When Congress gets back to business in the New Year, one of its priorities will be consideration of the Bush administration’s request for a massive arms sale - in the neighborhood of $20 billion - to Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states.

Israel and Egypt also stand to gain billions more in U.S. weapons as part of the package Congress will review.

The proposed deal is controversial because of the Saudi component. Given the Saudi government’s questionable record on fighting terrorism and curtailing terrorism financing, its funding of extremist wahabbist mosques, its supply of foreign fighters into Iraq and a judicial system that recently ordered 200 lashes for a rape victim, some in Congress don’t believe the kingdom should be rewarded with top-of-the-line American weaponry.

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.