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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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June 10th,
2008 - Judge Denies European Summer Vacation for Disgraced CIA Official |
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Judge Denies European Summer
Vacation for Disgraced CIA Official Kyle Foggo’s Attorneys Said He Is Not A Flight Risk; Prosecutors
Disagreed By Justin Rood ABC News June 10, 2008 A former top CIA official facing
over two dozen felony charges won't get to take the five-week Austrian
vacation he had requested, a federal judge has ruled. Onetime CIA executive
director Kyle "Dusty" Foggo surrendered his passport as a condition
of his freedom while he awaits a November trial for 28 counts including
fraud, conspiracy, money laundering and false statements. Foggo has pleaded not
guilty, and last week he asked the court for use of his passport and
permission to travel to Austria for five weeks with his wife and children, to
visit his in-laws. He was not a flight risk, his attorneys argued, and
throughout his 23-year CIA career he had served "with distinction,"
they said. Federal prosecutors opposed
the trip, arguing he would be sorely tempted to stay abroad and avoid
prosecution. Moreover, they noted, the source of funding for the trip was a
mystery: Foggo had earlier pushed to move his trial to Virginia from San
Diego, because he said the costs of staying in California for the three weeks
the trial is expected to last would have been a financial hardship. "A five-week European
vacation for Foggo and his entire family - especially given current exchange
rates ... seems inconsistent with Foggo's prior argument ... that he was too
impoverished" to afford being tried in San Diego, the prosecutors wrote. As for serving the CIA
"with distinction," they said, "this case will determine
whether that distinction will be positive or negative." The charges against Foggo
arose from an investigation sparked by the Duke Cunningham bribery scandal.
Among other alleged misdeeds, prosecutors say Foggo, a 23-year CIA veteran,
helped steer millions in secret CIA contracts to companies controlled by his
longtime friend, Brent Wilkes, a key figure in the Cunningham fiasco. Wilkes was convicted and
sentenced last year to 12 years in prison. He is appealing the verdict. Foggo is the last major
figure to face prosecution in the Duke Cunningham bribery scandal. But he's
not the first to attempt a European vacation. Last year, a man who pled
guilty to facilitating hundreds of thousands in bribes to Cunningham bolted
for a luxury spree in Greece without telling the judge in his case - or the
FBI, who was supposed to be keeping tabs on the Greek-born financier for
unspecified national security reasons. Copyright © 2008 ABC News
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