From the Rumor Mill...
Are Terrorists backing Murtha?
Rumors are flying that Rep. John Murtha is ready to make war profiteering charges against Robert Irey – husband of Murtha's 2006 opponent, Diana Irey. Word has it the charges are based on a 'smoking gun' memo from Robert Irey's now deceased business partner, Dale Stoffel.
According to published reports [LINK] Robert Irey's company, CLI, partnered with Dale Stoffel's company, Wye Oak, and through Stoffel's efforts in Iraq acquired more than $40 million worth of government construction contracts to build a center in Taji to retrofit Soviet-era armored vehicles for Iraqi civil-defense purposes. American engineer, Joseph Wemple, was also brought into the project, which was overseen by the rebuilding task force led by U.S. Army Lt. Gen. David Petraeus.
But neither companies were paid. Stoffel returned to the US to seek help for payment through Senator (Rick Santorum) and the DOD. Stoffel returned to Iraq after being unsuccessful in acquiring payments. Five days later – Dec. 8, 2004 - Stoffel and Wemple were shot to death in Iraq.
According to a Jan. 28, 2006 AP article [LINK]: "The killings remain unsolved. The FBI is still investigating, though family members say little has happened in the past several months. A previously unheard of insurgency group continues to post Internet videos for no apparent reason, showing documents from Stoffel's laptop computer, which was stolen in the attack."
Could this terrorist group – claiming document from Stoffel's laptop computer – be the source for Murtha's smoking gun attack on Irey?
Well, it surely isn't Stoffel – now deceased for nearly two years...
We will have to see what Murtha does next in trying to label his opponent Diana Irey a "War Profiteer." This despite a long history of Murtha pork barreling funds away from the Defense Department's budget that have nothing to do with supporting our troops.
Murtha recently had the audacity to question why the DoD failed to adequately armor our troops in the field after misappropriating more than enough money to do the job. This, of course, does not include the $20 million in contracts his brother 'Kit' raked off the DoD in 2004 for his lobbying clients. [LINK to LA Times article]
Terrorist groups have scored big with Murtha – and America's press -- over the past many months. Murtha's numerous statements that the military is "...tired, worn out... can't do any more... cannot win ...has become the enemy" have become fodder for the enemy's encouragement and a burden to American troops. Murtha's call Nov. 17, 2005 for U.S. troops to withdraw immediately from Iraq signaled weakness.
His statements are nothing new. He used the same statement in Somalia. His 1993 call to withdraw from Somalia was cited by Osama bin Laden as key to his planning the attacks on 9/11 on American soil.
But perhaps the biggest terrorist score of all is the 'exclusive' story published last March by Time Magazine about civilian killings by U.S. Marines in Haditha. The story centered on two pieces of evidence, which Murtha used as indisputable proof of the Marines' guilt.
On May 19th during CNN's Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, Murtha was pressed for proof about his "they killed innocent civilians in cold blood" statement. Murtha cited the Time Magazine story as his proof of a massacre [LINK]:
BLITZER: He was responding in part to you, because you've suggested this week that there in effect was a massacre.
MURTHA: Well there was. [a massacre] There's no question about it. I know, in talking to a number of people, and the information, I've never given you bad information yet. I talked to about it, in the context of the fact that these troops are under such tremendous pressure and that's what happens when they're under tremendous pressure.
When this thing's all over, you're going to see exactly what I've said to be true. That, there was an IED attack, it killed one marine, and then they overreacted and killed a number of civilians without anybody firing at them. That's what you're going to find out.
{snip}
BLITZER: The marines say they're still investigating. They don't know what happened yet. The pentagon says the same thing. How do you know what happened?
MURTHA: Wolf, you read the "Time" magazine articles. There are pictures, there are photos. You don't have to talk to the military about the proof.
Time Magazine's article was Murtha's indisputable proof that the Marines at Haditha were guilty. However, weeks earlier Time Magazine had admitted their evidence was in error:
Here are the two pieces of evidence Time Magazine based its story on:
1. An on-the-scene video shot by a "young man" "budding journalism student" working with Human Rights Watch.
2. A 'damning piece of evidence" photo taken by a Marine on the scene with his cell phone.
On March 27, 2006 Time magazine admitted the video source was an error [LINK]. The video source was a 43-year-old Iraqi named Thaer Thabit al-Hadithi who had no connection to the Human Rights Watch group. From Sweetness-Light.com: "Al-Haditha is the one and only person behind this tape. He made it. And he sat on it for four months before turning it over to Time magazine." Here is Time Magazine's correction:
In the original version of this story, TIME reported that "a day after the incident, a Haditha journalism student videotaped the scene at the local morgue and at the homes where the killings had occurred. The video was obtained by the Hammurabi Human Rights Group, which cooperates with the internationally respected Human Rights Watch, and has been shared with TIME." In fact, Human Rights Watch has no ties or association with the Hammurabi Human Rights Group. TIME regrets the error.
Later, on May 26, 2006 Time Magazine admitted their 'damning' photo was based hearsay. From Sweetness-Light.com:
In the original version of this story, TIME reported that "one of the most damning pieces of evidence investigators have in their possession, John Sifton of Human Rights Watch told Time’s Tim McGirk, is a photo, taken by a Marine with his cell phone that shows Iraqis kneeling — and thus posing no threat — before they were shot." While Sifton did tell TIME that there was photographic evidence, taken by Marines, he had only heard about the specific content of the photos from reports done by NBC, and had no firsthand knowledge. TIME regrets the error.
According to Powerline blog:
Time has an enormous amount of prestige invested in its Haditha "scoop." It turns out, though, that the magazine apparently misrepresented the source of the videotape that got the whole story rolling. And it has also developed that a photograph that Time described as "one of the most damning pieces of evidence investigators have in their possession" is only the subject of rumor, and may not even exist.
As a story about the Marines, the jury is out on Haditha. As a story about journalism, it's starting to look bad for Time.
Congressman John Murtha continues to repeat the now discredited Time Magazine story every chance he gets. It endears him to liberals like San Francisco Nancy Pelosi, who is using Murtha's delusional ego of becoming Majority Leader should the Democrats gain control of the House this Nov. 7th.
Murtha seems to follow the axiom of never letting the truth get in the way of political ambition.....
As for the Nov. 7th election, Murtha does have one pesky problem: Republican challenger Diana Irey. The once shoe-in incumbent Murtha is now seen as beatable -- and growing more beatable each day. Robert Novak's recent political assessment shows the Murtha-Irey race is in the 'Toss Up' column [LINK].
Murtha's newly national profile means news about him is no longer limited to the local and state PA newspapers, radio and television. Information previously unreported to Murtha's constituents is appearing. Information Murtha doesn't want voters to know.
Murtha's in trouble back home. Like Rep. Max Cleland (D-GA) and Sen.Tom Daschle (D-SD) before him, Murtha faces a constituency who now sees their common-sense, conservative values (and the military they love) being sold out and abandoned for personal political gain. A 'that was then, this is now' wind is sweeping over PA district 12.
What better time to launch a bogus war profiteering charge against his opponent's husband?
What better time to base it on evidence from a terrorist group claiming documents from a dead man's laptop computer?!
It worked against the Marines at Haditha; it just could work against Diana Irey!!
Maybe Murtha can get Time Magazine to write the story...
