Friday, May 14, 2004

Berg and Zacarias Moussaoui

You have probably read reports that Nick Berg was once investigated by the FBI because he had coincidentally used the same password as accused terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui. Until now, I had ignored the tale as irrelevant.

I'm still not sure whether the story has any larger significance. But as it turns out, this business runs deeper and gets weirder than anyone knew.

CNN (and you will recall that the administration used CNN to tell the teeming millions that Al Zarqawi "re-grew" his leg) details a very strange incident in which a Moussaoui associate met Berg in Oklahoma in 2001, during a bus ride to a rather obscure college campus. Berg let the man use his laptop -- and his email account. Berg even revealed his password!

It's hard to make sense of this report. Berg was a telecommunications specialist. Not a dummy. He surely knew that one never divulges a password.

Why, come to think of it, would he even need to divulge it? Think about it: You can let someone sitting next to you use either your POP3 or web-based email without giving away your password.

And why was he going to a small college half-way across the country?

I imagine that the last question will eventually give way to a reasonable explanation. Perhaps all my questions will soon have answers. But right now, this whole episode seems odd.

(Addendum: Those pooh-poohing any alternative thoughts on the Berg matter are trotting out the inevitable references to black helicopters and tin-foil hats. C'mon, guys...! In my day, the skeptical harrumphers were capable of expressing themselves with greater originality.)

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