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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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May 12th, 2006 - F.B.I. Says House
of Ex-C.I.A. Deputy Is Searched |
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F.B.I. Says House of
Ex-C.I.A. Deputy Is Searched By Mark Mazzetti New York Times May 12, 2006 Washington - The home and
office of Kyle Foggo, who stepped down on Monday as the Central Intelligence
Agency's No. 3 official, were searched today by law-enforcement officials as
part of a continuing investigation, the C.I.A. said. Mr. Foggo resigned after
becoming entangled in a widening investigation that has already brought down
former Representative Randy Cunningham of San Diego. Investigators say they
are examining what could be a larger pattern of bribery and government
corruption. A C.I.A. spokesman, Paul
Gimigliano, said Mr. Foggo's workplace in Langley, Va., and his residence in
Virginia were searched this morning by agents of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation and the C.I.A. inspector general's office. "The agency is
cooperating fully with the Department of Justice and the F.B.I.," Mr.
Gimigliano said. April Langwell, a
spokeswoman for the F.B.I.'s San Diego office, said Mr. Foggo had been under
investigation by the Internal Revenue Service and the Defense Criminal
Investigative Service of the Defense Department's inspector general's office,
as well as by the C.I.A.'s inspector general and the F.B.I. Ms. Langwell declined to
give further details of the investigation. Mr. Foggo is an agency
veteran who spent two decades undercover in five foreign postings, including
Tegucigalpa, Honduras; Vienna; and Frankfurt. In each case, he provided
logistical support for intelligence gathering and covert operations. Porter
J. Goss, who has resigned as C.I.A. director, plucked him from obscurity in
November 2004 and elevated him to the position of executive director. The inquiry by the C.I.A's.
inspector is examining whether he improperly awarded agency contracts to a
longtime friend, Brent R. Wilkes, a military contractor whose companies have
received nearly $100 million in government contracts over the years. Mr. Foggo has not been
formally charged with any misconduct, and his lawyer says his client has done
nothing wrong. But apart from investigations by the F.B.I. and the C.I.A.
inspector general, Mr. Foggo's appointment to the No. 3 post provided a
window on what many at the agency saw as erratic management by Mr. Goss. The arrival of Mr. Goss in
September 2004 led to immediate clashes between senior career officers and
the Congressional staff members that Mr. Goss brought with him, some of whom
had previously served at the agency. Mr. Goss's chief of staff, Patrick
Murray, and the other top aides came to be known derisively as the Gosslings. The man Mr. Goss first
selected to become the C.I.A.'s executive director, Michael V. Kostiw, had to
turn down the job when it surfaced in the news media that he had resigned
from the agency in the 1980's after being caught shoplifting bacon. It was finger-pointing over
who leaked word of Mr. Kostiw's shoplifting arrest that led to the
resignation of several top officials in the agency's clandestine service.
Among those who left were Stephen R. Kappes, the deputy director of
operations, and his deputy, Michael Sulick. Mr. Kappes is expected to return
as the agency's No. 2 if Gen. Michael V. Hayden is confirmed as the new director. Days before Mr. Goss
submitted his resignation, the C.I.A. director asked Mr. Foggo to step down
as executive director, according to one intelligence official who was granted
anonymity to speak freely about the circumstances of Mr. Foggo's departure.
The official said that Mr. Goss had concluded that the inquires into Mr.
Foggo's activities had become a distraction and had the potential to damage
the agency's reputation. Mr. Foggo, 51, has admitted
attending poker parties throughout the 1990's that Mr. Wilkes held in a suite
at the Watergate Hotel in Washington. The parties were primarily attended by
C.I.A. officials and congressmen, and Mr. Cunningham, a California
Republican, occasionally attended. Several news media accounts have reported
that prostitutes frequented the parties. But Charlie Wilson - the
former Texas congressman who helped engineer the C.I.A. mission to arm Afghan
rebels in the 1980's - said he attended two of Mr. Wilkes's poker parties, in
1994 and 1999, and that they usually ended by midnight and that he never saw
prostitutes at the parties. Mr. Wilson said that the
gatherings were small affairs of seven or eight card players that always had
ample supplies of Scotch, beer and Dominican cigars. "The only thing
that took place there that was out of order was cigar smoking on a nonsmoking
floor," Mr. Wilson said. Mr. Foggo was one of many
C.I.A. officials close to Mr. Wilkes. In May 2000, Mr. Wilkes paid Brant G.
Bassett, a retired German-speaking C.I.A. official known as Nine Fingers, a
$5,000 fee to travel to Germany for five days as a consultant on a business
deal that Mr. Wilkes was negotiating with a German software engineer,
according to a former agency official aware of the arrangement. The official
was granted anonymity to speak about the business deal. Documents revealing the
$5,000 payment to Mr. Bassett from Mr. Wilkes first appeared on the Internet
on Tuesday. Mr. Foggo introduced Mr.
Bassett to Mr. Wilkes in the early 1990's in Mexico City, the former official
said. Before ascending to the top
tier of the agency, Mr. Foggo had spent his career in what was previously
known as the directorate of administration, now called the directorate of
support. It is responsible for running the business side of the agency, and
its duties include buying supplies, renting offices and handling bookkeeping. Before being picked by Mr.
Goss to become executive director, Mr. Foggo ran a secret C.I.A. base in
Frankfurt that supported operations in the Middle East and Africa. Since the
2001 terrorist attacks, as agency operations have expanded in the region, the
volume of money and goods handled by the Frankfurt base has grown rapidly,
intelligence officials say. According to Mr. Foggo's
lawyer, William G. Hundley, the C.I.A. is investigating whether during Mr.
Foggo's time in Frankfurt he knowingly granted a contract to Archer
Logistics, a Virginia company headed by a relative of Mr. Wilkes. Mr. Hundley
said the contract was for delivery of bottled water to C.I.A. operatives in
Iraq. The lawyer said that while
it was possible that his client had signed off on the contract, Mr. Foggo had
no idea that Archer Logistics was associated with Mr. Wilkes. Scott Shane and Paul von
Zielbauer contributed reporting from Washington for this article. John O'Neil
contributed reporting from New York. External link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/12/washington/11cnd-foggo.html |