Career CIA Executive Pleads Guilty To One Bribery Charge
CIA chief Porter J. Goss, a former Florida Republican congressman, named Foggo as the Agency's executive director in 2004. In 2006, Foggo became the subject of an FBI investigation into a widespread bribery scandal that brought down Rep. Cunningham (R-CA) and Brent Wilkes, a San Diego defense contractor. The investigation also ended both Goss' and Foggo's tenure at the CIA.
Cunningham was convicted in 2006 for accepting $2.4 million in bribes, primarily from defense contractors. In 2007, Wilkes was convicted of providing Cunningham with more $700,000 in bribes. They both remain in jail.
Background
Foggo was career CIA, joining the Agency in 1981; he got his start in the Presidential Management Intern program. His posts included Vienna, Austria; Frankfurt, Germany; and Honduras.
In May 2006, the Washington Post reported that federal agents had searched Foggo's home and office:
Aside from well-publicized espionage cases, veteran intelligence officers said they could not recall another time when FBI agents picked through offices at the CIA's Langley headquarters.
He was indicted in 2007 in San Diego; the case was transferred to northern Virginia in February 2008. The 28 page indictment contained some gems:
- Foggo demanded the Agency hire "one of his mistresses." It did.
- Foggo orchestrated a $1.7 million contract for Wilkes (a childhood friend) to "provide bottled water to staff in Iraq at a 60 percent price markup over the offer of another contractor (who, under the deal worked out by Foggo, was hired as the subcontractor to actually perform the work)."
They Call It Greymail, I Call It Blackmail
However, as Laura Rozen writes for Mother Jones, the big issue was what secrets might see the light of day should Foggo's trail go forward. The CIA did not want that to happen, and as a result, Foggo gets off with a slap on the wrist as prosecutors will recommend only three years instead of 20. Pleading guilty to one count instead going to trial for 28 counts (the other 27 were dropped). Sentencing is in January 2009, and I suppose the judge could always overrule the prosecution deal. We can only hope.
According to prosecutors, Foggo threatened "to expose the cover of virtually every CIA employee with whom he interacted and to divulge to the world some of our country's most sensitive programs -- even though this information has absolutely nothing to do with the charges he faces."
What we have here is yet another example of greymail: a defense tactic that holds national secrets hostage. Try my client, see your secrets revealed. One of the more infamous cases in modern politics is Ollie North and Iran-Contra.
When I worked in D.C., the people I worked with wanted to make the world a better place. They weren't trying to line their pockets, both during and after their stint in government.
Why is this greed -- this blatant war profiteering -- treated more gingerly by DOJ than our "enemy combatants" locked away at Gitmo? (These people haven't been convicted -- nor have most been tried -- of anything.) And why doesn't Foggo's actions -- enabling war profiteering -- qualify him to be an "enemy combatant"? Wire fraud? Why not treason?
Ask your favorite candidate for Congress or the White House: how will they treat war profiteering?
On the Web: The War Profiteers - War Crimes, Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money
Photo: Photo of Foggo as CIA executive in the wild on the Internet. See a more recent picture at ABC's The Blotter.