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Berg crossed paths with alqaeda in 1999 { May 13 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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Posted on Thu, May. 13, 2004
Berg crossed paths with Al Qaeda in 1999
BY JAMES GORDON MEEK IN WASHINGTON AND TRACY CONNOR IN NEW YORK
New York Daily News
(KRT) - In a bizarre coincidence, Nick Berg crossed paths with Al Qaeda years before its henchmen beheaded him, when his E-mail and password wound up in the hands of 9/11 suspect Zacarias Moussaoui.
It happened in 1999, when Berg was at the University of Oklahoma and Moussaoui was enrolled at a nearby flight school, allegedly training to be the 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
After Moussaoui's role in the Al Qaeda suicide hijackings came under scrutiny, the FBI discovered he had Berg's university E-mail password.
"In 2002, the FBI was following millions of leads in the wake of 9/11, and one led to Mr. Berg," said a senior Justice Department official.
After questioning Berg about the tie, the feds concluded he had never actually met Moussaoui, who had friends and roommates at the same college.
The matter remained closed until Berg's fateful visit to Iraq this year.
When he was detained by authorities in Mosul in March, FBI agents came to grill Berg, and he volunteered details about his previous dealings with the bureau, the official said.
But the eerie link between Berg and the terrorist cabal that later decapitated him "turned out to be total coincidence," the official said.
U.S. intelligence officials have confirmed their suspicions that it is Al Qaeda associate Abu Musab al-Zarqawi who is seen killing Berg on the shocking videotape.
Using voice analysis, they determined that Zarqawi - a one-legged mystery man with a $10 million bounty on his head - was the hooded figure who wielded the knife.
Berg's family, however, is also blaming the White House for his gruesome death.
"Nicholas Berg died for the sins of (President) George Bush and (Defense Secretary) Donald Rumsfeld," his father, Michael, told reporters. "This administration did this."
The family produced an E-mail yesterday that appeared to confirm Nick Berg was in U.S. custody when he fatefully missed his plane out of Iraq in March - even though officials insist he was held by Iraqis.
"I have confirmed that your son, Nick, is being detained by the U.S. military in Mosul. He is safe," Beth Payne, the U.S. consular officer in Iraq, wrote to the family April 1.
Further undermining U.S. denials was a statement by a police chief in Mosul saying Berg was never arrested by Iraqi authorities and E-mails from Berg to his family saying U.S. soldiers had been guarding him.
Michael Berg also took a call yesterday from presumptive Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.
"He feels let down by, let down by those who should have been protecting his son," Kerry told Fox News' Alan Colmes.
Payne declined comment but Washington sources insist her E-mail was simply wrong and that it was the Iraqis who held Berg.
Berg, 26, had traveled to Iraq to drum up work for his radio-tower business and planned to fly home to West Chester, Pa., March 30 for a pal's wedding.
Because he was detained in Mosul, he missed his flight and was still trying to make his way home - through Turkey, according to one friend - when he vanished April 9.
U.S. officials have said they told Berg he should leave Iraq when he was released and offered him a flight back to safety.
But Michael Berg, an anti-war activist, said his son feared he might he killed on the treacherous route to the airport and decided to make his own way.
With Derek Rose in West Chester, Pa.
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© 2004, New York Daily News.
Visit the Daily News online at http://www.nydailynews.com
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
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