Posted on 05/14/2004 3:43:32 AM PDT by calcowgirl
Prometheus Methods Tower Services Inc., the business that cost Nick Berg his life in Iraq, has no records with the Pennsylvania Department of State.
The company that specialized in building communications towers never registered with the Pennsylvania Corporation Bureau, said Brian McDonald, spokesman for the state department.
McDonald conducted a search of the bureau’s online list of registered businesses, but found no matches.
The same search done by a Daily Local News reporter produced the same results -- several businesses contained the word "Prometheus" in their names. Only one is located in West Chester, and it is not related to Berg’s business.
Companies are not legally required to register with the state, but McDonald explained it is usually the first step an owner takes.
"You’d be very foolish not to register your business with the department," he said. "It is nearly impossible to exist without doing it."
Registering allows an owner to set up his business’s tax structure. It also establishes how the business is run, for example, whether or not it is for-profit or nonprofit.
"It is basically the infrastructure by which businesses are set up in the commonwealth," McDonald said.
McDonald added it is possible the business could be listed in the bureau’s records under a different name.
Searching the statewide yellow pages online found two company names containing the word "Prometheus" in Philadelphia. One is an Internet consulting business.
An employee at the second one, which is called Prometheus Radio Project, said it was not affiliated with the business owned by the local man slain in Iraq by members of al-Qaida.
Officials at the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue and the Internal Revenue Service said state and federal laws prohibited their agencies from providing any records they had of Prometheus Methods Tower Services -- even whether the company had ever filed a return.
"Any information that we get or is contained on a tax return I can’t release," said Steve Kniley, press secretary for the state revenue department. "It is considered confidential under tax law."
Tax records become public information only if a lien is filed against a business. According to Kniley, there are no liens against Berg’s company.
Bill Cressman, spokesman at the IRS’s Philadelphia office, said the only companies with public tax records are nonprofit corporations.
At least one person claims he can confirm Prometheus’ existence.
Jay Shur, who works at the radio station WCHE 1520 AM in West Chester, said on Wednesday he was in the process of hiring Berg to build a communications tower for the station when news of his death came out.
The station was awaiting approval of plans from both the borough and an environmental agency before construction could begin, according to Shur.
"There’s a lot of paperwork to go through, and the area we were looking at was a marsh- land so we had to get clearance," he said."When I do get the OK, I’ll have to look for another contractor."
Michael Berg briefly spoke about Prometheus during a press conference Thursday morning outside his home.
"My son was not over there to make money," Michael Berg said. "My son’s business, which was very profitable before he went to Iraq ..I will make good on anything the company owes anybody, but it’s pretty much going to be defunct."
It is unclear how many employees Prometheus had. Michael Berg spoke of a "foreman" during the press conference. However, Nick Berg traveled to Iraq alone.
Staff Writer Jill Nawrocki contributed to this article.
The Yahoo group is directly tied to the website...
Tower-pro is an internet mailing list that was founded on March 21, 1999 by John Hettish and thirty-four members of the Land Mobile Radio (LMR) list. The idea was to create a location on the internet for the discussion of issues that really concern we who make our living by climbing and working on communications towers. The text of that first message appears below. Tower-pro began as Tower-pro@onelist.com, then became Tower-pro@egroups.com and finally Tower-pro @yahoogroups.com.
Your theory sounds about right. The father says his son wasn't there to make money, and that the terrorists killed their best friend (his son). As far as I know, his father is also the only person saying Nick was a Bush supporter, which could be a blatant lie to try to cover for his son's actions (working to undermine our troops).
As a poster on another thread speculated, Nick seemed remarkably calm and in good shape on the video. Perhaps he was working with his killers in an attempt to make a propaganda video, with the understanding that he wouldn't be hurt (kind of like the story on those Japanese war protesters). However, since he was Jewish, his captors decided to kill him, regardless of where his sympathies may have been.
This is all just speculation, of course. Hopefully this story will eventually come to light.
There was a thread that pointed out that he affected a sort of US military look while in Iraq, right down to the haircut, and there was some speculation that he might have been trying to make contacts among the troops and gain information or to undermine them by sowing false information.
This is entirely speculation; I'm still sticking by my orginal theory, that he was simply a naive person in the wrong place at the wrong time, but it's getting harder and harder to hold onto that.
I think the "Prometheus Project" is a very significant find. It would certainly explain why his father was involved in it with him.
What if Berg was really in Iraq for some other purpose and authorities held him he was considered a risk so was killed. What was an unemployed person with a job waiting for him at home doing in Iraq looking for work? What kind of parent immediately starts spewing left wing politics the minute his son dies?
Yer bummin' me out, man...
Some background- I'm old enough to have been around when Alice's Restaurant first was heard... and it was kind of funny, way back then. Unfortunately, in those days I had a best friend whose mother ( due to pill & alcohol problems ) insisted that anyone who dropped by her apartment listen to that damnable album over and over and over again... I suspect I must have heard it a hundred times.
Lordy, I had not thought of poor old crazy Mrs. Riser in decades.
How about being a possible Israeli agent?
interesting the comparison to mythological god..pormetheus , to the name of the non existant company of Berg's.
more on the mythological god prometheus
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’.
Prometheus was a god long before Zeus took the Throne of Eternity. He fought for Zeus against the devising Kronos, but Prometheus never had true respect for Zeus. He feared that the new Olympians had no compassion for each other or the mortals on the earth below. To show his disdain, Prometheus prepared two sacrifices and, in an attempt to belittle father Zeus, he made one sacrifice of fat and bones and the other of the finest meat. The trick was, Prometheus had wrapped the fat in such a way that it looked to be the most sincere tribute of the two. Zeus saw through the trick and magnanimously controlled his anger. He warned Prometheus but did not punish him.
Zeus had many plans for the reshaping of creation. After the fall of Kronos and his confinement in Tartaros, Zeus took no interest in the mortal race of men on the bountiful earth, he intended for them to live as primitives until they died off. Zeus said that knowledge and divine gifts would only bring misery to the mortals and he insisted that Prometheus not interfere with his plans.
Dispite Zeus’ warning, Prometheus took pity on the primitive mortals and again, he deceived Zeus. Prometheus gave the mortals all sorts of gifts: brickwork, woodworking, telling the seasons by the stars, numbers, the alphabet (for remembering things), yoked oxen, carriages, saddles, ships and sails. He also gave other gifts: healing drugs, seercraft, signs in the sky, the mining of precious metals, animal sacrifice and all art.
To compound his crime, Prometheus had stolen fire from Zeus and given it to the mortals in their dark caves. The gift of divine fire unleashed a flood of inventiveness, productivity and, most of all, respect for the immortal gods in the rapidly developing mortals. Within no time (by immortal standards), culture, art, and literacy permeated the land around Olympus. When Zeus realized the deception that Prometheus had fostered, he was furious. He had Hepheistos shackle Prometheus to the side of a crag, high in the Caucasus mountains. There Prometheus would hang until the fury of Zeus subsided.
Each day, Prometheus would be tormented by Zeus’ eagle as it tore at his immortal flesh and tried to devour his liver. Each night, as the frost bit it’s way into his sleep, the torn flesh would mend so the eagle could begin anew at the first touch of Dawn.
Zeus’ anger did not stop there. He intended to give the mortals one more gift and undo all the good Prometheus had done. He fashioned a hateful thing in the shape of a young girl and called her Pandora. Her name means, ’giver of all’ or ’all endowed’. Her body was made by Hepheistos, he gave her form and voice. Athene gave her dexterity and inventiveness. Aphrodite put a spell of enchantment around her head and Hermes put pettiness in her tiny brain. She was ready for the world.
Zeus gave Pandora to Ephemetheus (brother of Prometheus). Ephemetheus knew better than to trust Zeus and he had been warned by Prometheus never to accept gifts from the Olympians, especially Zeus. One look at Pandora and Ephemetheus was rendered helpless. He could not resist her, he accepted her willingly. When the gift was ’opened’, evil and despair entered into this world. Mistrust and disease spread over the wide earth. After Pandora was emptied of her curse, Hope was left inside. Unreasonable, groundless Hope that makes the curse of life into a blessing.
And so, Prometheus was destined to suffer at the hands of his own kind. Gods punishing gods. To him, the saddest part of his punishment was the implication that the gods (Zeus in particular) had lost their right to rule because they had lost touch with their hearts.
As Prometheus was hanging, shackled to the rockface, he spoke to Ocean and the river’s daughters. They were all shocked at Zeus’ excesses but Prometheus warned them not to speak out against Zeus, it would do no good. Zeus would soon fall from his throne and they had but to wait for that inevitable moment.
When Io, also being punished at Zeus’ will, came upon Prometheus and the daughters of Ocean, she wanted to know her future. Prometheus, even in his tortured condition, tried to spare the feelings of the poor girl. She had been transformed into a black and white heifer and was cursed to wander, prodded by an evil gad-fly. Her future was only slightly better than his, she was lucky because she was mortal and would die and be rid of her earthly torment. He, on the other hand, was immortal. His torment would last forever.
The journey of Io was crucial to the release of Prometheus from his bonds. After her wandering journey to Egypt, Io was returned to her human form and had a glorious son named Epaphos. Thirteen generation later, Herakles climbed the mountain, killed the eagle and freed Prometheus from his shackles.
http://www.messagenet.com/myths/bios/promethe.html
Maybe the son was not a big fan of our President either.
I was sickened by the savagery (SP?), and still am, but everyday I read more news... something doesn't smell right. They say you should trust your intuition... you may have been on to something.
Ping. Check this out.
you could be right.
My local classic rock station plays the song in its entirety twice on Thanksgiving Day, at noon and again at 6. We introduced my 16 year old daughter to it a couple of years ago and now she and a couple of her friends look forward to the broadcast.
I'm as conservative as they come, but the song just takes me back to being 11 years old again. An who could forget those "eight by ten color glossies with the circles and ....."
Back to the topic, I think more will interesting things are yet to come out of this. This young man sounds as if he was reckless and misguided. His father may be grief-stricken at this time, but he sounds like an idiot.
Wow! You look so much younger! ;-)
No kidding! Nick Berg might still be alive if his father had not filed suit to get him released by the FBI and the Iraqi police. He was being detained because a background check showed that he had used an internet password that was also used by Zacharias Moussaui. The investigation concluded that there was no link but that was why he was being detained.
When the father filed suit to have him released, he was let go the NEXT day, after which he was kidnapped and killed.
The father needs to examine his own actions when considering who is to blame for his son being in danger.
Nick Berg was SAFE as long as he was detained. And they had probable cause to detain him. Then they warned him to leave the country, offering to provide his flight...he refused. The government did it's job.
How about just plain stupid. You're unemployeed, how do you get to Iraq, how do you find a job, where does the cash come from? Was this his business plan?
1) Go to Iraq
2) ?
3) Profit!
I'm sure the IRS would be aware if Prometheus Methods was profitable. But I'd don't believe a word dad says.
I don't think the Iraelis are that dumb!
Thanks OK! (((smile)))
Whodathunkit that he was an underwear gnome?
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