Kiazan Moneypenny has been in the news over the last day or so. Who’s Ms. Moneypenny, you might ask? She’s the State Department contract official who directed Blackwater not to disclose any information to the congressional committee investigating the Blackwater Massacre in Iraq without State Department approval. Her title at State is Contracting Officer - Office of Acquisition Management.

But it wasn’t always so. In fact, it was only recently that she acquired the title.

Interestingly enough, Ms. Moneypenny has a very small google footprint, particularly for someone with a unique name such as hers. With her position of authority at State, this is doubly curious, because nearly every document she’s been associated as a point of contact should be showing on the FBO website. Nada. Zip. What’s clear is that, in a very short period of time, Ms. Moneypenny has progressed from the position of Logistics Specialist (9/2004: buying boots for soldiers in Iraq) to Contract Specialist (8/2006: secondary contact on a contract for a fingerprint scanning system) to Contracting Officer in 2007, responsible for a huge and volatile contract such as Blackwater, LLC, and with the authority to tell them not to comply with congressional requests.

Kiazan Moneypenny is either a high-flyer on a rapidly ascending career path, or she’s been put into the position she occupies on purpose. How did she make such a rapid ascent?

Again, the record is pretty spotty, but a couple of documents on the web point us in a particular direction. Ms. Moneypenny is not a Monica Goodling - in fact, her position in the Daughters of the American Revolution organization would imply that she’s probably closer to retirement age than being a new hire at the State Department. Also, she has connections to a fundamentalist religious organization. So, perhaps she knows someone who was able to give her traction on the career ladder. Or perhaps, a few years ago, someone knew that a “fall guy” would be needed down the road.

In any case, it’s clear that Ms. Moneypenny is taking direction from someone several GS-levels up from her position. Directly from Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice? Nah, I don’t think so. In fact, I no longer believe that Condi is either connected enough or intellectually curious enough to even care about the Blackwater dustup.

A clue might be gleaned from Moneypenny’s latest letter to Blackwater, LLC, on which a Paul C. Isaac is copied. Interestingly enough, Mr. Isaac also has an exceptionally minimal footprint on the internet, except that he’s been involved in State Department security for many years. Here’s a backgrounder on him from a Rice University alum newsletter in 1997. He was also the RSO (Regional Security Officer) for the U.S. Embassy in Argentina a few years ago. Since then, he’s dropped off the face of the earth, except for his recent purchase of a million dollar home in the D.C. area earlier this year.

It’s a reasonable assumption that Mr. Isaac, by the fact that he’s copied on Moneypenny’s memo, is no longer RSO in Argentina. Given his background, perhaps he now has operational oversight of Blackwater for the Department of State, and is possibly the point of contact who requested / directed Moneypenny to stonewall the congressional investigation.

So, while everyone is gnashing their teeth over State’s refusal to cooperate with congressional oversight committees, and Blackwater continues to operate unfettered (and unindicted) in Iraq, it’s important to pull on a few loose threads and see where they lead. This is my small contribution to the effort…

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