Why was Nicholas Berg in Iraq in the first place?

From these articles, it looks like he may have been tremendously foolish, reckless and naive. Does this change your opinion on the way he was murdered?

 

definitely not.

 

Despite his unfortunate demise i have yet to read or hear anything that would entitle Berg to that label.

 

What is heroic about being someplace where he shouldn't have been and dying for it? Now if it was reported that he was doing something heroic while he was there (feeding people for example) I can see it, but it appears he was just there looking for ajob.

Seriously I feel sorry for the guy and his family but he put himself in a very bad situation. He did not deserve what he got, but bad things happen when you put yourself in a bad situation.

 

He was there to help our troops rebuild Iraq in any way that he could. It takes courage and a true patriotic spirit to go over there. I guess Pat Tillman was "putting himself in a bad situation too" and probably just in it for the money.

 

You know perfectly well that you are the only one in this thread politicizing this, and you also know rimrocker has leveled no accusations at Berg, real or implied.

Your clownish intrusions into otherwise somber threads by flashing your orangutan-orange ass at everyone are becoming most tiresome.

 

As much junk as you sling in John Kerry's direction despite him volunteering for service in VietNam and getting 3 purple hearts, yet denying that he is a hero, you are throwing that hero label around pretty easily here.

SELECTIVE PERCEPTION

 

How was he helping the soldiers? He wasn't working with or for the soldiers, he was there on his own.
Maybe in his mind he was helping but all he was doing was causing people to try to look out for him (liek the FBI agents who had to check on him while he was in custody or the contractor who went to the hotel to make sure he was ok).

Bottom line: He was not helping our troops by being in Iraq.

 

I do find it curious that we detained an American citizen for 13 days and then just released him into an escalating violent environment.

Its curious why he was there at all w/out a job...and it's also curious that we detained him for 2 weeks.

It seems to be a chain of unfortunate decisions with a bad ending.

 

110th; Nice post.


As such, be prepared to be called rookie, might even get a pic tossed your way. Certainly you'll be told you lost your debate.

 

I am honestly outraged that some of you would not have the decency to respect a man who was savagely murdered by terrorists. Were you asking the question, "What were those people doing in the twin towers on 9-11?" Of course not. It's just a little too early to be attempting to portray Nick Berg as anything less that an innocent victim. It's just poor taste, it really is. I highly doubt any of you who are saying he was "in it for the money" or "duped by the Administration" have watched the gruesome footage of his execution. It really changes your perspective, and I suggest you watch it. It honestly sickens me that many of you are trying to pick apart the character of an American who was just murdered on video for his family to see.

 

Yeah and that's why he went to Ghana and taught the people there how to make bricks a while back

I don't understand what is wrong with some of you people here. Even if you can't support the war, why would you talk trash about someone that was beheaded period. And what makes it worse is that you know NOTHING about this guy and it is obvious. Why are you so full of hate?

 

I don't get this 'backlash'.

I don't think the initial post was taking a position, saying it's his fault or anything, just detailing an interesting, almost bizarre story that has spy thriller written all over it, in a superficial sense.

Then the closest I saw to criticism was the oft quoted " In pursuit of the Almighty dollar." as a motivation for Berg being in Iraq.

Now, I myself feel that we are way, way too materialistic of a society, but usually ackonwledge that I am in a minority on this. I was of the opinion that many Americans, particularly those of the political persuasion similar to those most miffed by this feel that capitalism and the American Way were synonomous, and are usually among those who cite US wealth as an indication of the US being the best country.

Are those people now saying that, if Berg's motives for being in Iraq were at least in part motivated by a desire to captialize, then that lessens him as a person? Or that someone suggesting he was there with capitalistic motives is somehow dispraging him?

Am I the only one that finds this apparent outrage because peple suggested Berg was in Iraq to make money completely inconsistent with what many of those same people feel is right about our country?

 

okay, T_J is assuming that this guy who was murdered was a child of light and was as honorable as any american soldier, a hero who was viciously murdered by savages. no way could he have done any wrong or made any mistakes to end up where he ended up.

and in another thread, in the prison killings and tortures, he expounds that our heroes, who are doing the right thing are saving our country by sticking broomsticks up asses and giggling about it. in this thread, the colored folks are automatically labeled evil and terrorists who deserve it, while our soldiers can only be doing this for a necessary good in the end.

clearly, he only sees things in black and white.

 

Some email snippets from Berg... via the Philly Inquirer
_________________
I guess it's been a busy time since my trip to Mosul and the great quest to locate Uncle-In-Law Moffak. The week of 4 Jan 2004 was very busy as there were several RFQ's (requests for quotations) due by the end of the week, most only announced Monday. This gave us little time to respond to some very appropriate bid requests. The other big news was the announcement Friday morning (9 Jan 2004) that the Harris/Al-Fawares/Lebanon Broadcast Company consortium had finally been awarded the new IMN contract. With out getting too technical, this is a one year (at least) contract to operate and rehabilitate the former Ministry of Information, Minister Naji's turf.

The reason this is good news is that we were announced as Harris's approved tower sub-contractor about two days before the award, and we have been working with Al-Fawares since I met one of their guys in early December.

Practically, this means we should be involved with quite a bit of tower work as part of the reconstruction, repair and new construction of the statewide Iraqi Media Network (something like PBS/NPR in the US). There are other private broadcasters being licensed, and there are folks like the VOice of America and the CPA operating small stations, but when it comes to existing broadcast, IMN is it. So we're fairly happy about this development.
...

So between the 11th January and the time of writing, I have been on six major sites, inspecting towers and cataloging the extent of looting/sabotage damage. Most of the destruction was intentional looting or even sabotage on the numerous (at one time twenty-six) tall towers in Iraq. There are twenty-two left, and at least ten have some major problems. The worst site I have been on was the Abu Gharib I tower, a 320 meter (1040') guyed tower in the main broadcast complex for Baghdad, near the Abu Gharib political prisons. This complex had 26 towers in it for everything from Microwave to Shortwave to FM and VHF. There are two tall towers (I & II) and the shorter of the two (I), is ready to come down. These are massive structures with 10' faces, 1-1/2" guy wires, and 12"X12"X1" angle legs. Abu Gharib I is missing a guy wire, has three frayed guys, and has had most of the diagonal bracing at the base removed, by torch and by shear force (i.e. Land Rover and cable). The missing guy wire was probably due to nearby shelling, the rest is due to looting. While the two main broadcast antennas are intact (probably the looters got tired of climbing) the main transmission lines (mostly 6-1/8" flexible coax) have been stolen.

This is a common MO, these guys would cut out a long section of hanging transmission line and let it fall to the ground. One out of three would get caught up in the tower (where they remain today) looking like a hundred foot coax-pretzel. We're going to have our hands full just getting these sections free of the tower.
...

At any rate, I've also been in the South a little, two sites near the small farm towns of Ash Shomali and Al-Diwaniya. For those interested, these are about 180 kilometers, (115 miles) south of Baghdad, along the main road to Basra and Kuwait. My three days in the SouthCentral was by far the most pleasant time I've spent in Iraq. The Shomali site is one of tallest towers in-country, and sit's out in the middle of a fairly peaceful, flat, irrigated farming area. From the top of that tower (which is in excellent shape and currently broadcasts on UHF) I sat and watched a few farmers with donkeys, the little town area of Shomali (about four blocks long and mostly dedicated to Petrol/Benzine stations) and mostly a lot of open space.

The air was clean (er), and when I'm climbing these towers I even get to go a few hours without some awkward "Americai?" question. (The answer to which is usually "Sawa" - as you like). I have been taken for "Turkiye" a few times, and this can be very handy as it shuts people up real quick, most Iraqis not speaking Turkish.

So Shomali was nice, and I managed to rescue some of the light-bulbs from the top beacon of the tower, which hadn't been replaced since 1997. I guess the no-fly zones in the North led all the broadcast engineers here to forget about tower-lighting for a while. We feel this is a big problem, now, as there are hundreds of tall and medium-height towers in some very flat places, many of which are frequented by the usually-low-flying helicopters of the Coalition. Just last week a Coalition helicopter ran into a short utility tower in the North near Mosul, knocking out one of the main 400 kV lines.

The other site I visited in the South was Diwaniya, a larger town with some big grain silos and two universities. It's also home to Camp Santo Domingo, one of the many non-US military bases. I actually had to meet An American CPA guy who worked there and so I got into the base - it was full of Dominican soldiers.
...

So this last Thursday afternoon I had the bright idea of running down to Diwaniya to inspect this temporary tower which was built by the former FPS (something like the Secret Service). This is one of many portable sites which were set up in strategic areas to beam the message out. Most have been abandoned, but the tower in this case is still in good shape. SO anyhow, Thursday about 1200 I left Baghdad and enjoyed a beautiful sunny afternoon and a peaceful bus-ride to Diwaniya (about two and a half hours).

I get off the bus in this little town and set out to find this site, on the outskirts of town. As usual, the directions are something like - go to Diwaniya and get on the main highway. On the way out of town, there is a tower. It's across from Al-Qadisiyah (which turned out to be a University and thus a good landmark. Without knowing too much Arabic, though, one can't tell what Al Qadisiyah is - a street, a house, a person, a sheep...).

So I finally find the site at around 1900, it's dark and I can barely make out the tower. But I found it and learned what I needed to know. I make my way back to the Garage Baghdad (which is where the service-taxis leave periodically throughout the day). By this time I had missed the last public service-taxi to Baghdad, so I started to negotiate with a throng of taxi drivers (none of whom had a car - that's kind of an afterthought to actually winning the negotiations). I've got one down to 30,000 ID (about $20 at the time) when the IP (Iraqi National Police) swings by on patrol. It seems they had reports about unknown Iranian people infiltrating their town, and at night they can't see much of my face. Anyhow, the story ends in a rather anti-climatic fashion - the police collect me and take me off to the Lieutenant who is more worried for my safety than about me being an Iranian spy. By the time the story get's told and re-translated a few times, they've got me being picked up at the sheep market amidst a bunch of Turkish truck drivers. So I am invited to spend the night in Diwaniya (which I do) and the next morning after hours of waiting and re-telling the sheep story I get on my way back to Baghdad. The sad part is I didn't really have a great desire to return to Baghdad - it's so much nicer out in the country.
...

I've found a very competent and fairly reliable commercial Manager here. He's actually been living in Philadelphia the last twenty years and just came back - so he's similarly a bit out of his element. Imagine coming home to a country so different form where you grew up. We're right now at an office near the sporting club where he played European Football as a kid.

Since then it's been destroyed, rebuilt, run by Oday, son of Hussein, and finally privatized. The fact alone that he and I are just now sitting in a free and open internet shop is unbeliveable to most Iraqis. Even a year ago he would have been arrested upon his return. Neither of us would be seeing the un-restricted internet. At any rate, Aziz will do us well I think, and I'm happy I finally found someone I can strategize with.
...

In the last two days I have inspected two surviving towers for the IMN (state run broadcast media). IMN is now being "managed" or overseen by the CPA, through a contract with an American consulting company who does not specialize in broadcast, telecommunications or anything nearly so specific.
...

I came to Mosul to meet Moffak Mustaffa Yasin, Mudafer's (my paternal uncle) brother. It was very easy to find his office (it took about one hour of broken Arabic and a few family-tree sketches).
...

Moyser (Moffak's brother) doesn't live at the same house. I still don't know where he is. Back to the Ninaveh Palace (where I'm staying tonight) I went, and I see a man gesturing at the desk with one of my cards. Ever the opportunist, I put on my best Arabic and introduced myself as "Bodgne Berg" (tower guy). Of course that was Moffak and got along splendidly. We spent a few hours and I helped him establish an e-mail account. The bank account is still waiting as he claims none of the Mosul banks will do international wires - I'll probably have to open in Baghdad. It was a very interesting time and I noticed again that there is a huge disconnect with relationships here.

...

Otherwise, I came to Mosul to meet Moffak Mustaffa Yasin, Mudafer's (my paternal uncle) brother. It was very easy to find his office (it took about one hour of broken Arabic and a few family-tree sketches).

Unfortunately, I had missed him Saturday morning while I was on business, and he doesn't keep afternoon hours. So today, after I got back from Al Khayzer, I went again and had missed him again. This time I had the afternoon to devote to it, and through the much appreciated assistance of one of his colleagues and many hours of questing, we finally arrived at his home off of Sharaa Soma in Mosul. Again, he wasn't home, although I did meet his son Faras (about 20) and caught a glimpse of his wife (name unknown). Moyser (Moffak's brother) doesn't live at the same house. I still don't know where he is. Back to the Ninaveh Palace (where I'm staying tonight) I went, and I see a man gesturing at the desk with one of my cards. Ever the opportunist, I put on my best Arabic and introduced myself as "Bodgne Berg" (tower guy). Of course that was Moffak and got along splendidly. We spent a few hours and I helped him establish an e-mail account. The bank account is still waiting as he claims none of the Mosul banks will do international wires - I'll probably have to open in Baghdad. It was a very interesting time and I noticed again that there is a huge disconnect with relationships here.

My presence near Moffak made him more concerned (about his own safety and probably mine too) than I've been the entire time I've been here. Mosul is very calm - except for the Army convoys and check-points, you can't really tell there is an occupation. Baghdad every night you here IEDs and such, but here I've yet to here or see anything except a few aged craters.

Still, there is obviously quite a difference to someone who lives here and will face the same people and situations day in and day out. The funny thing about this experience is that it's very hard not to have opinions about the Arabs I meet. Most of the Saharan and nomadic people I've met or worked with (like the Maasai) have some very culture-peculiar characteristics that can be un-seemly to Westerners. Like the Arabs, they are very rude when waiting in lines, driving, buying things, etc...Same goes here - one thousand times. There really is no line waiting, even when you are half-way into a transaction and have dinars waving and such. Same with driving, although in their defense, a lot of the roads are strangely laid out or have been detoured due to checkpoints and such. Another thing that's off-setting to the westerner is it's very hard to get details. This is another characteristic for which I was somewhat prepared, but not to the extent I've found. The Maasai will give directions like this - "Go down the road (there is only one road so no need to name it), pass the tree (same) and you'll find such and such near the wadi - creek." At least in a dry, almost desert-like place there are very few landmarks so when you find one it's obvious. Here, the directions are something like: "Pass to Sharaa Soma, the shop is near the University." Of course there are thousands of shops along the Ejammual (University) street, all of them near the University. So anywhere I'm looking, the guy did OK. But to find the place? Anyhow, I find myself walking the usual fine line between the other Americans I meet who have next to know contact with the "average" Arab, and still have very advanced opinions, and the local contacts I have, who are mostly Arab, a few Kurds, and exhibit these and more characteristics that can be frustrating to a Westerner. Another thing that's tough for me is the language - in Bantu languages the accents are easier to pick up and there are more vowels. Arab is a very intricate language with very fine accents and tons of consonants. So as much as I know the right words and can understand some of them being spoken, I can't say them worth a damn to the fellow who doesn't understand English (about 95% of the people I meet).

It's actually quite a bit like Maa (the language of the Maasai) which is big on inflection and short on syllables).

So that's it for now. One more day to play in the hills, then back to Baghdad and hopefully some contract signing. I will not be returning on 8 Jan, as originally scheduled. The way I see it, we're this far in (time and money) - I've got to stay the course to see some of these opportunities to fruition.

 

More...

So, here's what we know...

Berg is running around the country with no affiliation, carrying tools and electronic equipment, climbing high up on towers that look down on Abu-Graib and other stuff, climbing on towers that probably support sensitive communications, carrying Islamic literature, helps strangers set up email addresses, and is mistaken at various times for both an Israeli and an Iranian agent. He's captured at least twice and may have been in custody of the US.

Tragic.
____________________

Friend: Berg said he was in U.S. custody

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Slain American Nicholas Berg told a friend that he had been arrested by Iraqi police, detained briefly, and then handed over to U.S. troops who held him in a coalition facility for almost two weeks, the friend said.

Chilean freelance journalist Hugo Infante told CNN that weeks before the videotape of Berg's grisly death emerged on the Internet, "Nick told me, 'Iraqi police caught me one night, they saw my passport and my Jewish last name and my Israeli stamp. This guy thought I was a spy so they put me with American soldiers and American soldiers put me in a jail for two weeks.'"

Infante stays at the $30-a-night Al Fanar Hotel, where Berg was staying, and regularly chatted and shared drinks with him.

Infante said Berg told him that Iraqi police were suspicious of the electronics equipment he was carrying for his work on radio communications towers when he was arrested in Mosul.

Infante's comments about Berg's whereabouts during that time period echo those made by Berg's family.

Infante's statements come a day after coalition authorities in Baghdad denied they had held Berg between March 24 and April 6, saying that he was in sole custody of Iraqi police. (Full story)

Coalition spokesman Dan Senor said Berg was visited three times by FBI agents while he was in custody of Iraqi police. He said the agents concluded Berg was not involved in terrorist or criminal acts and referred other questions relating to Berg's detention to Mosul police.

The FBI confirmed its agents met with Berg, and also said the Coalition Provisional Authority offered Berg safe passage out of Iraq upon his release.

FBI agents "encouraged him to accept CPA's offer to facilitate his safe passage out of Iraq. Mr. Berg refused these offers," the FBI said in a statement.

Infante said Berg had told him he was held in a coalition facility where Syrians, Egyptians, Jordanians and Iranians suspected of entering Iraq illegally were also detained.

Berg's father Michael said it was the family's understanding that Nicholas was in U.S. custody. The family filed a lawsuit on April 5 against Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, accusing the U.S. government of holding Berg without merit.

Berg was released the next day and the lawsuit was declared moot.

"I still hold (Rumsfeld) responsible because if they had let him go after a more reasonable amount of time or if they had given him access to lawyers we could have gotten him out of there before the hostilities escalated," the father told Boston's WBUR radio station.

"That's really what cost my son his life was the fact that the U.S. government saw fit to keep him in custody for 13 days without any of his due process or civil rights."

Berg's brother David told reporters Wednesday that the family received e-mails from Berg after his release in which he made clear he had been held by U.S. forces.

Infante and another friend of Berg's, Colorado businessman Andy Duke, said they last saw Berg on the evening of April 9, at the Al Fanar Hotel three days after his release from Mosul.

Infante said he thought Berg was intending to go to Baghdad Airport the following morning and take a flight back to the United States.

The next he heard of Berg was when he heard news of his death.

"I thought he was back in the States. And I thought, my God, this is the guy. A different guy. More skinny, more pallid," Infante said.

Duke shared that shock. Another hotel guest woke Duke around midnight Tuesday.

"I looked at the Internet and there was that truly disgusting video. I couldn't look but turned away. But I heard the sounds," he said.

The beheading of Berg was shown in a video that was posted Tuesday on an Islamic Web site. (Full story)

Duke, like Berg, is a self-employed businessman. He said there were many others like him who arrived in Baghdad looking for work and were successful.

"Nick loved what he did. He was a risk-taker. He was a very robust young man, well-organized and well-prepared and this adventure was something he enjoyed and savored," he said.

 

CIA says Al-Zarqawi beheaded Berg in Iraq


- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Katherine Pfleger Shrader



May 13, 2004 | WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was the person shown on a video beheading an American civilian in Iraq, based on an analysis of the voice on the video, a CIA official said Thursday.

Intelligence officials conducted a technical analysis of the video released on an Islamic web site May 11 and determined "with high probability" that the person shown speaking on the tape -- wearing a head scarf and a ski mask -- is al-Zarqawi, a CIA official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The person who is shown speaking in the video -- determined to be al-Zarqawi -- is then shown on the video decapitating American citizen Nicholas Berg, the official said.

Berg's body was found in Baghdad on Saturday. On Tuesday, an Islamic Web site released the video, titled "Sheikh Abu Musab al-Zarqawi slaughters an American infidel with his own hands."

The speaker on the video, now believed to be al-Zarqawi, reads a lengthy statement criticizing Islamic scholars and taunting the crusaders.

Standing alongside four other militants wearing headscarves and masks to disguise themselves, al-Zarqawi then kills Berg.

Al-Zarqawi is thought to be in Iraq, operating his own terrorist network, known simply as the "Zarqawi network." A specialist in poisons, he is thought to have extensive ties across the militant Islamic movement and is considered an ally of Osama bin Laden.

As recently as March, U.S. officials said al-Zarqawi's practice was not to make taped public pronouncements or take credit for attacks. However, in the last five weeks, he has increased his public profile with at least three recordings, including Berg's beheading.

Al-Zarqawi is believed to be behind well over a dozen high-profile attacks in Iraq, and many other acts of violence, which have killed hundreds.

The United States is offering a $10 million reward for information leading to his death or capture.

 

Berg questioned about 9/11 suspect, FBI says

CIA believes Islamic militant was executioner

By SHANNON McCAFFREY
Knight Ridder Tribune

WASHINGTON -- Slain American Nicholas Berg was questioned repeatedly in Iraq by FBI agents because of possible ties to confessed al-Qaida member and accused Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, U.S. officials said Thursday.

CIA officials also said Thursday that an analysis of a grisly video of Berg's murder strongly indicates that the masked man who stood behind Berg, read a statement linking his killing to the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers, then cut off Berg's head was Jordanian Islamic militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The officials said al-Zarqawi, who's also a suspect in the 2002 murder of a U.S. official in Jordan, heads his own terrorist organization but maintains contacts with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network. The United States has offered $10 million for information leading to the capture or killing of al-Zarqawi, whose real name is Ahmad Fadhil al-Khalayleh.

When FBI agents in Iraq first questioned Berg on March 26, while he was detained at an Iraqi police station in Mosul, he wasn't suspected of being linked with Moussaoui, a senior Justice Department official said on condition of anonymity.

But Berg volunteered that he'd been questioned by the FBI once before, in connection with the Moussaoui investigation after his computer password turned up in Moussaoui's belongings, the official said. That piqued the FBI agents' interest, and they asked that he be kept in detention while they investigated further.

The original Moussaoui link was determined in 2002 to be "a total coincidence," the official said, and FBI agents in Iraq determined that Berg should be released.

But the investigation delayed Berg's release long enough that he missed a flight back to the United States on March 30. By the time he returned to Baghdad on April 6, Iraq was in the grip of a bloody insurgency, with U.S. troops fighting throughout the country and foreigners being taken hostage.

Berg's father acknowledged Thursday that his son had once been questioned by the FBI because of the computer password, but he couldn't be reached for comment about the reason for his son's detention in Mosul.

Berg checked out of his hotel on April 10 and wasn't seen again until his beheaded body was discovered by U.S. soldiers Saturday. The grisly video of his beheading was posted on the Internet Tuesday.

Berg attended the University of Oklahoma for a time, and Moussaoui, who was arrested in August 2001 in Minnesota when he tried to enroll in flight school, had lived in Norman, Okla., where the school is located. FBI officials don't know how Moussaoui got Berg's password, but they originally were investigating whether Berg had been friends with two of Moussaoui's roommates, Hussein al Attas and Mukkaram Ali, who also were students.

The Moussaoui link added another twist to the already strange tale of Berg's time in Iraq. As a rare American not tied to a major Defense Department contractor, Berg had spent months in Iraq drumming up business as a communications tower repairman. He often took public transportation and didn't have a driver or translator.

U.S. officials have denied that Berg was in U.S. custody in Iraq. But Berg's family apparently had been told via e-mail from a State Department consular officer that Berg was being held by the U.S. military.

State Department officials confirmed Thursday the authenticity of the April 1 e-mail from Beth A. Payne, who was the U.S. consular officer in Baghdad until mid-April. But a State Department spokeswoman said thee-mail was inaccurate.

Other versions of events surfaced Thursday. A U.S. general in Mosul said Iraqi police detained Berg at the FBI's request, but the police chief of Mosul disputed assertions that his department arrested Berg.

Berg, of West Chester, Pa., a suburb west of Philadelphia, had gone to Mosul on what he told friends would be a two-day trip to look for new business when he was arrested March 24 by Iraqi police.

Berg told friends in Baghdad after he was released that the police had detained him because they suspected he was an Israeli spy. His friends quoted him as saying the police became suspicious because of his last name and an Israeli stamp that was in his passport.

During his detention, Berg was visited three times by FBI agents and monitored for his well-being by U.S. military police, U.S. officials say, but Dan Senor, spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition running Iraq, said that Berg "was at no time under the jurisdiction or within the detention of coalition forces."

On Wednesday, Senor referred questions to Iraqi police in Mosul as to why Berg was arrested. However, the police chief of Mosul said Thursday that his department never arrested Berg. "Such reports are baseless," said Maj. Gen. Mohammed Khair al-Barhawi.