The FBI is investigating the Bahgdad-area ambush and murder of Dale Stoffel, a U.S. weapons dealer who repeatedly warned an oversight task force overseen by one of America’s top generals that Raymond Zayna, a Lebanese middleman, was “routing kickbacks to Iraqi Defense Ministry officials.” The $283-million project to build a tank division was announced by interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi last summer. “Senior military officials did not act on the contractor’s pleas for tighter financial controls,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
Stoffel, who was awarded the contract without competitive bidding but with Iraqi insistence that he include the Lebanese middleman, returned to the U.S., asked Pentagon officials and Sen. Rick Santorum’s office to pressure the Iraqis for his $24.7 million, and suggested an international accounting firm be brought in.
::: Below: “Show me the money!”
U.S. military officials then informed Zayna, the Lebanese middleman, about the allegations of corruption, and a British general ordered Zayna to release the money to Stoffel.
“Senior U.S. military officials have continued to work with” Zayna.
“The case” reports the Times, “raises concerns about the U.S. commitment to accountability in projects involving Iraqi money,” including $8.8 billion in contracts issued using Iraqi funds.
Coincidentally, as I post this, Janeane Garofalo is talking about the story, which was covered on NPR today. Garofalo played a portion the NPR interview. An insurgent group took credit, but no one has ever heard of the insurgent group. “Dale’s friends and colleagues have a lot of questions about his death,” said the LA Times’s reporter Ken Silverstein on NPR today.
nice catch!
This is the first I heard about this. We here about contractors dying all the time, but we rarely hear the stories behind them.
Especially stuff like “If we proceed [as we are] there will be serious legal issues that will land us all in jail.”
and
“News of it will be on the front page under the photos of President Bush, [Defense Secretary Donald H.] Rumsfeld, me” and Petraeus’ task force, Stoffel wrote to another military officer in early December. “Jobs will be lost and congressional hearings will be held.“
Stuff like doesn’t happen in this administration.
TY! He was from Pennsylvania, btw. That’s why he went to Santorum.
it sort of reminds me of “Doomsday Gun,” a made-for-HBO movie starring Frank Langella. Langella played Dr. Gerald Bull, a real-life arms dealer. Well, here’s what IMDb says: “Dr. Gerald Bull was a genius at designing and building superguns. (Very large long range guns capable of shooting more than 100 Miles.) When a plan by the CIA to export restricted material using him was exposed, the CIA denied all knowledge and he went to jail. He was later released to help Saddam Hussein build a new supergun capable of firing over 500 miles. Israel, upon learning of the supergun, fears it would be used against themselves.”
The movie showed him demo-ing the gun in Iraq. Then, in Europe (I forget which country), he was assassinated. And no one ever knew which agency did it — Mossad, CIA, Iraqis, etc., etc. Looks like the movie is available in VHS. It was intriguing, and Langella is a great actor.