"Nicholas Berg died for the sins of George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld,"

[underpants]

Direst quote from his FATHER just after he planted a "War is not the answer" sign in the family's front yard. I see that some maybe couldbe supposed links between Nick Berg and Moussoui/alQaeda strangely popped up last night. Hmmmmm did they pick the wrong messenger AGAIN (Pfc.Lynch)?

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation/8661776.htm?1c

PHILADELPHIA - (KRT) - The day he buried his son, Nick Berg's father angrily lashed out at President Bush - and said he had a question for him:

"I would like to ask him if it's true that al-Qaeda offered to trade my son's life for another person," Michael Berg told a small group of reporters early Thursday morning outside his West Chester home.

"And if that is true, well, I need that information," said Berg, a self-proclaimed peace activist who has marched against the Iraq war. "I think that the people of the United States of America need to know what the fate of their sons and daughters might be in the hands of the Bush administration."

"Nicholas Berg died for the sins of George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld," he said, shortly after posting a "War is not the Answer" sign on his front lawn. "The al-Qaeda people are probably just as bad as they are, but this administration did this."

[misanthrope]

1. Nick Berg died...

...as a direct result of his own stupidity and arrogance.

"Altruism?" Charity begins at home and there were plenty of ways for this guy to help needy people here in the States, if that motivation was so strong.

This guy wasn't helping anyone as much as himself. Perhaps he bore the obtuse assumption of imperviousness shared by many of his middle-class brethren, but his assinine attempt to play hot shot and traipse through a war zone completely unprepared and unprotected was either an ill conceived "get rich quick" scheme, or the suicidal fruition of a martyr complex.

I know its not something many want to hear, but Berg died solely as a result of his most foolish actions.

[Tatiana]

2. I disagree. If you actually do some research, you'll find we don't have

all the facts regarding this situation.

[misanthrope]

4. So you think Berg...

...didn't choose to be in a war zone, that he was kidnapped stateside and dumped into al Qaeda hands?

"Research?" I'm privy to the same scant bits of conflicting information as the rest of the world, and none of it denies that he was there of his own volition.

[Tatiana]

15. Not exactly.

I think Berg had free access to roam about a war zone because he was working for a government agency (CIA?) in some capacity. I also believe something caused the U.S. to revoke that ability to roam about in a war zone, consequently detaining him.

We need to find out what information Nick Berg discovered when he was in Iraq, why he was detained, who gave the order to detain Nick, and why, after roaming freely about Iraq for so long, did he experience an urgency to return to the States (even rejecting a "free ride" to the Jordanian airport).

[smada]

3. I don't disagree, but

I can also understand his naiveté. I've been in third world countries. Sometimes the most volatile places can seem deceptively calm and peaceful. It might have been easy to think the danger was overstated. Unfortunately, it's not.

And war or no war, Nick Berg (a Jewish American) was waving a red flag at a raging bull by walking around in that area.

[dmr]

5. Bullshit

You don't know the facts to make such a cold-hearted and calculated assumption. There are too many discrepancies to conclude anything. Let's first have our government own up the truth, a rare commodity these days.

[underpants]

10. What like his going to Gambia to help with drinking water?

I know it was part of the initial story on him and maybe I bought into something but he didn't seem to be trying to make a fortune in Iraq, at least to me.

[OKNancy]

16. I thought it was Ghana to help make bricks

out of mud.

[underpants]

17. Oh I could have sworn it was Gambia

Kinda hard to keep track of this story huh?

[CWebster]

7. God forbid anyone go into a war zone

to help and assist the fellow brethern on this earth.

You could say he was a martyr in the cause just as easily than condemn him.

[underpants]

9. Aren't there lots of missionaries there?

Four were murdered there just last month, right?

I don't think "Doctors without borders" stays away from real hotspots either.

[misanthrope]

11. If that were the case,...

...he could have just as easily joined the Red Cross, or another relief agency, and gone about helping people in a manner that would allowed him the longevity to help many more in the long run.

But, no, that would have excluded his "entrepreneurship" angle. Looks like Nick was as concerned about helping himself as anyone else and it bit him in the ass.

My personal opinion, given present information, is that the guy was either blinded by his own ambition, or up to something "spooky."

[underpants]

12. Is the "spooky" part the result of the "possible links" aired last night

Just after Mr.Berg made the above comments?

When I saw all of these maybe possible couldbe links it seemed to me that they launched their attack dogs on the father for daring to say what he did. They surely expected him to quietly grieve and let them politicize the man's son being murdered to deflect attention away for yet another scandal.

[HFishbine]

14. And the same goes

for those filfthy Blackwater mercineries strung up in Falujah too, huh?

[Village Idiot]

6. Maybe I'm just TOO cynical, but

I find it just a little too opportune that the public beheading of an American Jew (previously picked up and held by American forces in Iraq) by (CIA verified) Al-Q terrorist Zarqawi so easily deflects American attention away from the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal...
As I said - maybe I am too cynical, paranoid, whatever....time to put the foil back on!!!!!

[underpants]

8. The timing of the release is what sent off the red flags for me

I don't doubt that it happened and although I briefly entertained them don't buy into the conspiracy theories but when this tape just happened to be released as Taguba was testifying the smell test was failed.

Welcome to DU.

[Village Idiot]

13. You just KNOW

the world is getting too scarey when you can entertain ideas like these...Al-Quaeda and Zarqawi certainly had nothing to gain from this...the CIA, FBI and the White House had EVERYTHING to gain...father supports A.N.S.W.E.R...independent contractor...American Forces deny he was ever in their custody...Iraqis deny he was in theirs and say the US forces had him...Israeli passport stamp...FBI questioned him 3 times...I cannot think that anyone out there in Freeperland has posted this...the poster would be banned immediately....