<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1400" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"><!--StartFragment --><FONT face="verdana, arial"
size=2>Who killed Nick Berg?<BR>May 29, 2004</FONT>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2>Page Tools<BR>Email to a friend Printer
format <BR>Conspiracy theories about how the kidnapped American died in Iraq are
flying around the world. Richard Neville explores the explanations.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2>Iraq in flames, Washington an object of
disgust. What to do? At this pivotal moment, CNN and Fox News are tipped off to
a clip of an American citizen being beheaded. The victim is a 26-year-old
idealist from Pennsylvania, Nick Berg. Despite the perpetrators being masked,
the vile deed is deemed the work of al-Qaeda. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2>The clip was first "discovered" on an
Islamic website in Malaysia. Its Arabic title reads "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi shown
slaughtering an American". al-Zarqawi is a 38-year-old Jordanian militant who
fled to Iraq in 2001 after reportedly losing a leg in a US missile strike.
al-Zarqawi's face is widely known and he credits himself with the deed, so why a
mask? </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2>The timing of the video was brilliant for
the West. Media pundits judged the crime a deeper evil than the systemic torture
of innocent Iraqis. But some people sensed a rat. But if it was not al-Qaeda,
who? Surely not Uncle Sam. That's too dark, even for the CIA. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2>While this video shows a human body having
its head chopped off, it does not necessarily portray an act of murder. Berg's
headless body was found dumped on a Baghdad roadside on Saturday, May 8.
</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2>Three days later, the "live beheading"
clip was uploaded from London to the Malaysian website <A
href="http://www.al-ansar.biz/">http://www.al-ansar.biz</A>. The statement in
the video is signed with al-Zarqawi's name, dated May 11. After Fox News and CNN
had downloaded the video, it disappeared from the site. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2>As no autopsy is available, little is
known about the state of the body. No time of death, no forensic analysis. On
April 6, a month before the discovery of the corpse, Berg had been released from
custody. But whose custody? </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2>Dan Senor, adviser to the US Presidential
Envoy in Iraq, has said Berg was never held by the Americans. Brigadier General
Mark Kimmitt, the Coalition's deputy head of operations, claimed he was in the
custody of Iraqi police from March 24 to April 6. However, the Iraqi police
chief, Major-General Mohammed Khair al-Barhawi, told Associated Press "the Iraqi
police never arrested the slain American".</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2>Berg's family are certain his jailers were
the US military. His father, Michael, had been told so by the FBI. He has
produced an email from a US consular official in Baghdad, Beth Payne, confirming
that his son was in the hands of the US. (Later, another official said this was
an error.) On April 5 in the Philadelphia office of the US Supreme Court, the
Berg family had launched an action against the US military for false
imprisonment. The following day, Berg was released.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2>The issue of custody is significant; in
his final moments on screen Berg is wearing an orange jumpsuit of the kind
familiar from Guantanamo Bay. The official reasons for Berg's arrest were "lack
of documentation" and "suspicious activities". He carried sensitive electronic
equipment for which he lacked documents. In custody, he was visited three times
by the FBI. Such interviews are bound to have been recorded but no transcripts
have been produced. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2>After his release, Berg travelled to
Baghdad and the $30-a-night Al-Fanar Hotel. A fellow hotel guest told Newsday
that Berg recounted how Iraqi police had quickly handed him to US authorities in
Mosul and that he had been held the entire time in a jail where his guards were
US soldiers.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2>Berg was in Baghdad to win contracts for
his family firm, Prometheus Methods Tower Service, a provider of communications
facilities. He often "worked at night on a tower in the neighbourhood of Abu
Ghraib", according to The New York Times.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2>The family last heard from him on April 9,
when he said he was planning to leave Iraq via Kuwait as soon as it was safe.
Berg was last seen walking with his bags the following day, apparently hoping to
find his way through the turmoil engulfing the city and make it to the
border.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2>On March 7, 2004, two weeks before his
arrest in Mosul, an "enemies list" had been posted on a conservative website,
Free Republic.com. The list was compiled from signatories to an anti-war
petition, and its implied purpose was to encourage readers to harass those it
named. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2>Berg's father was on that list, as was the
family firm, Prometheus. This information may well have triggered the arrest of
Berg in Iraq.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2>Berg's politics are not clear. His father,
Michael, has described his son as a "staunch supporter" of US President George
Bush. Friends said Nick believed he could help rebuild Iraq "one radio tower at
a time". According to The New York Times, he was attracted to the Hebrew concept
of tikkun olam - healing the world through social action. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2>The first few seconds of the video shows
Berg sitting on a white plastic chair in an orange jumpsuit. He speaks directly
to the camera in a relaxed way: "My name is Nick Berg . . . I have a brother and
sister, David and Sara. I live in Philadelphia." His white chair is identical to
those in the photographs of the Abu Ghraib prison tortures, but such chairs are
probably common in Iraq. It is highly likely that this segment is edited from
the interrogation of Berg during his 13 days of custody.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2>In the next scene, Berg is sitting on the
floor with five masked figures standing behind him. We do not see the figures
enter. Berg looks lifeless, though his body appears to make slight movements. A
man reads a lengthy Arabic statement in a passionless monotone. He is identified
as "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi", a Jordanian associate of Osama bin Laden who is tied
to dozens of terrorist acts.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2>Yet a leaflet recently circulated in
Falluja, by no means a reliable source, claims that al-Zarqawi was killed in the
Sulaimaniya mountains of northern Iraq during a US bombing. A US military report
last month has claimed al-Zarqawi was killed in the bombing of
Falluja.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2>Also, the US Secretary of State, Colin
Powell, has said that al-Zarqawi was fitted with a prosthetic leg in a Baghdad
hospital, yet the tape shows no evidence of a limp. CNN staff familiar with
al-Zarqawi's voice have been quoted as saying the voice does not sound like
his.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2>Among the many curiosities raised on the
web about the fanatical five are:</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2> They are well-fed, fidgety, and reveal
glimpses of white skin. Their Arabic is heavily accented (Russian, Jordanian,
Egyptian). </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2> An aside in Russian had been translated
as "do it quickly". </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2> One character wears wears bulky white
tennis shoes.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2> The man on the far left stands in the
familiar "at ease" military posture.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2> The men's scarves are worn and tied by
people who "haven't a clue", says conspiracy theorist Hector Carreon, like
actors in Hollywood movies.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2> There is even a voice at the end that
seems to ask in English, "How will it be done?" [ <A
href="http://www.aztlan.net/nick-berg-how-done.htm">http://www.aztlan.net/nick-berg-how-done.htm</A>]
</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2>None of this proves a grand conspiracy,
but it does raise questions. In the final segment of the tape, Berg is thrown to
the ground, but doesn't move. During the decapitation, starting at the front of
the throat, there is little sign of blood. The scream is wildly out of sync,
sounds female, and is obviously dubbed.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2>Dr John Simpson, executive director for
surgical affairs at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, told Ritt
Goldstein of the Asia Times, "I would have thought that all the people in the
vicinity would have been covered in blood, in a matter of seconds . . . if it
[the video] was genuine". </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2>Simpson agrees with other experts who find
it highly probable that Berg had died before his decapitation.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2>But there is still the problem of Berg's
slight body movements while sitting on the floor, before the beheading.
According to a blogger (internet diarist), Nick Possum, "this footage was
subsequently modified frame by frame to make Berg's body move very
occasionally". Apparently, this can be achieved with "commonly available
software". [www.brushtail.com.au/nick-berg-hypothesis.html]</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2>Possum believes "the available evidence
surrounding the case suggests that it was a 'black operation' by US
psychological warfare specialists . . . to provide the media with a moral
relativity argument to counter the adverse publicity over torture at Abu
Ghraib". The use of FBI footage in the opening sequence, if confirmed, suggests
the involvement of high-level US Government operatives.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2>I do not know who killed Nick Berg, or how
he died. But there's something fishy about this video. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2>In the end, the question is: who killed
Nick Berg, and why?</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="verdana, arial" size=2><A
href="http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/28/1085641717320.html">http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/28/1085641717320.html</A></FONT></P></FONT></DIV>
<P><FONT face="Arial Black" color=#800080 size=2>----</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=2><FONT face="Arial Black" color=#800080>Mark and
Andrea<BR></FONT></FONT></P>
<DIV> </DIV></BODY></HTML>