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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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February 14th,
2007 - Former Top CIA Official Indicted |
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Former Top CIA Official
Indicted Foggo Accused of Steering Contracts to GOP Fundraiser By R. Jeffrey Smith Washington Post Wednesday, February 14, 2007; A01 The CIA's former executive
director and a defense contractor were indicted yesterday by a San Diego
grand jury for allegedly corrupting the intelligence agency's contracts,
marking one of the first criminal cases to reach into the CIA's clandestine
operations in Europe and the Middle East. Kyle "Dusty"
Foggo, a longtime logistics officer who was the CIA's top administrator from
November 2004 until last May, was accused of using his seniority and
influence at a prior CIA job in Europe to steer business deals to his
longtime friend Brent R. Wilkes, a California businessman and top Republican
fundraiser. The 11-count indictment
states that Wilkes subsidized meals and lavish vacations for Foggo and his
family in Washington, Hawaii and Scotland and promised to employ Foggo after
his retirement from the CIA. It also accuses Foggo - a former ethics official
in two divisions at the CIA - of improperly providing classified information
to Wilkes about the CIA, his contracting competitors and "other
matters." The indictment is the latest
development in a lengthy federal criminal probe into the dark side of a
budget process known as "earmarking," in which lawmakers have
directed federal contracts to favored designees who were either friends or
campaign contributors. Last year the probe led to a prison sentence for one
lawmaker, Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham -- who, the government said
yesterday, used two prostitutes financed by Wilkes. While the probe has
threatened to sweep in other members of Congress, some uncertainty surrounds
it. A key U.S. attorney involved in it - Carol C. Lam in San Diego - has been
fired by the administration for unspecified "performance-related"
deficiencies along with a handful of other federal prosecutors. Lam oversaw
the Foggo investigation and is to leave Thursday. The head of the local FBI
field office praised Lam's performance and said her firing appeared to be
"political," an accusation that the Justice Department has denied. The case involving Foggo is
unusual because all of the contracts at issue are classified. But the
indictment makes it clear that the agency was allegedly bilked when it wound
up paying 60 percent more than it should have for water supplied by a company
affiliated with Wilkes to CIA outposts in Afghanistan and northern Iraq. The evidence against Foggo
included e-mails in which he promised to introduce a Wilkes subordinate to
his CIA colleagues and helped arrange advance payments on a $1.69 million
contract. Even after arriving at CIA headquarters as a top appointee of
then-Director Porter J. Goss, he continued to press for more rapid payments
to a Wilkes-affiliated firm identified in the indictment as "Shell
Company No. 1," earning Wilkes's thanks, the document states. It formally charges the two
men - who witnesses have said periodically played poker with lawmakers and
others in a rented suite at the Watergate Hotel - with conspiracy to commit
honest services fraud and money laundering. Foggo's attorney, Mark
MacDougall, said through an aide yesterday that he had no comment on the
indictment. A lawyer previously retained by Foggo, William G. Hundley, had
argued that Foggo had no idea the contracts were benefiting Wilkes, but the
indictment says that Foggo deliberately "concealed material facts"
from his colleagues at the CIA and used "shell companies and straw
men" to hide their role in the contracts. Wilkes's attorney, Mark J.
Geragos, called the indictment "unfortunate" and said "we
welcome the chance to refute these accusations." He declined to
elaborate. CIA Director Michael V.
Hayden, who replaced Goss last May, told employees in a memo yesterday that
they should not talk about the matter "out of respect for the legal
proceedings that are underway, and to ensure the protection of classified
information and agency equities." Hayden noted that the allegations
against Foggo first surfaced inside the CIA, which he said cooperated closely
with the Justice Department on the probe. Additional legal troubles
yesterday enveloped Wilkes, a Republican Party "Pioneer" who raised
more than $100,000 for President Bush's reelection in 2004 and donated - in
concert with his business colleagues - $656,396 to 64 other Republican
lawmakers and the national Republican Party committees in Washington from
1995 through the third quarter of 2005. A second 25-count indictment
disclosed yesterday in San Diego alleges that Wilkes separately obtained a
stream of Defense Department contracts from 1996 to 2004 by providing
then-Rep. Cunningham with cash and other bribes valued at more than $700,000. Cunningham pleaded guilty in
2005 to taking bribes worth more than $1 million from Mitchell Wade, a
business associate of Wilkes, and drew an eight-year prison sentence. But the
second Wilkes indictment contains new details of how Wade and Wilkes
allegedly worked together to profit from contracts and how Cunningham -
sitting on the Appropriations defense subcommittee - browbeat defense
officials on their behalf. It said that Wilkes paid a
company called Shirlington Limousine to chauffeur Cunningham around
Washington. He also allegedly financed lavish meals and vacations for
Cunningham, flew him around on the company jet, bought him tickets to the
Super Bowl, and paid for two prostitutes for the lawmaker on Aug. 15 and 16,
2003, at the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel in Hawaii. "Pursuant to
Cunningham's request," the indictment states, "Wilkes arranged for
the Congressman to get a different prostitute for the second evening." Staff writer Dan Eggen and
staff researchers Madonna Lebling and Rena Kirsch contributed to this report. External link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/13/AR2007021301039.html |