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I was thinking, earlier today, about Nick Berg's death. As the news of his murder was first circulating, some of my LJ friends were pointing at things in the video, or in the events leading up to his death, that appeared inconsistent with the story presented in the video: that he'd been kidnapped and executed by Muslim terrorists while the videotape was rolling.

And I was wondering: did anything more ever come of that? Was a hypothesis advanced that explained the apparent inconsistencies? Were the concerns of armchair bloggers refuted by mainstream sources or official channels? Does anyone here know?

[Edit: Here's an example of the inconsistencies that were being discussed at the time.]

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From:

garyamort.livejournal.com

Do you think that the writing about Nick Berg's father on the website triggered the jihadists to capture and execute his son? It doesn't seem so to me.

No, I don't subscribe to a black/white, right/wrong, good/evil view of the world.

There are lots of groups with their different motivations.

And in the Nick Berg case I see what looks to be six different groups that could potentially be interacting.

First off, you have Berg himself. Who, if we take everything said at face value, was an opportunist looking to profit off the Iraq war. No shame in that. So he's poking around, without official dispensation, and annoying folks.

Secondly, we have the Freepers who were engaged in an active campaign of smearing people who oppose the war - and who listed his lastname and business on their website.

Thirdly, we have the American military who may have had him detained. The most likely scenario here is one of them reads the Freepers website, puts 2 and 2 together and get's 5. Not some big plot at high levels of goverment, just some low level guy who decides to play with fire with other peoples lives.

Fourthly, we have the Iraqi police who are let loose on this guy. They know he is an American, they know he is jewish, and here they are handed an opportunity to extract some payback.

Fifthly, along comes the state department, getting reports of an abducted American and a family who are rapidly approaching big conspiracy theories. They work through the issues, first they have no idea where he is, than they find him, than he was arrested by american soldiers, than it turns into Iraqi police. Lots of confusion. But they apply some leverage and get him sprung.

So, back to the first group, Nick Berg himself. Sprung from prison, suspecting American soldiers - probably justifiably - and the state department has the bright idea of asking the military to escort him out. He refuses the escort and determines to make his own way out.

Enter the last party, the thugs who kidnapped and killed him. Maybe they got the information that an American who seemed important(after all, the State department pressured the police to release him) from the Iraqi police. Maybe Berg happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and they just happened across him. I dunno.

Continue the story from there.

Now, each party is going to be covering something up. His family(who are also his business partners) is covering up just precisely what he was doing in Iraq. The military is going to cover up that some thug working for them is responsible for him being arrested. The freepers don't want to be associated with it and will point out that they never mentioned Nick directly, just his father and his business. The Iraqi police will cover up their treatment of Mr. Berg. And the guy in the police who fingered him to the thugs, if such happened, will cover that up. Oh, and people from the middle east in general are going to adopt the natural position of "it wasn't someone like me" and so add fuel to the conspiracy flame.

So everyone is covering up something, no one in the goverment wants to dig too deeply, so it looks like some massive conspiracy when in fact it is just a bunch of pathetic little conspiracy's.

That is my working hypothesis. No hero's, just lots of small bit villians.

From:

level-head.livejournal.com

I understand what you're saying -- but I do not see the cover up happening at the "Freeper" site you mentioned. I'd expect that opponents of that site would be delighted to post that a thread was removed, and I've seen no evidence of this.

Your last point I would certainly concur with -- Berg was in the wrong place at the wrong time. An unescorted American Jew wandering the streets of Iraq on his own -- particularly the city he went into -- is a tragedy waiting to happen.

Here is a timeline, turned up by Google just now and with links that largely still work.

Nick Berg's father still insists that he was held by the US. An aquaintence says he was told that by Nick Berg himself. But the email that the family received from Nick, supposedly saying this, they will not release. Curious.

I'm inclined to think he was detained for being a lone civilian American trying to get into a troubled Iraqi city under peculiar circumstances.

But the "enemies list" -- the list of people on the side of the terrorists -- would hardly condemn Nick Berg. If anything, it would encourage the terrorists to treat him well.

Conspiracies are fun, though. ];-)

===|==============/ Level Head