Brian Ross and Richard Esposito of ABC News are reporting that K. Dusty Foggo, the Executive Director of the CIA is expected to resign soon. Foggo has been the subject of an internal CIA investigation regarding his role in the Duke Cunningham bribery/contracting scandal. Foggo is also known to have attended late night poker games thrown by defense contractor Brent Wilkes - referred to as co-conspirator #1 in the Cunningham plea deal - which allegedly led to even later nights with prostitutes. Foggo is an old friend of Wilkes and was handpicked by the recently resigned Porter Goss to be the number three man at the CIA. For details on Foggo, Wilkes, and the scandal I would check out Laura Rozen's blog, War and Piece.
Continue readingSaturday Thread:
What do you think about the news this week? Porter Goss, Patrick Kennedy, the Watergate prostitute scandal. Tell me in the comments section.
- At Daily Kos dengre posts a full letter from Jack Abramoff to then-Marianas Islands Governor Tenorio explaining how Abramoff's lobbying protected the Islands' sweatshops.
- Josh Marshall has the goods on Porter Goss and his number three: the Wall Street Journal reports that K. Dusty Foggo - handpicked by Goss to be the CIA's Executive Director - is under federal investigation in connection to the Cunningham-Wilkes bribery (hooker) scandal. Laura Rozen is a must read for a full explanation. Meanwhile, court jester at Daily Kos speculates as to whether the hookers involved are more Jeff Gannon and less Heidi Fleiss, if you know what I mean. However, the head of Shirlington Limousine has categatorically denied providing prostitutes to congressmen and defense and CIA officials, according to the Washington Post.
- Glenn Reynolds posts responses to constituent concerns regarding earmarking and the emergency supplemental from Senators Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) and Patty Murray (D-WA).
- POGO Blog tells us that "it's a small world after all." Has anybody called Rep. Jerry Lewis' (R-CA) office about this?
Goss Backstory:
Josh Marshall provides the backstory for the Goss resignation. TPM Muckraker has Goss' statement on his resignation. (It looks like everything anyone is hearing is pointing to the Wilkes-Cunningham-Foggo axis.) UPDATE: More from Laura Rozen on Goss, Foggo, and Negroponte. And questions abound from Huffington Post report on possible Pentagon under secretary resigning in the wake of Cunningham scandal.
Continue readingGoss Fall-Out Slowly Trickling In:
So, the unexpected Porter Goss resignation is making it's way across the news and blogs. Former Georgia Rep. Bob Barr became the first TV pundit to connect Goss to the Cunningham scandal, according to TPM Muckraker. Laura Rozen at War and Piece writes, "CIA public affairs just told me they will be releasing a statement this afternoon." She also writes in another post: "We heard about photos. But I seriously wonder, if someone showed the Agency the evidence that they had the photos of Goss being at parties his spokesperson denied he ever attended. Maybe the reporting wasn't so "wildly irresponsible" after all, hm? And the thing is, there are apparently a couple other currently serving congressmen in one of the photos described to me. Not doing anything salacious mind you. Just there. The point is, Goss's spokesperson went on the record on Goss's behalf last week to say he was never at any of those parties." Meanwhile Think Progress informs us that Goss' resignation comes as a total shock to the administration. They quote CNN's senior Pentagon correspondent, Jamie McIntyre:
The Defense Department has representatives there and, according to sources, none of the people at that meeting had any advance word that Porter Goss was going to be tendering his resignation. So it indicates the sudden nature that this took place, and again it just fuels the speculation of what the real backstory is here.Although we don't know enough yet, all signs point to Goss' involvement (whether with prostitutes or not) in the Cunningham-Wilkes Watergate parties/corruption. And you thought today was going to be all about "sleeping-while-driving" Rep. Patrick Kennedy. Continue reading
CIA Chief Out:
Porter Goss, the head of the CIA, is resigning effective immediately. Ken Silverstein at Harpers.org alleged that Goss attended poker games with Duke Cunningham and Brent Wilkes that may have turned into parties with prostitutes. Could Goss' resignation be related? UPDATE: It seems that news organizations have no idea that Goss and his number three K. Dusty Foggo have had their names swirling around in a prostitution scandal. This bears all the hallmarks of getting out in front of a scandal and the media writes their pieces in the context of a staff shake-up. No successor. No warning. This definitely is not some Josh Bolten staff realignment. The next thing to watch for is what happens to Foggo. If he goes then this is big.
Continue readingMorning Stories:
- The Associated Press reports that Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) has publicly blamed his early Thursday morning car crash on a combination of prescription drugs (Phenergan and Ambien) that his doctor prescribed him. He has said that no alcohol was involved in the crash. Note to Congressmen: Don't drive on Ambien, it's a sleeping pill!
- According to the Wall Street Journal, authorites are investigating "whether a senior Navy official tried to steer business to" Custer Battles, a defense contractor that has already been ordered to pay $10 million in fines for defrauding the U.S. government. The Navy official is Douglas Combs, who served as "special assistant to then-acting Secretary of the Navy Hansford Johnson in 2003".
- Missouri Governor Matt Blunt (R) has imposed a ban on administration employees from receiving any lobbyist gifts amidst an FBI probe of his administration, according to the Kansas City Star.
- The Associated Press reports on the ongoing fight between the defense and prosecution in the David Safavian case over the prosecution's release of emails between Safavian and ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
- Alternet provides a one-stop round-up of all the information regarding the Duke Cunningham-Brent Wilkes-Prostitution scandal. Continue reading
Watergate Subpoenaed:
Justin Rood reports that the Watergate Hotel has been suboenaed in the congressional hooker scandal:
According to Graham [the assistant general manager], the Watergate has received multiple subpoenas in connection with the Wilkes Hookergate scandal. He went on to say that the hotel is complying with those subpoenas but that he couldn't discuss the content of the orders, nor could he discuss details of the investigation, "out of respect for our guests' privacy."Continue reading
In Blog Daylight:
- Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA) likes to spend his campaign cash on himself, according to Harpers.org. Over the past eight years Weldon has spent $80,000 of his campaign funds on meals, $30,000 on hotels, purchased a personal computer, and went to a number of spas, to name just a few of Weldon's indulgences.
- Ken Silverstein also has more (see updates) at Harpers.org on Shirlington Limousines, the limousine company that allegedly delivered members of Congress, defense and CIA officials, and prostitutes to "hospitality suites". TPM Muckraker has more updates on this "play for pay" scandal. You can read it here, here, and here. Josh Marshall also has more here.
- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called on the House Ethics Committee to investigate Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) after a second associate of Jefferson's pled guilty yesterday, according to MyDD. Of course, a member of Congress has to refer Jefferson to the ethics committee since outside complaints are not allowed to be considered anymore. Somebody? Anybody? (crickets chirping)
- Out of touch Representative of the day: Mary Bono (R-CA). (from Raw Story)
Front Company:
Ken Silverstein at Harpers.org provides more info on Shirlington Limousine and their government contracts. Shirlington received a number of government contracts that total $25 million. Also, Silverstein reports that, "The limo company does business under at least four different names; in addition, the office addresses listed on its business filings regularly change. A number of those office addresses are actually at residential buildings or business suites, and calls to the listed phone numbers are taken by an answering service." This sounds a lot like how Brent Wilkes' operated - the creation of shell companies, front companies with no address and voice recordings.
Continue readingMid-Morning News:
- Josh Marshall looks into how Shirlington Limousines came to be connected to alleged-briber Brent Wilkes. The "missing link" appears to be former Rep. Bill Lowery (R-CA), who is now a lobbyist with close ties to Appropriations chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA).
- Following the money doesn't have to be limited to politics and the Episcopal Diocese of Washington has shown how to follow the money in the religious arena.
- Captain Ed is disheartened by the failure of Coburn's amendments to strip pork from the emergency supplemental. When talking about the Northrop Grumman earmark he asks the question that we all have in our head when thinking this, "Why does a corporation that made $2.4 billion in profit need another $200 million from American taxpayers to cover a loss they've absorbed in that same year?" Amen.
- citizen dc at Daily Kos writes about Karl Rove's "unexplained personal wealth". It is quite strange that a man who doesn't make so much money happens to own million dollar homes. Continue reading
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