Fox News: Internet Store Tells Ordering US Soldier 'Pull Out of Iraq'

January 23rd, 2007 4:04 AM

One of my correspondents on my own site, Publius' Forum, has been trying to clear up a wretched email that was sent to one of our boys in Iraq refusing him service and telling him he should "pull out of Iraq".

Fox News has picked up this story that I have been watching for a few days. I've been trying to ascertain if it was real or another example of an internet hoax -- sometimes it isn't easy to tell these days -- but I think I can safely say it is real at this point. It has been rather hot news in Wisconsin over the last 48 hours, too.

The question is, will we see it farther and wider? Will the MSM pick up this story of our solder being ill treated by Discount-Mats.com, a Muslim owned, Wisconsin based floor mat company?

Army Sgt. Jason Hess, stationed in Taji, Iraq wanted to purchase a few floor mats for use in his station in Iraq and emailed the Wisconsin based floor mat company to ask if they would ship to an APO address in Iraq?

Here is the text of his original email:

To Whom it may concern:

Do you ship to APO addresses? I'm in the 1st Cavalry Division stationed in Iraq and we are trying to order some mats but we are looking for who ships to APO first.

SGT Hess

Now, it is a fact that many companies do not ship to APOs for various reasons, some who simply will not ship outside the contiguous United States, some who even are prevented to by certain laws and statutes from doing so. If Discount-Mats.com was any one of those, it would have been an easy email to just respond with a polite "no".

Here is the text of the email that Discount-Mats.com sent the Sergeant instead:

SGT Hess,

We do not ship to APO addresses, and even if we did, we would NEVER ship to Iraq. If you were sensible, you and your troops would pull out of Iraq.

Bargain Suppliers
Discount-Mats.com

Discount-Mats.com is registered to a Faisal Khetani who is an American Muslim of Pakistani descent according to Fox News.

Khetani claims that the person responsible for this ignorant affront to a US soldier was fired. In a recent communication with Miss. Kirkland, Khetani said "As I told my local reporters, the individual who made those statements has been held responsible and liable and what they spoke of apo addresses is absolutely true, but the second half was their own personal opinion and not the opinions of the company."

Khetani also confirmed, though, that he and the members of his company are also against the efforts in Iraq which seems to contradict his first claim that the fired employee's email didn't represent the company.

I will say this, my company most certainly doesn't support the war, and we do hope that the policies will change. However the personal opinions stated by the former member of Discount-Mats.com were very strong and personal and other members within our company certainly feel that his actions were not justified.

Let us hope that this man's company finds a corresponding measure of "success" in equal levels with his support for the country to which he has immigrated in order to make his fortune.

In that same letter, Khetani also threatened Kirkland with unleashing the wrath of "major muslim organizations" on her for her "insults". He closed by telling Kirkland, "you can be sure that there are million of muslim activists as well that will do something about your foul statements.... your statements against Muslims and your direct insults will not go unheard, I assure you."

The sad thing is, there are plenty of Americans that would assist this Muslim in attacking other Americans with legal actions even as this whole situation is his fault in the first place. One thing he and his fellows have learned well from American leftists: It's always someone else's fault.

Naturally, Discount-Mats.com has been taken down and cannot any longer be seen. Khatemi was last reached via email address, however: sportsfitness@gmail.com.

Be on the look out for this story. It could get wider release any day.