Sarah Whalen, Arab News

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana, 21 May 2004 — Nicholas Berg died horribly in Iraq. Why?

His killers don’t say. They complain, but not about Berg.

Of all Iraq’s hostages, only Berg was decapitated.

And very inexpertly.

Suspects have already been rounded up.

One wonders how, since all five were masked and unidentifiable.

Why would the infamous, already-photographed Zarqawi hide?

Although CIA voice analysts claim Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi decapitated Berg, European intelligence sources doubt it. Zarqawi, a skilled poisoner, “is more sophisticated than that,” said one expert. And would the one-legged Zarqawi be less nimble than Berg’s executioner on tape?

All Berg’s killers possessed military bearing, which could have been learned in terrorist camps. Or in more formal military settings. And the notorious website could be set up by anyone.

We must therefore look carefully at Berg before killing, torturing, or jailing anyone in his name.

US Secretary of State Collin Powell complains of muted Middle Eastern reaction to the beheading. But condemnation requires a measure of certainty missing here.

Who was Berg?

Neocon? Nincompoop?

Radio tower guy? Communications spy?

Berg, a neocon “believer,” had no military service, despite his strapping, muscular physique and shaved head.

Unmarried and full of male friends, Berg attended four universities without graduating. He repaired communications equipment and climbed radio towers obsessively. In Ghana, Berg taught those Bush fondly calls “brown people” to make bricks — which in the Third World is like bringing coals to Newcastle.

In his Baghdad hotel room, Berg read espionage novels.

Perhaps Berg finally found his calling.

How might he have taken that particular road? Berg’s friend, Aaron Spool, says two years ago, Berg started taking synagogue classes. Berg’s family claims he was recruited for Iraq by the US Chamber of Commerce. But he set off for...Israel.

Why?

Spool avers Berg “visited” Israel on his way to Iraq to “study Hebrew.” Berg brought a yarmulke (Jewish skullcap) and a tallis (fringed prayer shawl) into Iraq — an odd wardrobe choice to carry into a country purportedly besieged by crazed Islamic jihadists. Spool says Berg “wasn’t foolish. He would not have bandied about the fact that he was Jewish.”

Oh. That explains the clothing!

And Berg’s passport, stamped in Israel. Usually, passengers traveling on decline the stamp, which can cause exclusion elsewhere in the Middle East.

What did Berg do in Israel and Iraq?

We need to know. As Jack London, CEO of US Department of Defense civilian contractor CACI International, Inc., declared: “Getting in and out of Iraq is not willy-nilly. People just don’t go in there, go to the hotel, open their suitcase, set up shop and go over to the Coalition Provisional Authority and try to cut a contract.”

But isn’t this what Berg supposedly did?

Or did he have a secret contract?

While Berg told his family he’d struggled to make money, friends said Berg made $70,000 his first month there, and considered sailing the Turkish coast before returning home.

When he returned to Iraq again, Berg expected contracts worth $20,000 a month for “radio” work. But was he being paid for something else?

Berg complained to US officials their detention cost him “thousands of dollars.”

When arrested, Berg was carrying a laptop, cash, his Israel-stamped passport, a Qur’an, and “anti-Semitic literature” in Arabic — a language that Berg could neither read, nor write, nor speak.

Were these books for Berg’s erudition? Or for planting at the scene of some catastrophe, as the Mossad is sometimes accused of doing by anti-Zionist groups to falsely implicate Muslims?

When released, Berg spurned US consular officials’ offers of money, plane ticket, and official airport escort. One cryptically remarked: Berg “didn’t want us. He said, ‘You don’t understand these people like I do. You’re here for a reason and so am I.’”

What reason? Dead men don’t talk. But their friends do. Berg’s friends said Iraqi authorities suspected he was “an Israeli spy.”

Imagine!

The US admits Berg was arrested for “suspicious activities” and using “false identification.” Iraqi police claim Berg had “no identification.” And Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmett says US military police “monitored” Berg.

“Monitored” is significant. CACI’s Jack London announced Rumsfeld’s Abu Ghraib testimony “cleared up an important point: As stated, CACI employees are monitored and are under the supervision of US Army personnel.” DOD “monitoring” is “in CACI’s services contract with the U.S. military.”

Was Berg, whom the FBI in Iraq questioned three times because of his “ties” to alleged 9/11 terrorist Moussaoui in Oklahoma, a CACI contractor or Israeli-based subcontractor? This would explain why occupation authorities released and allowed Berg to remain in Iraq.

Did Berg, the “radio guy,” work with CACI’s famous “interlocked” telecommunications services integrated with “key CACI technologies, including information assurance, modeling and simulation, and web-enabling,” as CACI’s corporate literature states?

What about GlobalNet, recently “awarded an exclusive contract for worldwide termination of voice and data mobile satellite telecommunications traffic originating in Iraq?” Its press release laments the “dangers of sending...workers into the war-torn nation to install telecommunications towers.”

Berg’s specialty.

GlobalNet seeks “an exclusive arrangement for worldwide termination of voice and data mobile satellite telecommunications originating in Iran and Israel.”

According to TIME magazine, Berg was rumored to work “for a telecom firm with ties to Israel.”

How involved is Israel in Iraq?

Answer first questions first, before avenging Berg.