CIA Says Zarqawi Was Man Who Beheaded Berg

U.S. intelligence officials said Thursday that Abu Musab Zarqawi was the masked man who beheaded American civilian Nicholas Berg in Iraq, as Berg’s father blamed President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld for the death.

Through a technical analysis, intelligence officials determined “with high probability” that the speaker on a video showing Berg’s beheading was Zarqawi, said a CIA official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The same person is shown decapitating Berg, the official said.

Three days after Berg’s body was found, an Islamic website released a video, titled “Sheikh Abu Musab al-Zarqawi slaughters an American infidel with his own hands.”

Zarqawi is a Palestinian- Jordanian militant wanted by the United States for allegedly organizing terrorists to fight the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Some people who have seen the tape say the accents of the men on it appear to be Iraqi, and the former regime’s Fedayeen Saddam militia was known to decapitate people.

In an interview with radio station KYW-AM on Thursday from outside his West Chester, Pa. home, an angry Michael Berg attacked the Bush administration for the invasion of Iraq. “My son died for the sins of George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld. This administration did this,” he said.

Asked to respond, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said, “The Berg family is going through a very difficult period and they remain in our thoughts and prayers.”

Berg’s criticism came amid finger-pointing between Berg’s family, U.S. military officials and Iraqi police over the young businessman’s imprisonment before his capture by the killers.

U.S. officials say Berg was arrested by Iraqi police in March for involvement in “suspicious activities.” The Mosul police chief has denied that.

An April 1 e-mail from a U.S. consular official in Iraq, provided by Berg’s family, said he was being detained by the U.S. military.

But State Department spokeswoman Kelly Shannon said the e-mail reflected information provided to the diplomat on that day by Coalition Provisional Authority officials in Mosul. Not until April 7, one day after Berg’s release, was the diplomat told that Iraqi police had held Berg, Shannon said.

The FBI visited Berg three times before his April 6 release, said Dan Senor, a U.S. spokesman in Iraq. The agents told Berg that Iraq was too dangerous for unprotected American civilians.

In Malaysia, the Al Qaeda-linked website that first posted a video of Berg’s beheading was shut down Thursday by the Malaysian company that hosted it because it was drawing too much traffic.