Cognitive Dissonance

“I share a deep disgust that those prisoners were treated the way they were treated. Their treatment does not reflect the nature of the American people.”

—George W. Bush, May 4

“[The beheading of Nick Berg] shows the true nature of the enemies of freedom. They have no regard for the lives of innocent men, women and children.”

—White House spokesman Scott McClellan, May 11

When we commit crimes, in other words, they’re aberrations. When they commit them, they reveal exactly who they are and what they’re about.

There I go again, talking treason!

Oh, and here’s an AP story that sheds new light on how Berg fell into the hands of his murderers. Bush’s Colonial Provisional Authority, it seems, locked the guy up for nearly two weeks with nary a phone call:

FAMILY LASHES OUT AT BUSH OVER BEHEADING

May 12, 2004 – 9:22AM

The father of an American contractor whose beheading was shown on an Islamic militant website lashed out at the US military and Bush administration today, saying his son might still be alive had he not been detained by US officials in Iraq.

The video, posted today, showed Nick Berg, 26, slain by an al-Qaeda-affiliated group. The video said the killing was to avenge the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers.

Berg, a small telecommunications business owner, spoke to his parents on March 24 and told them he would return home on March 30. But he was detained by Iraqi police at a checkpoint in Mosul on March 24.

Berg was turned over to US officials and detained for 13 days.

His father, Michael, said his son was not allowed to make phone calls or contact a lawyer.

FBI agents visited Berg’s parents in West Chester on March 31 and told the family they were trying to confirm their son’s identity. On April 5, the Bergs filed suit in federal court in Philadelphia, contending that their son was being held illegally by the US military. The next day Berg was released. He told his parents he had not been mistreated.

Michael Berg said he blamed the US government for creating circumstances that led to his son’s death. He said if his son hadn’t been detained for so long, he might have been able to leave Iraq before the violence worsened.

“I think a lot of people are fed up with the lack of civil rights this thing has caused,” he said. “I don’t think this administration is committed to democracy.”

Berg’s family said US State Department officials had told them yesterday that Berg’s decapitated body was found on a highway overpass in Baghdad on Saturday.

When told about the website, Berg’s father, brother and sister collapsed in their front yard.

“I knew he was decapitated before,” Michael Berg said. “That manner is preferable to a long and torturous death. But I didn’t want it to become public.”

Berg’s mother, Suzanne, said her son was in Iraq as an independent businessman to help rebuild communication antennas. Berg owned a communications equipment company, Prometheus Methods Tower Service Inc, she said.

The Bergs last heard from their son on April 9, when he told his parents he would come home via Jordan. Suzanne Berg said that the family had been trying for weeks to learn where their son was, but that US federal officials had not been helpful.

“I went through this with them for weeks,” she said. “I basically ended up doing most of the investigating myself.”

Berg had gone to Third World countries several times to help spread technology, his family said. He had previously been to Kenya and Ghana, where they said he had bought a $US900 ($A1,300) brick-making press for a poor village.

Michael Berg described himself as fervently anti-war, but said his son disagreed.

“He was a Bush supporter,” Berg said. “He looked at it as bringing democracy to a country that didn’t have it.”

Suzanne Berg said she was told her son’s body would be transported to Kuwait and then to Dover, Delaware.

– AP