Nicholas Evan Berg (April 2, 1978 – May 7, 2004) was an American freelance
radio-tower repairman who went to
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
after the
United States' invasion of Iraq. He was abducted and
beheaded
Decapitation or beheading is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and most other animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood, while all other organs are deprived of the ...
according to a video released in May 2004 by Islamist militants in response to the
Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse involving the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...
and Iraqi prisoners. The
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
claimed Berg was murdered by
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The decapitation video was released on the internet, reportedly from London to a Malaysian-hosted homepage by the Islamist organization
Muntada al-Ansar Muntada al-Ansar was an Islamic Terrorist organization operating in Iraq and multiple other countries. The organization's base was in Malaysia.
Nick Berg
On May 11, 2004, the website of the militant Islamist group Muntada al-Ansar broadcast a vid ...
.
Early life and education
Berg grew up in
West Whiteland Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania
West Whiteland Township is a township in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 19,632 at the 2020 census.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the township has a total area of , of which , or 0.15%, ...
, a suburb of
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
.
He was referred to as a "religious Jew."
Berg graduated from
Henderson High School in
West Chester in 1996. In 1996, he was a student at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...
but later dropped out.
He took classes at
Drexel University in 1998, and, in 1999, attended summer sessions on the campus of the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
.
At some point, Berg took a class at the
University of Oklahoma
, mottoeng = "For the benefit of the Citizen and the State"
, type = Public research university
, established =
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $2.7billion (2021)
, pr ...
in
Norman
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries
** People or things connected with the Norm ...
. He never earned a college degree.
In 2002, with family members, created Prometheus Methods Tower Service.
He inspected and rebuilt
communication antennas, and had previously visited
Kenya
)
, national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
...
and
Uganda
}), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...
on similar projects. Berg set up a subsidiary of his company, Prometheus Tower Services, Inc., in Kenya.
Travels and detention
Berg first arrived in Iraq on December 21, 2003, and made arrangements to secure contract work for his company. He also went to the northern city of
Mosul
Mosul ( ar, الموصل, al-Mawṣil, ku, مووسڵ, translit=Mûsil, Turkish: ''Musul'', syr, ܡܘܨܠ, Māwṣil) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. The city is considered the second larg ...
, visiting an Iraqi man whose brother had been married to Berg's late aunt. Leaving on February 1, 2004, he returned to Iraq on March 14, 2004, only to find that the work he was promised was unavailable. Throughout his time in Iraq, he maintained frequent contact with his family in the United States by telephone and email.
Berg had intended to return to the United States on March 30, 2004, but he was detained in Mosul on March 24. His family claims that he was turned over to U.S. officials and held for 13 days without access to legal counsel.
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...
agents visited his parents to confirm his identity on March 31, 2004, but he was not immediately released. After his parents filed suit in federal court in Philadelphia on April 5, 2004, claiming that he was being held illegally, he was released from custody. He said that he had not been mistreated during his confinement. The U.S. maintains that at no time was Berg in coalition custody, but rather that he was held by Iraqi forces. The Mosul police deny they ever arrested Berg, and Berg's family has turned over an email from the U.S. consul stating "I have confirmed that your son, Nick, is being detained by the U.S. military in Mosul."
[, '']WKRN
WKRN-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Nexstar Media Group. The station's studios are located on Murfreesboro Road (U.S. Routes 41 and 70S) on Nashville's southea ...
'' According to the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...
, Berg was released from custody on April 6, 2004 and advised by U.S. officials to take a flight out of Iraq, with their assistance. Berg is said to have refused this offer and traveled to
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...
, where he stayed at the
Al-Fanar Hotel
Al-Fanar Hotel (Arabic, فندق الفنار) is a hotel in Baghdad, Iraq. It is popular with independent travelers to the city. It is also the place where the Iraqi Heavy Metal band Acrassicauda played their last concert inside Iraq.
It is ac ...
. His family last heard from him on April 9, 2004. Berg had his last contact with U.S. officials on April 10, 2004 and did not return again to his hotel after that date. He was interviewed for filmmaker
Michael Moore's film ''
Fahrenheit 9/11''.
[Moore interviewed Berg for "Fahrenheit"](_blank)
'' Salon (magazine)'', May 27, 2004 Moore chose not to use the footage of his interview with Berg, but instead shared it with Berg's family following his death.
Disappearance
Berg's family became concerned after not hearing from him for several days. Although a
U.S. State Department investigator looked into Berg's disappearance, official government inquiries produced no leads. His family, frustrated with what they say was a lack of action by the U.S. government, also hired a
private investigator
A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI and informally called a private eye), a private detective, or inquiry agent is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private investigators of ...
and contacted both their
Congressional delegation and the
Red Cross
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and ...
in search of information.
According to ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' it is unclear how Berg came to be kidnapped.
Death
Berg's body was found
decapitated
Decapitation or beheading is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and most other animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood, while all other organs are deprived of the i ...
on May 8, 2004, on a Baghdad overpass by a U.S. military patrol. Berg's family was informed of his death two days later. Military sources stated publicly at the time that Berg's body showed "signs of
trauma
Trauma most often refers to:
* Major trauma, in physical medicine, severe physical injury caused by an external source
* Psychological trauma, a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a severely distressing event
*Traumatic i ...
", but did not disclose that he had been decapitated.
On May 11, 2004, the website of the militant
jihadist
Jihadism is a neologism which is used in reference to "militant Islamic movements that are perceived as existentially threatening to the West" and "rooted in political Islam."Compare: Appearing earlier in the Pakistani and Indian media, Wes ...
group
Muntada al-Ansar Muntada al-Ansar was an Islamic Terrorist organization operating in Iraq and multiple other countries. The organization's base was in Malaysia.
Nick Berg
On May 11, 2004, the website of the militant Islamist group Muntada al-Ansar broadcast a vid ...
website where decapitation video was first posted, now offline. See posted
Beheading video, a video with the opening title of "
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi slaughters an American", which shows Berg being decapitated. The video is about five and a half minutes long. The video shows Nick Berg, seated, facing the camera and his captors standing behind him also facing the camera.
Berg is wearing an orange
jumpsuit
A jumpsuit is a one-piece garment with sleeves and legs and typically without integral coverings for feet, hands or head. The original jump suit is the functional one-piece garment used by parachuters.
The original skydivers' jumpsuits wer ...
, similar to ones worn by prisoners in U.S. custody.
His captors are all masked, their identities concealed.
[ He identifies himself: "My name is Nick Berg, my father's name is Michael, my mother's name is Suzanne. I have a brother and sister, David and Sarah. I live in West Chester, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia." A lengthy statement is read aloud. The masked men then converge on Berg. Two of them hold him down, while one decapitates him with a ]knife
A knife ( : knives; from Old Norse 'knife, dirk') is a tool or weapon with a cutting edge or blade, usually attached to a handle or hilt. One of the earliest tools used by humanity, knives appeared at least 2.5 million years ago, as evidence ...
.
Perpetrators
The video title claims the decapitator was Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, but this can not be determined as all the men are masked. A scream can be heard as men shout "Allahu Akbar
Allah (; ar, الله, translit=Allāh, ) is the common Arabic word for God. In the English language, the word generally refers to God in Islam. The word is thought to be derived by contraction from '' al- ilāh'', which means "the god", a ...
". After the head is severed, one of the men displays the head to the camera, then lays it down on the decapitated body. During the video, the masked man reading the statement said the killing was in revenge for the abuse at Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse. The man says Muslims should seek vengeance for Abu Ghraib, and that the Muslim clergy had been complacent. The man also threatens further deaths, and makes specific threats to U.S. President
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
and Pakistani President
The president of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=s̤adr-i Pākiṣṭān), officially the President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is the ceremonial head of state of Pakistan and the commander-in-chief of the Pakistan Armed Forces.[Pervez Musharraf
General Pervez Musharraf ( ur, , Parvez Muśharraf; born 11 August 1943) is a former Pakistani politician and four-star general of the Pakistan Army who became the tenth president of Pakistan after the successful military takeover of t ...]
.
Media in the United States and around the world grappled with the question of how much graphics to print. The '' Dallas Morning News'' showed an image in which the killer holds Berg's severed head, while '' Seattle Times'' only displayed the image of the killer. British newspaper ''The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
'' urged restraint, arguing the video was propaganda and publishing images from it "plays into the hands" of terrorists.
Reactions
Berg's killing was condemned by the Arab League, and United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
, as well as Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
, Jordan
Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
, the UAE
The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...
, and Hezbollah. Many others in the Muslim world also condemned the killing, and BBC journalist Paul Wood found that the "Arab street" condemned the killing of Berg, saw it as contrary to Islam, and saw it as a reaction to US prison abuses.
Encounter with Zacarias Moussaoui
On May 14, 2004, it was revealed that Nick Berg had come up during the U.S. government's investigation of Zacarias Moussaoui
Zacarias Moussaoui (Arabic: زكريا موسوي, '; born May 30, 1968) is a French member of al-Qaeda who pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court to conspiring to kill citizens of the United States as part of the September 11 attacks. He is se ...
, a 9/11 conspirator. Berg's email address had been used by Moussaoui prior to the September 11, 2001, attacks. According to Berg's father, Nick Berg had a chance encounter with an acquaintance of Moussaoui on a bus in Norman, Oklahoma
Norman () is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, with a population of 128,097 as of 2021. It is the largest city and the county seat of Cleveland County, and the second-largest city in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, b ...
. This person had asked to borrow Berg's laptop computer to send an email. Berg gave the details of his own email account and password, which were later used by Moussaoui. The FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...
found that Berg had no direct terrorism connections or direct link with Moussaoui.[Berg's encounter with 'terrorist' revealed](_blank)
''CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
'', May 14, 2004
Arrests and confessions
On May 14, 2004, citing "Iraq sources", '' Sky News'' reported that four people had been arrested for the murder. Two were later released. Alternatively, on July 5, 2004, ''Sky News'' reported that four men were arrested in connection with the Nick Berg decapitation.
On August 5, 2004, ''Le Nouvel Observateur
(), previously known as (1964–2014), is a weekly French news magazine. Based in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris, it is the most prominent French general information magazine in terms of audience and circulation. Its current editor is Cécil ...
'' published a feature story by Sara Daniel detailing her meeting with one Abu Rashid, a leader of the mujahadeen council in Fallujah. He claims that he killed Nick Berg, Kim Sun-il
Kim Sun-il (13 September 1970) was a South Korean interpreter and Christian missionary who was kidnapped and murdered in Iraq.
Early life and education
Kim was born in a poor family and his biological mother died when he was nine years old.
H ...
and Iraqis who collaborated with U.S. forces. He also states that they attempted a prisoner exchange with Berg and were rebuffed by the U.S. officials.
See also
* Beheading in Islam
Beheading was a standard method of execution in pre-modern Islamic law. Its use had been abandoned in most countries by the end of the 20th century. Beheading is a legal method of execution in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Yemen, and was reportedly used ...
* List of kidnappings
* List of solved missing person cases
Lists of solved missing person cases include:
* List of solved missing person cases: pre-2000
* List of solved missing person cases: post-2000
See also
* List of kidnappings
* List of murder convictions without a body
* List of people who di ...
; Victims
* Eugene Armstrong
Members of the Iraqi insurgency began taking foreign hostages in Iraq beginning in April 2004. Since then, in a dramatic instance of Islamist kidnapping they have taken captive more than 200 foreigners and thousands of Iraqis; among them, dozens o ...
* Kenneth Bigley
Kenneth is an English given name and surname. The name is an Anglicised form of two entirely different Gaelic personal names: ''Cainnech'' and '' Cináed''. The modern Gaelic form of ''Cainnech'' is ''Coinneach''; the name was derived from a ...
* John Dawson Dewhirst
John Dawson Dewhirst (1952 – c. August 1978) was a British teacher and amateur yachtsman who was one of nine westerners, and two Britons, known to have been killed by the Khmer Rouge during the rule of Pol Pot.
Early life
Dewhirst was bor ...
* James Foley (photojournalist)
* Margaret Hassan
Margaret Hassan (18 April 1945 – 8 November 2004), also known as "Madam Margaret", was an Irish-born aid worker who had worked in Iraq for many years until she was Kidnapping, abducted and murdered by unidentified kidnappers in Iraq in ...
* Alan Henning
* Jack Hensley
Members of the Iraqi insurgency (Iraq War), Iraqi insurgency began taking foreign hostages in Iraq beginning in April 2004. Since then, in a dramatic instance of Islamist kidnapping they have taken captive more than 200 foreigners and thousands of ...
* Paul Marshall Johnson, Jr.
Paul Marshall Johnson Jr. (May 8, 1955 – ) was an American helicopter engineer who lived in Saudi Arabia. In 2004, he was taken hostage by militants and his murder was Beheading video, recorded on video tape.
Background
Johnson was born in Eag ...
* Seif Adnan Kanaan
Seif Adnan Kanaan (died 22 October 2004) was an Iraqi citizen who was abducted in Iraq and beheaded on 22 October 2004. The reason given by the kidnappers, the Army of Ansar Al-Sunna, was that he was employed by the United States Army.
Murder
On ...
* Kim Sun-il
Kim Sun-il (13 September 1970) was a South Korean interpreter and Christian missionary who was kidnapped and murdered in Iraq.
Early life and education
Kim was born in a poor family and his biological mother died when he was nine years old.
H ...
* Shosei Koda
was a Japanese citizen who was kidnapped and later beheaded in Iraq on 29 October 2004, by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group, while touring the country. He was the first Japanese person beheaded in Iraq.
Early life and education
Koda's parents, Sets ...
* Daniel Pearl
Daniel Pearl (October 10, 1963 – February 1, 2002) was an American journalist who worked for ''The Wall Street Journal.'' He was kidnapped and later decapitated by terrorists in Pakistan.'
Pearl was born in Princeton, New Jersey, and rais ...
* Steven Joel Sotloff
* Piotr Stańczak
Piotr Stańczak (23 July 1966 – 7 February 2009) was a Polish geologist who was beheaded by Islamic terrorists in Pakistan in February 2009.
Abduction
Stańczak was abducted in the city of Attock in September 2008 after gunmen shot dead his dr ...
References
Further reading
* Hayes, Jonathan.
Second Opinion
" ''New York Magazine
''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker' ...
''. "A New York City medical examiner watches the video of Nick Berg’s beheading and wishes he’d looked away."
External links
*
Nick Berg Memorial and Nick Berg Initiative, Inc.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berg, Nick
1978 births
2000s missing person cases
2004 murders in Iraq
2004 deaths
American construction businesspeople
American expatriates in Iraq
American people murdered abroad
American people taken hostage
American terrorism victims
Burials in Pennsylvania
Cornell University alumni
Drexel University alumni
Filmed executions in Iraq
Foreign hostages in Iraq
Formerly missing people
Iraq–United States relations
Islamism-related beheadings
Kidnapped American people
Kidnappings in Iraq
Male murder victims
Missing person cases in Iraq
Murdered American Jews
People from Chester County, Pennsylvania
People from West Chester, Pennsylvania
People murdered in Iraq
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Beheading videos