LAT: U.S. Contractor Slain in Iraq Had Alleged Graft

[DeepModem Mom]

U.S. Contractor Slain in Iraq Had Alleged Graft
The weapons dealer had accused officials in the Defense Ministry of a kickback scheme.

By Ken Silverstein, T. Christian Miller and Patrick J. McDonnell, Times Staff Writers


WASHINGTON — An American contractor gunned down last month in Iraq had accused Iraqi Defense Ministry officials of corruption days before his death, according to documents and U.S. officials.

Dale Stoffel, 43, was shot to death Dec. 8 shortly after leaving an Iraqi military base north of Baghdad, an attack attributed at the time to Iraqi insurgents. Also killed was a business associate, Joseph Wemple, 49.

The killings came after Stoffel alerted senior U.S. officials in Washington that he believed Iraqi Defense Ministry officials were part of a kickback scheme involving a multimillion-dollar contract awarded to his company, Wye Oak Technology, to refurbish old Iraqi military equipment.

The FBI has launched an investigation into the killings and whether they might have been retaliation for Stoffel's whistle-blowing activities, according to people familiar with the inquiry. The FBI declined to comment.

Stoffel, of Monongahela, Pa., made his allegations in a Dec. 3 letter to a senior Pentagon official and in a meeting with aides to Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.). Soon after, Stoffel was summoned to the Taji military base in Iraq by coalition military officials to discuss his concerns about his contract. He complained about payment problems with a mysterious Lebanese businessman designated by the Iraqis as a middleman, sources said....


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-fg-death20jan20,0,2295167.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[rooboy]

1. Under this administration...

it's more likely the Pentagon had him killed than the Iraqis.

[UL_Approved]

2. Ever notice that this stuff only comes out at night in the U.S.?

Its now 2:45 a.m. for me, and I'm getting to the story now. This is the major problem with news: it is manipulated based on timetable.

Brute force censorship is too blatant to use, now that the U.S. media is giving a little scrutiny to Bush. But the placing of news at the back of newspapers and at odd times on the Internet is strategic. After all, if it never gets published, or it never gets read, it still gets censored.

[EFerrari]

3. At night, on the eve of a holiday, Friday afternoon, Blatant. n/t

[Wilms]

4. John Lennon was shot on a Dec 8th.

But being on arms salesman in Iraq is really living by the sword.:scared:

[ClintonTyree]

5. So how exactly did the Iraqi "Defense Ministry"..........

learn of Stoffel's whistle blowing? If we're to believe that it was they who had he and his associate killed, the matter must have been related to them by someone.

"Stoffel, of Monongahela, Pa., made his allegations in a Dec. 3 letter to a senior Pentagon official and in a meeting with aides to Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.). Soon after, Stoffel was summoned to the Taji military base in Iraq by coalition military officials to discuss his concerns about his contract. He complained about payment problems with a mysterious Lebanese businessman designated by the Iraqis as a middleman, sources said...."

Now, either we have a leak in the Santorum cabal fingering Stoffel to the Iraqis, or we have a leak in the Santorum cabal fingering Stoffel to the Pentagon. The results are the same. Two men are dead and the trail leads directly to Rick Santorum and his band of miscreants.

I'm not inclined to think that Iraqi "intelligence" is organized enough at this point to uncover this by themselves.

The FBI should investigate the source of the leak, and for my money it leads directly to Santorum's merry band of men.

[w4rma]

6. Keep it simple. There is graft in Iraq too (obviously).

Although one must note that the folks with "official" power in Iraq are the ones hand picked by the Republican leadership.

[Vidar]

7. Looks like another BushCo rubout.