Christy Smith reports that David Shuster reports that Foggo has just stepped down from the #3 post at CIA. Unlike Goss, whose resignation remains somewhat of a mystery, Foggo’s resignation probably comes from the San Diego investigators preparing to indict him:
Friday, people with knowledge of the continuing Cunningham inquiry said the CIA official, Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, is under federal criminal investigation in connection with awarding agency contracts.
…Mr. Foggo has been a close friend since junior high school with Poway, Calif., defense contractor Brent R. Wilkes. The criminal investigation centers on whether Mr. Foggo used his postings at the CIA to improperly steer contracts to Mr. Wilkes’s companies.
Mr. Wilkes earlier this year was implicated in the charges filed against Mr. Cunningham, as an unindicted co-conspirator who allegedly had paid about $630,000 in bribes to Mr. Cunningham for help in obtaining federal contracts.
No charges have been filed against Mr. Wilkes, although federal prosecutors in San Diego are working to build a case against him, as well as Mr. Foggo, people with knowledge of the investigation said.
The FBI and federal prosecutors also are investigating evidence that Mr. Wilkes had given gifts to Mr. Foggo and paid for various services for him while Mr. Foggo was in a position to help him gain particular CIA contracts.
Let me repeat a simple point that I never get tired of making. People who want increased power to intrude into citizens’ privacy and at the same time want to increasingly escape supervision of their own ought to raise all kinds of alarm bells. When you know that they have abused the levers of government then it is simply time to clean house, full stop. If government genuinely needs increased power over its citizens in order to fight whatever global struggle that it is we’re fighting then it is that much more important that we install leaders who can handle it responsibly.
Removing Goss is a step in the right direction, assuming that he got caught up in the Foggo/MZM bribery shenanigans, but it means nothing if the general atmosphere of laissez-faire authoriatarianism goes on unabated. At this point about the only thing that will significantly change that is a thorough turnover of Congress.
Davebo
No, if government needs increased power over its citizens in order to fight whatever global struggle then they should send a bill or constitutional ammendment to congress and have them grant the power.
Otherwise the government needs to obey the law and do it’s job.
Faux News
Cheer up John. Perhaps some day bloggers will be as important as Senators/Congressmen, so that lobbyists will entice you and other bloggers with top shelf hookers in (4 to 5 star) hotel rooms, free trips, and cash.
Mere drones like me have to settle for beer and dvd porn in our living rooms.
:-(
LITBMueller
Ugh. Problem is, this administration wants things at the CIA to go from bad (Porter “Twatergate-linked” Goss) to worse (Michael “Why don’t YOU handle special ops, Rummy?” Hayden).
i.e, they want to replace a man who completely politicized the CIA with a guy who doesn’t even know what the 4th Amendment says. YIKES!
The coup would be complete: after Goss completely emasculated the CIA, Hayden’s orders would be to provide an orderly transition to a Pentagon-run spy agency, where more and more CIA responsibilities get shipped to DoD.
Great idea! Reward the Secretary and department that set up whole offices (OSP) to LIE us into a war. There’s “politicizing intelligence”…and then there’s “just making shit up.” Prepare to see more and more of the latter!
The Other Steve
Na na na na
Bye Bye!
Next up. Frodo of the Nine Fingers.
Paul Wartenberg
Hayden’s not going to be much of an improvement. Talking Points Memo is reporting he’s got ties to the same MZM people from the Cunningham-Wade bribery case.
Meet the new boss. Just as corrupt as the old boss.
ppGaz
By far the most important thing right now is to keep this program intact
I think we’ll be hearing a lot more about this in the coming days.
This is the ongoing legacy of our greatest aerial spy, Stu Le Pigeon.
S.W. Anderson
Absolutely. The scary, daunting thing about it is how blatant their “abuse of the levers of power” were in 2004, when so many people succumbed to all the lying, sliming, attack ads $200 million could buy, plus all the slant corporate mainstream media could provide.
Don’t underestimate the willingness and ability of of these people to hang onto power. Likewise, don’t underrate the gullibility of a significant portion of the voting-age public.
slickdpdx
nice point, well made
The Other Steve
Frodo of the nine fingers, and the ring of doom
tBone
ppGaz – little-known fact about that program: Harry and Aerial Recon mated over Japan in 1948. The tragic progeny of their union? None other than Birdzilla.
ppGaz
Thanks …. I just propelled a mouthful of shrimp with linguine about thirteen feet across the dining table and onto the back of the sofa.
The Other Steve
Wow. I just noticed something.
redstate.com is nearly dead. Every diary has at most maybe 10 comments on it.
Balloon-juice is getting more traffic.
ppGaz
That settles it. Tomorrow morning, I’m asking John for a raise.
Pb
ppGaz,
I’ve got your back–I’ll ask him to double your salary!
Perry Como
Hayden linked to MZM
Hilarious.
stickler
Oh, come on.
Redstate is a website with a purely Stalinist approach to diversity of thought. And there haven’t been any headlines about “How Abortion Is Killing Western Civilization” for a couple of weeks.
So why expect the two dozen Zampolits to post much in the meantime? Sure, the Republic is headed into the crapper, and our leadership is demonstrating mendacious incompetence every God-damned day, but until the Heimatssicherheitshauptamt (HSA) proposes bar-coding all citizen wrists, the drones of Redstate aren’t going to be bothered. (And of course in that case, it’ll be to shout about how great the bar codes will be in the War On Terra!)
Maybe they’re watching the NBA. Or maybe they’re watching paint dry.
searp
I wonder if Hayden was appointed because it would have looked bad politically to appoint Kappes. That is, I wonder if Kappes isn’t coming in as the undesignated heir-apparent.
By all accounts, Hayden is a technocrat and will need Kappes to make a go of things at CIA. I look for Hayden to manage up, worrying about Negroponte and Rumsfeld, while Kappes gets the Agency into shape.
That wouldn’t be a bad outcome, in my book.
Age Tatter
Unions. Well, looks like Bush gets to do the biggest CIA lay off in history. Dad’s CIA no less! 50,000 like GM. Alot of them wanted politics and pulled the trigger immediately after retiring, others played games started back when ‘Rice’s’ covert CIA WMD program and training hit the US Universities. Well, some pulled good triggers and got into Congress, others got to write 2.5 million books, and others get to blog.
Plans worked out pretty good for only a few, but did they do alot of outing? Well, ya, but its not illegal anymore, just ask the DOJ Criminal Conspiracy guy, Fitz.
I’m pretty sure only one got time, but that is what a blog is………..
Faux News
I love visiting RedState.com. It’s a parody of itself and almost (but not quite) good as whitehouse.org. Many times I burst out laughing at the absurd right wing DougJ type posts.
Major Republicans issues are almost totally ignored. With all of the Republican ills and low ratings what is on the site today? A thread on how Jimmy Carter should have been impeached! Folks, it’s as if DougJ has his own blog with multiple DougJ spoof personas.
As Colbert reminded us the bottom 30% are nothing more than “backwash”.
Mr Furious
Screw John. Get me some traffic and I’ll give you CEO-type pay (ie: 600 times the pay of the average commenter).
Red State’s traffic will go back up as soon as everyone gets back from their Denial Conference.
Mr Furious
This is but one of many reasons we need a thorough turnover in Congress.
Sure I want a majority, but if I could realy have my druthers I’d sweep many of both parties out. I feel like if we could replace the 100 worse Reps and 20 worst Senators, the Dems would take some casualties, but both Houses would turn, and the country would be far better off. Even the red states. More because of the deadwood out and new blood in than the specific fact of more new Democrats.