How do your assertions (links to support them, please...but I don't think you have any) ...
Well, I'm not lying. The sources of the quotes are all in my profile, anong many other sources.
Whether Ashcroft is lying or not, I wouldn't dare to guess. But his saying it was all over the news, and there were plenty of articles quoting him.
But here is CNN's article covering Ashcroft's report (he made it as a result of the article you posted):
Ashcroft: Berg, Terrorists Not Linked
CURT ANDERSON
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Attorney General John Ashcroft said Friday that U.S. authorities investigated Nicholas Berg for a possible connection to terrorists but determined there was no link.
Berg, a 26-year-old American civilian who was beheaded in Iraq, was investigated by the FBI in 2002 after an e-mail address traced to him was used by an unidentified person believed acquainted with Zacarias Moussaoui, an al-Qaida adherent now in federal custody and awaiting trial on conspiracy charges stemming from the Sept. 11 attacks.
"The suggestion that Mr. Berg was in some way involved in terrorist activity, or may have been linked in some way to terrorist activity, is a suggestion that we do not have any ability to support and we do not believe is a valid one," Ashcroft said at a news conference.
The 2002 investigation determined that an e-mail address once used by Berg apparently was obtained by the Moussaoui acquaintances while Berg was briefly an engineering student at the University of Oklahoma in 1999.
Moussaoui came to the United States in February 2001 and enrolled at a flight school in Norman, Okla., also the home of the university. The Moroccan-born French citizen left that flight school later in 2001 to attend one in Minnesota, where he was arrested on an immigration violation shortly before the Sept. 11 attacks.
Ashcroft told reporters there is no evidence that Berg knew Moussaoui or any of Moussaoui's contacts in Oklahoma.
Berg was detained by Iraqi police in late March, interviewed three times by the FBI and then released on April 6 after it was determined he was there to pursue business opportunities. He was advised to leave the country and offered a government flight home but refused, Ashcroft said.
Three days after Berg's body was found on Saturday, an Islamic Web site released a video, titled "Sheik Abu Musab al-Zarqawi slaughters an American infidel with his own hands."
U.S. authorities consider al-Zarqawi an ally of Osama bin Laden and say he is running his own terrorist operation.
And from:
The Washington Post
The FBI concluded that Berg had been one of numerous victims of scam artists who were stealing e-mail addresses and passwords at the main campus of the University of Oklahoma, where Berg had been a student, several officials said.... Ashcroft said the theft of Berg's e-mail address was unremarkable.
And I notice this Washington Post article doesn't mention email addresses being stolen, nor Ashcroft indicating that was the case:
Ashcroft Says No Link Between Berg and Terrorists
Excerpt:
Ashcroft was also asked about FBI questioning of Berg in 2002 after a computer password he had used in college turned up in the possession of Zacarias Moussaoui, an al Qaeda adherent who is currently awaiting trial in the United States on conspiracy charges related to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Berg's family and U.S. officials said Berg had loaned his computer and e-mail address to a man he met while riding a bus to classes at the University of Oklahoma in 1999 and that the man turned out to be a terrorism suspect who was acquainted with Moussaoui.
"The suggestion that Mr. Berg was in some way involved in terrorist activity or may have been linked . . . is a suggestion that we do not have any ability to support and we do not believe is a valid one," Ashcroft said.
He discounted the significance of Berg's reported sharing of his e-mail address and the subsequent link to Moussaoui.
"We do not believe that reflects any association with terrorist objectives or activities," Ashcroft said. "It's not uncommon for individuals from time to time to allow computer use by other individuals in university settings."
Ashcroft said he did not know whether Berg ever knew Moussaoui, adding, "I do know that the matter was resolved, and it was resolved in a way that indicated that there was no inappropriate involvement in terror."
~snip~