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?
Here is what I was personally told by the FBI home security team. They said they are playing catch up after so many years of not being able to communicate with other agencies until the Patriot Act. It might take months, or maybe years to link an individual to another person, then a cell etc. You get the idea I am sure.
I don't think they are incompetent, they have just been handcuffed for years, thanks to Clinton. They also said they have to still be very careful since the liberal media has people so upset about the Patriot Act, pretending it violates all of our privacy.
One purely speculative theory of mine is this:
Berg was in Iraq with the comm tower non-job for cover-for-action to travel around odd places.
His real mission was to act as a messenger, trying to become a go-between from Int'l A.N.S.W.E.R. to Al Queda. I mean, ANSWER can't exactly just pick up a phone to call Al Queda. To communicate with them, you have to GO to where they ARE, and fish around dropping hints, until you're picked up.
That's when you tell them the glorious news: you have come from a group "allied in the struggle against the Western imperialists" yadda yadda. You have a message, and an offer to coordinate activities, or perhaps hints on how to tweak their operations for the best effect, IOW, what and when to pull an operation which will result in the defeat of George W. Bush in November.
You expect to be treated fairly well, perhaps roughed up like the fake Japanese hostages/peace activists. After all, you can't talk to Al Queda, and just walk away like nothing happened.
But they saw the Jewish name Berg, and the Israeli passport stamp, and that trumped his ANSWER credentials. When the AG Prison scandal hit the papers.... Nick went on to serve a higher Al Queda purpose: human sacrifice on film.
That's why Daddy Berg (Mr. ANSWER) said "They killed their best friend."
The above is pure speculation on my part.
1. I don't remember Nick Berg being reported kidnapped. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
2. Unlike Thomas Hamill and the Japanese hostages, no ransom for Berg was ever demanded, and no threats were made before he was killed. Again, correct me if I'm wrong.
3. The guy was in Iraq alone, looking for work as an antenna repairman. I'm sure there were plenty of antennas back home that needed fixing. Why go all the way to Iraq? And who was going to give him work?
4. Why did U.S. and/or Iraqi government officials detain him and ask him to leave? Have they done the same to others? If he was just repairing antennas, what was the big deal? And if they were suspicious of him, why didn't they forcibly send him back home?
5. The guy's e-mail was "accidentally" used by Moussaoui. Wouldn't Moussaoui have figured out he was using someone else's e-mail when the screen read something like, "Welcome, Nick Berg. You have two new e-mails."? Articles on Berg have described him as an Internet lover who helped his Iraqi brother-in-law (!) set up an e-mail account. Didn't Berg know how to log out after finishing?
6. About this Iraqi in-law: that is slightly unusual. Why did it take so long for that to come out? Could it be that his brother-in-law sold him out?
7. I doubt Berg's Israeli-stamped passport meant he was working for Mossad. I think those guys are smart enough to give their spies non-Israeli passports and non-Jewish last names, especially when they're traveling in Arab countries, for chrissake.
8. His father is a flaming liberal and member of a seditious, anti-American group, International A.N.S.W.E.R., which opposes the war on terrorism. Yesterday, Berg's father said his son "died for Bush's and Rumsfeld's sins," that the Bush administration "was not committed to democracy," and that the Patriot Act ought to repealed. However, I would be willing to dismiss those statements as the words of a man traumatized by his son's brutal murder. Who knows? If he saw the video, it might have driven him crazy.
My very tentative conclusion is that Berg was a liberal do-gooder, similar to the leftist airheads who flock to Israel every so often to be "human shields," who thought he could single-handedly negotiate a peace agreement with the terrorists but instead wound up their victim.