Civilian Nick Berg and FBI Probe

Nick Berg - the civilian beheaded in Iraq was investigated by the FBI over contact he had with a terrorism suspect while he was a student at the University of Oklahoma.

Nick Berg, the US hostage shown being beheaded by Islamic radicals, was held for two weeks in Iraq at the request of the FBI for traveling without documents while his identity was checked. "Berg was in Mosul. He was traveling alone. The Iraqi police found him without any documentation. Iraqi police was suspicious and took him into custody, said " Brigadier General Carter Ham, who heads the Olympia Task Force, in northern Iraqi. The FBI asked to keep him until they knew who he is."

A senior law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Berg volunteered information about the 2002 investigation when he was detained in Iraq. The official said that an e-mail address traced to Berg had been used by an unidentified individual with purported connections to terrorism.

The investigation showed that Berg had never met the suspect individual and had not given the e-mail address to that person. Investigators concluded that Berg's e-mail address had been spread among dozens of people with links to the university.

The suspect individual appears to have been acquainted with Zacarias Moussaoui, an al-Qaida adherent now in federal custody and awaiting trial on conspiracy charges stemming from the Sept. 11 attacks, the official said.

Moussaoui attended flight school in Norman, Okla., home of the university.

In what may be Berg's last contact before his kidnapping, he checked out of Baghdad's Fanar Hotel on April 10 around 7 a.m., according to the hotel receptionist. American businessman Andrew Robert Duke and the staff there said Berg left some of his belongings in storage, with plans to return.

"Inshallah (God willing), I will be back in a few days," the receptionist said Berg told her.
A porter watched him walk down the street with his bags.

Berg's killing was reminiscent of the 2002 death of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was decapitated while a video camera captured the slaying. Pearl's killing is alleged to have been committed by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a senior al-Qaida operative and accused Sept. 11 mastermind.

The FBI is leading the investigation into Berg's death. Intelligence agencies are analyzing the videotape, which is of relatively low quality.

Al-Zarqawi appears to be seeking an increasingly high-profile presence. As late as March, U.S. officials said he was not known for making public statements or taking credit for attacks. But in the past five weeks, he has released three recordings, including the beheading.

The military has increased the reward for his killing or capture to $10 million in January. Although al-Zarqawi has terrorist ties stretching from Europe to Central Asia, he is believed to have been working out of Iraq for some time. The Jordanian-born Palestinian is a poisons expert. He is thought to be responsible for hundreds of deaths in Iraq. Last month, al-Zarqawi was sentenced to death in absentia in Jordan for masterminding the successful 2002 plot in the murder of Laurence Foley, a diplomat and administrator of U.S. aid programs in Jordan.

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In an 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. "I am sure that he only saw the good in his captors until the last second of his life," Berg said. "They did not know what they were doing. They killed their best friend."

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Civilian Nick Berg and FBI Terrorist Probe

BEHEADED CIVILIAN MAY HAVE HAD TERRORIST TIES