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| Fifth Column |
| " Zarqawi didn't kill my son, Bush did." |
| 2006-06-08 |
| PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Michael Berg, whose son Nick was beheaded in Iraq in 2004, said on Thursday he felt no sense of relief at the killing of the al Qaeda leader in Iraq and blamed President Bush for his son's death. Asked what would give him satisfaction, Berg, an anti-war activist and candidate for U.S. Congress, said, "The end of the war and getting rid of George Bush." The United States said its aircraft killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the insurgent leader who masterminded the death of hundreds in suicide bombings and was blamed for the videotaped beheading of Nick Berg, a U.S. contractor, and other captives. "I don't think that Zarqawi is himself responsible for the killings of hundreds of thousands of people in Iraq," Berg said in a combative television interview with the U.S. Fox News network. "I think George Bush is. George Bush is the one that invaded this country, George Bush is the one that destabilized it so that Zarqawi could get in, so that Zarqawi had a need to get in, to defend his region of the country from American invaders." Berg said Bush was to blame for the torture of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. "Yeah, like George Bush didn't OK the torture and death and rape of people in the Abu Ghraib prison for which my son was killed in retaliation?" he told his Fox interviewers. In a telephone interview with Reuters from his home in Wilmington, Delaware, the father said: "I have no sense of relief, just sadness that another human being had to die." Berg, who is running as a Green Party candidate, has repeatedly blamed Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for his 26-year-old son's death. Nick Berg's videotaped beheading by hooded captors was posted on the Internet, and the father said he could understand what Zarqawi's family was going through. "I have learned to forgive a long time ago, and I regret mostly that that will bring about another wave of revenge from his cohorts from al Qaeda," he told Fox. Zarqawi's organization took responsibility for the execution of Nick Berg in May 2004. The video was published with a caption saying: "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi slaughtering an American." When an Islamist Web site showed the video of a man severing Berg's head, the CIA said Zarqawi was probably the one wielding the knife. The father said he was not convinced. "I have been lied to by my own government," he told Reuters on Thursday. |
| Posted by:Anon4021 |
| #16 This is perverted and sick, but are Nick Berg's Dad and Cindy Sheehan an item? |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2006-06-08 21:36 |
| #15 Berg is a lunatic. the more total lunies like this on the boob tube, the better. Nurse Cratchett, please release a few more, prime time awaits. |
| Posted by: wxjames 2006-06-08 21:17 |
| #14 SO iff the Secular Commies = God-based Commies point their guns at him + Alan Alda/HAWKEYE, and no matter how raesonable, appeasing, or compromisory they are, unlike ALan Alda = Hawkeye will Berg at that moment fight for his life, or like HAWKEYE do what the people wid guns tell him to do??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2006-06-08 20:18 |
| #13 #4 - I'll take Door #2. #12 - his half-life would be longer than it people did know who he was.... |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2006-06-08 19:06 |
| #12 Perhaps Michael Berg would like to go over to Iraq and walk around on the streets. Without telling anybody who he is. I wonder what his half-life would be. |
| Posted by: grb 2006-06-08 16:00 |
| #11 How long can it be before Michael Berg and Cindy Sheehan join forces. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2006-06-08 15:31 |
| #10 What an asshole! Does he think you can win an election on sympathy? Cause only about 8% of the country is as wildly leftist as this idiot. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2006-06-08 13:23 |
| #9 Running for Congress as a Green, huh? How many votes do ya think he'd get if nobody knew that his kid was murdered in Iraq? But ya gotta try to cash in while the gettin's good. Right, Cindy? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-06-08 13:10 |
| #8 He should be forced to watch the video over and over until he can correctly identify who cut off his son's head. |
| Posted by: ed 2006-06-08 12:48 |
| #7 Grief can do strange things to people. It can do even stranger things to strange people. If I remember correctly, this guy was already a little bit of a sky pilot before his son was killed. |
| Posted by: SLO Jim 2006-06-08 12:31 |
| #6 maybe he's always been this way and this idiot thinking encouraged his son's being over there in the first place. From the Michael Berg for Congress website: In 1965, as the Vietnam War was escalating under President Lyndon Johnson, Berg realized Americans had no reason to fight the people of Vietnam. Protesting the war became part of his life. He also became a teacher, earning a masterÂ’s degree from Temple University in 1969. He found teaching a rich and fulfilling career. In 1991, when the United States invaded Iraq in the Gulf War, Berg intensified his protest activities despite reprimands from his school's administrator. He protested the current administration's invasion of Iraq as well, organizing local marches, protests, and vigils and traveling to Washington, D.C. These increasing efforts attracted a modicum of press coverage. In March 2004, in Iraq, the American military and the FBI illegally detained Berg's son Nick, a civilian on a mission of peace, for thirteen days. This detention thrust Nick into an invigorated war, as the Iraqis were energized by the revelation that Americans had committed atrocities in Abu Ghraib. Any questions? |
| Posted by: Steve 2006-06-08 12:22 |
| #5 Okay, Mike. Thanks for the comments. Have a nice day. You can go back to oblivian now. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-06-08 12:15 |
| #4 Either this guy has totally lost it over his son's murder, and can be forgiven for his gibberish, or, maybe he's always been this way and this idiot thinking encouraged his son's being over there in the first place. |
| Posted by: SOP35/Rat 2006-06-08 11:45 |
| #3 "so that Zarqawi had a need to get in, to defend his region of the country from American invaders." Since Zarqawi was Jordanian which region of the country of Iraq was his? Methinks Poppy Berg needs to look over some maps and history books. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2006-06-08 11:07 |
| #2 Why do people have such a hard time blaming obvious perpetrators who deserve it? Is it because they are mollycoddled and prevented from seeing all the evidence of what the bad guys do? they always reach for the easy target: blame the government |
| Posted by: Anon1 2006-06-08 10:49 |
| #1 Grief can do strange things to people. Like inventing torture, rape and murder that never occurred. Tell ya what Dad; if you keep your piehole open, you're fair game. Ann Coulter's not the only one getting tired of the tactic of using 'greiving' families as unimpeachable spokesmen for the Anti-Bush message. |
| Posted by: mcsegeek1 2006-06-08 10:36 |