corrente

The Philadelphia Inquirer is on this one, since Nick Berg was from Philly, and they've published some of his mail from Iraq here.

It's a poignant and ironic series, and will repay full reading for the picture it gives of Iraq and the Iraqi people during the occupation. Berg saw the world through fresh eyes, and the mail fills me with sadness.

As far as the Nick Berg story, as opposed to Nick Berg the person goes, irony abounds here as well. Berg's business was maintaining antennas: big radio-type antennas, which he called "towers." And why did the towers need to be repaired? Because they were looted during the war. So, another of the countless little human tragedies that can be laid squarely on the backs of the wingers and factually challenged ideologues who dragged us into this misbegotten venture.

There's no smoking gun in the email, so I'm not in full tinfoil hat mode, but there are some points that are, well, suggestive:

The other big news was the announcement Friday morning (9 Jan 2004) that the Harris/Al-Fawares/Lebanon Broadcast Company consortium had finally been awarded the new IMN contract. With out getting too technical, this is a one year (at least) contract to operate and rehabilitate the former Ministry of Information, Minister Naji's turf.

The reason this is good news is that we were announced as Harris's approved tower sub-contractor about two days before the award. we should be involved with quite a bit of tower work as part of the reconstruction, repair and new construction of the statewide Iraqi Media Network (something like PBS/NPR in the US). There are other private broadcasters being licensed, and there are folks like the VOice of America and the CPA operating small stations, but when it comes to existing broadcast, IMN is it. So we're fairly happy about this development.

I wonder who has this contract how?

So between the 11th January and the time of writing, I have been on six major sites, inspecting towers and cataloging the extent of looting/sabotage damage. Most of the destruction was intentional looting or even sabotage on the numerous (at one time twenty-six) tall towers in Iraq. There are twenty-two left, and at least ten have some major problems. The worst site I have been on was the Abu Gharib I tower, a 320 meter (1040') guyed tower in the main broadcast complex for Baghdad, near the Abu Gharib political prisons.

So here's a guy in Iraq, climbing up tall towers, and seeing... What? Well, just about anything, eh? And if it looked like he had binoculars, or any kind of recording equipment....

The other site I visited in the South was Diwaniya, a larger town with some big grain silos and two universities. It's also home to Camp Santo Domingo, one of the many non-US military bases. I actually had to meet An American CPA guy who worked there and so I got into the base - it was full of Dominican soldiers.

I wonder who the CPA guy was? And what he did for Nick Berg?

So this last Thursday afternoon I had the bright idea of running down to Diwaniya to inspect this temporary tower which was built by the former FPS (something like the Secret Service). This is one of many portable sites which were set up in strategic areas to beam the message out.

Hmmm.... And I'm not the only one who thought this way:

so I started to negotiate with a throng of taxi drivers (none of whom had a car - that's kind of an afterthought to actually winning the negotiations). I've got one down to 30,000 ID (about $20 at the time) when the IP (Iraqi National Police) swings by on patrol. It seems they had reports about unknown Iranian people infiltrating their town, and at night they can't see much of my face. Anyhow, the story ends in a rather anti-climatic fashion - the police collect me and take me off to the Lieutenant who is more worried for my safety than about me being an Iranian spy.

Later, they do release him. But the lieutenant was playing Good Cop. Eh?

I've found a very competent and fairly reliable commercial Manager here. He's actually been living in Philadelphia the last twenty years and just came back - so he's similarly a bit out of his element. Imagine coming home to a country so different form where you grew up. We're right now at an office near the sporting club where he played European Football as a kid.

Since then it's been destroyed, rebuilt, run by Oday, son of Hussein, and finally privatized. The fact alone that he and I are just now sitting in a free and open internet shop is unbeliveable to most Iraqis. Even a year ago he would have been arrested upon his return. Neither of us would be seeing the un-restricted internet. At any rate, Aziz will do us well I think, and I'm happy I finally found someone I can strategize with.

And who is this Aziz, I wonder? Does anyone know him from Philadelphia?

In the last two days I have inspected two surviving towers for the IMN (state run broadcast media). IMN is now being "managed" or overseen by the CPA, through a contract with an American consulting company who does not specialize in broadcast, telecommunications or anything nearly so specific.

What, then, does this "unspecific" company do?

I came to Mosul to meet Moffak Mustaffa Yasin, Mudafer's (my paternal uncle) brother. It was very easy to find his office (it took about one hour of broken Arabic and a few family-tree sketches).

Nick Berg had relatives in Iraq?! Now this:

Moyser (Moffak's brother) doesn't live at the same house. I still don't know where he is. Back to the Ninaveh Palace (where I'm staying tonight) I went, and I see a man gesturing at the desk with one of my cards. Ever the opportunist, I put on my best Arabic and introduced myself as "Bodgne Berg" (tower guy). Of course that was Moffak and got along splendidly. We spent a few hours and I helped him establish an e-mail account. The bank account is still waiting as he claims none of the Mosul banks will do international wires - I'll probably have to open in Baghdad. It was a very interesting time and I noticed again that there is a huge disconnect with relationships here.

Translated: Nick Berg helps an unknown Iraqi set up an email account. Oh no...

Well, that's all I can post for now. It's heartbreaking. Reminds me of The Zone in Gravity's Rainbow.

So... Here's a lone American travelling around Iraq helping unknown people set up email accounts (this is not the only example). In his work, he has to climb tall towers near sensitive installations. Some of the installations are owned by powerful Iraqi ministers, others by shadowy CPA forces, and, when you think about it, the entire tower system is the infrastructure for intelligence communication, and the media. Not to mention cell phones, which still don't work, and for which there is a lot of competition for contracts worth billions. He's picked up at least once for being an Iranian spy.

I think, at least, we can say that the case that Berg's death was entirely due to Islamic fundamentalists or AQ is, as the Scotch would say, "not proven."

I can well imagine a scenario where "Ali" (let's call him), the first cousin of the Iraqi Minister of Information, wanted the tower contract, took Nick Berg out for a beer, and after giving him knockout drops, handed him over to the CPA, who also had their own ideas about the contract. Then it turns out the "Ali's" CPA contact is a real wrong 'un, so Berg got handed over to ...

Yeah, pure fantasy, I agree, but a little more nuanced than the noxious pablum we're being fed now (see farmer, below).

Readers? Anyone with more detail? There's more in the Inky— but I have to run.