- BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The FBI
saw Nick Berg, the American civilian beheaded in Iraq, three times while
he was being detained by Iraqi police, the U.S.-led occupation authority
said Wednesday.
-
- An Islamist Web site Tuesday carried a video clip of
Berg's beheading, with a statement saying a group linked to al Qaeda carried
it out in revenge for the abuse of Iraqis by U.S. troops.
-
- Dan Senor, spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority
in Baghdad, said Berg had not been in U.S. custody before or after his
arrest by Iraqi police on March 24.
-
- "My understanding is that they suspected that he
was engaged in suspicious activity," Senor told a news conference.
-
- "U.S. authorities were notified, the FBI visited
with Mr. Berg when he was in Iraqi police detention and determined that
he was not involved in any criminal or terrorist activities," Senor
said. "They had contact with him on three occasions."
-
- Brigadier-General Mark Kimmitt, the U.S. military spokesman
in Iraq, said U.S. military police had seen Berg during his detention to
make sure he was being fed and treated properly.
-
- Berg, whose body Senor said was discovered by a road
near Baghdad Saturday, was in Baghdad from late December to February 1
and returned to Iraq in March.
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- He did not find work and planned to return home at the
end of March, according to his parents.
-
- Berg's communications to his parents stopped on March
24 and he told them later he was jailed by Iraqi officials after being
picked up at a checkpoint in Mosul.
-
- On April 5, the Bergs filed a lawsuit alleging their
son was being held illegally by the U.S. military in Iraq. The next day,
he was released.
-
- Berg was one of dozens of foreigners kidnapped in early
April as U.S. forces launched twin offensives on the restive city of Falluja
west of Baghdad and followers of a rebel Shi'ite cleric in the capital
and across southern Iraq.
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