Free Republic

IRAQ: The Unquiet American and the Murder of a Whistle-Blowing Contractor With the exception of the submachine gun and a pistol tucked into his belt, Dale Stoffel looked the same in Baghdad as he had in Washington. His life—and death was a version, in miniature, of the American occupation itself. As a friend of his later told me, “When Stoffel first got to Iraq, it was the reaction most people have the first time they go to Vegas.” by Aram Roston, Washington Monthly June 7th, 2005 The sun sets early in Iraq in December. So, it would have been approaching...

The FBI is investigating the fatal shooting in Iraq of a U.S. contractor from Washington County who had accused Iraqi military officials of corruption days before his death. Dale Stoffel, 43, of Monongahela, was shot to death Dec. 8 in a roadside ambush while returning to Baghdad after discussing the corruption claims with coalition military officials at a northern Iraqi military base. Stoffel's business associate, Joseph Wemple, 49, of Orlando, Fla., also was killed. The killings came after Stoffel alerted senior U.S. officials in Washington that Iraqi Defense Ministry officials were part of a kickback scheme involving a multimillion-dollar contract...

A MILITANT group killed two US intelligence agents in Iraq on December 8, according to a video released on an Islamist website today. The video shows two armed and masked men reading a statement announcing the deaths of the two men near Taji, north of Baghdad, described as "two members of the Pentagon and the CIA''. The footage from the Saraya al-Jihad Al-Islami group shows various photos and official documents belonging to the two men, one of whom is named as Joseph James Wemple. The statement said that "fighters attacked the vehicles (carrying the two men), killed them and took...