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London Free Press: Questions surround slain American's statusM (AP)***...The FBI warned Berg shortly before his disappearance that Iraq was too volatile a place for unprotected American civilians, but he turned down a State Department offer to fly him home, U.S. officials said yesterday.

Berg was inspecting communications facilities, some of which were destroyed in the war or by looters.

During his time in Iraq, he struggled with the Arabic language and worked at night on a tower in Abu Ghraib, a site of repeated attacks on U.S. convoys and the location of the notorious prison where U.S. soldiers abused Iraqi inmates.

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.

"We got along splendidly," Berg wrote. "We spent a few hours and I helped him establish an e-mail account." ....***