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Did Freepers Kill Nick Berg?
Why We're Not Ruling It Out
By Tamara Baker

May 12, 2004 -- SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA (apj.us) -- By now, we've all heard the story.

A group claiming affiliation with Al Qaeda captured an American named Nick Berg, who had been looking for contract work in Iraq.

They then videotaped his beheading, claiming that it was revenge for the sickening torture of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib and other US-run prisons.

As it turns out, our military intelligence officers in Iraq have told the Red Cross that between 70 and 90 percent of the persons in Iraqi jails were arrested "by mistake", and so are being tortured "by mistake".

Furthermore, only 600 out of the 43,000 persons arrested during the US occupation (that's 1.4%) have been referred to authorities for prosecution. The vast majority of the others are condemned to wait without hope of trial (much less release), and most of them have committed no crimes whatsoever.
Considering that right-wingers among us called for nuking Falluja over the deaths of four privateers a few weeks ago, I'm frankly amazed by the Iraqis' comparative restraint.

And speaking of right-wingers and Nick Berg -- guess what?

They just might be responsible for his death.

Here's the scoop:

According to MaxSpeak, Nick Berg's father, Michael Berg, was placed on an "enemies list" at the FreeRepublic web site on March 7th, 2004:

On March 7, 2004 an "enemies list" composed of signatories to an anti-war
petition was posted on the Free Republic website. The introductory and subsequent comments on that list suggest that the purpose of the posting was to encourage people to harrass the individuals on the list and to circulate their names to agencies and individuals that might take action against them.

Nick Berg's father, Michael Berg was on that list and he named Prometheus Methods Tower Service, Inc. as an affiliation. According to his family on March 24, 2004 -- approximately two weeks after publication of the enemies list on the Free Republic website -- Nick Berg was detained by Iraqi police who handed him over to US forces, he was then held until April 6 when he was released, the day after his family had filed a lawsuit in Philadelphia federal court. Nick Berg was not heard from again after April 9.

Now, Michael Berg is already in hot water with the Freepers -- and his comments to the Associated Press, wherein he blames Bush and the right wing for his son's death, aren't going to make them any happier.

Just you wait.

The denizens of Free Republic ferociously turned on Jessica Lynch on a dime when she dared puncture the racist garbage they had spouted about how her Iraqi doctors cared for her.

I suspect that they'll revive their enemies list and make sure that Michael Berg's name is still on it.

Which is one hell of a way to honor the memory of Michael Berg's son.

PS from Tamara: A word of profuse thanks to Fintan Dunne of BreakForNews.com, who originally broke this story. And "congratulations" to FreeRepublic's Doug from Upland for failing to cover his cybertracks by posting an edited, falsified "enemies list" to FreeRepublic.