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Possible moussaui connection behind fbi questioning { May 14 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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Posted on Fri, May. 14, 2004
Possible Moussaoui connection behind FBI questioning
By SHANNON McCAFFREY and ROBERT MORAN
Knight Ridder Newspapers
HANDOUT (KRT)
Berg
WASHINGTON — FBI agents repeatedly questioned Nicholas Berg in Iraq because of possible ties to al-Qaida member and Sept. 11 conspiracy suspect Zacarias Moussaoui, government officials said Thursday.
CIA officials on Thursday said an analysis of a video of Berg's murder strongly indicates that Abu Musab al Zarqawi was the masked man who stood behind Berg, read a statement linking his murder to the abuse of Iraqi prisoners, and then cut off Berg's head.
Zarqawi, who is a Jordanian Islamic militant, also is a suspect in the 2002 murder of a U.S. official in Jordan. He heads his own terrorist organization but maintains contacts with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, the officials said.
The United States has offered $10 million for information leading to the capture or killing of Zarqawi, whose real name is Ahmad Fadhil al Khalayleh.
When FBI agents questioned Berg on March 26, while he was detained at an Iraqi police station in Mosul, he was not suspected of being linked with Moussaoui, a senior Justice Department official said.
Berg volunteered that he had 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. FBI agents in Iraq determined that Berg should be released, indicating they also found nothing suspicious.
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 in a television interview earlier Thursday that his son had once been questioned by the FBI because of the computer password, but he could not be reached for comment about the reason for his son's detention in Mosul.
Another government official confirmed that FBI agents in Iraq were interested in Berg's possible Moussaoui connection. The official declined to be identified by agency or name, because a judge has imposed a gag order in the Moussaoui case.
Berg checked out of his hotel April 10 and was not seen again until American soldiers discovered his beheaded body Saturday. The grisly video of his beheading was posted on the Internet on Tuesday.
Berg attended the University of Oklahoma for a time. Moussaoui, who was arrested in August 2001 in Minnesota when he tried to enroll in flight school, had lived in Norman, Okla.
FBI officials did not 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.
To reach Shannon McCaffrey,
send e-mail to
smccaffrey@krwashington.com.
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