Lounsbury: Further to Berg

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May 13, 2004

Further to Berg - Family

From The New York Times:

U.S. Officials Failed to Protect Slain Civilian, Family Says
By RICHARD LEZIN JONES and JILL P. CAPUZZO
Published: May 13, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/13/national/13BERG.html?hp

"The family of Nicholas E. Berg challenged American military officials on Wednesday, insisting that the man beheaded by Islamic terrorists in Iraq had earlier been in the custody of federal officials who should have done more to protect him."

This is just plain silly. He went to Iraq, Iraq was clearly a mess, US officials are supposed to baby sit fools? It is hard enough to protect people who know what they're doing, let alone idiots wandering around a war zone without any real connexions or knowledge.

As to this:
"The Iraqi police took Nicholas Berg, 26, into custody on March 24 and held him in a jail that he described in the message as managed by Iraqis with oversight from United States Military Police forces. He wrote that federal agents had questioned his reasons for being in Iraq, whether he had ever built a pipe bomb or had been in Iran.

"They can detain him and deny him his basic civil rights of a lawyer, a phone call or even a charge for 13 days, but they can't get him" on a plane, David Berg said."

Well, if he is in a danger zone, in a foreign country, it seems a bit precious to be speaking to civil rights - although if there was USMP oversight then perhaps we can at least say that procedues were followed:

"Apparently in a response to the accusations that the actions of the military in Iraq exposed their son to worsening danger, the F.B.I. released a statement saying that Nicholas Berg had not heeded warnings and that he had declined assistance in leaving Iraq.

The conflicting accounts continued to swirl around Mr. Berg's detention and release. In Baghdad, a senior adviser for the Coalition Provisional Authority, Dan Senor, repeated that Mr. Berg had never been in military custody.

"My understanding," Mr. Senor said of the Iraqi police, "is that they suspected that he was involved/engaged in suspicious activities. U.S. authorities were notified. The F.B.I. visited with Mr. Berg on three occasions when he was in Iraqi police detention and determined that he was not involved with any criminal or terrorist activities. Mr. Berg was released on April 6, and it is my understanding he was advised to leave the country."

It pains me to say this, but I rather credit our dear Senor, the family needs a bit of a reality check, Iraq is not fucking Kansas.

"The Iraqi police is mentioned frequently, which is, of course, absurd, because there is no Iraqi government right now," David Berg said. "And if you think about it, to be detained by the Iraqi police without the U.S. government's knowing would be tantamount to kidnapping."

Officials did acknowledge the presence of the military police at the jail but said their sole function was to "monitor his treatment."

As for the family contesting that it was the detention's fault that he did not leave in time, well, the idiot had plenty of time and two visits to get over the long distance propaganda, he was an idiot through and through:
The F.B.I. statement, though, said that coalition authorities had offered "to facilitate his safe passage out of Iraq," but that Mr. Berg refused their help.

Recalling his brother's independent personality, David Berg said such a refusal would not surprise his family, although he said he had no way of knowing whether Nicholas Berg had declined help. He had traveled to Iraq, in part, to generate business for his fledgling telecommunications company, which specializes in servicing radio towers. After an earlier visit, Mr. Berg returned to Iraq on March 14.

No excuse, pity the family is deluded on what could be done, but frankly I see no responsibility for his death (ex the silly agitprop from the CPA re investing, but frankly if you pull them aside in private, as I noted in my journal back in Aug and Sep, they will give you a pretty accurate threat assessment) on the part of US authorities, ex of course the generic responsibility for having so badly messed up the entire Iraq fiasco through the gross incompetence.

May 13, 2004

Further to Berg - Family

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