MR. SMITH GOES TO BAGHDAD? From the moment the Nick ...

ES TO BAGHDAD? From the moment the Nick Berg beheading video was released, something seemed strange. First, the video was titled "Sheikh Abu Musab al-Zarqawi slaughters an American infidel with his own hands." This isn't al Qaeda's m.o. When Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had Danny Pearl beheaded, he didn't release a video titled "Brought to you by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed." They used a diversionary group's name: the "National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty."

Al-Zarqawi is the Coalition's favorite boogeyman, taking the blame for everything from car bombings to the Fallujah uprising. Dubious letters of his were paraded before the media to prove that outsiders were causing the Iraqi uprising, not locals. Before the war, he was cited as the critical link tying Saddam Hussein to Al Qaeda.

The problem is that two Islamic groups have claimed that al-Zarqawi was killed in March. Last week, an eight-page leaflet circulating in Fallujah confirmed that he was killed in the Sulaimaniya Mountains of northern Iraq during a U.S. bombing. And if al-Zarqawi did indeed kill Berg, why didn't he show his face? Everyone's already seen it.

The CIA says its analysis proves al-Zarqawi was the executioner-yet many other experts noted that the man who read the statement and cut off Berg's head had a distinctly Iraqi accent. Al-Zarqawi is Jordanian.

More questions have since been raised. On March 24, Berg was picked up by Iraqi police because of "suspicious activity." They then claimed they handed Berg over to American authorities, who held him for two weeks until his parents filed suit in a federal court to have him released. After Berg's death, Dan Senor, spokesman for the Coalition, denied that the Americans ever held him-yet Iraqi police, Berg's acquaintances in Iraq and emails sent by American officials to the Berg family all confirm that they had. Later, the Coalition admitted that the FBI interrogated him three times. Why?

The details of his release are no less bizarre. Berg told his family that he was worried about the violence and planned to leave, but American authorities claim that he refused their offer to fly him out of the country, preferring instead to take a southern route to Kuwait, the longest route of all. Presumably this is where al-Zarqawi kidnapped him-yet as a Sunni with Kurdish allies, how could al-Zarqawi pull off a kidnapping in the Shiite south?

And while Nick Berg is supposed to have been a Bush and war supporter, CNN has reported that Berg was interviewed last year by the FBI because of his ties to 9/11 al Qaeda suspect Zacarias Moussaoui. Berg is said to have unwittingly allowed a Moussaoui friend to use his laptop to send emails while studying in Oklahoma.

Something doesn't add up.