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Cookie Crumbling: FBI Investigates State Dept IG
Perhaps it was only a matter of time before the FBI opened an investigation into shady State Department inspector general Howard "Cookie" Krongard. House oversight committee chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) has accused Krongard both of quashing numerous inquiries into corruption in Iraq and retaliating against employees who alerted committee staff to the problem. Now, National Journal reports (not available online), the FBI wants to ask Krongard's former employees some questions:
FBI agents recently interviewed a former senior official at the State Department's Office of the Inspector General as part of a preliminary inquiry by a federal oversight group into charges that the department's IG, Howard Krongard, blocked investigations of suspected fraud and waste by contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.Ralph McNamara, who was a deputy assistant inspector general at State, was forced out of his job over the summer after raising concerns that Krongard had thwarted investigations into the safety of the new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, which is still under construction. McNamara said in an interview that he met with the agents at FBI headquarters in September for about an hour and answered questions about Krongard...
The FBI's interview with McNamara signals new potential headaches for Krongard, who has been the subject of complaints by six other current and former staffers in the IG's office of impeding investigations into contract fraud and waste in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of those aides have received protection from retaliation under the federal whistle-blower statute.
Comments (8)
Utopia wrote on October 19, 2007 2:51 PM:So, I guess the Medal of Freedom is in Cookie's future then. Maybe a pardon, too.
quasar wrote on October 19, 2007 3:58 PM:YAY!
altacocker.com wrote on October 19, 2007 7:26 PM:MY how the mighty have fallen!
Wasn't 'Buzzy' Kongard (Cookie's brother) an executive director at the CIA that suppressed the investigation into insider trading that took place just before 9-11?
Sadly, the Bush Administration isn't something that was taken out of a bad novel. It is real and it is stealing our nation while we sit here and do nothing effective to stop it.
tom H wrote on October 19, 2007 10:00 PM:I hope they nail this guy, blue blood, ivy league, sliver spoon in mouth, and crooked as the day is long. Even his son hates him!! He needs to go down! This guy's not related to the Kongard at CIA, totally different elitist.
Zentrails wrote on October 20, 2007 12:10 AM:Finally, a legitimate case to use those security letters on. Hoist by their own Petard?
moondancer wrote on October 20, 2007 3:31 PM:He's on my list of those who get it when the revolution comes.
party-of-one wrote on October 21, 2007 10:30 AM:Bush taught me something. There is a limitless supply of assholes in this country, because he's hired most of them to work in his administration.
Frank Rich's NYT column today (10-21-07) takes on the culture of corruption affecting every aspect of US involvment in Iraq to the tune of multi billions of dollars. It includes the obstruction of Congressional investigations by State Department Inspector General Howard "Cookie" Krongard. Rich cites investigative reporters Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele (October, Vanity Fair) emphasizing that America has to date “spent twice as much in inflation-adjusted dollars to rebuild Iraq as it did to rebuild Japan — an industrialized country three times Iraq’s size, two of whose cities had been incinerated by atomic bombs.”
The scale of this corruption and the profiteering behind it is staggering.
Rich also shows how Blackwater is tied into the corruption and, disturbingly, underscores the Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton prospect that a Hillary presidency could simply continue Bush-business as usual in Iraq, and expand the role of Blackwater into a full mega-billion dollar full-service defense contractor. Rich notes that the Blackwater vice chair is an advisory to the Romney campaign. He also says: "Hillary Clinton’s Karl Rove, Mark Penn, doubles as the chief executive of Burson-Marsteller, the P.R. giant whose subsidiary helped prepare Mr. Prince for his Congressional testimony. Mr. Penn said the Blackwater association was 'temporary'.”
Penn's double role seems to be a mounumental conflict of interest -- advising a sitting U.S. Senator running for president, while advising a defense contractor accused of cimminal conduct and under Congressional investigation about how to testify in an oversight hearing? This is scary, scary stuff.
If anyone has any doubt that Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton is dangerous for our democracy, Hillary's Blackwater connection should be enough to set off alarms. And it's the tip of an iceberg.
We desperately need change in Washington. Hillary and the Republicans are the status quo.
Lyka Escobar wrote on January 26, 2008 3:34 AM:I believe he's innocent, he's a good man and has helped so many people. I hope that he'll be treated fairly and not brought up on false charges. Where has the justice system gone?