[Grovenet] And so it continues, at least until 01-20-2008 ! ! ! ! !

Mon Nov 26 17:38:54 PST 2007

Ron Paul.

Bob Browning wrote:
> You are wondering when this kink of Keystone Cops fumbling and bumbling 
> is going to stop?? Well, guess what, Bucky, after looking at all the 
> candidates, from the Rs to the Ds, likely the only people who would care 
> about doing something suffer from "Jimmy Carteritis" and are unlikely to 
> be able to do anything.
> 
> So, Ron and Steven and Mike and all the rest, who you gonna support!!
> 
> I am now convinced that we are in for a long run, with Mike Huckabee the 
> eventual winner!! Remember, you heard it here first!!
> 
> bob "what the heck??" browning
> 
> ***************************************
>>
>>
>>   Blackwater probe stifled by conflicts
>>
>> By RICHARD LARDNER, Associated Press Writer/ 39 minutes ago/
>>
>> The State Department's acerbic top auditor wasn't happy when Justice 
>> Department officials told one of his aides to leave the room so they 
>> could discuss a criminal investigation of Blackwater Worldwide, the 
>> contractor protecting U.S. diplomats in Iraq.
>>
>> The episode reveals the badly strained relationship between Bush 
>> administration officials over the probe into whether Blackwater 
>> smuggled weapons into Iraq that could have gotten into insurgents' hands.
>>
>> As a result of the bureaucratic crosscurrents between State's top 
>> auditor and Justice, the investigation has been bogged down for months.
>>
>> A key date was July 11, when Howard Krongard, State's inspector 
>> general, sent an e-mail to one of his assistant inspector generals, 
>> telling him to "IMMEDIATELY" stop work on the Blackwater 
>> investigation. That lead to criticisms by Democrats that Krongard has 
>> tried to protect Blackwater and block investigations into 
>> contractor-related wrongdoing in Iraq.
>>
>> "Instead of cooperating, Mr. Krongard apparently created a series of 
>> obstacles to the inquiry," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman 
>> of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee examining 
>> Krongard's performance as the State Department official responsible 
>> for stamping out waste, fraud and abuse.
>>
>> Krongard, whose credibility was damaged by the recent disclosure that 
>> his brother had a business affiliation with Blackwater, has disputed 
>> the charge, though he recused himself from Blackwater matters after 
>> the potential conflict of interest emerged.
>>
>> His aide, Terry Heide, who was kicked out of the July 31 meeting, also 
>> says she's been unfairly blamed for slowing the Blackwater probe. Her 
>> role was to collect State Department documents for the investigators - 
>> a job she did well, according to her lawyer. But even Krongard's own 
>> staff saw her as a hindrance.
>>
>> Brian Rubendall, a senior State Department investigator, has 
>> questioned the halt in the inquiry, telling the oversight committee in 
>> an October interview that there was no justifiable "reason for us to 
>> stop that investigation. None."
>>
>> Krongard said he put the brakes on because he was concerned a separate 
>> audit of Blackwater contracts might "contaminate" the Justice 
>> Department's work.
>>
>> Blackwater has called the smuggling allegations baseless. However, 
>> earlier this year two former Blackwater employees pleaded guilty to 
>> possession of stolen firearms that were shipped in interstate or 
>> foreign commerce. They are cooperating with federal agents. Blackwater 
>> said the two were fired after it was learned they were stealing from 
>> the company.
>>
>> Altogether, the trail of internal e-mails, testimony from a Nov. 14 
>> oversight hearing and interviews with participants form a picture of 
>> bureaucratic infighting with consequences far beyond Washington.
>>
>> The State Department's role in the Blackwater weapons probe began 
>> months before the Sept. 16 Baghdad shootings by Blackwater guards that 
>> killed 17 Iraqis and escalated public scrutiny of the company.
>>
>> In March, Ron Militana, a special agent in the investigations unit, 
>> received Rubendall's approval to interview State Department personnel 
>> and meet with Blackwater attorneys about allegations the company was 
>> illegally transporting arms into Iraq. Militana also discussed 
>> potential criminal proceedings in the case with a federal prosecutor.
>>
>> In late June, John DeDona, then chief of the IG's investigative unit, 
>> e-mailed Krongard and his deputy, William Todd, to alert them to the 
>> probe. Krongard responded cryptically: "Please do not treat anything 
>> in the e-mail below as having been seen by me, advised to me, or 
>> understood or approved by me. If there is something significant in the 
>> message below, please come and tell me about it."
>>
>> Two weeks later, as Militana was trying to obtain copies of Blackwater 
>> contracts from the department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, DeDona 
>> sent another message to Krongard telling him of Militana's work.
>>
>> In a July 11 e-mail to DeDona, Krongard told him Militana was to 
>> "IMMEDIATELY" stop the work. Krongard said he wanted a briefing from 
>> the U.S. Attorney's office in North Carolina on its Blackwater 
>> investigation before his agents went farther.
>>
>> Waxman and other critics say Howard Krongard's order to halt came at 
>> the same time Blackwater CEO Erik Prince was considering whether to 
>> offer his brother, Alvin "Buzzy" Krongard, a spot on the company's 
>> newly forming advisory board.
>>
>> On July 26, Prince invited Alvin Krongard to join Blackwater's 
>> advisory board. A week later, Robert Higdon, chief of the criminal 
>> division in the U.S. Attorney's office for the eastern district of 
>> North Carolina, and James Candelmo, Higdon's deputy, were in 
>> Washington for the July 31 meeting with Krongard and his investigators.
>>
>> Blackwater is based in Moyock, N.C.
>>
>> Howard Krongard initially said his brother had no ties to Blackwater. 
>> But during the Nov. 14 oversight hearing, he recused himself from 
>> inquiries related to the company, explaining that Alvin Krongard had 
>> just told him he had attended an advisory board meeting. Alvin 
>> Krongard resigned from the board two days later because of the uproar 
>> the arrangement created.
>>
>> While Democrats claimed a glaring conflict of interest, Krongard said 
>> he pulled his staff off the Blackwater probe so they wouldn't step on 
>> work being done by Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for 
>> Iraq reconstruction.
>>
>> Bowen had sought help from Krongard's office to audit two Blackwater 
>> contracts — the same ones Militana was helping the U.S. Attorney's 
>> office examine, according to Krongard, who said alarms went off when 
>> he realized the potential overlap.
>>
>> "To be assisting a criminal investigation into the exact same two 
>> contracts that we were already assisting a civil audit into, raised a 
>> question of parallel proceedings, which needed to be deconflicted 
>> before one infected or contaminated the other," he said.
>>
>> Krongard did not say what the contracts are for or give their value. 
>> The State Department pays Blackwater and two other firms $570 million 
>> a year for security services.
>>
>> In a deposition to the oversight committee, Todd, the deputy inspector 
>> general, supported Krongard. "We had basically several of the same 
>> organizations looking at the exact same stuff," Todd said.
>>
>> But Waxman rejected the rationale. "You halted an investigation, 
>> demanded a personal briefing from the Justice Department, (and) 
>> assigned your congressional affairs director to keep tabs on the 
>> investigation," Waxman said to Krongard at the hearing. Waxman called 
>> the moves "highly unorthodox."
>>
>> Heide, the congressional affairs director Krongard called his "alter 
>> ego," was collecting the documents needed by Bowen and the U.S 
>> Attorney's office, e-mails show.
>>
>> But members of Krongard's own staff, along with Higdon and Candelmo of 
>> the U.S. attorney's office in North Carolina, saw her as a roadblock. 
>> Rubendall told the committee Candelmo and Higdon planned in advance to 
>> raise grand jury information during the July 31 meeting in order to 
>> force Heide out of the room.
>>
>> "We weren't going to discuss grand jury material, but that was the 
>> ruse that they were going to use to get her out of the meeting," 
>> Rubendall said.
>>
>> Heide referred questions to her attorney, David Laufman, who said an 
>> e-mail exchange between Krongard and Heide indicated she was doing as 
>> directed.
>>
>> "I am trying to stay only situationally aware," she wrote Aug. 8, "so 
>> I can keep any conflicts at bay."
>>
>> According to Waxman, the problems hampering the Blackwater probe 
>> persist. Justice investigators have been unable to get needed 
>> documents. Militana has not been allowed to give his full attention to 
>> the criminal investigation even though Krongard said he would.
>>
>> "I think that the State Department is responsible for investigating 
>> crimes perpetrated against the State Department," Militana said in an 
>> October interview with the committee. "The (Justice Department) can do 
>> it, of course, but there has to be some involvement by the State 
>> Department."
>>
>> Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
>>
> 
> -- 
> 
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