The Blackwater web is more tangled than even its main investigator realized.

Howard “Cookie” Krongard, State Department inspector general, recused himself this week from the ongoing probe of Blackwater Worldwide after learning that his brother sits on the company’s advisory board.

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

While CEO Erik Prince has been the public face of Blackwater USA during recent weeks of intense government and media scrutiny, the often outspoken Cofer Black, company vice chairman, has kept out of the limelight.

Black, one of the nation's eminent authorities on combatting terrorism, is deeply involved in the network of Blackwater-related companies. He also serves as chairman of Total Intelligence Solutions and is CEO of Black Group, LLC.

With more than 30 years of service in the Central Intelligence Agency, Black is known as a superspy. He helped catch the international terrorist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, better known as "Carlos the Jackal" and in 1999, was named head of the CIA's Counter-Terrorism Center.

The Clinton campaign took a defensive crouch yesterday after reports that a company headed by one its top advisers had counseled Blackwater CEO Erik Prince.

A subsidiary of Burson-Marsteller, a PR firm headed by Clinton strategist Mark Penn, helped prepare Prince for his congressional testimony Tuesday.

However, Penn told Politico that he was not involved in the account, and said the firm’s work for Blackwater was “a temporary assignment based on a relationship that has concluded.”

Members of the International Peace Operations Association will have plenty to talk about at their October summit in Washington.

The trade group with the Orwellian name is an association of private military contractors, including besieged Blackwater USA, which faces investigations abroad and at home.

The association was formed in 2001, and has grown rapidly with the increased use of private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. Its mission is to “promote high operational and ethical standards of firms active in the peace and stability industry.” One of its stated aims is to combat the perception that its members are war profiteers.

Blackwater USA, the State Department’s largest private security contractor, is under siege on several fronts.

Iraq’s state minister for national security affairs announced today that the firm would face criminal charges for the fatal shootings of Iraqi citizens. Blackwater, based in Moyock, N.C., is also under investigation on the home front.

But a tight web of political and business connections helps shield the company from the most formidable of attacks.