High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Nicholas Evan "Nick" Berg (2 April 1978 – 7 May 2004) was an American Jewish businessman who went to Iraq after the US invasion of Iraq. He was abducted and later beheaded according to a video released in May 2004 by Islamist militants in response to the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal involving the United States Army and Iraqi prisoners. The CIA claimed that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi personally beheaded Berg.