- Hi Jeff,
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- I'm sure you guys will post this information soon from
these links, but in case you don't know - supposedly the killers were caught.
But there are lots of differences in each of these stories that I'm sure
your readers will catch. They only add to the mystery.
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- http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/430453.html
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- http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2959365
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- http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=582502004
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1222362,00.html
- Here is the text of the final link:
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- Beheading Suspects 'Led By Saddam's Nephew'
- By Luke Harding in Baghdad
- The Guardian - UK
- 5-22-4
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- The mystery of who killed Nick Berg, the freelance contractor
beheaded on video, took a new twist last night when Iraqi police claimed
they had arrested four suspects with links to Saddam Hussein's family.
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- Iraqi security officials said Berg's alleged killers
were part of a group led by a close relative of Saddam - his nephew Yasser
al-Sabawi.
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- The men were seized a week ago after a tip-off, they
said. All were former members of the Fedayeen Saddam, the para military
group notorious for its loyalty to Iraq's ex-president.
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- But last night the US military spokesman, Brigadier General
Mark Kimmitt, said American forces had arrested four men linked to the
Berg case after a raid in Baghdad. Two had been released and two were still
being questioned.
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- He said: '"I don't know their prior affiliations
or prior organisations. We have some intelligence that would suggest they
have knowledge, perhaps some culpability."
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- It was not clear whether the two raids were related.
The contradictory revelations add to the confusion in the circumstances
surrounding the kidnapping and execution of Berg, who disappeared after
checking out of his Baghdad hotel on April 10.
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- In a video released last week Berg is shown sitting in
an orange jumpsuit in front of five masked and armed men. One of them declares
that his killing is in revenge for the abuse of prisoners by US guards
at Abu Ghraib. The same man then draws a long knife and cuts off Berg's
head.
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- The CIA claimed there was a "high probability"
that Abu Musab al-Zaqawi, a Jordanian extremist with links to al-Qaida,
was the masked man who beheaded Berg in a murder recorded and broadcast
over the internet.
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- Yesterday, however, the trail appeared to lead instead
to Saddam's hometown of Tikrit. Iraqi officials said the men had been arrested
in Salaheddin province, which includes Tikrit, shortly after Berg's headless
body was dumped last week near a Baghdad flyover.
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- Al-Sabawi was not among those arrested, the Iraqi official
said. Police intelligence agents seized the men as they arrived to "plot
other major operations", the officer told the Associated Press, without
elaborating.
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- Four suspects had arrived early for the 7pm meeting and
were inside the house, waiting for a fifth associate who escaped arrest,
he said.
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- The Iraqi police appear to have done a poor job of protecting
their informant, who was killed by unidentified gunmen the following day,
the official admitted. Police seized weapons and explosives at the scene.
Last night the suspects were believed to be still in Iraqi hands.
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- The case is extremely sensitive, with news of the apparent
arrests leaking after days of rumours.
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- The uncertainty surrounding Berg's kidnapping intensified
after US officials confirmed the FBI had questioned him three times after
his arrest in the northern city of Mosul.
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- US occupation authorities have denied he was ever in
American custody during his two weeks in detention there. But this week
Berg's parents released an email from an American diplomat which confirmed
he had been held by the US military and was "safe".
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