Democrats probe billions lost to Baghdad's corruption ("a pervasive pattern of cover-ups")

[TexasLawyer]

The Sunday Times November 19, 2006

Democrats probe billions lost to Baghdad's corruption
Sarah Baxter, Washington

WHEN an American adventurer and arms dealer was gunned down in his black BMW near the banks of the Tigris river in 2004, his murder was blamed on an obscure group of Islamic terrorists. As Baghdad’s body count rises, Dale Stoffel, 43, is barely remembered today but his name is certain to be revived as the Democrats prepare for a barrage of congressional investigations into corruption in Iraq.

Stoffel, a former intelligence analyst, had hoped to make a fortune by selling ex-Soviet military parts to refit Saddam Hussein’s abandoned tanks and armoured vehicles for the new Iraqi army. But he was also an idealist who turned whistleblower when he learnt that Iraqis in the defence ministry and arms industry expected huge kickbacks for their help.

In a prophetic e-mail, Stoffel wrote to an American colonel he knew in Iraq: “If we proceed down the road we are currently on, there will be serious legal issues that will land us all in jail. There is no oversight of the money and if/when something goes wrong, regardless of how clean our hands are, heads will roll and it will be the heads of those that are reachable, and the people who are supposed to know better (US — citizens, military etc.)”

Three days before his death he met John Shaw, then a senior Pentagon official, whose office was investigating fraud in Iraq. Shaw describes the Stoffel case as “the first public indication of the seriousness and institutional depth of corruption in Iraq”. Shaw is convinced that “in time, we will discover along with revelations of corruption”.

<snip>

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-2460034,00.html

[HCE SuiGeneris]

1. Great article

K/R :kick: :kick:

[alittlelark]

2. Wow. I'll bet there are many of these stories that will never be told...

cuz they succeeded in killing them. $$$$$$$$$ is truth and power these days.

[TexasLawyer]

4. Dale Stoffel

I had never heard about Dale Stoffel. He sounds like a rare man of integrity over there.

I hope that his killers are caught and are brought to very public justice.

[SeattleGirl]

3. Very interesting article.

Thanks for posting it.

[countmyvote4real]

5. And you want to be an arms dealer because...? n/t

[alittlelark]

7. If you have a couple of kids heading to college....

If you have a wife w/ Parkinsons.....
If you have a Father w/Alzheimers.....
If your pension was destroyed.....
If you have a nasty mortgage....



I will not judge those who have to make nasty choices. If the just want a new RV - that's different.


Most are just doing what they think will help them - deluded though they may be.

I would forgive many of them.

[Ms. Clio]

6. How incredibly misleading -- why is this called "Baghdad's" corruption?

It's U.S. corruption.

"American taxpayers have spent $36 billion (£19 billion) on reconstruction in Iraq, much of it unaccounted for. A further $22 billion of Iraq’s own money, derived mainly from oil, has been largely squandered, with little scrutiny."

[w4rma]

8. Whistleblower assassinated. (nt)

[malaise]

9. Another dead whistleblower

“Given the problems that Dale was having in Iraq, the greatest threat to his life came from individuals he knew.”

I hope these criminals end up in prison.

[TexasLawyer]

10. me too

I wonder how many other there are like Dale. Killed or otherwise silenced.