Washington, May 14: A CIA official said today that US Intelligence officials have concluded that terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was, in ``high probability,'' the person shown on a video beheading American Nicholas Berg, based on an analysis of the voice on the video. The speaker on the video, now believed to be al-Zarqawi, reads a lengthy statement criticizing Islamic scholars and taunting the crusaders. Standing alongside four other militants wearing headscarves and masks to disguise themselves, al-Zarqawi then kills Berg. Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top US Commander in Iraq, told reporters today in Baghdad that it appears al-Zarqawi was responsible. Asked about zarqawi's whereabouts, Sanchez said, ``we believe he's moving around the country.''
Berg's body was found Saturday in Baghdad. Two e-mails he sent to his family and friends show he traveled widely and unguarded throughout Iraq, an unsafe practice rarely done by westerners. Shortly before berg's disappearance, he was warned by the FBI that Iraq was too volatile a place for unprotected American civilians and that he could be harmed, a senior FBI official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said yesterday. On April 10, four days after Berg was released from an Iraqi prison, an American diplomat offered to put him on a flight to Jordan, state department spokeswoman Kelly Shannon said. But Berg told the diplomat he ``planned to travel overland to Kuwait and would call (his) family from there,'' Shannon said.
Bureau Report