Thursday, May 20, 2004

Bizarre Berg angle

I'm not quite sure what to make of the folowing, but it's worth mulling over.

Michael Wright, of Norman, Oklahoma, has been looking into Nicholas Berg's stay in his fair city while attending the University of Oklahoma. Berg, we learn, was arrested twice for trespassing during his student period, at which time he became known for vagrancy -- sleeping on couches at the university, and so forth. This sort of thing is not uncommon. (I still wonder why he went to Oklahoma in the first place.)

Wright becomes more interesting when he suggests that Berg could have been the library assistant who bought a 911 hijacker's ticket from a computer terminal at OU. Wright verified that Berg worked for the University in 2000 and 2001. On this site, Wright offers a lengthy analysis of the attack on America. His theories and observations are too detailed for summary here. This paragraph, however, commands attention:

Former Senator David Boren is currently president of the University of Oklahoma in Norman, where I reside. In the fall of 2001, I was talking to an OU library employee who told me that she was present when an FBI agent was interviewing her colleague. From this encounter she learned that an OU library computer terminal had been used for an online purchase of an airline ticket for a 9/11 hijacker who was on the plane which crashed in Pennsylvania. She also told me that the person who made the purchase had not been a hijacker. Contrary to expectation, he was a white American male, but he knew he was assisting the hijacking operation.
My emphasis added.

The FBI looked into this angle, but refused to divulge the name of the purchaser. Obviously, a university employs many people; the fact that Berg worked for the University does not mean he worked in the library. Still, this last word from Wright deserves our careful consideration:

The most likely explanation indicated by all the evidence compiled for this report is that he [the library assistant] was a participant in a failed attempt by the CIA to organize a sting operation against terrorists who later succeeded in the 9/11 attack. Had he not been an infiltrator, he would have been accused of a crime and brought to court in a public proceeding. The concealing of his identity cannot be explained by offering the possibility that he is a fugitive. The names and photos of fugitives are commonly put on wanted posters.

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