Berg friends recall story of detention

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BAGHDAD -- Nicholas Berg told friends before his abduction and death that he had been arrested by Iraqi police because he had an Israeli stamp in his passport and had been held at a U.S. army base for almost two weeks.

He spoke, however, of having been well-treated and seemed to look at his incarceration along with several foreign insurgents as part an adventure, said a journalist who knew him.

On Wednesday, U.S. officials said Iraqi police had detained Mr. Berg on March 24 for "suspicious activities." Although acknowledging they knew Mr. Berg was in custody, American officials denied he was ever in U.S. hands.

Hugo Infante, a free-lance photographer employed by United Press International, said he met Mr. Berg on March 19 while both were staying at the same Baghdad hotel, the Al-Fanar.

Mr. Berg, a self-employed telecommunications contractor, checked out of the hotel on April 10 and was not seen again until his decapitated body was found in Baghdad on Saturday.

A group linked to al Qaeda released a videotape of his killing.

"I spoke with him every day before he left for Mosul," Mr. Infante said. "He was going there because he wanted to make some kind of deal, but didn't say with whom. He ... didn't show up for two weeks, but we didn't worry too much because things were cool in Iraq then.

"Then I was sitting in the lobby of the hotel watching television and suddenly he walked in carrying a six-pack of bottled water, this was about April 6," Mr. Infante recalls.

"He looks at me and says, 'You want to hear a funny story?' He said he was in Mosul and was stopped by Iraqi police who demanded his papers. When they saw he had an Israeli stamp in his passport and had a Jewish last name, he said, they arrested him for being a spy.

"Nick told me that he was held for a few hours by the police and then taken to a U.S. military base and held for almost two weeks by the U.S. military. He repeatedly said he was held in the [Coalition Provisional Authority] jail in Mosul for two weeks," Mr. Infante said.