Inquiry on Graft in Iraq Focuses on U.S. Officers

Dale C. Stoffel, an American contractor in Iraq, described cash delivered in pizza boxes and payoffs dropped in paper sacks. (Photo courtesy of David Stoffel)

By James Glanz, C. J. Chivers, and William K. Rashbaum

February 15, 2009

Federal authorities examining the early, chaotic days of the $125 billion American-led effort to rebuild Iraq have significantly broadened their inquiry to include senior American military officers who oversaw the program, according to interviews with senior government officials and court documents. …

As part of the inquiry, the authorities are taking a fresh look at information given to them by Dale C. Stoffel, an American arms dealer and contractor who was killed in Iraq in late 2004. …

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Security Developments in Iraq

Following are security incidents in Iraq on Feb. 14 and 15, as reported by Reuters.

BAGHDAD – A U.S. soldier was killed by an improvised explosive device in southern Iraq, the U.S. military said. No further information was provided.

FALLUJA – Police captured a suspected al-Qaeda militant, named as Sadi Nayif, near the town of Falluja, 32 miles west of Baghdad, police Major Mohammed Ahmed said. Ahmed said the suspect confessed to the murder of 15 people, including the Imam, or preacher, of a mosque.

MOSUL – Gunmen shot and killed an off-duty Iraqi soldier in western Mosul, police said.

MOSUL – Gunmen killed a man in western Mosul, police said.

BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb killed one person and wounded six others in Sadr City, the vast Shi’ite district of north-eastern Baghdad, police said. Another police source said one person was killed and 19 were wounded.

BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb planted near a home in Sadr City wounded two pedestrians, police said.

MOSUL – A member of al-Hadba, a mainly Sunni Arab party, was wounded in Mosul by a bomb planted in his car, police said. The politician ran in last month’s provincial elections as part of the Hadba list in Nineveh, where the bloc received almost half the votes cast.

MOSUL – Three civilians were wounded when militants threw a hand grenade at a police patrol in central Mosul, police said.

MOSUL – One policeman was wounded by a roadside bomb in southern Mosul, police said.

MUSSAYAB – Police in Mussayab, 40 miles south of Baghdad, detained a would-be suicide bomber near a checkpoint on a route used by Shi’ite pilgrims to go to Kerbala, where one of the holiest Shi’ite rites takes place this weekend, police said. The aborted attack occurred a day after a female suicide bomber killed 42 pilgrims on the same route.

MOSUL – A roadside bomb killed two civilians and wounded another four people, including one soldier, when it exploded near an army patrol in western Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL – A roadside bomb in eastern Mosul wounded an Iraqi soldier, police said.

SAMARRA – Iraqi police found the bodies of two men just south of Samarra, 62 miles north of Baghdad, police said. The men appeared to have been shot.