Details Surrounding The Beheading of Nicholas Berg: Questions Remain
May 14, 2004
By Omar Al Faris, JUS In Conjunction With Reports Translated and/or Compiled By Muhammad Abu Nasr, Free Arab Voice
Many unanswered questions remain regarding the video clip of the beheading of an American capitve, Nicholas Berg, reportedly an American private contractor in Iraq that Islamic Jihadi websites on the Internet posted photos and a video clip of. Here is what we know.
Nicholas Berg, reportedly an American private contractor in Iraq. A declaration addressed to the Islamic world community and published alongside the pictures and video, stated that the execution was in response to the murders, tortures, abuse, and humiliation to which many of the more than 12,000 Iraqi captives have been subjected by the American occupation authorities and their British and other satellite country stooges.
The communiqué, signed “Abu Mus‘ab az-Zarqawi, the commander of the Jama‘at at-Tawhid wa-al-Jihad (the Group of Unity and Jihad), said that their group had offered to use Berg to ransom some of the prisoners in Abu Ghurayb concentration camp, but the US refused the deal, according to the message. The statement indicated that Berg was executed in defense of the honor of the Muslim prisoners, men and women, held in Abu Ghurayb and other occupation concentration camps in Iraq.
An article published on many of the same Islamic Jihadi websites two days earlier and signed Husayn ibn Mahmud had discussed the recent publication of hundreds of pictures documenting the systematic humiliation, abuse, and torture practiced by the US occupation authorities in their system of concentration camps throughout Iraq. Husayn ibn Mahmud wrote that something must be done to deter the aggressors from continuing to perpetrate such crimes. “Those are prisoners of war,” Husayn ibn Mahmud wrote, “and the Mujahideen also have prisoners of war, and they are obliged to do something to the Americans so as to force them to think a million times before they venture to carry out [abusive] activity. The Mujahideen cannot do what the Americans have done because it is prohibited by our religion – prohibited in and of itself – and anyway this would not affect them because they generally accept such behavior. They do such things voluntarily, with no one forcing them to, and with no shame. Stripping people naked and sodomizing them are ordinary matters for them, things to which they are accustomed. But there are things that the Mujahideen can do, such as slitting the throats of some of the prisoners with knives, and broadcasting their pictures and names. This should be done by video files on the World Wide Web and not on the news media that the Americans control. It should be announced that these actions are merely to avenge our brothers and sisters in Abu Ghurayb prison. The door of innovation is open to the Mujahideen in this matter.”
Case Has Many Loose Ends
The case of Nick Berg has itself has many lose ends. Even the American Associated Press (AP), in addition to chiming in with a chorus of praise for the supposedly well-meaning, idealistic, but naive American businessman, pointed out that his case left “many unanswered questions.”
Prior to his capture by Iraqi Resistance forces, Berg, an American Jew, was stopped at a checkpoint near Mosul by Iraqi puppet police and held for two weeks. Reportedly he was stopped for having been engaged in “suspicious activity.” According to Berg’s family in the United States, Berg was held by the US occupation authorities. The American authorities later denied that, however, claiming that he was held entirely by the Iraqi puppet police. However that may be, during the two weeks he was in the custody of the aggressors and their stooges, Berg was reportedly interrogated three times by the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) supposedly to ascertain whether he was indeed an American – something in the age of computers, to say nothing of telephones, that the FBI would have been able to determine in a matter of minutes.
One AP press report indicated that Berg had an “Iraqi in-law” living in the Mosul area, a man who had been married to a now-deceased sister of Berg’s.
Although supposedly a contractor working in the telecommunications field, Berg apparently had no contact with any contracting firms working with the US occupation, making him a contractor with no contract. Nevertheless, according to the AP, Berg “traveled widely and unguarded in areas of Iraq — a dangerous practice rarely done by Westerners.” Yet when offered a flight out of Iraq by the FBI, Berg reportedly turned down the offer because the ride to the airport was supposedly “too dangerous.”
The first news publication in the world to point to Berg’s Jewish identity was the Zionist Yediot Ahronot, published in occupied Palestine. Given that Zionist activity has been frequently reported particularly in the northern regions of occupied Iraq (where Mosul is located), it is reasonable to wonder whether the Zionists in Tel Aviv might not have other relevant information on Nick Berg that has not yet been disclosed.
Berg’s Father and Firm Were On A Right-Wing ‘Enemies’ List
BreakforNews reported that the family firm of the beheaded American was named by a conservative website in a list of ‘enemies’ of the Iraq occupation. That could explain his arrest by Iraqi police --a detention which fatally delayed his planned return from Iraq and may have led directly to his death.
Nick Berg, 26 disappeared into incommunicado detention after his arrest by Iraqi police in March, 2004. He vanished again after his release 13 days later. His body was found last Saturday in Baghdad, and a video of his beheading --supposedly by a radical Islamic group-- was posted on the Internet on Tuesday. On 7th March, 2004, just three weeks before the first anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, an ‘enemies’ list of anti-war groups and individuals was posted on the Free Republic forum. It began: "Here you are, FReepers. Here is the enemy” and listed “Michael S. Berg, Teacher, Prometheus Methods Tower Service, Inc.” Just seven days after “Michael Berg” and “Prometheus Methods Tower Service” had come up on that Iraq war ‘enemies’ list, his son Nick Berg returned to Iraq under the business name of Prometheus Methods Tower Service.
Within two weeks of the list being posted, Nick Berg --back in Iraq on his final fatal trip-- was reportedly detained in Mosul at an Iraqi police checkpoint. The official explanation is that authorities thought his identification might have been forged and were checking his authenticity.
But a more likely reason is that by then authorities in Iraq had discovered that a ‘Berg’ of Prometheus Methods Tower Service was in the country, and issued a detention instruction to Iraqi police because they misidentified Nick Berg as an antiwar activist entering Iraq to work for the ‘enemy’.
That could explain why he was held incommunicado for 13 days, without recourse to a lawyer; why US officialdom was singularly unheeding of his mother’s pleas; why the FBI visited his family to question them; why it took a US court order secured by the family to pressure his release.
There are many other question that remain such as why was the film, which is dated April 25th, not shown until Tuesday and at a time when anger was clearly focused on Westenr abuse of prioners?
For the moment, it appears that the complete story has not yet been told.
i am not saying that this is absolute revelation from Allah and a fact, but it does open new aveneus for thought, because even i had this thought that why would a white skinned american be held by iraqis who are under US command for 13 days. and FBI knew about him too..so something is fishy…