corrente

Weird. Make of this what you will.

Mystery surrounded not only Nicholas Berg's disappearance but also why he had been held by Iraqi police for about two weeks and questioned by FBI agents three times. Berg's family disputed U.S. officials' claims that Berg was never in U.S. custody.Berg was last in contact with U.S. officials in Baghdad on April 10, and his [beheaded] body was found Saturday in Baghdad.

"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?" Berg's father, Michael, told The Associated Press from his home in West Chester, Pa., a Philadelphia suburb.

Berg first worked in Iraq in December and January and returned in March. He was inspecting communications facilities, some of which were destroyed in the war or by looters.

During his time in Iraq, he struggled with the Arabic language and worked at night on a tower in Abu Ghraib, a site of repeated attacks on U.S. convoys and the location of the notorious prison where U.S. soldiers abused Iraqi inmates.

Since Iraq remains under U.S. military occupation, it seems unlikely that the Iraqi police would have held Berg, or any other American, for such a length of time without at least the tacit approval of U.S. authorities.
(AP via LA Times)

Tinfoil hat time? Or what Berg just in the wrong place at the wrong time—like so much about this wretched war?

UPDATE Alert reader rickfman comments:

While this is interesting and I await further substantive developments, let's be sure we don't morph into the Vince Foster realm of tortured conspiracy theorizing. "They became what they beheld" and all that...

I agree. And probably the post above poses the same danger, no matter how much I qualify it.

On the other hand, I'm continually amazed by the fact that no matter how cynical I become about this administration—and I do try very very hard—I have never been cynical enough. If I've finally gone over the edge... Well, alert readers will drag me back.