Alvin Krongard quits Blackwater board

The brother of embattled State Department Inspector General Howard “Cookie” Krongard today resigned from his advisory post with Blackwater Worldwide.

Alvin “Buzzy” Krongard quit his position on Blackwater’s advisory board after the appointment was revealed by a congressional committee investigating the company’s private security forces and their involvement in the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqis.
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Howard Krongard recused himself earlier this week from the ongoing probe of Blackwater after learning of his brother’s link to the company.

When questioned Wednesday by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Krongard at first said his brother did not hold the position.

But during a break in the hearing, Krongard checked with his brother and learned otherwise. It was at that point, Dana Milbank later wrote in the Washington Post, that “Cookie’s credibility crumbled.”

The committee had obtained a July 26 letter from Blackwater CEO Erik Prince inviting Alvin Krongard to accept a seat on the board, as well as a Sept. 5 email thanking him for accepting the invitation.

Upon learning of his brother’s post, Howard Krongard told the committee: “I’m not my brother’s keeper, and we do not discuss our business with each other. We have gone to great lengths to keep our professional experiences separate, because of his position and because of my position.”

Buzzy Krongard is even more connected than his brother.

He’s former executive director of the CIA, former chairman of Alex Brown and a director of Iridium Satellite.

His wife, Cheryl Gordon Krongard, is a director of Legg Mason, Rothschild Asset Management and US Airways, and a regent of the University System of Maryland.

Cheryl Krongard’s first husband, New York Realtor Edward S. Gordon, died in 2000. Buzzy Krongard also lost his first spouse, Patricia Lion Krongard, whose sister is Broadway producer Margo Lion.

Blackwater’s courting of Krongard just days before Prince appeared before Congress indicates an ongoing effort to strengthen government connections, particularly to the State Department and the CIA.

The company’s vice chairman, Cofer Black, was CIA director of counterterrorism. Black is also chairman of another private security company, Total Intelligence Solutions, whose president is Robert Richer, former associate deputy director of the CIA. Enrique Prado, Blackwater VP and COO of Total Intelligence Solutions, was a senior executive officer with the agency.

More stories on Muckety about Blackwater –>

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