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

[Steele, Mike]

Re Bob's question:  I'm leaning to Obama.  Would take any of the top 3-4
Ds.

--Mike


> 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 (c) 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
>>>
>>
>> -- 
>>
>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------

>> ---
>>
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