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Berg questioned about 911 suspect FBI says { May 14 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2568526http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2568526
May 14, 2004, 12:40AM
Berg questioned about 9/11 suspect, FBI says
CIA believes Islamic militant was executioner
By SHANNON McCAFFREY
Knight Ridder Tribune
WASHINGTON -- Slain American Nicholas Berg was questioned repeatedly in Iraq by FBI agents because of possible ties to confessed al-Qaida member and accused Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, U.S. officials said Thursday.
CIA officials also said Thursday that an analysis of a grisly video of Berg's murder strongly indicates that the masked man who stood behind Berg, read a statement linking his killing to the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers, then cut off Berg's head was Jordanian Islamic militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The officials said al-Zarqawi, who's also a suspect in the 2002 murder of a U.S. official in Jordan, heads his own terrorist organization but maintains contacts with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network. The United States has offered $10 million for information leading to the capture or killing of al-Zarqawi, whose real name is Ahmad Fadhil al-Khalayleh.
When FBI agents in Iraq first questioned Berg on March 26, while he was detained at an Iraqi police station in Mosul, he wasn't suspected of being linked with Moussaoui, a senior Justice Department official said on condition of anonymity.
But Berg volunteered that he'd been questioned by the FBI once before, in connection with the Moussaoui investigation after his computer password turned up in Moussaoui's belongings, the official said. That piqued the FBI agents' interest, and they asked that he be kept in detention while they investigated further.
The original Moussaoui link was determined in 2002 to be "a total coincidence," the official said, and FBI agents in Iraq determined that Berg should be released.
But the investigation delayed Berg's release long enough that he missed a flight back to the United States on March 30. By the time he returned to Baghdad on April 6, Iraq was in the grip of a bloody insurgency, with U.S. troops fighting throughout the country and foreigners being taken hostage.
Berg's father acknowledged Thursday that his son had once been questioned by the FBI because of the computer password, but he couldn't be reached for comment about the reason for his son's detention in Mosul.
Berg checked out of his hotel on April 10 and wasn't seen again until his beheaded body was discovered by U.S. soldiers Saturday. The grisly video of his beheading was posted on the Internet Tuesday.
Berg attended the University of Oklahoma for a time, and Moussaoui, who was arrested in August 2001 in Minnesota when he tried to enroll in flight school, had lived in Norman, Okla., where the school is located. FBI officials don't know how Moussaoui got Berg's password, but they originally were investigating whether Berg had been friends with two of Moussaoui's roommates, Hussein al Attas and Mukkaram Ali, who also were students.
The Moussaoui link added another twist to the already strange tale of Berg's time in Iraq. As a rare American not tied to a major Defense Department contractor, Berg had spent months in Iraq drumming up business as a communications tower repairman. He often took public transportation and didn't have a driver or translator.
U.S. officials have denied that Berg was in U.S. custody in Iraq. But Berg's family apparently had been told via e-mail from a State Department consular officer that Berg was being held by the U.S. military.
State Department officials confirmed Thursday the authenticity of the April 1 e-mail from Beth A. Payne, who was the U.S. consular officer in Baghdad until mid-April. But a State Department spokeswoman said thee-mail was inaccurate.
Other versions of events surfaced Thursday. A U.S. general in Mosul said Iraqi police detained Berg at the FBI's request, but the police chief of Mosul disputed assertions that his department arrested Berg.
Berg, of West Chester, Pa., a suburb west of Philadelphia, had gone to Mosul on what he told friends would be a two-day trip to look for new business when he was arrested March 24 by Iraqi police.
Berg told friends in Baghdad after he was released that the police had detained him because they suspected he was an Israeli spy. His friends quoted him as saying the police became suspicious because of his last name and an Israeli stamp that was in his passport.
During his detention, Berg was visited three times by FBI agents and monitored for his well-being by U.S. military police, U.S. officials say, but Dan Senor, spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition running Iraq, said that Berg "was at no time under the jurisdiction or within the detention of coalition forces."
On Wednesday, Senor referred questions to Iraqi police in Mosul as to why Berg was arrested. However, the police chief of Mosul said Thursday that his department never arrested Berg. "Such reports are baseless," said Maj. Gen. Mohammed Khair al-Barhawi.
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