Posted by The Crux |
It's like a Georges Seurat painting: if enough dots end up on the canvas and we take a step back, we'll see a clearer picture.
Last week, the U.S. House Oversight Committee accused State Department Inspector General Howard Krongard of blocking investigations into contractor waste and fraud in Iraq (see committee letter-1 and BN-Politics). Based on evidence from 7 people who work(ed) for Krongard's office, the accusations are detailed and the letter directly asked for Krongard's and his staff's cooperation with the Committee's investigation.
Some of the cooperative State Department staffers have been threatened, according to a letter that Oversight Committee chairman Henry Waxman sent to Krongard today. In part, this new letter states:
"Special Agent Militana and Assistant Special Agent in Charge Rubendall report that on September 25, 2007, one week after I sent my letter, your congressional affairs liaison and an attorney in the Counsel's office approached them about the Committee's invitation to be interviewed. They were taken into the office of the Deputy Inspector General, where your congressional liaison told Special Agent Militana Rubendall that they wanted to discuss their upcoming interviews.
"At this point, according to Special Agent Militana, your congressional liaison told them they could suffer retaliation based on their cooperation with the Committee's investigation. According to Special Agent Militana, she stated:...(see letter-2)
"'The majority [Democrats] are not friends. The minority [Republicans] staff has been helpful. They advise that you should never do a voluntary interview in a million years.'"
Hmmm. Given that the entire committee is officially investigating Krongard's office, why would any committee staffer be any less friendly than any other? We still don't have a perfectly clear picture of what's been going on with the Executive Branch and its many contractors, but the posts linked below are about some of the other dots on the canvas.
* Justice Dept. Official Turned Blind Eye to Fraud?
* Secretary of State not Cooperating with Investigation?
* Have U.S. Officials Protected Blackwater?
* Time to Get Serious About Contractor Fraud
* Contractor Blackwater in Hot Water Again
* Blackwater Ordered out of Iraq
* Gov. Contractors: Driving up War's Costs?
* Defense Dept. Rewarding Bad Contractor Performance?
* Billions over Baghdad: Poor Accounting Allowed Waste & Fraud
* How the Defense Dept. Flushes Dollars Down Latrine
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