4 reported in custody for Berg murder
Source IDs them as ex-members of Saddam's Fedayeen

WorldNetDaily | May 21 2004

Following a report earlier this week, officials confirmed today Iraqi police detained four people in connection with the beheading of American Nicholas Berg.

The four were former members of Saddam Hussein's Saddam Fedayeen paramilitary organization and were led by a relative of the ousted Iraqi dictator, an anonymous Iraqi security official told the Associated Press.

Shortly after that report, U.S. officials announced coalition forces conducted a raid Wednesday in which they detained four men suspected of responsibility for Berg's murder.

NBC News said it was not clear if those four were the same individuals cited by the Iraqi official as having been detained May 14.

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt told reporters two were released after questioning and two remain in custody after being detained by coalition forces during a raid in Baghdad.

"We may find out that they have no association with the murder but we will continue to question them for some period of time until we are convinced they are innocent," Kimmitt said.

U.S. officials in Baghdad told NBC News they believe Berg was abducted by one group and then "sold" to a second group that killed him.

The CIA believes the second group includes the al-Qaida-related Jordanian extremist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The Iraqi source told the AP the four men arrested were led by Yasser al-Sabawi, a nephew of Saddam's, who remains at large. Iraqi police seized the suspects as they arrived at a meeting in Saddam's home province, Salaheddin, to "plot other major operations."

The Iraqi official said police seized weapons and explosives at the site. He noted the informant who tipped off authorities was killed by unidentified gunmen the day after the arrests.

Shortly after Berg's body was found May 8, a website affiliated with al-Qaida posted a grainy video of him being beheaded, supposedly in revenge for abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. forces.

The tape of Berg's killing, entitled, "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi slaughtering an American," showed five masked men. The CIA believes one, who read a statement and carried out the beheading, was al-Zarqawi.

Berg, a Jewish American, was buried last Friday in a private ceremony near his Pennsylvania home. His father, an antiwar activist, has blamed the death on President Bush.

As WorldNetDaily reported, a translator and expert in Islam and the Quran believes the Arabic message accompanying the video images is a "how-to" training tape for the murder of non-Muslims by other terrorists around the globe.

The man in the video believed to be al-Zarqawi read a statement before using a large knife to decapitate Berg. As he killed him, the men shouted, ""Allahu Akbar!" or "God is great." The terrorists then held the head out to be seen by the camera.

This statement was read by the killers on the video:

"For the mothers and wives of American soldiers, we tell you that we offered the U.S. administration to exchange this hostage with some of the detainees in Abu Ghraib [prison] and they refused.

"So we tell you that the dignity of the Muslim men and women in Abu Ghraib and others is not redeemed except by blood and souls. You will not receive anything from us but coffins after coffins ... slaughtered in this way."

The statement also included: "Nation of Islam, is there any excuse left to sit idly by? And how can free Muslims sleep soundly as they see Islam being slaughtered, honor bleeding, photographs of shame and reports of Satanic degradation of the people of Islam, men and women, in Abu Ghraib prison?"