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 Times 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...
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