Hesiod(Counterspin) takes note of the Nick Berg assasination/beheading,here. H fails to note that Berg's captors claimed that they were willing to release him in trade for the release of unnamed detainees from Abu Ghraib, and said they were rebuffed. Whether this is true or not I have no idea, but it is clear that the actions of American torturers at Abu Ghraib do have consequences.(at Abu Ghraib, and elsewhere, such as Guantanamo Bay.)

I also wanted to take note of this from Hesiod:

1. As Atrios points out, before the Iraq war, the Bush administration passed up several chances to get Zarqawi (the culprit behind this latest murder), because if they destroyed his terrorist camp in Northern Iraq, it would've undercut their justification for going to war!

2.Sun_Sentinel story:The Berg family is angry with the Bush administration.

from the Sun-Sentinel:

Michael Berg said he blamed the U.S. government for creating circumstances that led to his son's death. He said if his son hadn't been detained for so long, he might have been able to leave the country before the violence worsened.

"I think a lot of people are fed up with the lack of civil rights this thing has caused," he said. "I don't think this administration is committed to democracy."

The Bergs last heard from their son April 9, when he said he would come home by way of Jordan.

Berg had traveled several times to Third World countries to help spread technology, his family said. He had previously traveled to Kenya and Ghana, where they said he had purchased a $900 brick-making press for a poor village, the family said.

Berg's mother, Suzanne Berg, said her son was in Iraq to help rebuild communication antennas.

"He had this idea that he could help rebuild the infrastructure," she said.

Michael Berg described himself as fervently anti-war, but said his son disagreed with him.

"He was a Bush supporter," Berg said. "He looked at it as bringing democracy to a country that didn't have it."