Iraq Corruption

Rice Defends Embattled State Dept IG

Spencer Ackerman | October 25, 2007, 1:28PM

You didn't think there could be an entire House oversight committee hearing on corruption in Iraq without the exploits of Howard "Cookie" Krongard making an appearance, did you?

Krongard, recall, is the State Department inspector general accused by his own subordinates of scuttling Iraq-related corruption investigations and then retaliating against his accusers for snitching to Henry Waxman. (Allegedly!) Pointing to the hearing's cavalcade of State-related corruption problems -- cost overruns on building the U.S. embassy in Baghdad; lax supervision of a $1.2 billion DynCorp contract to train Iraqi police; that whole Blackwater thing -- Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) asked if perhaps having a more "vigilant" IG might have been helpful.

Rice's answer? Nah, not really.

Krongard, she said, "very much" wants to respond to the committee's "allegations against him," and she all but promised he'll finally testify. But she emphasized that, in several cases -- the DynCorp controversy, for instance -- the State Department had uncovered for itself the extent of corruption-related problems in Iraq and either provided that information to the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, Stuart Bowen, or took action itself. Sometimes, even, Krongard's "very active" office contributes to "how we find things."

Why Rice thinks it's exculpatory that the State Department is aware of billions of dollars worth of corruption problems despite the problems' persistence is, well, a bit unclear. But take that, Waxman! Every now and then, Krongard actually does his job.

Iraq Corruption

Cookie Crumbling: FBI Investigates State Dept IG

Spencer Ackerman | October 19, 2007, 1:10PM

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.

Iraq

State Dep't Official: OK, OK, Iraq Is Corrupt

Spencer Ackerman | October 16, 2007, 12:00PM

David Satterfield, reality. Reality, David Satterfield. Glad you could meet one another.

After weeks of silence and obfuscation on the extent of corruption in Iraq, Satterfield, one of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's top Iraq advisers, finally admitted what has been clear to unbiased observers for a long time: Iraq is really, really corrupt. Satterfield bowed to the unfortunate fact of corruption in Iraq during a conference call with reporters yesterday.

"Corruption is a reality in Iraq," the department's Iraq policy coordinator, David M. Satterfield, said. "Iraqis at every level have failed to put the nation's interests ahead" of their own and those of their religious, ethnic and tribal affiliations, he said.

State's refusal to discuss corruption in Iraq has reached absurdity in recent weeks. First, House oversight committee chairman Henry Waxman accused State's inspector-general, Howard "Cookie" Krongard, of scuttling corruption investigations. Then he accused Krongard of retaliating against some of the whistleblowers in Krongard's office who alerted his staff to the alleged malfeasance. State also took the weird step of reclassifying a publicly available documents from the U.S. embassy in Baghdad running down the list of corrupt institutions in and around the Maliki government. And for good measure, at a hearing that featured a former Iraqi corruption judge describing how his colleagues have been tortured and murdered for their work, a State official meekly commented that he would rather discuss Iraqi corruption in a closed session.

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