Father blames US for 'great kid's' murder

The killing of Nick Berg has triggered a political storm as the murdered man's father blamed the Bush administration for the circumstances that led to his death.

Michael Berg, an avowed opponent of the war in Iraq, said his son might still be alive if the US military had not taken him into custody for 13 days in late March. Berg said he believed that if the 26-year-old had not been detained so long he might have been able to leave the country while conditions were more stable.

Nick Berg had travelled to Iraq as a freelance telecommunications entrepreneur intending to help rebuild communications antennae, but was detained by Iraqi police at a checkpoint in Mosul, amid confusion as to what he was doing in the area.

He was later passed to the US military, who finally freed him after his parents sued the federal government for his release on April 5. Berg said his son had been held without a lawyer and was not allowed to make telephone calls. The Berg family, from Westchester, Pennsylvania, were told of the gruesome video images by a reporter.

"I knew he was decapitated before,'' Berg said. "That manner is preferable to a long and torturous death. But I didn't want it to become public.''

Berg said his son had been a Bush supporter, and looked at the war "as bringing democracy to a country that didn't have it''. The Bergs described their son as an idealist who had travelled before in the Third World, including Kenya and Ghana, where he had spent £500 on a brick press for an impoverished village.

In a statement read by a neighbour Tuesday the Bergs described their son as "a great kid'' and said they were "devastated'' by their loss. Earlier they complained that federal officials had been unhelpful as they struggled to find out where their son was. They last heard from their son on April 9, when he said he was going to come home via Jordan.

© The Telegraph Group Limited, London 2004