring myself to watch the video, but I did look at some still photos from it. That beard completely took me by surprise. He looked middle eastern. I wasn't prepared for that. Another thing I found odd was that in those still photos I couldn't see any blood. Maybe they were just too blurry. I don't know.

[backtothestreets]

Strange. This is the first I had heard of possible 9-11 connections. That's not what seems so strange though. Why would an American Jew feel comfortable travling "widely and unguarded throughout Iraq"?

Whatever comes of this, it must be kept seperate from the brutal beheading Nick Berg suffered.

[MinuteGal]

You're correct. We have to keep two trains of analysis apart here, although it's difficult if not impossible.

We have a traumatized father and family on one hand. Be that as it may, I have this gut feeling the father is also a hard-core, very experienced and clever liberal operative, capable of recruiting his son into nefarious plots.

It's also remarkable how the elder Berg was untraumatized enough to get certain political spin statements out to the public immediately after his son's death was announced. He used a tried-and-true leftist tactic, i.e. get the spin out right away because first impressions are lasting.

Thus, the grieving father aggressively made sure the media and public knew right off the bat that the son was "pro-Bush" and "anti-war"....out-of-sync-type statements that raised preliminary warning signals in some of our little grey cells.

Leni

[backtothestreets]

And you're right too, and expressed it better then I did.

The mixing of events tends to split the nation when we need unity most. My sincere regrets to the family of Nick Berg. Regardless of what his father, family, or friends say, the photo will forever show his murderers as barbaric terrorists. Regardless of what connections Nick Berg had prior to his execution, the executioners were barbaric terrorists.

Keep that focus. Don't let anyone, whatever their politics, put another spin on this tragic event.

Also, don't allow anyone to accept the terrorists claim this was in retaliation to prison abuses. For all that wondered what separated humiliation from torture, the terrorists provided the answer. Never let anyone equate the humiliation of Iraqi prisoners to the tortured execution of Nick Berg.

We must stay focused on the task at hand. Defeat terrorism. Defeat terrorism. Defeat terrorism.

[MeekOneGOP]

The U.S. military has already posted a $10 million reward for Zarqawi
for having orchestrated some of the deadliest terrorist attacks in Iraq.

I heard that the anty has been raised (or will be) to $25 Million.

I want to see Zarqawi's head on a pike ! ......

[LoudRepublicangirl]

In the video he looked like he was a muslim because of his hair and his beard. But, having jewish background I guess there are bound to be similarities-very curly hair, etc. This story has so many twists in it. The end result is the same though. An innocent person was butchered and obviously the rest of the world does not care.

[kimosabe31]

It's beginning to look very much like Berg was in Iraq to show solidarity with Al Qaeda and betray his country. Probably explains why he was under arrest for 2 weeks and told to leave the country. Massoui did not acquire Berg's PW by accident. Berg gave it to him, as an islamic sympathizer, probably with full knowledge of massoui's 911 mission. The Berg's (father and son) mis-calculated the muslim appetite for slaughtering jews. Any jew boy thinking he can fellowship with the "jihad brotherhood" has a very short life expectancy indeed....probably measured in hours. Many of these fanatic arab muslims are the product of generations of inbreeding. Their blind hatred and appitite for slaughter (jews especially) far outweighs any sense of comraderie with sympathetic converts or infidels. They are actually a lot like trained killer pit bulls. The only solution is to kill them, not offer them a truce as we have done in Fallujah.

[Right_in_Virginia]

Captured, or trying to make contact with AQ?

My guess...he was trying to make contact with AQ....but, I don't know why. Maybe, he thought he could make a positive difference?

What a shame. I wish Berg had trusted the advice of his countrymen to get out..now and taken their plane ticket.

Instead, he trusted sub-humans.

May he RIP.

[Beau Schott]

Prometheus pro ME thee us The Rebel

Prometheus was a not a fool, but why else would he rebel against Zeus? He tried to trick Zeus (who knows all and sees all) with a false sacrifice. How foolish can you get? Prometheus also stole fire from Zeus and gave it to the primitive mortals on the earth. Zeus did not punish Prometheus alone, he punished the entire world for the effrontery of this rebel god.

Prometheus was the son of Iapetos and Klymene. His name means ’Forethought’.

So Nick Berg may have been in the business of stealing American and Israeli know how, electronic communications, computer technologies, maybe even weapon information and giving it to the primitive Arabs