No link between Berg, terrorists: investigators

US investigators found no link between Nicholas Berg, the American businessman who was beheaded by militants in Iraq, and terrorists, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Friday.

US authorities investigated Berg in 2002 for a possible connection to terrorists but determined there was no link, Ashcroft said at a news conference.

Berg, 26, was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2002 after an e-mail address traced to him was used by acquaintances of Zacarias Moussaoui, an al Qaeda member now in US custody waiting for trial on charges stemming from the Sept. 11 attacks.

"The suggestion that Mr. Berg was in some way involved in terrorist activity, or may have been linked in some way to terrorist activity, is a suggestion that we do not have any ability to support and we do not believe is a valid one," Ashcroft said.

Berg was buried near his home in West Chester, a suburb of Philadelphia, on Friday.

Berg's father said the Bush administration was partly to blame for his death. "Nicholas Berg died for the sins of George Bush and(Defense Secretary) Donald Rumsfeld," Michael Berg told ABC television Thursday.

Berg, who was reportedly in Iraq to search for business opportunities for his small telecommunications company, was held by Iraqi police for nearly two weeks in late March and early April.He was interviewed three times by the FBI for three times and then was released on April 6.

A video posted on a website believed linked to the al Qaeda terror network on Tuesday showed Berg being decapitated by five masked men who said their action was in revenge for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US troops.

US intelligence said Thursday that the person beheading Berg was probably Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, an Islamic militant linked to al Qaeda.

Source: Xinhua