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Old 03-06-2006, 12:36 PM   #1 (permalink)
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Is This Really a "Time of War"? Intelligence Appointees Don't Reinforce WARTIME IDEA

If we are in a "state of war" serious enough for the POTUS to maintain that he is justified in appropriating the authority to conduct warrantless monitoring of telephone calls initiated by Americans to parties in other countries, among a wide range of other emergency powers that our POTUS claims to be authorized to transfer to himself from the American people and from their elected federal representatives, why has Bush appointed the following men to high intelligence agency positions, as recently as the CIA's Foggo in Nov. 1994, and Negroponte in May, 1995. Are these reports the best results of the "Intelligence Reform", supposedly outlined by the 9/11 Commssion Report? If we are "at war", isn't the 100 month sentence meted out to Randy Cunningham, and the so far unpunished activities of Cunningham bribers Mitchell Wade, and Brent Wilkes, who is also Foggo's "best friend", a set of contradictions as to the seriousness of the offenses that these men are committing?

The Senate confirmed Negroponte in a 95 to 3 vote, but Bush appointed him, and CIA director Porter Goss, as "reformer". All members of congress under investigation in connection with Wade and Wilkes are republicans, becasue they control the government.
Quote:
http://public.cq.com/public/20060303_homeland.html
CQ HOMELAND SECURITY – INTELLIGENCE
March 3, 2006 – 8:44 p.m.
Negroponte Makes the Most of His Post as Minister Without Portfolio
By Jeff Stein, CQ Staff

On many a workday lunchtime, the nominal boss of U.S. intelligence, John D. Negroponte, can be found at a private club in downtown Washington, getting a massage, taking a swim, and having lunch, followed by a good cigar and a perusal of the daily papers in the club’s library.

“He spends three hours there [every] Monday through Friday,” gripes a senior counterterrorism official, noting that the former ambassador has a security detail sitting outside all that time in chase cars. Others say they’ve seen the Director of National Intelligence at the University Club, a 100-year-old mansion-like redoubt of dark oak panels and high ceilings a few blocks from the White House, only “several” times a week.

Surely Negroponte needs a comfort zone, forced as he is to spends hours in the witness chair in front of congressional committees, fielding hot potatoes on subjects over which he has no control — the NSA’s warrantless surveillance, domestic spying by secret military intelligence units, paying newspapers in Iraq to run pro-U.S. stories.

Lacking control must be a new experience for Negroponte. In the 1980s he was ambassador to Honduras, base camp for U.S.-backed attacks on left-wing Nicaragua. More recently, he was the U.S. proconsul in Baghdad. Negroponte’s reputation as a very demanding boss, in fact, preceded him to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), where aides fretted at the prospect of 15-hour days and memos thrown back in their faces by this disciple of Henry A. Kissinger.

But there seems to be a new, relaxed John Negroponte. And some close observers think they know why.

He’s figured out the job. Which is to say, he really doesn’t have much control over the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies.

So why not hang at the University Club?

Negroponte spokesman Carl Kroft takes serious issue with that portrayal.

“He’s the hardest working person in U.S. intelligence,” Kroft said. “He’s hard at work from the early hours of the morning to late every night. The job never ends.”.......
Quote:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11570067/site/newsweek/
Investigation: The CIA's No. 3 Has a Friend in the Spotlight
Newsweek

March 6, 2006 issue - As logistics chief at the CIA's main base near Frankfurt, Germany, Kyle (Dusty) Foggo sat at the crossroads of agency operations. Operatives and VIPs passed through, and former top spies say Foggo was customarily on hand to greet them. After Porter Goss took over as CIA director, many agency veterans were astonished when the former House intel chair chose Foggo, a midranking bureaucrat, to become CIA executive director, the agency's third-ranking official, responsible for day-to-day operations. Insiders attributed his rise to his mastery of office politics. But Foggo's glad-handing has raised awkward questions. Federal prosecutors have accused (as an unindicted co-conspirator) one of Foggo's closest friends, San Diego businessman Brent Wilkes, of participating in a scheme to bribe Randall (Duke) Cunningham, the GOP congressman from San Diego who resigned his seat after pleading guilty to federal corruption and tax charges.

Wilkes ran a network of companies that did business with defense and intel agencies, and according to two sources familiar with the investigation, who requested anonymity because the probe is ongoing, Foggo's name has surfaced in the federal inquiry. At the same time, NEWSWEEK has learned, the CIA inspector general's office has opened its own investigation into Foggo's relationship with Wilkes. This inquiry is sufficiently serious that Congress was notified about it in writing.

Foggo and Wilkes are old buddies. Pals in San Diego say that between assignments overseas, the genial, hefty Foggo was a conspicuous presence at Wilkes's parties. In a court document made public last week, prosecutors charged that former representative Cunningham, whom prosecutors asked a judge to imprison for 10 years, hit up an unnamed "Co-conspirator No. 1"—identified as Wilkes by government and defense sources—for $525,000, which Wilkes allegedly agreed to hand over in return for $6 million worth of government contracts. Wilkes has not been charged with any wrongdoing, and his lawyer declined to comment. But last week a D.C. businessman, Mitchell Wade, ID'ed in Cunningham court documents as "Co-conspirator No. 2," pleaded guilty to corrupting both Cunningham and unnamed Defense Department officials. So far, no proof has emerged that Wilkes, whose companies did a lot of business with the Pentagon, also did business with the CIA. A source close to Foggo, declining to be ID'ed while talking about the case, said Foggo had no knowledge of the criminal inquiry and had not been contacted by investigators. Paul Gimigliano, a CIA spokesman, told NEWSWEEK: "It is standard procedure for the inspector general to look into assertions that mention agency officers. That should in no way be seen as lending credibility to any allegation." Gimigliano added that Foggo had "overseen many contracts," all of which were "properly awarded and administered."
—Mark Hosenball and Jamie Reno
Quote:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniont...s_1n4adcs.html
ADCS founder spent years cultivating political contacts

By Dean Calbreath
and Jerry Kammer
STAFF WRITER / COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

December 4, 2005

.....Born in San Diego County in 1954, Wilkes graduated from Hilltop High School in 1972, along with his football teammate and <b>best friend Kyle Dustin "Dusty" Foggo, currently third-in-command at the Central Intelligence Agency. Wilkes and Foggo were roommates at San Diego State University, were best men at each other's weddings and named their sons after each other.</b>

Wilkes' career in political relations dates to the early 1980s, shortly after Foggo joined the CIA. Foggo was sent to Honduras to work with the Contra rebels who were trying to topple the Sandinista government of Nicaragua, according to sources within the CIA.

Making connections
Wilkes had moved to Washington, D.C., and opened a business named World Finance Corp. about three blocks away from the White House. One of his chief activities, sources say, was to accompany congressmen – including then-Rep. Bill Lowery of San Diego, whom Wilkes met during his participation in the SDSU Young Republicans organization – to Central America to meet with Foggo and Contra leaders.

A number of sources who have had business dealings with Wilkes say he hinted at that time and afterward that he was affiliated with the CIA. CIA sources say he was never employed by the agency.
Quote:
http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBEQVNGDKE.html
Disgraced Executive Got Local Tax Deals

By MICHAEL FECHTER and WILLIAM MARCH The Tampa Tribune

Published: Mar 4, 2006

TAMPA - Gov. Jeb Bush's office is refusing to release documents or answer questions about a $400,000 tax credit awarded to MZM Inc., whose former chief executive pleaded guilty last week to bribery and illegal campaign contributions.

MZM, of Washington, stood to receive $320,000 from the state and $80,000 from Tampa and Hillsborough County after promising in 2004 to create 80 high-paying jobs in the area.

The former CEO, Mitchell Wade, spent $1.08 million buying a four-story office building at 601 E. Twiggs St. in downtown Tampa on May 20, 2004. That was two months after Wade met U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris and gave her $32,000 in campaign contributions from his employees.

In his plea deal Feb. 24, Wade admitted to bribing U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, of California. He also acknowledged giving his employees cash to reimburse them for contributions to Harris and to Virginia Rep. Virgil Goode, which is illegal. All three Congress members are Republicans.

Harris, of Longboat Key, is running for U.S. Senate.

Prosecutors in the case have said Wade did not tell Harris the contributions were illegal, and she says she didn't know. She has donated to charity a total of $50,000 in MZM-related contributions.

Last year, Harris tried to get a $10 million federal appropriation for a Navy project backed by Wade and proposed for Sarasota. The company does contracting in the security and intelligence fields, including work for the Defense Department.

The project was never funded.
Quote:
http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGB5MTE1CKE.html
Harris Shuns Spending Requests

By KEITH EPSTEIN kepstein@tampatrib.com

Published: Mar 3, 2006

........Among the reasons for her absence was a meeting with top-gun campaign finance lawyer Ben Ginsberg, <b>whom she hired as a "precaution,"</b> Harris spokeswoman Kara Borie said.

On the sixth day after she was identified as a recipient of illegal campaign contributions, the Republican congresswoman from Longboat Key stayed behind closed doors. She issued a statement in which she denied knowing that contributions made to her by defense contractor Mitchell Wade had been illegal...........
Note here at campaign donation reporting site, http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/se...2002=Y&Order=N that fourteen checks of $2000 each, supposedly sent to Harris on the initiative of individual employees of Mitchell Wade's company, were all "donated" on the same day! The only other check came from Wade's wife, two weeks later. Mitchell Wade was the principle "briber" of Rep. Randy Cunningham, who was just sentenced to 100 months in a federal pen., yesterday!

The table here: http://www.opensecrets.org/politicia...882&cycle=2004
makes it clear that Mitchell Wade's MZM Corp., (Wade's employee's checks, illegally remimbursed later by Wade himself, and Wade's family...) was Harris's top 2004 contributor, with $50,000. The next highers was National Beer Wholesalers Assn.'s $20,000 to Harris.
Can you believe that Harris could receive 14 checks of $2000 each, on the same day, fronted as independent contributions from Wade's employees, who don't live anywhere near Florida, and then accept Harris saying that she did not know that Wade was not trading to purchase the influence of her elected office for MZM, as he had with Cunningham?

Catherine Harris was Florida Secretary of State in Nov. 2000, the highest Florida official responsible for the integrity of voting, as well as Chairman of the Bush Cheney 2000 Florida Campaign....

Last edited by host; 03-06-2006 at 01:10 PM..
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