Blackwater Accused of Creating 'Killing Program': Cheney asked CIA not to disclose to US Congress

A memo obtained by SPIEGEL indicates that cooperation between the CIA and private security firm Blackwater was deeper than previously known. SPIEGEL has uncovered further details about a plan to set up squads for targeted killings of suspected al-Qaida leadership in Afghanistan.

On Wednesday, the CIA disclosed that it had hired private security contractor Blackwater to kill senior al-Qaida members. The assassination-program has since drawn strong criticism in Washington. However, SPIEGEL has learned that the level of cooperation between the CIA and the paid mercenaries at Blackwater was even deeper than previously known.

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The intelligence service commissioned Blackwater and its subsidiaries to transport terror suspects from Guantanamo to interrogations at secret prison camps in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. The paper identifies aircraft movements and unveils how the flights were disguised. The memo says: "The CIA hired Blackwater to conduct extraordinary renditions". And: "Blackwater flew the rendition targets from Fort Perry and Cuba to Kandahar, Afghanistan."

Blackwater also supported the CIA with other controversial activities during the Bush years, the memo states. "The CIA hired Blackwater to conduct targeted killings in Afghanistan," it reads. In July, the new CIA chief appointed by President Barack Obama, Leon Panetta first discussed an "assassination program" with members of Congress in a classified meeting.

A "Hitman"

Now, further details have emerged. The memo names five participants who were responsible for building the assassination team, including a member of the Blackwater's paratrooper team and an employee of Blackwater Security Consulting, who, according to the memo was meant to be used as a "hitman." The most important person named in the memo is the former third from the top at the CIA, ex-executive director Alvin Bernard Krongard. "Krongard set up the teams," the paper claims. After he left the CIA, Krongard switched to Blackwater's advisory board.

Confronted with the details of the memo on Wednesday, neither Blackwater nor Krongard would comment on questions submitted by SPIEGEL before its printing deadline on Friday. Asked for comment by SPIEGEL, a CIA spokesperson would neither confirm nor deny that the transports of prisoners had taken place or the existence of a killing program. "We do not comment on our contractual relationships," he said. However, he said the details of the memo included "mistakes," although he chose not to elaborate. Stacy DeLuke, the spoke(s)woman of Blackwater (now called Xe Services), answered in an e-mail: "Due to the sensitive nature of these allegations, we are not inclined to comment at this time."

Next week, a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, is expected to decide whether it will hear a civil suit against Blackwater by the company's victims.

Following the al-Qaida attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, then-President George W. Bush and Cheney deployed private security firms in grand style. Almost overnight, Blackwater transformed itself into an empire funded to the tune of $1 billion by US taxpayers. The company was able to obtain 70 percent of its commissions without going through the standard bidding process. Blackwater also continues to work with the Obama administration. The firm currently handles security for all US diplomats in Afghanistan. However, an increasing number of Democrats on Capitol Hill are calling for the US government to cease working with Blackwater.

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Editor's note: This has been translated from a German-language press release published by SPIEGEL on Saturday. The full version of the story will be posted on the SPIEGEL INTERNATIONAL Web site on Monday.

Howard "Cookie" Krongard hasn't failed at much in life. Until recently, in fact, you would have thought him an unqualified success, a well-bred man who came from plenty and went on to plenty more. His resume is the definition of East Coast privilege: Princeton, Harvard, Cambridge, All-American lacrosse player, and successful corporate attorney. So, it must have been with some bewilderment that he found himself sitting before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform earlier today, facing charges of corruption, mismanagement, and incompetence in his latest station in life as the State Department's Inspector General. In his performance there, Krongard displayed a penchant for protecting political allies while obstructing investigations—and today, he may have committed perjury.

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Buzzy Krongard: I Told My Brother I Was Joining Blackwater's Advisory Board

By Spencer Ackerman
November 14, 2007


Howard "Cookie" Krongard might have just perjured himself before the House Oversight Committee.

Earlier today, the State Department inspector general repeatedly told the panel that he was unaware his brother, A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard, had joined the advisory board of State Department security contractor Blackwater. Krongard said he had a single phone conversation with his brother about the issue, in October, in which Buzzy didn't tell Cookie he was joining the board.

Only Buzzy says that's not true.

In an exclusive interview with TPMmuckraker, Buzzy Krongard says that in that phone conversation, he specifically told Cookie Krongard he had agreed to join Blackwater's advisory board. "I had told my brother I was going on the advisory board," Buzzy Krongard says. "My brother says that is not the case. I stand by what I told my brother."

Buzzy Krongard says the phone conversation was more recent than Cookie Krongard indicated to the committee. Cookie said it took place about five or six weeks ago. Buzzy says it was about two or three weeks ago. Both men say there was just one phone conversation. How to reconcile the two accounts?

"I told him I was going on this board. He claims I didn't tell him," Buzzy Krongard says. "So what can I tell you?"

Buzzy Krongard says he only saw the beginning of the hearing. When asked for a reply to Rep. Chris Shays' (R-CT) comment that Buzzy had done Cookie "tremendous damage," Buzzy Krongard demurred. "Shays is free to have his own opinion," he says. "It's much more complicated than that. I'm not going to go into it, and I think anyone who knew all the facts wouldn't have a problem with anything I've done." He says that he told Blackwater to donate any compensation he'd get from sitting on the advisory board -- which he pegs at between $10,000 and $15,000 annually -- to charity.

The two brothers don't speak regularly, Buzzy explains. "And after this," he says, he expects he'll speak to his brother "less often."

Asked if Blackwater knew who his brother was when Erik Prince offered him a position on the advisory board, Buzzy replies, "You think I had to tell them? That they didn't know?" He says it shouldn't be an issue. "If 's got integrity, it's not gonna matter one way or other," he says. "If he doesn't have integrity it's not gonna matter."

Buzzy Krongard did echo one line of his brother's from the hearing. "Am I my brother's keeper?" he asks.