From: Blunderov (squooker@mweb.co.za)
Date: Sat May 15 2004 - 01:28:56 MDT
[Bluderov] Curioser and curioser.
Best Regards
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/05/11/iraq/main616842.shtml
<snip>
CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin reports U.S. officials
said the FBI questioned Berg in 2002 after a computer password he used in
college turned up in the possession of Zacarias Moussaoui, the al Qaeda
operative arrested shortly before Sept. 11 for his suspicious activity at a
flight school in Minnesota.
Moussaoui is 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.
Berg, a small businessman who went to Iraq seeking a role in reconstruction,
was found dead May 8. On May 11, an Islamic Web site posted video in which
masked militants beheaded him. The CIA has identified the speaker in the
video - the man who murdered Berg - as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a terrorist
suspected in numerous attacks in Iraq.
In the wake of Berg's gruesome murder, the past link to Moussaoui seems a
stranger-than-fiction coincidence - an American who inadvertently gave away
his computer password to one suspected al Qaeda operative is later murdered
by another notorious al Qaeda operative, Zarqawi.
The slain man's father, Michael Berg, told reporters that his son met
Moussaoui while riding the bus to classes, and had allowed the suspect to
use his computer.
But the 2002 FBI interview could explain the bureau's interest in Berg while
he was detained by authorities in Iraq shortly before the militants
kidnapped and killed him.
Berg was picked up on March 24 and released on April 6. The details of that
detention are the subject of a dispute between the Berg family and the U.S.
government.
The family contends Berg was detained by the U.S. military, and even filed
suit seeking his release on April 5. The U.S. military says Iraqi police
detained him. Iraqi police deny that.
To back its claims that Berg was in U.S. custody, the family gave The
Associated Press copies of e-mails from Beth A. Payne, the U.S. consular
officer in Iraq.
"I have confirmed that your son, Nick, is being detained by the U.S.
military in Mosul. He is safe. He was picked up approximately one week ago.
We will try to obtain additional information regarding his detention and a
contact person you can communicate with directly," Payne wrote to Berg's
father on April 1.
Payne repeated that Berg was "being detained by the U.S. military" in an
e-mail the same day to Berg's mother, Suzanne. The next day, Payne wrote
that she was still trying to find a local contact for the family, but added
that "given the security situation in Iraq it is not easy."
The government says the e-mail from Payne was false. State Department
spokeswoman Kelly Shannon said Payne's information came from the Coalition
Provisional Authority. The authority did not tell Payne until April 7 that
Berg had been held by Iraqi police and not the U.S. military, she said.
"As Mr. Berg had been released, the consular officer did not convey this
information to the family because he was released, thankfully," Shannon
said. "And we thought he was on his way."
Coalition spokesman Dan Senor said Wednesday that Iraqi police arrested Berg
in Mosul on March 24 because local authorities believed he may have been
involved in "suspicious activities."
In Mosul, police chief Maj. Gen. Mohammed Khair al-Barhawi insisted Thursday
that his department had never arrested Berg and maintained he had no
knowledge of the case.
During his detention, Berg was questioned by FBI agents three times.
Berg is believed to have been kidnapped days after Iraqi police or coalition
forces released him. The family has blamed the government for keeping him in
custody for too long while anti-American violence escalated in Iraq.
Shortly before Berg's disappearance, he was warned by the FBI that Iraq was
too volatile a place for unprotected American civilians and that he could be
harmed, a senior FBI official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said
Wednesday.
Officials said the U.S. government warned Berg to leave Iraq, and offered
him a flight out of the country, a month before his grisly death.
The Bergs said they want to know if the government had received an offer to
trade Iraqi prisoners for Nicholas Berg. On the videotape of his death,
Berg's killers made a reference to a trade offer, but U.S. officials have
said they knew of no such offer.
Michael Berg said he wanted to hear President Bush address the issue.
"I would like to ask him if it is true that al Qaeda offered to trade my
son's life for the life of another person," Michael Berg said. "And if that
is true, well, I need that information. . and I think the people of the
United States of America need to know what the fate of their sons and
daughters might be in the hands of the Bush administration."
</snip>
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