Sept. 19, 2007 (LPAC) Yesterday, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, sent a 14-page letter to State Department Inspector General Howard Krongard, detailing allegations by current and former employees of his own office of interference by Krongard into ongoing investigations, in order to protect the State Department and the White House from political embarrassment. According to Waxman, specific allegations include, among others:

* refusing to send investigators to Iraq and Afghanistan to investigate contract fraud despite the department having executed $3.6 billion in contracts in those two countries;

* preventing investigators from looking into waste, fraud and abuse and charges of labor trafficking related to the construction of the new U.S. Embassy in Iraq;

* interfering with an ongoing investigation into the conduct of Kenneth Tomlinson, head of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which controls Voice of America and other U.S. overseas broadcasting. Tomlinson is also head of the Corporation for Public broadcasting and is a close friend of Lynne Cheney;

* preventing investigators from seizing evidence that could have implicated a State Department contractor in Afghanistan in procurement fraud.

Waxman also documents Krongard's wrecking of the Office of the Inspector General in the usual Cheneyac manner, which has destroyed its ability to carry out its mandated oversight and investigatory functions. Krongard has created such a hostile work environment that four senior officials in the office have resigned since he was confirmed in May of 2005, and only 7 of 27 investigator positions are currently filled. "This serious understaffing raises its own questions about your commitment to conduct investigations into waste, fraud and abuse at the State Department," Waxman wrote.

LPAC earlier documented the Bush family connections of Howard Krongard's brother, A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard, the chief executive of the Baltimore-based investment bank Alexander Brown and Sons (see here)