Moussaoui and Berg: coincidence or connection?

[Sampiro]

What do you make of this odd story?

Excerpt: U.S. officials say the FBI questioned Berg in 2002 after a computer password Berg used in college turned up in the possession of Zaccarias Moussaoui, the al Qaeda operative arrested shortly before 9/11 for his suspicious activity at a flight school in Minnesota.

The bureau had already dismissed the connection between Berg and Moussaoui as nothing more than a college student who had been careless about protecting his password.

But in the wake of Berg’s gruesome murder, it becomes a stranger than fiction coincidence – an American who inadvertently gave away his computer password to one notorious al Qaeda operative is later murdered by another notorious al Qaeda operative.

While I hardly think that a Jewish American was involved with al-Qaeda, it’s also a very bizarre coincidence if there’s nothing more to it. Do you think al-Qaeda was tracking him? Put on the tin foil hats and jump in.

[clairobscur]

It might explain why he was detained in Irak by the authorities, who could have been suspicious about an american citizen present in Irak for unclear reasons while its name possibly appeared in some database in connection with the 9/11 atacks.

[Tim_T-Bonham.net]

@Sampiro

it’s also a very bizarre coincidence

No, not really. It’s quite common to find many computer users using the same password.

One of the more common hacking tricks on servers was to try the default password that came with the software. It used to be commonly said that 30% of servers still had that default password – and this was on servers, installed & maintained by supposed expert computer techs!

We’d have to know what the actual password was before we could call it bizarre coincidence. If it’s a good quality, random password, maybe. But if it’s something like “OpenSesame” or “AlaKazam”, etc. – well, not such an unlikely coincidence at all.

[Desmostylus]

There’s both less and more to this story than is apparent in the story linked to in the OP.

Berg’s encounter with ‘terrorist’ revealed
Thursday, May 13, 2004

WEST CHESTER, Pennsylvania (CNN) – When Nicholas Berg took an Oklahoma bus to a remote college campus a few years ago, the American recently beheaded by terrorists allowed a man with terrorist connections to use his laptop computer, according to his father.

Michael Berg said the FBI investigated the matter more than a year ago. He stressed that his son was in no way connected to the terrorists who captured and killed him.

<snip>

At one point during the bus ride, Berg said, the man sitting next to his son asked if he could use Nick’s laptop computer.

“It turned out this guy was a terrorist and that he, you know, used my son’s e-mail, amongst many other people’s e-mail who he did the same thing to,” Berg said.

Government sources said Berg gave the man his password, which was later used by Moussaoui, the sources said.

[Aldebaran]

Which begs for the question:

Even if you are naïve enough to let someone use your mail address…
Why on earth would you give your password to such a complete stranger?
Salaam. A

[Sampiro]

@Aldebaran

Which begs for the question:

Even if you are naïve enough to let someone use your mail address…
Why on earth would you give your password to such a complete stranger?

I wouldn’t even voluntarily let a stranger on a bus use my laptop, period. I wonder if he felt intimidated.

[Aldebaran]

Sorry, but why would someone ever feel “intimidated” by a stranger on a pubic tranportation vehicle, as a bus is supposed to be?
It is not that they were on their own, the two of them, at some deserted distant location, where the other guy held a gun to the head of Mr. Berg.

Such a situation I would described indeed as “intimidating”…
Salaam. A

[merge]

At one point during the bus ride, Berg said, the man sitting next to his son asked if he could use Nick’s laptop computer.

“It turned out this guy was a terrorist and that he, you know, used my son’s e-mail, amongst many other people’s e-mail who he did the same thing to,” Berg said.

See… Now it all makes perfect sense… Just the other day, I was on a bus and some nice looking man asked me if he could use my computer, which I replied " Of course you can… this is America you know"…

and he said… " ah yes… and what a great country it is… and siince we both love america so much, can I have your e-mail password?"

to which I replied “Of course you can, no need to ask twice”

:smack:

SOMETHING IS NOT RIGHT HERE PEOPLE!!!
You don’t just let random people bowwor your laptop!!!

[Grey]

Was it his email password or the screensaver/startup password?

[Tigers2B1]

From this story at least – it sounds like Berg was overly trusting. The same trait that caused his email password to be stolen may have been what got him into trouble in Iraq. But even this sounds odd, since he had made humanitarian trips to other countries prior to going to Iraq to look for work – so he should have had people and culture experience.

I will grant this – a Republican, Bush supporting, Jewish guy working for al Queda sounds much more likely than the posts I’ve read in the What if Nick Berg willing sacrificed himself? thread. This is closer to the not enough blood it was staged thread.

[merge]

@merge

You don’t just let random people bowwor your laptop!!!

wow… I am an idiot… bowwer? :smack:

[jk1245]

@Sampiro

I wouldn’t even voluntarily let a stranger on a bus use my laptop, period. I wonder if he felt intimidated.

Or if Moussaoui wasn’t a stranger. (Cue X-files music)
Now, Occam’s razor would suggest that this was just a kid being careless with his password. Still, I would actually believe the “careless” story much more readily than the “he gave a stranger on the bus his computer and password” story.

I’ll bet the tinfoil hatters already have the needle pegged on this one.

[Revtim]

I’d like to know exactly what this was a password to. A college email acount? A web-based email account? His laptop?

In any case, it sounds like just a very odd coincidence. So far…

[Sampiro]

Could Berg have been some sort of U.S. intelligence operative? That would explain his willingness to let somebody use his laptop, and “humanitarian endeavors” would be a perfect cover to use for friends/family for overseas trips.

I’m sorry, I’m not usually a conspiracy theorist, but there’s just something really weird about this one.

[Tigers2B1]

@Sampiro

Could Berg have been some sort of U.S. intelligence operative? That would explain his willingness to let somebody use his laptop,…

How does being a “U.S. intelligence operative” explain a “willingness to let someone use [your] laptop”?

…and “humanitarian endeavors” would be a perfect cover to use for friends/family for overseas trips.

I’m sorry, I’m not usually a conspiracy theorist, but there’s just something really weird about this one.

I do suppose the “humanitarian endeavor” stories would keep Berg’s father quite, since his dad is a stanch, anti-Bush, anti-war Democrat. Problem is that in this instance Berg was where he said he was at — Iraq. And in the other instance there is nothing to indicate that Berg wasn’t teaching third world people how to make bricks.

[Brutus]

Now I hear that he was travelling around Iraq with a koran and a ‘antisemitic’ book. WTF? I don’t buy that he was in kahootz with either Al Queda or the CIA, but what a messed up story.

[dropzone]

I’ve owned a copy of the Koran and used to keep a copy of The Communist Manifesto (and even slogged my way through the whole thing) sticking out of my pocket at Boy Scout meetings to piss off my FBI-agent (head agent at the local office, even) scoutmaster so somebody’s reading material doesn’t always reflect his true beliefs.

[Brutus]

@dropzone

I’ve owned a copy of the Koran and used to keep a copy of The Communist Manifesto (and even slogged my way through the whole thing) sticking out of my pocket at Boy Scout meetings to piss off my FBI-agent (head agent at the local office, even) scoutmaster so somebody’s reading material doesn’t always reflect his true beliefs.

Of course. But add his reading material to wandering around Iraq (!!!) and having had let a total stranger borrow his laptop and login information, and said stranger happens to be the suspected 20th 9-11 hijacker, and you have one fucked up tale to tell.

[duality72]

I can’t believe none of you has even brought up The Chair. Now I think you’re all in on it.

[PatriotX]

Fiction’s limited by verisimilitude.
Truth is not.