The Foggo of War
Are we sure that George Bush is really the progeny of George H.W. and Barbara Bush? Any chance he is the long lost grandson of Joseph Stalin, sent to destroy the CIA from the inside? How else to explain the debacle underway with the Hookergate/Duke Cunningham bribe fest, the resignation of Goss, and the nomination of General Mike "What Fourth Amendment" Hayden?
So, how much trouble looms on the horizon for Dusty Foggo? The FBI is swarming over his house. If you have seen the pictures on TV you should notice that it is a relatively modest spread in Vienna, Virginia. If Dusty was on the take he certainly did not sock away the profits in any real estate transactions that have come to light.
How about the hookers and the water deal? Friends tell me that when Dusty went to Germany in 2000 that his participation in the poker parties ended. I don't know if he played any poker in 2004 after returning to the United States. The same cannot be said for key Goss staffers, like Pat Murray and Brant "Nine Fingers" Bassett. They reportedly attended the poker parties and are being looked at for other shenanighans.
What are reporters missing?
For starters, most reporters seem unaware that both Murray and Bassett are former CIA case officers. In fact, the personnel bloodletting that occurred in the early days of Goss's reign was confined largely to the European Division of the Directorate of Operations. Murray and Bassett, I'm told, did some score settling. Case officers in other parts of the CIA kept their heads down and steered clear of the battle. Most of those folks were generally very receptive to the renewed emphasis that Porter Goss brought to trying to revive a vibrant human collection capability.
Dusty's biggest jeopardy at this point appears to be the water deal. Folks familiar with the deal tell me that the contract with the Brent Wilkes company was signed and executed by people who worked for Dusty, but that Dusty had no overt role in the matter. What did he do behind the scenes? I'm willing to bet that the CIA IG and the FBI are interviewing the COTR (i.e., Contracting Officer’s Technical Representative) to determine if Dusty directed or influenced the contract in anyway. The COTR is the non-contracting officer that monitors contract performance on behalf of the Contracting Officer (CO). In this case, both the COTR and CO would’ve worked out of Frankfurt for Dusty.
A former CIA Buddy tells me that:
One point that hasn’t seemed to emerge yet is that a contract of this size would probably be reviewed at Hqs by someone from the office of the Agency Procurement Executive. Until a couple of months ago, the Procurement Executive was an SIS fellow, who resigned after 20 plus years with the Agency as a contracting careerist in logistics. There was no love lost between Dusty and this guy, so the two of them colluding to award Brent a contract is an unlikely scenario. One possibility is that a guy that worked for the SIS was overworked and just passed on the contract without really looking at it because he knew and trusted Dusty’s CO, who was the son of a retired legendary finance careerist and well known and respected in logistics.
The next element is to determine whether Dusty personally profited from the deal. My friend who knows Dusty is betting that nothing criminal will emerge from this "dust up". As I said in a previous posting, Dusty's main fault was in keeping Brent Wilkes as a friend. Unless Dusty has a secret Swiss bank account or has hidden property assets somewhere, he may be a sexy diversion in a story that will ultimately focus on bribery and corruption that occurred in Washington, DC while Dusty was away in Europe.
That's way too "old school" Lar ... Try the Caymans...
May 12, 2006 12:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, I figured since he was in Europe it was just next door.
May 12, 2006 12:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Foggo's landlord was quoted as saying he had a nice family and paid his rent on time...in cash?
If the #3 at CIA wouldn't know how to launder money, then the agency is more broken than we could imagine.
These "iceberg tips" that keep popping up are indicative of how perilous the waters are now for the great ship of state. The dry-drunk at the wheel will lurch again into a different lane on Monday night, when he rolls out what's left of our military assets on the Mexican border.
Because he's the decider. Because as long as he's got a war, he's the commander-in-chief and the military have to follow his orders.
When will he turn them loose on those of us that will not follow his orders?
Alphonse ( Al ) Kada
May 12, 2006 12:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Love how the Media first sat on this story when Porter Goss was fired and now that he's safely out of the way, they no longer mention him. In the AP Article that both the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune are using to report this story, Porter Goss isn't mentioned once. Guess there's no relation -- out of sight, out of mind.
I 'spose in the end, this will be a story of how the Administration is orchestrating this scandal and how the Media, oh so cooperatively, has sat on it.
Independent Illinois Grassroots: IllinoisDemNet.com
May 12, 2006 1:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
They will not go after him. He's probably up for the same treatment Tenent got. Medal anyone?
May 12, 2006 1:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not to mention that Switzerland is STILL THE best place to hide money.
No CIA person would trust the Caymans - they'd know better. They may be more accommodating down there than a Swiss bank, but they're also a lot more fragile.
May 12, 2006 2:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
If I were you, Larry, I'd steer clear of exonerating Foggo until ALL the facts are out.
If something falls out you - or your "friends" - aren't aware of, you could look bad here and elsewhere for pre-judging the case.
Don't let the "Company ties" affect your objectivity here is all I'm saying.
May 12, 2006 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Perhaps his paternity is forged. Judging by the horoscope for Aries in The Onion, I have difficulty believing his birthday is in the weeks to come: "You will soon learn that only by hastily skimming the errors of the past can we hope to mostly avoid repeating what we dimly remember them to be in the future."
John
http://www.haberarts.com/
May 12, 2006 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Transhuman,
I appreciate your advice. I'm just trying to slow down the lynching party. I've predicted that I think Dusty will probably be guilty of poor judgment. If Dusty is guilty then he deserves to be punished. Let's be clear, I have not pre-judged it. I simply worry that there is a rush to judgment and some of the other facts don't add up. Seriously, look at the picture of his house (I posted a copy on my blog at noquarter.typepad.com). Dingy is the word that springs to mind. If he was raking in the cash where did he spend it?
May 12, 2006 2:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Larry, any chance that they were looking for any goods that Foggo had on others? In other words make sure the clean-up is over with this and the events don't continue through the election cycle.
May 12, 2006 2:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
fascinating possibility.
May 12, 2006 3:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
My guess is that this whole deal is yet another bit of Rovian misdirection; along with the NSA wiretapping non-event (apparently, the pen-register changes enabled by USA PATRIOT make this all technically legal) - this is designed to make Hayden's appointment a shoo-in. The talking heads and pundits will be too busy drooling over the wiretapping, the public opinion polls, and the hookers and poker, to talk about Hayden.
Then, all we need is for Rummy to issue Order 66 so the clone troopers can wipe out the jedi once and for all.
May 12, 2006 3:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bribery isn't the only way Wilkes could have been influencing Foggo, Cunningham et al. From the stories we've heard, it seems extortion and blackmail would be effective as well, probably in combination with bribery. That's how a real manipulator would control his/her congressmen and agency hands. Thus even if Foggo weren't bribed, that doesn't mean something improper wasn't ocurring.
May 12, 2006 3:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cuban Cigars.
Laura Rozen from War and Peace, remembered this story a few weeks ago.
It turns out one of the Watergate poker parties I had heard was covered in the 90s by the Post was actually reported by an Atlanta Journal Constitution journalist and pal of Charlie Wilson's back in 1994.Here is "A Fun Bunch of Guys When the (poker) Chips Are Down, Depend on Your CIA to Be There." by Joe Murray, Atlanta Journal Constitution, May 20, 1994:
Laura goes on to say:
Interesting. Now we know a bit more: the Watergate suite was presumably paid for by Wilkes. The poker parties were happening every week, for years. At least among congressmen Charlie Wilson was a regular. And some folks from the CIA. Interesting.
Also heard tonight there was a third hotel between the Wilkes-era at the Watergate and the Wilkes-epoch at the Westin Grand: a time period in the late 1990s when he rented space at the Capital Hilton.
The entire AJC story is posted as well as Laura's analyses.
Click here for the Users Help Forum.
May 12, 2006 3:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Colour me thick, but I still haven't digested the import of the McCarthy allegations. And now this, another institutional story that spins well for the White House as final decider.
It's clear BushCo loathe CIA for its waffling and incompetence in the runup to war, but this bunch never does anything w/o political import. Isn't the game to militarize the covert op.s aspects of the CIA, politicize the analytic capabilities, and then let the husk implode for want of sustenance? Cheney-Rumsfeld-Rove win shortterm [the misdirection theory] but at the cost of the one last fief of HUMINT with some institutional competence. Who are you lot going to trust? The FBI? Nope. There's only that monster DIA left, NSA being tekkies on a rampage these days.
Moreover, this plays perfectly to the Bush base, which has no faith [ahem] in anything remotely egghead, eg, intell analysts who get stuff wrong.
One final thought: just a year ago, the CIA was boasting over 100K applications. How does that compare to the Army, which is losing recruitment appeal by the hour?
Foggo may have had his finger in a very smelly pie, but the institutional story is far bigger than Hookergate. This is for all the marbles.
May 12, 2006 4:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Okay, I appreciate your caution.
However, the CIA does look at how their senior people are living, right?
I mean, splurging your ill-gotten gains is a fast ticket to an investigation by CI, right?
I'd say Foggo ought to have a little smarts about that. Buying a huge spread when your nominal salary doesn't support it would be a big no-no.
Then again, maybe he just doesn't like mowing - or paying for mowing - large lawns...
Doesn't mean he doesn't have ten million stashed in Switzerland...
Maybe he means to spend it on his retirement...who knows?
You know the story about how while some black and Latin drug dealers used to live it up, the Cuban drug dealers tend to drive old cars and keep it low-key.
It's a weak argument to just look at his house is all I'm saying.
May 12, 2006 4:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Order 66 already went out.
Two aircraft carriers moving to join a third in the Gulf.
Iran is likely on sometime June or later.
That'll "bomb" everything off the front pages - bribery scandals, CIA scandals, Katrina (oh, wait, that's already gone...)
Josh will be the only one left worrying about Wilkes and Cunningham.
May 12, 2006 4:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
I gotta agree that there's more to this than bribery scandal. There's some sort of power play going on, proven by the fact that they've denied it.
On the other hand, the investigations ARE going on against the Senators and Congressmen. I'm surprised that the Bushies haven't moved to quash this stuff somehow.
So maybe the CIA thing is just part of that. But you've got to wonder if maybe somebody isn't taking advantage of it for another agenda.
Anyway, it'll all be swept under the rug when the Iran war starts.
May 12, 2006 4:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Who knows what all this is really all about? Read Sid Blumenthal's take on George's desire to "Kill the CIA" here;
http://salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2006/05/11/cia/
and see if anyone can make any sense out of this latest stuff.
What I can't figure out for the life of me is how this buffoon (Bush) has managed to be so amazingly effective at ruining our country and its institutions - like checks & balances for example. HOW? HOW? HOW? Any ideas? Is he really a puppet of some wizard?
Jan Knaus
May 12, 2006 5:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe, but everytime he tells a lie, wouldn't his nose grow?
All I'm sure of these days is that he's as close to the Antichrist as I ever want to get..........
Alphonse ( Al ) Kada
May 12, 2006 5:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Check it out!
The other shoe in the NSA scandal is about to drop.
I'm betting it's the revelation that they have everybody's credit records, too.
May 12, 2006 5:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
If this guy drops what the report says he might, it would be a solid confirmation of Juliette Kayyem's post about this being just one of the components of Poindexter's TIA program that was supposedly de-funded by Congress.
That could make C-Span very popular during Hayden's confirmation- talk about a bitch-slap to both houses!
The only questions left are where did they hide the other components? DIA? Something more compartmentalized under the Rummy?
Isn't there some legal implication associated with contempt of Congress by transferring funds from an authorized program to an unauthorized program?
Alphonse ( Al ) Kada
May 12, 2006 6:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe Foggo has a gambling problem. He's admitted to participating in poker games at the Watergate hotel, even hosting some parties at his home.
While I'm certain they were playing for more than $20 a game, he may not have a gambling problem, he may just really like playing poker and hookers.
What really happened? Who knows, it's all speculation at this point. I wouldn't put too much stock in the theory that he's innocent because he's got a crappy house. I don't know if he's done anything wrong, but let's how this plays out.
It's interesting to watch how the Dukester turn state's evidence, Goss "quits," this Foggo guy quits just before the FBI executes a search warrant at his home.
There's something happening here. My guess is that, as is the case with most corruption cases, following the money will expose the truly guilty perpetrators.
May 12, 2006 6:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
George Bush the Younger as Stalin, out to destroy the CIA? Hmm.. Could have a point. Think of him as similar to someone much closer to home Mr. Johnson. Thonk of him as Aldritch Ames. The parallels are striking. Both are alcoholics, both are mediocrities at best talent wise. Both are failures, both are the sons of much more talented and respected fathers. And both were put into positions of power way above their ability level because of who their fathers were and protected from the consequences of their incompetence by the old boy/buddy network.
May 12, 2006 8:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dusty Foggo. Doesn't he go all the way back to George's college days? Dusty was aboard Sonny Wallace's Sonny Pleasure Dome yacht with Dubya, around the time Kerry was in Vietnam?
When George W. knocked that six-pack overboard. And froze up. And let it sink out of sight. See the quicktime video, isn't Foggo the guy next to W?
May 12, 2006 8:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Larry, any chance Goss's sudden departure is related to USA Today disclosing the NSA phone records dragnet?
Did he dissent? Was he the leaker?
Because Goss running out of town just because Foggo might be in hot water does not make much sense.
May 13, 2006 1:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm confused Larry. What does the rest of your post have to do with George Bush being an offspring of Stalin? What does Bush have to do with the Cunningham scandal? If you mentioned it, I certainly missed it.
May 13, 2006 5:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
sn't the game to militarize the covert op.s aspects of the CIA, politicize the analytic capabilities, and then let the husk implode for want of sustenance?
The game is to get intelligence gathering out of any kind of oversight process--Congressional, judicial, bureaucratic. By putting into the military chain of command, they eliminate any oversight at all. All the military folks can do is resign. They can't refuse to implement authoritarian polices.
May 13, 2006 8:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
Clang Clang Clang Clang
ah-OooooGAY ah-OooooGAY
Clang Clang Clang Clang
ah-OooooGAY ah-OooooGAY
General Quarters... General Quarters...
All hands report to assigned duty stations and batten all water-tight hatches.
Prepare for incoming strawman, red-herring and circular-reasoning troll attack on port side of the good ship USS TPM Cafe...
May 13, 2006 9:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
S'cuse me, Commodore, Sir, but wouldn't that be the starboard side?
;<)
Alphonse ( Al ) Kada
May 13, 2006 9:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
INCOMING!!!!!
May 13, 2006 9:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
Robert Waldmann
You should be ashamed of self. Reference to Stalin violates Goodwinsky's law.
May 13, 2006 9:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
Robert Waldmann
Notrol asks "Isn't there some legal implication associated with contempt of Congress by transferring funds from an authorized program to an unauthorized program?" It's not called contempt of Congress its called missappropriation of funds (sp?) that is embezzling (sp ?)
Basically, spending money on one program when it was appropriated for another is legally the same as spending it on a home improvment. Recall Iran Contra. North is a cutie pie so he only got nailed for giving money to himself, but Poindexter (yes that Poindexter) was convicted on all counts and only got off because Judge Silverman (yes that Silverman) said North's 5th amendment rights were violated (as indeed they were).
May 13, 2006 10:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
"However, the CIA does look at how their senior people are living, right?"
Well apparently not. One of the more bizaare explanations of how the CIA missed Aldrich Ames despite his clear living above his means and his habit of sleeping drunk on his desk in the afternoons is that plenty of CIA folk were living above their means and had worse drinking problems than Ames, which given the account in this first link from Googling: "Aldrich Ames drinking problem" tells me I am working for the wrong government agency:
http://www.dss.mil/training/csg/security/Spystory/Ames.htm
You really need to read "Spycatcher" by Peter Wright, it was a best seller in 1987 yet for a time banned in England. One of its salient points was that the agency in charge of carrying out security clearances on every other part of government (MI5) simply recruited its own staff via the Old Boy's Network at Cambridge without any serious clearances at all.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0670820555/002-3334548-2568851?v=glance&n=283155
The predesessor of the CIA was the OSS, the Office of Strategic Services, then know to insiders as "Oh So Social" for its habits of hiring Northeastern Elites, apparently on the fundamental grounds that they were Good People.
So the idea that security agencies are eternally vigilent on the lifestyles of senior staff is just not borne out by history.
May 13, 2006 10:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
Buffoon is a great word for Bush, but I suspect he's more like a Mafia Don who is traditionally insulated from actual operations by several layers of authority. In fact, the Bushco bunch operates much like the Mafia, and that may be why their crimes go unpunished. We really need an insider to talk, hell, under RICO he'd be eligible for the witness protection program.
May 13, 2006 12:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know, Phelicity. I agree with you about buffoon. But dons, at least in fiction, have some dignity, some presence. Bush is more like the Joe Pesci character in "Goodfellas," a mean narrow little man, capable of bursts of psychopathic violence, master of the game of friendship and loyalty. I hate to see Bush's smarts underrated (he's not stupid) as much as I hate to see his carefully-constructed persona as a leader get a pass.
Once you dig into the felonious behaviors of generations of Bushes, GW really looks more and more like the Joe Pesci character -- small, narcissistic, and lethal.
May 13, 2006 3:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm sure you're correct.
In fact, I quoted Wayne Madsen's report about how the NSA internal affairs Gestapo themselves are outfitted with everything in their vehicles including DVD players, and none of their people are in their own employee surveillance database.
It just brings home how Larry is incorrect for just looking at Foggo's house to determine if he's guilty or not.
Especially now since Josh is revealing the "lavish vacations."
I'd say the odds are very good that Foggo is going down for some serious breaches of propriety at the least.
Now, whether there is some additional agenda being pursued here as well is another matter. I have no information on that.
May 13, 2006 5:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, but why would he telegraph his attack?
Oh, okay, just dumb, maybe.
Some of the trolls here are getting sneaky, though. Like irishkg slipped in a snark in another thread about how the NSA surveillance takes away our liberty like the NRA says the government takes away our right to bear arms.
I'd agree with that, but irishkg knows that most progressives are against the NRA. So he hopes to get some argument started over whether surveillance and the Second Amendment are on the same issue. That way he can argue against complaining about the surveillance.
May 13, 2006 5:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
In Soviet Russia, Goodwinsky violates YOU!
(Slashdot joke...)
May 13, 2006 5:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually it sounds to me like you and your boys were doing a good job of destroying it on your own. I mean all these "Agency guys" the ones at the poker games and hanging with all your inside info friends, they've all been there for awhile right? You know the ones who played poker and smoked cigars all might then crashed on the couch at the hotel before grabing a quick shower and rushing to the office to prevent 9/11...those guys. Maybe a military (even airforce)guy there will get their minds right and get them back in the business of analysing threats instead of analysing poker hands and hookers...if Bush has done anything to the CIA it scare off some of the the "lifers" who have been sitting on their asses just waiting to collect their retirement check, so it's probably a good thing you got out when you did.
May 14, 2006 5:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
9:05 AM
"Reading makes a country." Remember that PDB Skipper ???
May 14, 2006 10:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, I'm the troll alright. Good one. I guess Johnson should be proud he has a goon-squad to smear anyone who asks any questions of him.
May 14, 2006 2:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yep, that's it. It's a conspiracy.
May 15, 2006 9:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
LOL...good catch Al
May 16, 2006 1:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't bother Seixon, none of them can actually explain why when you ask a question you're a troll, but when they are off topic, innapropriate and just down right nasty, they aren't.
May 16, 2006 1:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Barb looks like Crowley, who must have had abs, as a rock climber, and did know the Pearce lady. There were no Blackbirds to Barcelona in those days, so how did she get pregnant when she did?
Dub looks like Rev. Pat Robertson, whom we know did have an illegitimate son, if that is not an oxymoron in the 21st century. Pat's dad's bud was Prescott Bush.
It happens in the best of families, and Barb did imply that she is a b, when she deprecated a less expensive b by name. That could be apples and oranges, or it could be on the watermark.
February 27, 2009 7:25 AM | Reply | Permalink