BREAKING NEWS:

This is the stuff of Tom Clancy novels, but the sad part about it, it is also the stuff of real life.

For some time, now, I have been keeping in personal contact with an associate of a man whom he believes was assassinated in Iraq. By his request, I’ve been keeping the story under wraps for quite some time now, but that time is finally over.

THE death of an American arms dealer in Iraq has led to one of the most intricate and far-reaching inquiries into corruption among US military officers in Iraq. Some suspect that he was killed because he was a whistleblower who knew too much.When Dale Stoffel, 43, was gunned down on his way into Baghdad at the height of the insurgency in Iraq, his murder appeared all too predictable. He was an adventurer who seemed to have met his end at the hands of jihadists while engaged in one of the riskiest businesses on the planet.

However, it has emerged that Stoffel had complained to US authorities about a multi-million-dollar contracting office where two senior American officers had worked. The two officers are now under investigation.

Stoffel’s death in 2004, along with that of Joseph Wemple, 49, his friend and colleague, had all the hallmarks of an assassination. His black BMW was found with the bonnet smashed and windscreen shattered in a grim part of the Iraqi capital near the banks of the Tigris.

David Stoffel, his younger brother, who worked with him at his company Wye Oak Technology, said: “Joe [Wemple] was shot once through the eye at long distance while driving at 90mph. My brother was shot six times, in the front, the back, the shoulders and the head.”

Shortly afterwards, a rambling tape from an unknown jihadist group called him a “CIA shadow director” and “close friend of George Bush”.

“It was exactly like you see in the movies, with the guy in the black and white headscarf,” David Stoffel said. “I think it was a setup.” Since his brother’s murder he has received several death threats, warning him to stay away from Iraq.

Dale Stoffel had the swagger of a soldier of fortune. “This is what I was born for,” he used to say. He knew how to lay his hands on weapons from former Soviet bloc countries and saw the opportunity for rich spoils in Iraq. He had reckoned without the huge scale of corruption, not just among Iraqis but at the heart of the US military, which was securing a $125 billion reconstruction effort.

“We didn’t mind not winning contracts – it was not having the possibility of winning contracts that was the problem,” said David Stoffel. “These people were taking bribes just to put names on the bidders’ list.”

Dale Stoffel’s whistleblowing and line of work earned him many enemies in Iraq, including prominent Iraqis and Middle Eastern contractors with whom he had done business. There is no suggestion that the two US officers were involved in his killing.

Stoffel had passed on hair-raising stories to Stuart Bowen, the special inspector-general for Iraq reconstruction, about pizza boxes stuffed with tens of thousands of US banknotes being delivered to American contracting offices in the guise of takeaway food.

There were dead drops for cash in paper sacks all over the green zone, from which the Americans ruled Iraq, and Stoffel claimed he had been swindled out of $25m owed to Wye Oak for refitting Saddam Hussein’s tanks and armoured vehicles so they could be used by the new Iraqi army.

Stoffel made sure his complaints were heard at the highest level. Before his death he sent an e-mail to a senior assistant of General David Petraeus, the US commander, pleading for tighter controls. “If we proceed down the road we are currently on, there will be serious legal issues that will land us all in jail,” he warned.

Read the entire story. And a watered down version of the story at the New York Times.

Suffice it to say that this is merely the beginning of a scandal that will not only touch high ranking officers in the military, but elected officials in high office, as well.

This story, as they say, is developing.

Stay tuned

***UPDATE***

This just in from my source:

A new letter was written to the Senate Democratic
Policy Committee…and just yesterday they removed
access on their web site to the hearing in which
they accused his (Dale’s) family of treasonous actions. No
response…the other hearings
are still there…just gone…no retraction…
no appology…

let’s just erase the page amd maybe no one will
notice it is gone even though it was there for four
months…and quoted all over the web.

As I stated before, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Stay tuned.

The American Tea Party

Seems the spirit of rebellion is spreading:

Hundreds of people turned out on a cold and windy Saturday morning for an anti-tax protest outside U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore’s office in Overland Park.

The rally, which was promoted by Americans for Prosperity’s Kansas chapter and other groups, was directed at Moore for his vote for the $787 billion stimulus package.

Just imagine how angry people will be when the actual Obama plan makes a mess of everything…this flame of liberty could end up becoming a wildfire of freedom spreading across the country in 2010 and 2012.

The odd thing is that with Obama being the semi-socialist we all feared he would be, he’s actually setting up a situation where we really will get change we can believe in…it just won’t be from him.

UPDATE: Revolt of the Kulaks

Blessed Are They…

From the Book of Matthew, Chapter 5:

¹¹Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

¹²Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

Blessed are you, Biship Naumann:

Denver, Colo., Feb 20, 2009 (CNA).- In a startling defense of legal abortion supporter Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Catholics United has attacked Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, accusing him being more interested in trying to score political points against the governor than in crafting effective abortion policy within the reality of politics.

The salvo from Catholics United comes as advisors to President Obama have told the press that he has decided on Sebelius as his next secretary of Health and Human Services nominee.

Kathleen Sebelius, who professes to be Catholic, has a problematic record on abortion.

In the Spring of 2008, Archbishop Naumann met with Gov. Sebelius to ensure that she understood the gravity of her position. After meeting with her, Archbishop Naumann asked her to stop receiving Communion.

As Archbishop Naumann explained to CNA, he requested that Gov. Sebelius stop receiving Communion because of her “30-year history of advocating and acting in support of legalized abortion.”

The Thursday statement by Catholics United, which is mostly dedicated to rebuffing the president of the Catholic League, Bill Donohue, marks the first time that the organization has targeted a specific Catholic bishop by name.

Catholics United is but a front for the democrat party, pure and simple. Their website states:

Catholics United is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to promoting the message of justice and the common good found at the heart of the Catholic Social Tradition. 

Apparently, to C.U., the lives of pre-born babies do not figure into their vision of “justice and the common good.”

Hypocrites.

It is my hope that, like Bishop Naumann, more bishops take their role as shepherds of the flock seriously, and fearlessly speak out against Catholics who abandon the sacredness of life in their lust for power.

Stock Market Gives Obama an 'F' For First Month

Ouch.

Today marks the one-month anniversary of President Obama’s inauguration. In his brief time in office, the president has overseen three massive new spending initiatives — the $787 billion stimulus bill, the trillion-dollar financial stability initiative and, most recently, the $275 billion mortgage assistance program.

That’s a lot of activity, and a ton of money, but so far the reaction to the new administration’s programs has been decidedly negative. Investors, among others, have panned the plans; the stock market is off nearly 10% from the day before the inauguration, or more than 800 points on the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Borderline Outrage

I was quite heartened to hear that the illegal muckety-mucks from Mexico were unsuccessful in their lawsuit against a south-Texas rancher who allegedly held them under gunpoint until the border patrol could pick them up. Quite, heartened, until I read this:

MALDEF and its attorneys lost track of three of the plaintiffs entirely, Hardy said. The organization hired nine attorneys for the illegal aliens. Three were from big commercial firms in New York City.

The group also flew a psychologist to Arizona from Chicago to testify that the illegal aliens suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.

“We don’t know where they’re getting their money, but it’s a lot,” Hardy said. “They dropped $19,000 on the psychologist for his examination and $150 an hour to show up for trial.”

He continued, “We tore him up pretty good, though. We tore up all of the other witnesses, too.”

The rancher was held liable for limited damages involving assault and emotional distress. Two illegal aliens were given $1,000 plus $10,000 in punitive damages each. Two more received $7,500, plus $20,000 in punitive damages each.[$77,000 total--ed]

“It’s interesting since most of them don’t speak English, but they claim that Roger, who has almost no command of Spanish, was able to use full sentences like, ‘If you go, my dog is hungry, and he’s hungry for your butt,’” Hardy said. “Roger couldn’t put that sentence together.”

And these scum-sucking illegals didn’t get enough:

He said the judge left out one part of instruction to the jury that should have been included, and it will be the basis of their appeal.

“The law is skeptical of infliction of emotional distress because everybody gets their feelings hurt at times,” he said. “So one of the requirements was that whatever is done must be so severe that the average person would be physically disabled by the distress – suffer a complete mental breakdown. The judge wouldn’t put that in the instruction. That’s straight Arizona law.”

Now before anyone goes off half-cocked that I’m just another WASP against immigration, know this: I am totally FOR immigration, as are most of my like-minded brethren. It’s ILLEGAL immigration and total disregard for our sovereignty and our laws with which I take umbrage. If I were the rancher, I’d counter-sue every one of those illegal a**-hats (not to mention their scum-sucking, bottom-dwelling a**hat lawyers and MALDEF) for tresspassing and/or accessory to illegal trespass, time away from work, and emotional distress.

Also, two of the plaintiffs received $1,400, and two were awarded $1 each for assault. The term “assault” is legally applied when a person has simply put someone in fear of a harmful contact. According to the attorney, Barnett did carry a gun, but the judge did not include their self-defense argument in the instructions to the jury – another basis for appeal.

All together, the illegals received only $77,804 of the $32 million they requested – and Hardy believes that award will be thrown out in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

With the “9th Circus” hearing that case, I wouldn’t be so certain of that..

Many of the aliens are residents of Michoacan, Mexico. Four live in Illinois, one resides in Georgia and another in Michigan. All of the plaintiffs currently living in the U.S. listed pseudonyms in the lawsuit due to “fear of adverse action based on immigration status.”

Ten of the illegal alien plaintiffs didn’t show up to the trial, but the remaining six said they were given permission to re-enter the United States and testify against Barnett.

“That was a shocker to me. All the ones who testified said that they were here legally and that their attorneys had done the paperwork,” Hardy said. “There’s nothing like your government backing you.

Indeed.

So, Lefties… How Do You Feel About This?

All sorts of accusations flew around regarding the missing emails of the Bush Administration.

So, one has to ask, why is Mr. Hope-and-Change siding with Bush on it?

The Obama administration, siding with former President George W. Bush, is trying to kill a lawsuit that seeks to recover what could be millions of missing White House e-mails.

Two advocacy groups suing the Executive Office of the President say that large amounts of White House e-mail documenting Bush’s eight years in office may still be missing, and that the government must undertake an extensive recovery effort. They expressed disappointment that Obama’s Justice Department is continuing the Bush administration’s bid to get the lawsuits dismissed.

So, my liberal friends, what is your excuse for Obama on this?

Now They Tell Us

Gee, the American GULAG, isn’t:

Obama’s Government Report: Guantanamo is Humane and Abides by Geneva Conventions

President Obama in one of his first actions in office ordered the closure of the terrorist prison at Guantanamo Bay. He also ordered an in-depth study of the prison camps to decipher whether the terrorists and alleged terrorists at Gitmo are properly treated and that U.S. troops are abiding by the Geneva Conventions.

The report, part of which was leaked today, shows that Gitmo “complies with the humanitarian requirements of the Geneva conventions” and that the prisoners are treated with dignity. A Pentagon official, who spoke anonymously, said that it showed that the Bush administration created a humane detention camp that has been unfairly characterized by critics. Speaking of the remaining 245 detainees there, this official said the report underscored that if the men are moved, they may “go from a humane environment to a less humane environment,” according to the New York Times.

Just what made you liberals out there even think for a moment that Gitmo was inhumane?

It can only be explained by a knee-jerk hatred of anything America does, especially if the President is Republican at the time.

Bobby Jindal Takes a Stand

And shows why he must be, one day, President of the United States of America:

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has announced that he will decline stimulus money specifically targeted at expanding state unemployment insurance coverage, becoming the first state executive to officially refuse any part of the federal government’s payout to states.

In a statement, Jindal, who is slated to give the Republican response to President Barack Obama’s message to Congress on Tuesday, expressed concern that expanding unemployment insurance coverage would lead to increased unemployment insurance taxes later on, Politico.com reported.

“The federal money in this bill will run out in less than three years for this benefit and our businesses would then be stuck paying the bill,” Jindal said.

“We must be careful and thoughtful as we examine all the strings attached to the funding in this package. We cannot grow Government in an unsustainable way.”

Among the many nefarious purposes of the Obama-Pelosi-Reid Spendulus bill is to make State government dependent upon the Federal government…had Jindal taken these funds, then in three years he would have been forced to either raise taxes in Louisiana or go, hat in hand, to Obama for continued funding…and Obama would have named his price, which would have come down to Jindal enforcing Obama’s ideas on employment in Louisiana. Jindal shows why our Federal system is a precious gift from our Founders – it allows the people, if they have wise leaders at the State level, to cushion themselves against a Federal government gone out of control.

This action also shows that Jindal gets it – you can’t spend yourself to wealth, and the government is not something which is inherently good, but which is inherently burdensome. This means that if we wish government to do any particular task, we must be sure before we do it that it is sustainable by the economy. Obama should call Jindal and get some advice on how to run a government…and in 2012, we should provide Obama an object lesson in how government should work.

Defending Ann Coulter

This should get liberals foaming at the mouth:

Look, I don’t always agree with Coulter. She sometimes seems to scream black whenever the media screams white (a strategy that works only about 85 percent of the time). I’m pretty sure we really did evolve from apes—myself within living memory. And I enthusiastically endorse any and all non-bloodletting sex acts done in private between consenting adults—as long as you don’t then ask me to pay for the resulting child, abortion or course of medication.

But the whole way liberals work is to redefine manners and morals in such a fashion that conservative common sense automatically becomes hateful. If you note that women and men are different, you’re misogynistic. If you denounce the destruction of marriage in black communities, you’re racist or moralistic. If you call for the defense of America against the world-wide Islamist menace, you’re a bigoted warmonger. If we take this garbage seriously even for an instant, we spend our whole lives playing catch-up, saying sorry, going on defense.

Coulter’s answering strategy is to blow all that foolishness away. She says the unsayable thing, does it with intelligence, humor and style and gets the world exactly right far more often than not.

I have to admit, Ms. Coulter has got me laughing quite a few times, too. Anyone can be a rhetorical bomb thrower, but to do it with style takes talent, and Coulter has an abundance of that. Its all about how to stick the knife in where it does the most damage, and doing it with a smile:

(Sing to “Jingle Bells”)

Kwanzaa bells, dashikis sell

Whitey has to pay;

Burning, shooting, oh what fun

On this made-up holiday!

Kwanzaa itself is a nutty blend of schmaltzy ’60s rhetoric, black racism and Marxism. Indeed, the seven “principles” of Kwanzaa praise collectivism in every possible arena of life — economics, work, personality, even litter removal. (“Kuumba: Everyone should strive to improve the community and make it more beautiful.”)

This sort of thing just makes liberals go ballistic – they shout that Coulter is a racist, that she’s mean, that she’s hateful…yadda, yadda, yadda. It gets tiresome, these liberal accusations. Coulter is what Coulter is. Love her, hate her; whatever floats your boat. But don’t try to demonize her or dismiss her via a bit of junior-league Leninism where people become “unpersons” for having strayed from the party line.

Specter Jeered Over Spendulus Vote

The “Tea Party” spreads:

U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter was greeted with jeers at a press conference in Cranberry Township.

Conservatives are fuming after Specter cast the deciding vote that led to the passage of President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan.

Specter, 79, acknowledges his run for re-election will be tough.

He says he’s not completely happy with Obama’s plans but he points out that he was able to cut the price tag by over $100 billion and he says he was able to increase the amount of tax cuts.

Even so, Specter acknowledges the Republican Party’s conservative wing will attempt to unseat him in next year’s primary race.

Yeah, no kidding. S. M. G. Specter Must Go!

I’m sick of having to carry around people like Specter – they take our money, take our votes and then when we really need them, they invariably jump to the other side. Did any of us ever really doubt that Specter would do something like this? Do any of us doubt that he’ll do it again? I’m sure Senator Specter is a nice guy and there are areas of agreement between him and the larger GOP, but it is when Democrats are planning on blowing through a trillion dollars of pork that we really need the GOP to stick together.

Specter should become the 60th Democrat, or become an Independent; he shouldn’t even seek the GOP nomination for Senator. Better to have an Independent or moderate Democrat we can work with from time to time than an alleged GOP Senator always available to throw us over when the chips are down. For Specter to use the alleged $100 billion he trimmed from the spendulus to garner GOP support is an outrage – if we’re wasting a trillion, telling us that we’ll now “only” waste $900 billion doesn’t really help matters. Either you think the spendulus is what is needed, and thus vote for it in total, or you think its a crock of feces, and you vote against it entirely.

I’ll be sending donations to any conservative – or even moderate GOPer who will stick by us when really necessary – rather than support Specter. And I hope the RNC and the NRSCC are reading things properly here – if there is a primary challenger, stay out of it this time and allow the GOP voters to decide who gets the GOP nomination.