disruptive.org.uk :: The killing of Nick Berg

The killing of Nick Berg

Monday 17th May 2004

There are some very odd things about the murder of Nick Berg in Iraq, which as far as I know haven't been brought together into a single story in the mainstream news media. I haven't seen the video, and I would rather not look at it, so I won't comment on features of the film itself except to refer to other people's impressions of it. But this story has some features which may well mean that it's not all what it seemed at first sight. Please follow the links and read them all before making any judgement about this.

Nick Berg had been interviewed by the FBI about possible links between him and Zacarias Moussaoui (the so-called 20th hijacker). The CNN story on this is at:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Northeast/05/13/berg.encounter/

He was wearing the same type of orange clothing which the Americans dress prisoners in. (It is of course possible that the kidnappers were just making a point by dressing him this way.)

He was sitting on a chair identical to those seen in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse pictures. See this story:
http://marc.perkel.com/archives/000233.html

There is a very odd disagreement about whether he was ever arrested by the Americans in Iraq. The CNN story is at:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/05/13/berg.friends/index.html

Al Jazeera claims that they tried to obtain the video from the site where it was posted within 90 minutes of the story breaking, but could not find it, but major US and British news outlets already had copies at that time.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/4FFA61A3-9C33-4597-A8D9-8079E91F2784.htm

There are suggestions from internal evidence that he might have already been dead at the moment in the video when his head is cut off. There are also suggestions that there are discrepencies about the appearance and demeanour of masked men in the video, and breaks in continuity. (I haven't seen it and can't judge these suggestions.)

Nick Berg's father's name was posted as one of a list of "enemies" (because he was supporting an anti-war activity) on the pro-Bush freerepublic.com site on the 7th May according to this story: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/may2004/berg-m14.shtml

His father blames the US administration for his death, and previously went to court to get him released from custody in Iraq.

His death and the release of the video were perfectly timed to deflect attention from the prison abuse scandal and provoke outrage against the perpetrators.