Buzzflash: "If any incident lends itself to conspiracy theories, the murder of Nick Berg does. The Bush Cartel has only poured fuel on the fire by lying about key facts surrounding Berg's detention and the videotape of his killing. Most curious is the rush to identify the killer as Abu Musab Zarqawi. They still haven't found the Anthrax killer, but they claim to have identified a man wearing a ski mask within 24 hours. Preposterous. Especially since it appears that it wasn't the elusive -- and perhaps dead -- Zarqawi at all. Then who was it?... Oh God no, we are not conspiracy theorists. We just report the facts. Too bad we can't get them from the Bush administration about the murder of Nick Berg. In the absence of the truth from the Bush Cartel, we certainly think our readers are entitled to speculate. The Berg beheading raises many, many questions, and, in response, we have only gotten lies from the Bush Cartel. Something smells about this whole tragedy. In fact, it stinks."

"'My son died for the sins of George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld. This administration did this,' Berg said in an interview with radio station KYW-AM. In the interview from outside his home in West Chester, Pennsylvania, a seething Michael Berg also said his 26-year-old son, a civilian contractor, probably would have felt positive, even about his executioners, until the last minute... Berg attacked the Bush administration for its invasion of Iraq and its sponsorship of the Patriot Act, which gives sweeping powers of surveillance to the federal government. Berg described the Patriot Act as a 'coup d'etat.' He added: 'It's not the same America I grew up in.'... Michael Berg rejected U.S. government claims that his son had never been held by American authorities in Iraq... I have a written statement from the State Department in Baghdad ... saying that my son was being held by the military,' Berg said."

This April 14 report by CBS is typical of the coverage of the filmed beheading by terrorists of Italian hostage Fabrizio Quattrocchi. It is dispassionate, brief, and cuts quickly back to other events in Iraq. It is a far cry from the huge play Nick Berg's death is receiving, both in the media and by Republicans like Lindsey Graham or James Inhofe who point to the crime as justification of abuse of Iraqi prisoners. Guess Fabrizio Quattrocchi had the added misfortune of not being killed at a time when his death would be politically expedient for Bush and his pals in the media and Congress.

Al Jazeera: "The Lebanese political group Hizb Allah has condemned the beheading of an American hostage in Iraq as an ugly crime that flouted the tenets of Islam. In a statement on Wednesday the Lebanese Shia Muslim group said this act 'has done very great harm to Islam and Muslims by this group that claims affiliation to the religion of mercy, compassion and humane principles'.However, 'Hizb Allah said Berg's killing had diverted the world's gaze from an escalating furore over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by occupation soldiers.' Other Arab observers have questioned why the Berg slaying has been spread across the media so extensively this week, when the filmed beheading of an Italian hostage earlier was given minimal coverage."

"The family firm of beheaded American Nick Berg, was named by a conservative website in a list of 'enemies' of the Iraq occupation. That could explain his arrest by Iraqi police -a detention which fatally delayed his planned return from Iraq and may have led directly to his death. The official story of his gruesome murder has many dubious aspects, not least the real reason why Iraqi police detained the young man at a checkpoint. New research by BreakForNews has uncovered a plausible explanation. The FreeRepublic.com web site and forum has a reputation for right-wing views, fanatical Republicanism and relentless pro-war activism. On 7th March, 2004 an 'enemies' list of anti-war groups and individuals was posted on the Free Republic forum. It began: 'Here you are, FReepers. Here is the enemy.'... Among those listed as having endorsed the call to action was this entry: 'Michael S. Berg, Teacher, Prometheus Methods Tower Service, Inc.' That's Nick Berg's father."

Philadelphia Inquirer reports, "U.S. officials said yesterday that Nicholas Berg was never in U.S. custody, although he was interviewed several times by FBI agents. Berg's father, Michael, has accused U.S. authorities of contributing to his death by allowing him to be detained beyond his scheduled departure date of March 30 - the day before the killings of four American private-security contractors in Fallujah led to a rapidly deteriorating security situation. Dan Senor, spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority, which governs Iraq, said yesterday that Berg had been held only by Iraqi police, and that 'to my knowledge' Berg was never in U.S. custody, although he acknowledged that the FBI 'visited Mr. Berg on three occasions.' Michael Berg told the Associated Press that such assertions were disingenuous: 'The Iraqi police do not tell the FBI what to do. The FBI tells the Iraqi police what to do. Who do they think they're kidding?'"

The White House are in all-out damage control mode, with the help of their allies in the Media. On May 11, the Media suppressed the story that Berg's family held the Bush administration responsible for his death because he had been illegally detained by the US military for 13 days, missing his scheduled departure from Iraq on April 30. But now today, the White House has issued a coverup lie through the AP: "A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Berg was in Iraq 'of his own accord' and had been advised to leave Iraq but refused. The official refused to elaborate but promised more information later Wednesday." Yeah, more information as soon as they can script it.

AP: "Michael Berg [the father of the US contractor beheaded by an Islamic group] lashed out at the U.S. military and Bush administration, saying his son might still be alive had he not been detained by U.S. officials in Iraq without being charged and without access to a lawyer. Nick Berg, a small telecommunications business owner, spoke to his parents on March 24 and told them he would return home on March 30. But Berg was detained by Iraqi police at a checkpoint in Mosul on March 24. He was turned over to U.S. officials and detained for 13 days. His father, Michael, said his son wasn't allowed to make phone calls or contact a lawyer. Michael Berg said he blamed the U.S. government for creating circumstances that led to his son's death. He said if his son hadn't been detained for so long, he might have been able to leave the country before the violence worsened."

"Suzanne Berg [said] the family had been trying for weeks to learn where her son was but that federal officials had not been helpful. 'I went through this with them for weeks,' she said. 'I basically ended up doing most of the investigating myself.' Berg was in Baghdad from late December to Feb. 1 and had returned to Iraq in March. He didn't find any work and planned again to return home on March 30, but his daily communications home stopped on March 24. He later told his parents he was jailed by Iraqi officials at a checkpoint in Mosul. 'He was arrested and held without due process,' Michael Berg told the Daily Local News of West Chester. 'By the time he got out, the whole area was inflamed with violence.' ... On April 5, the Bergs filed a lawsuit in federal court in Philadelphia, contending that their son was being held illegally by the U.S. military. The next day Berg was released. He told his parents he hadn't been mistreated. Then they didn't hear from him after April 9."