So who was Nicholas Berg?

Without wishing to downplay the horror and tragedy of Nicholas Berg's death, I have to say is there are things that seem more than a little odd. My early impression is that he was a patriotic free spirit who went over to Iraq to do his part to to help in the rebuilding. Berg's family didn't share his enthusiasm for the mission in Iraq.

The slain man’s father, Michael Berg, laid the blame for his son’s death Thursday at the feet of President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

"My son died for the sins of George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld. This administration did this,” Berg said in the interview with radio station KYW-AM of Philadelphia.

Berg, who put a sign on the front lawn reading “War Is Not The Answer,” also attacked Bush administration for its invasion of Iraq and its sponsorship of the USA Patriot Act, which gave increased powers of surveillance to the federal government.

We often hear that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. My liberal family members often wonder what tree I fell out of, so it doesn't surprise me in the least that this apple apparently fell quite some distance from his tree.

Berg's parents and brother and sisters are liberals and anti-Bush and antiwar in equal measure, according to friends and the bumper stickers on their cars. Nick was not. He believed in President Bush and the liberation of Iraq. He went out to play football with Lorenz and another friend last December. It was a balmy day and, as always, they talked about everything. Toward the end, Berg spoke of going to Iraq, where he would climb and fix communications towers -- and put American flags on top.

So it comes as a surprise to learn that there is this strange coincidence. A computer password he used in college was found on the computer of Zacarias Moussaoui, the alleged 20th 9/11 hijacker. The FBI concluded there was nothing sinister about that, and it seems unlikely that it would be anything more than a coincidence. But it is a bizarre coincidence. We add to it, this according to MSNBC:

In an e-mail message his family gave to The New York Times, Berg wrote to his parents after his April 6 release that federal agents had questioned him about whether he had ever built a pipe bomb or had been in Iran.

We hear that federal agents questioned him, but U.S. authorities said they never had him in their custody. They say the Iraqi police had him. But the Iraqi police claim they never had him in their custody. So in whose custody was he? According to an aquaintance, Berg claimed he was arrested by Iraqis because his passport carried an Israeli stamp on it. His family believes he was transferred to American custody but...

U.S. spokesman Dan Senor would not explain, but insisted that Berg was held by Iraqi and not American authorities.

After his release, when U.S. officials offered him a flight out of the country, he refused.

His father, Michael, said his son declined the offer out of fears that the travel to the airport was too dangerous. Attacks had taken place in the areas his son would need to drive through, Michael Berg said.

He was fearful of making the trip from a Baghdad hotel to the Baghdad airport, but

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Berg was detained by Iraqi authorities ''for his own protection'' because his behavior in Mosul seemed unusual for a Westerner.

He had been seen traveling in taxis and moving about the dangerous city without any escort, the official said. He added that Berg, who was Jewish, had in his possession texts that were ''anti-Semitic'' in tone, the official said without elaborating.

That seems to present something of a contradiction - utterly fearless in Mosul, but too fearful to take a ride to the airport in Baghdad. Of course it is very possible that his outlook underwent dramatic change between the time he was in Mosul and his return to Baghdad. Consider this other little wrinkle to the story. There is a family connection in Mosul.

Michael Berg told the AP that Nicholas’ paternal aunt, now dead, married an Iraqi man named Mudafer, who became close to Nicholas. In one of the e-mails, Nicholas Berg describes going to the northern city of Mosul where he introduced himself to Mudafer’s brother, identified as Moffak Mustaffa.

“We got along splendidly,” Berg wrote. “We spent a few hours and I helped him establish an e-mail account.”

Berg notes that “my presence ... made him more concerned (about his own safety and probably mine too) than I’ve been the entire time I’ve been here.”

Something happened in Mosul that changed him. He was known to be a good man with an enthusiasm that was infectious. He seemed to have a "can do" attitude, one that could win the hearts and minds of Iraqis who knew him. That would certainly make him an undesirable from the terrorist perspective. And of course we should not overlook the tin foil hat crowd. At a moment of U.S. global embarrassment over Abu Ghraib, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi leaps forward to steal the spotlight with this utterly gruesome murder. Not a terrorist PR coup. Even Hezbollah and Hamas condemned the murder. It's all so strange.

So who was Nicholas Berg?

Comments

[Scott]

Holy moly. This is some story, Tom.