WHAT HAPPENED TO NICK BERG?

Father of Nick Berg Blasts Bush-Cheney Administration

Nick Berg's body was found on May 8, just outside of the war-ravaged city of Baghdad. A native of West Chester, Pennsylvania, he was in Iraq as a freelance contractor.

At a vocal anti-Iraq War rally in front of Lafayette Park, just north of the presidential mansion, Michael Berg said, "I have to hold the Bush administration accountable for denying my son his Constitutional rights for 13 days of his illegal detention [by the US while in Iraq]. If they were going to take illegal action, instead of violating the heart of the Constitution of the United States of America--why didn't they just illegally deport him from Iraq to let us prove who he was at home?"

...Michael Berg accused the Bush-Cheney administration of being substantially responsible for the death of his son, Nick Berg....

Michael Berg continued, "Their callous behavior, in effect, 'tied him to the track' until it was no longer possible for him to escape that speeding 'hate train.' I don't expect the men who ran the 'hate train' to take responsibility for their actions. And I don't expect the Bush Administration will change its policies to do its part to make the 'hate train' into a 'peace train'."

Here is what we do know about Nick Berg's sensational murder. He was detained by US forces on March 24 in Mosul, Iraq, without charges. It may be significant that he was Jewish and had an Israeli stamp on his passport. He was held for 13 days and repeatedly questioned by the FBI. He was only released from custody on April 6, after his father filed a federal lawsuit in Philadelphia.

Nick Berg was beheaded some time after April 10, ostensibly by hooded Arab "militants" who videotaped his murder.

The US government immediately tried to shift responsibility to the Iraqis for Nick Berg's almost two-week-long detention, but this was proven to be false. After the release of e-mails addressed to the Berg family in Pennsylvania, sent from Beth A. Payne, the US Consular Officer in Iraq, it was clear that Nick Berg had been held by US forces, and not the Iraqis.

Young Berg, in the video exhibit, is dressed in an orange jumpsuit like those regularly worn by prisoners detained in US.run penal facilities, be it the Metropolitan Correction Center in NYC or the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Some of Berg's captors in the video had "pasty-white hands" and contrary to Islamic law, one of them even wore "a gold ring." The "white plastic chair" Berg is seen sitting in is similar to the one shown in images from the Abu Chraib sex torture photos. A voice is clearly heard on the video saying, "How will it be done?" A "military cap" shows up, too, in one of the frames. All of the "militants" have "Western-style body posture and mannerisms." One of the "militants" is even wearing " white tennis shoes," while another, on the extreme left, is seen standing as if he is at "parade rest." (For extensive commentary, photos and audio segments detailing inconsistencies, visit: http://Rense.com, "Nick Berg Beheading.")

Some who decline to accept the Establishment's view of Nick Berg's killing are convinced that his execution was a "psychological operation," managed and/or controlled by US Intelligence operatives, possibly with the assistance of the Mossad or British operatives, to serve "black propaganda" needs for a "diversion" to the Abu Ghraib scandal.

Other questions concern young Berg's bizarre background as a so-called "computer expert," including his possible links to US Intelligence and even ties to 9/11, going back to when he lived in Oklahoma City.

In a Reuters story, Michael Berg said he believes that the USA Patriot Act was a "coup d'etat." At the rally, he said, "We the people of the United States of America and the rest of the world can act now to stop war and end racism. Let's make that happen now."

After listening to a number of other speakers at Lafayette Park, the protesters marched about 25 blocks north to the mansion home of Bush's Secretary of Defense, the embattled Donald Rumsfeld. They chanted slogans along the way. Some at the rally denounced as "war criminals" not only Rumsfeld, but Paul Wolfowitz, a prime architect of the Iraqi War who has strong connections to fellow neocons Richard Perle and William Kristol.

The primary sponsor of the "Speak Truth to Power" rally was the ANSWER Coalition. About 3,000 protesters took part in the event.