State Dept. Agents Say Jobs Were Threatened

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/28/AR2007092801003.html?hpid=moreheadlines>

Two career investigators in the office of State Department Inspector General
Howard J. Krongard have charged that they were threatened with firing if
they cooperated with a congressional probe of Krongard and his office.

Told by Terry P. Heide, Krongard's congressional liaison, that he should not
agree to a request for a "voluntary" interview by the House Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform, Special Agent Ron Militana said he was then
advised that reprisals could be taken against him. "Howard can fire you," he
said Heide told him. "It would affect your ability to get another job."

Militana said in a telephone interview yesterday that he took that comment
and others as direct threats. He and Assistant Special Agent in Charge Brian
Rubendall, another career investigator who was also present at the Sept. 25
meeting with Heide and an IG lawyer, are among at least four IG
investigators who have sought protection under the Whistleblower Protection
Act. They also include the assistant inspector general for investigations
and his deputy, who recently resigned after charging Krongard with impeding
their work.

(...)



The letter, which Waxman said was based on allegations by seven current and
former members of Krongard's staff, alleged that Krongard had refused to
send investigators to Iraq and Afghanistan to investigate $3 billion worth
of State Department contracts and had impeded a Justice Department probe
into the construction of the embassy in Baghdad. It also included an
internal e-mail that indicated Krongard had intervened to stop his office
from cooperating with a Justice Department investigation into alleged arms
smuggling by Blackwater. In a North Carolina case, two Blackwater employees
have pleaded guilty to weapons charges and are cooperating with Justice
officials.


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