They are graduates of City College and Princeton, members of the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame and high-powered professionals who have held top positions at the State Department and CIA. They are also brothers, and apparently they can't stand each other.
That animosity between the brothers Krongard - "Buzzy" and "Cookie," by the nicknames that have followed them through life - became more than a family matter this week.
It burst into public view at a Capitol Hill hearing and now intersects with issues of national security, the war in Iraq and possible perjury before Congress.
The younger sibling, Howard "Cookie" Krongard, told a congressional committee that his brother, A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard, was not on an advisory board of the private security contractor Blackwater Worldwide.
But Buzzy Krongard is on the board, and he says he told his brother that weeks ago. Now each is essentially accusing the other of lying, putting further strain on a relationship that has been described as already at the breaking point.
"Generally, people know they don't get along as brothers," said Benjamin S. Shapiro, who has known the Krongard family for more than 40 years and grew up in Baltimore's Ashburton neighborhood with the brothers.
"They are both good guys. You hate to see them be at odds with one another."
Buzzy Krongard, 71, is a former chairman of Alex. Brown & Sons and the former No. 3 official at the CIA. He is an accomplished martial artist who is said to have once punched a great white shark in the jaw. Last summer, he was named to the advisory board of Blackwater Worldwide, which is now enmeshed in a scandal involving civilian deaths in Iraq.
Cookie Krongard is four years younger. After a successful legal career, he became inspector general of the State Department in 2005. But he has recently been embarrassed by scandals both public and private. He sued his son, Kenneth, and daughter-in-law last year for defaulting on a loan. They, in turn, asked for a restraining order against him.
Meanwhile, Congress began investigating allegations that he thwarted Blackwater-related probes in Iraq and verbally abused his employees at the State Department.
That investigation set the stage for this week's events on Capitol Hill. At a hearing Wednesday before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Cookie Krongard was asked about his brother's involvement with Blackwater. He said, "I am not aware of any financial interest or position he has with regard to Blackwater."
Cookie Krongard said he specifically asked his brother about Blackwater in a September phone conversation. "I do not believe it is true that he is a member of the advisory board," he told the panel.
Buzzy Krongard was watching that testimony at home in Lutherville and said he was "flabbergasted" by his brother's remarks. The pair had talked about three weeks earlier, Buzzy Krongard said. "I told him I was going on the advisory board, and he then said, 'I don't think that's a very good idea,' and I said that was for me to figure out."
When the congressional hearing recessed, Buzzy Krongard tried to call his brother. At the same time, his brother was calling him. "I reiterated what I said," Buzzy Krongard recounted yesterday.
Cookie Krongard went back into the hearing room, said he had contacted his brother and learned that he was on the board. The committee chairman, Rep. Henry A. Waxman, a California Democrat, asked Cookie Krongard, "Have you had a difficult relationship with your brother?"
"No," he said. In response to another question, he said, "I'm not my brother's keeper, and we do not discuss our business with each other."
There's apparently very little they discuss with each other. Buzzy Krongard said in a telephone interview yesterday that the brothers speak rarely, usually only to discuss medical care for their mother, who is 96. They haven't seen each other in four months. Buzzy Krongard would not say what caused the frosty relationship between them.
"There have been times we've been close and times when we haven't been," he said. Asked whether the two brothers had been competitive with each other, he said, "You'll have to see Dr. Freud."
Buzzy Krongard said his brother is no longer on speaking terms with his own son and daughter-in-law. Referring to a congressional report that said Cookie Krongard's State Department office is "bleeding" employees, Buzzy Krongard said, "Is everybody out of step with him? It could be."
A son of Buzzy Krongard's, Alex Krongard, said yesterday that he has a normal relationship with his uncle. He declined to comment on the relationship between his father and uncle, but he said both are driven, competitive people. "Whether they're competitive with one another, I have no idea," Alex Krongard said.
Cookie Krongard declined a request for a telephone interview yesterday and did not respond to questions e-mailed to him.
Last year, Cookie Krongard filed a lawsuit against his son, Kenneth W. Krongard, and daughter-in-law, Kristin, contending that they defaulted on a $320,000 home loan. They quickly repaid him the full amount, but Cookie Krongard persisted, seeking up to $500,000 in interest and legal fees.
As the suit progressed, Cookie Krongard sent his son a series of e-mails, accusing him of lying and then asking to see his grandchildren. "It is pretty obvious that I am not the psychotic threat to them that Kristin [his daughter-in-law] chooses to claim," he wrote in one e-mail contained in the court file. In another, he said the children could end up "out on the street" if Kenneth Krongard did not pay up.
"The Judge told you you could easily be facing 500,000 of costs and 135,000 was his best guess for NOW, not after the costs and risks of trial," Cookie Krongard wrote in a Sept. 1 message. "If you are willing to put your wife and children's future in jeopardy, that's your business. If it happens, don't come to me."
In September, Kenneth and Kristin Krongard asked a judge for a restraining order against Cookie Krongard. Before a hearing could be held, however, Cookie Krongard accepted a settlement offer of $20,000 on Oct. 24.
A congressional report this month alleged that Cookie Krongard failed to investigate reports of waste, fraud and abuse involving the construction of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, which is $144 million over budget. He is also accused of impeding a Justice Department probe into allegations that Blackwater was smuggling weapons into Iraq.
Blackwater is also under State Department investigation regarding a September incident in which its guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians.
But the biggest surprise at the hearing focused on the relationship between the Krongard brothers. After Cookie Krongard first said his brother was not affiliated with Blackwater, U.S. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings produced an e-mail dated Sept. 5 and sent from Blackwater to Buzzy Krongard, saying, "Welcome and thank you for accepting the invitation to be a member of the board."
Reflecting on the Perry Mason-like moment, Cummings, a Democrat from Baltimore, said yesterday, "It was an amazing, amazing hearing. I was almost shocked, and there's not too much that shocks me."
The committee sent Buzzy Krongard a letter yesterday requesting an interview and any documents concerning communication between his brother and himself regarding Blackwater. Meanwhile, Cookie Krongard has recused himself from the investigations regarding Blackwater and the Baghdad embassy.
"There's a credibility issue as to who's being honest here," Cummings said. He said he found the animosity between the brothers not only unusual but hard to understand.
"The committee members are everyday people. They understand there can be disputes between relatives," Cummings said. "But I think when it comes to a point where one sibling - and I'm talking about people over 60 now, these aren't 13-year-olds - putting another in a position where they could be harmed from a reputation standpoint, even perhaps from a criminal standpoint ... I think it's hard for most people to relate to that.
Buzzy Krongard said he found it doubtful that his brother would be influenced by whatever board Buzzy Krongard might serve on. Indeed, anyone who knows the family would be surprised if, given the brothers' relationship, Cookie Krongard would use his position to help his brother.
"If the role were reversed, it wouldn't influence me in the slightest bit if my brother was on a board," Buzzy Krongard said, "and I'm sure my being on the Blackwater board wouldn't influence him."
Asked whether the brothers would see each other for Thanksgiving, Buzzy Krongard laughed. "Highly unlikely," he said.
stephen.kiehl@baltsun.com jill.rosen@baltsun.com
Sun researcher Doris Johnson contributed to this article.