What happened to him was terrible. What was he doing in Iraq? I can’t find any news on what he was doing there. Who employed or sponsored him? What’s the big secret? Anyone know?
I wasn’t aware there was a mystery. A few rabid conspiracy theories, sure, but show me a newsworthy event that doesn’t have those attached to it. :rolleyes:
He owned his own telecommunications equipment company and was in Iraq installing and repairing communications antennas. He had worked in the third world before doing humanitarian work. Am I missing something?
I read he was doing something in telecommunications. I remembered that because I’m also looking for work and have telecom experience, and might have considered working in Iraq.
Yeah, not any more.
Hmm. Looks like the conspiracy fans have picked up on the fact that he allegedly worked at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison.
He went to Iraq on his own, without a job, or even a job offer. He hoped to find work for his company and do humanitarian work.
I have trouble believing Berg went to Iraq solely for humanitarian purposes. It seems pretty clear that he was heavily anti-American (and possibly borderline terrorist). According to this article (and others), one of the 911 terrorists was using Berg’s e-mail account. When questioned, Berg stated that he happened to sit next to him on the bus, let him use his laptop, and gave him his e-mail password. Now, letting someone use your e-mail account would be weird enough as it is, but what buses even have internet access?! Did he lend a stranger his laptop and then provide his e-mail password just in case this random guy ever needed it in the future? Way too suspicious for me.
Furthermore, this shows that he had a 20-minute interview with Micheal Moore, who is well known for his less than positive sentiments for America.
While I’m not suggesting that Berg was actively involved in any terrorist activities, there is more than many of the typical newspapers portray. Maybe he was as nieve as he sounds, and truly believed the Iraqis would show him no harm.
There’s also this from the end of the second article:
I didn’t realize that using the rights of free speech and expression enshrined by our founding fathers equates with being un-American.
No. He worked in the town, not in the prison.
Actually, from what I’ve heard, Nick Berg’s father was the one who was highly critical of the Bush Administration, while Nick himself was a big Bush supporter. Heck, if Nick Berg was such a big anti-American kinda guy, wouldn’t the terrorists have tried to recruit him instead?
In a related vein, I’ve heard that there are plenty of Iraqis with the know-how and ability to install telecommunications equipment, yet for some reason those jobs ended up going to outside contractors instead of locals. Any truth to that?
From the same article:
[quote]
“Someone [on the bus] asked to use his computer. College kids do that all the time. It turned out that this guy was a terrorist and he used my son’s e-mail, amongst many other students he did that to,” said the senior Berg, who spoke yesterday with presidential candidate John Kerry.
[quote]
and
So, he didn’t necessarily provide it himself.
Right, because we all know only and anti-American would ever criticize the administration. :rolleyes:
Well, thanks for that anyway. Even though you did say he was “possibly borderline terrorist” to begin with.
Is it true that there was an Israel travel stamp in his passport? If that is confirmed then any belief he wasn’t completely nieve is probably missfounded.
What I mean is, o.k. this guy doesn’t speak Arabic. He just up and decides to go to Iraq on his own and install equipment? How do you do that? Who are his clients? Why aren’t they being interviewed, you know: “yeah we knew Nick Berg, he was a nice guy, he did blah blah for us”. Another person mentioned he had a contact from Philadelphia, well why isn’t that guy talking?
Isn’t there some kind of ban on travel to Iraq unless you have pre-arranged business there? Or can anyone just kind of wander on over there hoping to find a job in a hostile country where they mostly don’t speak English? Mind you, I’m not criticizing him, just wondering about the technicalities of this whole business of just going to Iraq and “helping out”. Why Iraq of all places? It sounds like he was just wandering the streets. Wouldn’t he stick out like a sore thumb being American?
O.k. I admit I’m motivated by the horror at what happened to him, and trying to rationalize why he is different from the average person who wants to go to Iraq to help out. In other words, “why it wouldn’t happen to me.”
He was there to ca$h in on the rebuilding effort for his american telecom company, robber baron style. He was hoping to make a fortune.
Instead, his check got cashed. :wally
I have an Israeli stamp in my passport and a Lebanese one as well. In fact, I have a french one too. Jeez, I must be reallly anti-american. Oh, wait, a German one, an Egyptian one, and Hey! Spain too.
Peculiar anyone who travels to an Islamic Middle Eastern country should know that they must not cary anything Identified with Israel with them. For this reason people who have travelled to Israel get a second passport for use in travelling to Islamic states, the UK provide such passports to its citizens, I strongly expect USA does so to. You don’t even pack Marks and Sparks underwear, because that is a Jewish owned company. It wood be incredably stupid for someone to not follow these rules in the years before Gulf war 1, now adays it is stupid almost beyond belief to do so.
Do you remember about ten years ago when four Brits and New Zealanders in Chechneya met grisly end similar to Nick Berg? They were telecom workers too, working for a small company that was trying to crack into the apparantly lucrative communications buisness of the war-torn republic. Now, I had always assumed that the unfourtunate four had been spies- after all telecom workers have a good excuse for possesing transmitters etc.
Did Nick bring comms equipment with him to Iraq? If so, I can understand why he was treated with such suspicion.
Of course no one made that claim. There is a difference between un-American and anti-American.
By the way, when I went to Israel I asked them not to stamp my passport. They’ll stamp a little piece of paper which you keep in your passport and give back when you leave.
Haj