Killing of Nick Berg

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Nicholas Berg (~1978 - April or May 2004), an American businessman seeking telecommunications work in Iraq during the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq, was captured and beheaded by Islamist militants possibly connected to Al-Qaida in May 2004. His killing was said to have been carried out to avenge abuses of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison. The act was condemned by many Muslim leaders as contrary to Islamic law and harmful to their cause.

Berg, aged 26 at the time of his death, was a native of West Chester, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, where he owned his own company, Prometheus Methods Tower Service. He inspected and rebuilt communication antennas, and had previously visited Kenya, Ghana, and Uganda on similar projects.

Berg graduated from West Chester Henderson High School in 1996 and attended four universities: Cornell, Drexel, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Oklahoma, although he never completed his college degree. He once traveled to Ghana to help a village, by among other things teaching villagers how to make bricks. He returned in an emaciated state because he gave away most of his food and clothes.

Travels and Detention

Berg, unlike most of his family, was a supporter of the 2003 invasion of Iraq and of Bush administration policy. He traveled to Iraq in hopes of helping to repair its damaged infrastructure. He first arrived in Iraq on December 21, 2003, and made arrangements to secure contract work for his company. He also went to the northern city of Mosul, visiting an Iraqi man whose brother had been married to Berg's late aunt. Leaving on February 1, he returned to Iraq on March 14, 2004, only to find that the work he was promised was unavailable. Throughout this period, he maintained frequent contact with his family in the United States by telephone and e-mail.

Berg had intended to return to the United States on March 30, 2004, but he was detained in Mosul on March 24 by Iraqi police at a checkpoint. His family claims he was turned over to U.S. officials and held for 13 days without access to legal counsel. FBI agents visited his parents to confirm his identity on March 31, but he was not immediately released. After his parents filed suit in federal court in Philadelphia on April 5, claiming that he was being held illegally, he was released from custody. He said that he had not been mistreated during his confinement. The U.S. maintains that at no time was Berg in coalition custody, but rather that he was held by Iraqi forces. According to the Associated Press, Berg was released from custody on April 6 and advised by U.S. officials to take a flight out of Iraq, with their assistance. Berg is said to have refused this offer and traveled to Baghdad, where he stayed at the Al Fanar Hotel. His family last heard from him on April 9. Berg had his last contact with U.S. officials on April 10 and did not return again to his hotel after that date. [1]

Disappearance

Berg's family became concerned after not hearing from him for several days. Although a U.S. State Department investigator looked into Berg's disappearance, official government inquiries produced no leads. Berg's family, frustrated with what they say was a lack of action by the U.S. government, also hired a private investigator and contacted both their Congressional delegation and the Red Cross in search of information.

Death

Nick Berg, in orange, seated, shortly before his decapitation by the five men standing over him.

Berg's body was found decapitated on May 8, 2004 on a Baghdad overpass by a U.S. military patrol. Berg's family was informed of his death on May 10. Military sources stated publicly at that time that Berg's body showed "signs of trauma", but did not disclose that he had been decapitated.

On May 11, 2004, the website of the militant Islamist group Muntada al-Ansar [2] broadcast a video described as "Skeihk Abu Musab al-Zarqawi slaughters an American with his own hands," which shows Berg being decapitated. Both al-Zarqawi and Muntada al-Ansar are associated with the Al-Qaida movement. The video is about five minutes and thirty-two seconds long.

Berg is seen in the video wearing an orange jumpsuit. He identified himself: "My name is Nick Berg, my father's name is Michael, my mother's name is Susan. I have a brother and sister, David and Sarah. I live in West Chester, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia."

Surrounded by five men wearing ski masks and head scarves, after reading his statement, Berg was decapitated by a number of blows with a knife. On the video, a scream can be heard as the men around him shout "Allahu Akbar" (a common Arabic expression meaning "God is greatest!"). The men in the video also stated that Berg's killing was in direct retaliation for the abuse of prisoners by U.S. troops at Abu Ghraib prison.

On May 13, news outlets quoted a CIA source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, that a voice analysis of the tape has led the agency to conclude that it is the masked man who reads the statement and carries out the killing is "with high probability" al-Zarqawi.

During the video, the man reading the statement threatens further deaths: "We tell you that the dignity of the Muslim men and women in Abu Ghraib and others is not redeemed except by blood and souls. You will not receive anything from us but coffins after coffins ... slaughtered in this way." The video further threatens U.S. President George W. Bush and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

The video bears some similarities to the videotape showing the murder and decapitation of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan in 2002. Like Pearl, Berg was Jewish, although it is uncertain whether his captors were aware of that.


Warning: Very graphic photo
Image of veiled person holding severed head

Video details

From 00:00:08 to 00:00:22, Berg introduces himself. Then a pronouncement is read by a masked man standing in the middle of four other masked men. At 00:04:30 in the video, one of the men attacks Berg with a knife; the men surround him; very quickly, screams of fear and pain can be heard as Berg is held by the men and beheaded alive. At 00:05:20, the head is ripped from the neck and presented to the camera.

WARNING: This video contains extremely graphic violence which is very likely to be offensive and/or disturbing to some viewers.


  • The unedited video, including the beheading of Nick Berg
    • http://video.itshappening.com/behead-itshapping.wmv (6.4 MB WMV format)

Possible video inconsistencies

The video contains some apparent inconsistencies which suggest that it may have been been edited extensively by parties unknown. Technical problems in the film may conceal significant facts. The sound is out of sequence with the image, indicating that it may have been recorded separately. The time-stamp display indicates that several edits have been made. A significant discontinuity (over 11 hours) in the video's time-stamp from 2:44:12 to 13:45:47 occurs just after the killing begins. While the video is of poor quality, the sequences showing the beheading after the time jump appear to show very little arterial bleeding associated with the removal of the head, indicating that this act may very likely have been performed post-mortem.

An article on the english edition of the Al Jazeera website outlines further inconsistencies with the video, its distribution/dissemination and the circumstances surrounding Berg's death. Among these are

  • the motionlessness of the body as Berg is being beheaded
  • the access to the video available to mainstream news outlets such as Fox News, CNN, and the BBC within an hour after the story broke while Al Jazeera for instance, was unable to download the video only 30 min afterwards
  • why a private Jewish American citizen would choose to wander around Iraq by himself
  • why Berg was really arrested and detained by Iraqi police, with the full knowledge of the FBI
  • the disputed origin of the killer's accent
  • the mystery as to why al-Zarqawi would disguise his identity after verbally taking credit for the killing when his face is already well known

Reaction

In the Muslim world, the killing of Berg was strongly condemned. Scholars at Al-Azhar University in Cairo issued a declaration of condemnation, as did numerous Muslim groups in the West including CAIR. Even Shiite Islamist group Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas denounced the murder; Hezbollah issued a statement calling it a "horrible act that does an immense wrong to Islam and Muslims by a group which falsely pretends to follow the precepts of the religion of pardon".

Iraqi conservative and fundamentalist religious leaders also denounced the killing. Muthanna al-Dhari, of the Board of Muslim Clergy, said the act "does disservice to our religion and our cause. Even if he was a military personnel he should be treated as a prisoner who, according to Shari'ah, must not be killed." Iyaad Samarrai of the Islamic Party commented "This is absolutely wrong. Islam does prohibit the killing or the maltreatment of prisoners." [3]

Others see Berg's slaying as a reminder of why the United States is waging a War on Terror. [4] White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan commented, regarding the incident: "It shows the true nature of the enemies of freedom. They have no regard for the lives of innocent men, women and children. We will pursue those who are responsible and bring them to justice."

Berg's family blamed the U.S. government and policies that led to his arrest and detainment in April, for creating the circumstances that led to Nick's death. Michael Berg stated that if his son hadn't been detained for so long, he might have been able to leave the country before the violence worsened. [2] His father reportedly stated: "I think a lot of people are fed up with the lack of civil rights this thing has caused. I don't think this administration is committed to democracy." Others have noted that Berg speficially refused government assistance in leaving Iraq.

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