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Gee, maybe while Donnie Dumbsfeld is hanging out in Iraq making all the problems go away, he can personnaly track down the bad guys who beheaded that poor Nicholas Berg.
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Posted on Thu, May. 13, 2004
Beheading victim's family blames military
THEY SAY U.S. KEPT HIM IN JAIL, HINDERING HIS EXIT FROM IRAQ
By Richard Lezin Jones and Jill Capuzzo
New York Times
WEST WHITELAND, Pa. - The family of Nicholas Berg lashed out at U.S. military officials Wednesday, insisting that the man beheaded by Islamist terrorists had earlier been in the custody of U.S. officials who should have done more to protect him.
The victim's brother, David, emerged from the family's split-level home in suburban Philadelphia with a four-page e-mail message that he said was sent by his younger brother, Nicholas, just hours after being freed April 6 from a jail in Mosul, Iraq.
The Iraqi police took Nicholas Berg, 26, into custody March 24 and held him in a jail that he described in the e- mail message as being managed by Iraqis with oversight from U.S. military police forces. He wrote that federal agents had questioned him about why he was in Iraq, whether he had ever built a pipe bomb or had been in Iran.
Berg's family heard from him only once after the e-mail was sent, in a phone call April 9. A month later, on Saturday, they learned that his body had been discovered on a Baghdad roadside, and this week, militants posted a grisly video showing his decapitation on a Web site.
Discrepancies remained unresolved about the conditions under which Berg was detained, and questions also remained unanswered about Berg's final days in Iraq.
Dan Senor, a senior adviser for the Coalition Provisional Authority, reiterated the military's position Wednesday.
``My understanding is that they suspected that he was involved/engaged in suspicious activities,'' Senor said, referring to the Iraqi police. ``U.S. authorities were notified. The FBI visited with Mr. Berg on three occasions when he was in Iraqi police detention and determined that he was not involved with any criminal or terrorist activities. Mr. Berg was released on April 6, and it is my understanding he was advised to leave the country.''
That position reignited the family's anger toward the Pentagon and other officials, prompting them to release Berg's e-mail describing the presence of U.S. military police, as well as the visits by federal agents at the jail in Mosul.
``The Iraqi police is mentioned frequently, which is, of course, absurd because there is no Iraqi government right now,'' David Berg said. ``And if you think about it, to be detained by the Iraqi police without the U.S. government knowing would be tantamount to kidnapping.''
Officials did acknowledge the presence of military police at the jail in Mosul, but said that their only function was to ``monitor his treatment.''
To the family, the issue of oversight is paramount because they believe not only that his detention was unlawful, but also that the protracted jail stay further threatened his safety. The Bergs have contended that the detention prevented him from leaving the country before the violence escalated in Baghdad and Al-Fallujah, preventing him from fleeing the country before so many civilians were captured, tortured and slain.
The FBI also released a statement indicating that coalition authorities had warned Berg that the environment was dangerous, but that he had refused their offers ``to facilitate his safe passage out of Iraq.''
Recalling Nicholas' independent nature, his brother, David, said such a refusal would not surprise his family, although he said he had no way of knowing whether Nicholas declined assistance. He had traveled to Iraq, in part, to generate business for his fledging telecommunications company, which specializes in servicing radio towers. After an earlier visit, Berg returned to Iraq on March 14 to pursue business contacts he had made.
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