Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
September 19, 2007 By David Stout
WASHINGTON, Sept. 18 — A top House Democrat began an inquiry on Tuesday into accusations that the State Department’s inspector general repeatedly interfered with investigations into fraud and abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan, including security defects at the new United States Embassy in Baghdad.
Representative Henry A. Waxman of California, the chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent the inspector general, Howard J. Krongard, a 14-page letter spelling out accusations made by several current and former employees of Mr. Krongard’s office who documented their charges with e-mail messages.
Some of the accusers have sought whistle-blower status, which protects government employees from being punished for reporting possible malfeasance, Mr. Waxman said.
“One consistent element in these allegations is that you believe your foremost mission is to support the Bush administration, especially with respect to Iraq and Afghanistan, rather than act as an independent and objective check on waste, fraud and abuse on behalf of U.S. taxpayers,” Mr. Waxman wrote. He invited Mr. Krongard to respond to the accusations at a committee hearing on Oct. 16.
A State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, said he did not know whether department officials had seen the letter.
In a statement released Tuesday night, Mr. Krongard said he had not seen Mr. Waxman’s letter because he was traveling in Afghanistan and Iraq. “The allegations, as described to me and in certain media reports, are replete with inaccuracies, including those made by persons with their own agendas,” the statement said, adding that he looked forward to the opportunity to respond in full to the accusations.
One facet of Mr. Waxman’s inquiry reportedly involves Blackwater USA, the security company that was banned by the Iraqi government from working in the country after a shooting on Sunday that left eight Iraqis dead. Mr. Waxman told Mr. Krongard that he had been accused of impeding an investigation of a security company suspected of “illegally smuggling weapons into Iraq.” The Associated Press reported that the unidentified company was Blackwater.
Karen Lightfoot, a spokeswoman for Mr. Waxman’s panel, said she could neither confirm nor deny the A.P. report. A spokeswoman for Blackwater, Anne Tyrrell, declined to comment when reached by The A.P.
Last year, when Republicans still controlled Congress, they tried to do away with the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, which had uncovered numerous construction abuses and contract violations. Mr. Waxman was furious, and he has made no secret of his relish in probing activities of the Bush administration now that Democrats are in control.
One accusation against Mr. Krongard is that he interfered with an investigation of Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, at the time the head of Voice of America and a close associate of Karl Rove, President Bush’s former political adviser. Mr. Krongard was accused of passing information about the inquiry to Mr. Tomlinson.
State Department investigators determined last year that Mr. Tomlinson had used his office to run a “horse racing operation” and had improperly put a friend on the payroll. Mr. Tomlinson, who resigned in January, has denied doing anything improper.
Mr. Waxman wrote Mr. Krongard that his detractors have described “a dysfunctional office environment” in which he routinely bullied and berated employees, driving many away and undermining the agency.
Mr. Waxman said it appeared that Mr. Krongard had done nothing to investigate “wasteful spending or procurement fraud” in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the State Department has spent more than $3.6 billion on contracts. He said Mr. Krongard was also accused of thwarting investigations into possible procurement fraud in Afghanistan by “a large State Department contractor,” which he did not identify in his letter.
Mr. Waxman said Mr. Krongard had apparently prevented his investigators from cooperating with a Justice Department inquiry into waste, fraud and abuse involving construction of the new United States Embassy in Baghdad and followed “highly irregular procedures in exonerating the prime contractor,” First Kuwaiti General Trading and Contracting Company, of charges that it mistreated its workers.
The embassy will be the largest in the world when completed this year at a cost of some $600 million. Problems with its construction, reported at length in The Washington Post and cited by Mr. Waxman in his letter, included the contractor’s failure to build blast-resistant walls and its use of faulty electrical wiring. The bad wiring led to power failures that made cooking impossible and forced security people to dine for some time on the military’s prepackaged “meals ready to eat.”
Mr. Krongard became inspector general in May 2005. He worked previously for Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, an international law firm, and before that served as general counsel of Deloitte & Touche.
Brian Knowlton contributed reporting.
September 19, 2007 By David Stout
WASHINGTON, Sept. 18 — A top House Democrat began an inquiry on Tuesday into accusations that the State Department’s inspector general repeatedly interfered with investigations into fraud and abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan, including security defects at the new United States Embassy in Baghdad.
Representative Henry A. Waxman of California, the chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent the inspector general, Howard J. Krongard, a 14-page letter spelling out accusations made by several current and former employees of Mr. Krongard’s office who documented their charges with e-mail messages.
Some of the accusers have sought whistle-blower status, which protects government employees from being punished for reporting possible malfeasance, Mr. Waxman said.
“One consistent element in these allegations is that you believe your foremost mission is to support the Bush administration, especially with respect to Iraq and Afghanistan, rather than act as an independent and objective check on waste, fraud and abuse on behalf of U.S. taxpayers,” Mr. Waxman wrote. He invited Mr. Krongard to respond to the accusations at a committee hearing on Oct. 16.
A State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, said he did not know whether department officials had seen the letter.
In a statement released Tuesday night, Mr. Krongard said he had not seen Mr. Waxman’s letter because he was traveling in Afghanistan and Iraq. “The allegations, as described to me and in certain media reports, are replete with inaccuracies, including those made by persons with their own agendas,” the statement said, adding that he looked forward to the opportunity to respond in full to the accusations.
One facet of Mr. Waxman’s inquiry reportedly involves Blackwater USA, the security company that was banned by the Iraqi government from working in the country after a shooting on Sunday that left eight Iraqis dead. Mr. Waxman told Mr. Krongard that he had been accused of impeding an investigation of a security company suspected of “illegally smuggling weapons into Iraq.” The Associated Press reported that the unidentified company was Blackwater.
Karen Lightfoot, a spokeswoman for Mr. Waxman’s panel, said she could neither confirm nor deny the A.P. report. A spokeswoman for Blackwater, Anne Tyrrell, declined to comment when reached by The A.P.
Last year, when Republicans still controlled Congress, they tried to do away with the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, which had uncovered numerous construction abuses and contract violations. Mr. Waxman was furious, and he has made no secret of his relish in probing activities of the Bush administration now that Democrats are in control.
One accusation against Mr. Krongard is that he interfered with an investigation of Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, at the time the head of Voice of America and a close associate of Karl Rove, President Bush’s former political adviser. Mr. Krongard was accused of passing information about the inquiry to Mr. Tomlinson.
State Department investigators determined last year that Mr. Tomlinson had used his office to run a “horse racing operation” and had improperly put a friend on the payroll. Mr. Tomlinson, who resigned in January, has denied doing anything improper.
Mr. Waxman wrote Mr. Krongard that his detractors have described “a dysfunctional office environment” in which he routinely bullied and berated employees, driving many away and undermining the agency.
Mr. Waxman said it appeared that Mr. Krongard had done nothing to investigate “wasteful spending or procurement fraud” in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the State Department has spent more than $3.6 billion on contracts. He said Mr. Krongard was also accused of thwarting investigations into possible procurement fraud in Afghanistan by “a large State Department contractor,” which he did not identify in his letter.
Mr. Waxman said Mr. Krongard had apparently prevented his investigators from cooperating with a Justice Department inquiry into waste, fraud and abuse involving construction of the new United States Embassy in Baghdad and followed “highly irregular procedures in exonerating the prime contractor,” First Kuwaiti General Trading and Contracting Company, of charges that it mistreated its workers.
The embassy will be the largest in the world when completed this year at a cost of some $600 million. Problems with its construction, reported at length in The Washington Post and cited by Mr. Waxman in his letter, included the contractor’s failure to build blast-resistant walls and its use of faulty electrical wiring. The bad wiring led to power failures that made cooking impossible and forced security people to dine for some time on the military’s prepackaged “meals ready to eat.”
Mr. Krongard became inspector general in May 2005. He worked previously for Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, an international law firm, and before that served as general counsel of Deloitte & Touche.
Brian Knowlton contributed reporting.