Dale Stoffel
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Dale C. Stoffel (November 18, 1961 – December 8, 2004) was an American businessman and arms dealer who was involved with the American reconstruction efforts following the
Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...
. After alerting the
Pentagon In geometry, a pentagon (from the Greek πέντε ''pente'' meaning ''five'' and γωνία ''gonia'' meaning ''angle'') is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagon may be simpl ...
to corruption and payment irregularities involving U.S. personnel in the
Coalition Provisional Authority ) , capital = Baghdad , largest_city = capital , common_languages = ArabicKurdishEnglish (''de facto'') , government_type = Transitional government , legislature = Iraqi Governing Council , title_leader = Administrator , leader1 = Jay ...
and with the Iraqi government, he was killed in an ambush in Taji, Iraq.


Early career

In 1985, Stoffel was recruited by the
Office of Naval Intelligence The Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) is the military intelligence agency of the United States Navy. Established in 1882 primarily to advance the Navy's modernization efforts, it is the oldest member of the U.S. Intelligence Community and serves ...
(ONI) to work on missile technology. In his first year at ONI, his coworker,
Jonathan Pollard Jonathan Jay Pollard (born August 7, 1954) is a former intelligence analyst for the United States government. In 1987, as part of a plea agreement, Pollard pleaded guilty to spying for and providing top-secret classified information to Israel. H ...
was arrested for espionage. Stoffel openly despised dishonesty and repeated for years that Pollard was a money grubber who used spying for Israel as a way out. In 1987, he was part of the ONI team that proved that the
USS Stark USS ''Stark'' (FFG-31) was the 23rd ship of the of guided-missile frigates and was named after Admiral Harold Rainsford Stark (1880–1972). Ordered from Todd Pacific Shipyards in Seattle, Washington, on 23 January 1978, ''Stark'' was laid dow ...
was hit by two missiles, which made it difficult for the Iraqis to claim a single accidentally fired missile was responsible. During the 1990s, he worked on a top-secret program for the United States military, procuring Russian, Chinese, and other foreign-made weaponry for testing. In this job, he used
Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...
an contacts, especially in
Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
and
Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...
, allowing him to purchase
surface-to-air missiles A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-aircraft syst ...
and antiaircraft systems. He later became a businessman and arms dealer. His lifestyle mirrored that of a soldier of fortune and he was known to routinely carry an automatic weapon slung across his shoulder with a cigar in his mouth. Among his duties, he was executive vice president of international development for Canonsburg-based CLI Corp.


Iraq operations


Defense contracts

He had a close relationship with a number of Washington lobbyists connected to Ahmed Chalabi. After the
Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...
, Stoffel's company, Wye Oak Technology, received one of the first contracts issued by the new
Iraqi Ministry of Defense The Ministry of Defence ( ar, وزارة الدفاع العراقية) is the Iraqi government agency responsible for defence of Iraq. It is also involved with internal security. Authority The Ministry directs all the Iraqi Armed Forces, comp ...
to refurbish the country's Soviet-era T-55 tanks and artillery. After
General David Petraeus David Howell Petraeus (; born November 7, 1952) is a retired United States Army general and public official. He served as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from September 6, 2011, until his resignation on November 9, 2012. Prior to h ...
sent a July 20, 2004 letter to Iraqi Minister of Defense,
Hazim al-Shaalan Hazim al-Shaalan al-Khuzaei (born 1947) was Iraq's Defence Minister from June 2004 until May 2005 under the Iraqi Interim Government of Ayad Allawi. Shaalan was born in Diwaniyya, southern Iraq, into a leading family of the Ghazal tribe. He is a ...
, pledging full support for Stoffel,Ken Silverstein and T. Christian Miller, ''Army Ignored Broker on Arms Deal'

Los Angeles Times, March 15, 2005
the contract to Wye Oak was awarded and signed on August 16, 2004.U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
Wye Oak Technology v. Republic of Iraq
Case 10-1874, December 29, 2011
The contract was jointly administered by Wye Oak and another Stoffel-related company, CLI, Inc. The first shipment of tanks arrived in Iraq in November and were used to supply Iraq's 1st Mechanized Brigade. It is reported that Stoffel understood the risks involved with his job, but hoped that by aiding the Iraqi military, he could help U.S. troops return home sooner. All told, his contracts with the Iraqi government were worth more than US$40 million.


Corruption whistleblowing

On May 20, 2004, Stoffel was granted limited immunity from prosecution by the
Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction The Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) (October 2004 - October 2013) was created as the successor to the Coalition Provisional Authority Office of Inspector General (CPA-IG). SIGIR was an independent government ...
(SIGIR) in a
whistleblower A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...
complaint. He gave investigators information regarding U.S. corruption in the Iraqi reconstruction effort that implicated Colonel Anthony B. Bell, and SIGIR opened an investigation of him among others.''Anthony B. Bell v. Special Inspector General For Iraq Reconstruction

U.S. District Court, Northern District of Georgia, Case 3:09-cv-00024-JTC-SSC, March 2, 2009
Col. Bell was later implicated in the bribery case of Cockerham bribery case, Maj. John Cockerham. In his statement, Stoffel described thousands of dollars in payments being delivered to American contracting offices in pizza boxes, pizza delivery-style, and
dead drop A dead drop or dead letter box is a method of espionage tradecraft used to pass items or information between two individuals (e.g., a case officer and an agent, or two agents) using a secret location. By avoiding direct meetings, individuals ca ...
payoffs in paper sacks dropped off throughout the Green Zone.


Complaints about payments

Immediately after delivering the first batch of tanks in November 2004, Stoffel alerted the
Pentagon In geometry, a pentagon (from the Greek πέντε ''pente'' meaning ''five'' and γωνία ''gonia'' meaning ''angle'') is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagon may be simpl ...
to irregularities regarding the way his company was being compensated. In a November 30, 2004 e-mail to a senior assistant of Petraeus, Stoffel stated, "If we proceed down the road we are currently on, there will be serious legal issues that will land us all in jail". The Iraqi Ministry of Defence's method of payment gave rise to his suspicions that Iraqi officials were receiving kickbacks. The Ministry was routing payments through Raymond Zayna, a French-Lebanese businessman with a company called General Investment Group, who claimed to be acting as an escrow agent under power of attorney, but later claimed to be a partner of Wye Oak. Stoffel also alleged that the Ministry was forcing him to use preferred sub-contractors. By November, Stoffel was owed $24.7 million from the Ministry. His case was part of a larger trend involving middlemen and kickbacks in the Iraqi government and the rebuilding process. Stoffel returned to the United States in November 2004. He met with Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, who wrote to Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld Donald Henry Rumsfeld (July 9, 1932 – June 29, 2021) was an American politician, government official and businessman who served as Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under president Gerald Ford, and again from 2001 to 2006 under Presi ...
on December 3, 2004, on Stoffel's behalf, urging the Pentagon to address the issue of payment to Wye Oak Technology with the Iraqi Minister of Defense, Hazim al-Shaalan. With an introduction made by Republican insider Pat Templeton, Stoffel met with Deputy Undersecretary of Defense John A. "Jack" Shaw to discuss payment to his company and his concerns of corruption in both the U.S. and Iraqi procurement efforts. Shaw's office forwarded the complaint to the Department of the Army. This would prove useless as Shaw, himself under investigation by the
FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
for corruption related to Iraq reconstruction contracts, was fired on December 10, 2004 - two days after Stoffel's death.T. Christian Miller, ''Pentagon Ousts Official Under FBI Investigation''

Los Angeles Times, December 11, 2004
Stoffel returned to Iraq on December 5, 2004. A short time later, he and his business partner Joseph Wemple attended a meeting chaired by British Brig. Gen. David Clements, who was deputy commander of the mission to train Iraqi troops, at the Iraqi Ministry of Defence. Present at the Meeting were
Ziyad Cattan Ziyad Cattan is a dual citizen of Poland and Iraq. He earned a PhD in economics. During the twenty years he lived in Poland Cattan operated both a used car and a pizza companies. According to an article published in ''The Independent'', on 19 Se ...
of the Iraqi MOD and Raymond Zayna, the Lebanese businessman. After some discussion, Clements told the Iraqi MOD to provide Zayna with the authorization necessary to release the money. Zayna agreed to make an immediate payment of $4.7 million to Stoffel on the condition that Stoffel provides detailed invoices. Friends and colleagues report that Stoffel considered the problem solved at that time.


Assassination

On December 8, Stoffel met with Clements at Taji, the Iraqi base north of Baghdad where the refurbishment of the armor was carried out. After the meeting, the vehicle carrying Stoffel, Wemple, and an interpreter was attacked. As the car was leaving Taji for
Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
, a car rammed theirs head-on. Two masked men jumped out and killed Wemple and Stoffel in a hail of bullets; the interpreter was not killed and went missing. Stoffel had been shot several times in the head and back, while Wemple was shot once through the head. A previously unknown group, Brigades of the Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility through an online video. However, security experts doubted the claim and questioned whether the video was simply a ruse. The video described Stoffel as "CIA shadow director" and "close friend of George Bush".


Aftermath and investigations

His death raised questions about the integrity of the Iraqi reconstruction effort, which had been hampered by corruption. ''
The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...
'' said that Stoffel's death "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. " Following the attacks, CLI, Inc. left Iraq. After Stoffel's death, senior U.S. military officials continued to work with Zayna, who was reported to take over Wye Oak's contract. In January 2005, Petraeus declined to discuss the matter and a spokesman for Petraeus' task force stated that the issue was an "MOD raqi Ministry of Defencematter. There really isn't much ... to our involvement." After being told about e-mails demonstrating that Petraeus' task force was directing the work on the contract, the spokesman said, "performance under this contract was of interest" to U.S. officials. According to officials investigating his death, there is no evidence that the attack was related to his allegations of corruption. The murders remain unsolved. Stoffel's brother, who also worked for Wye Oak, received several death threats, warning him to stay away from Iraq. In 2009, an investigation into high-level officials, at least partially spawned by Stoffel's 2004 allegations, was opened. The investigation, including the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, the
Justice Department A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...
, the Army's Criminal Investigation Command, and other federal agencies investigated numerous instances of graft and bribery among the Iraqi reconstruction effort.


Unpaid invoices claim

On July 20, 2009, his wife, Barbara sued the Iraqi government for unpaid invoices of around $25 million. Wye Oak, owned by the estate of Dale Stoffel, was the plaintiff versus the defendant, named as the "
Republic of Iraq A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...
", in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. On April 23, 2013, the
U.S. District Court, District of Columbia The United States District Court for the District of Columbia (in case citations, D.D.C.) is a federal district court in the District of Columbia. It also occasionally handles (jointly with the United States District Court for the District of ...
denied Iraq's motion to have the case dismissed on jurisdictional grounds.''WYE OAK TECHNOLOGY, INC. v. REPUBLIC OF IRAQ''

Civil No. 10-1182 (RCL), United States District Court, District of Columbia, April 23, 2013
Iraq argued that the claim should have named the Ministry of Defence (Iraq), Iraqi Ministry of Defence, as a separate legal entity, but the D.C. District Court confirmed that under US law, i.e. the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 2016, "a foreign state and its armed forces are not legally separate for jurisdictional purposes".


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stoffel, Dale 1961 births 2004 deaths Arms traders American people murdered abroad People murdered in Iraq Washington & Jefferson College alumni People from Washington County, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Republicans Civilian casualties in the Iraq War People of the Office of Naval Intelligence