House Oversight Committee Turns On Light, Cockroach Brothers, Cookie and Buzzy, Slow To Scurry Into Shadows, Are Caught In Conflict

By now you might have heard the story of Cookie and Buzzy Krongard. The best short version is by Spencer Ackerman at TMP. It seems Cookie is the Inspector General at the State Department and Buzzy is on the advisory board of Blackwater. Cookie's job is to investigate wrong doing by State Department personnel and contractors. Until yesterday he was responsible for investigating the ugly Blackwater shooting spree in which 17 Iraqis were killed, 14 without any justification. (We call that homicide here in the United States, but apparently the rules are different when Blackwater gunslingers kill Iraqis.) The investigation had been Cookie's focus for the past weeks. The FBI and Army have also been investigating. The brutal nature of the killing spree even shocked the compliant media.

Yesterday Cookie appeared before an oversight committee and was confronted with his blatant conflict of interest. At first he denied he was aware that his brother was on the advisory board. Then, after a recess, he changed his story and quickly decided to recuse himself from the investigation. This TMP video explains it well, except that Buzzy joined the board around September 5, 2007 or before the conversation where Cookie says he asked his brother about financial ties to Blackwater.



Even cockroaches know to scurry when the light is turned on. Cookie wasn't even smart enough to realize that somebody on the oversight committee might ask about what he called an "ugly rumor" before he walked into the hearing room.

What is so amazing about this situation is that the people in the Bush administration are so arrogant in their corruption that before the hearing no one thought Buzzy's connection with Blackwater might be an issue.