From The New York Times, 10/18/06:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/18/washington/18inquire.html?_r=1&hp&ex=1161144000&en=96b2680002002a81&ei=5094&partner=homepage&oref=slogin
Report Spells Out Abuses by Former Congressman
By MARK MAZZETTI
WASHINGTON --
Former Representative Randy Cunningham pressured and intimidated staff
members of the House Intelligence Committee to help steer more than
$70 million in classified federal business to favored military
contractors, according to a Congressional investigation made public on
Tuesday.
The investigation found that Mr. Cunningham, a California Republican
who is serving an eight-year prison sentence for bribery, repeatedly
abused his position on the committee to authorize money for military
projects, often over the objections of staff members who criticized
some of the spending as wasteful.
The inquiry also found that despite numerous "red flags" about the
propriety of a particular contract for work on a controversial
Pentagon counterintelligence program, committee staff members for
three years "continued to accept and support Mr. Cunningham’s growing
requests for this project."
Mr. Cunningham resigned from Congress in November after pleading
guilty to accepting more than $2 million in bribes from military
contractors.
His plea was mainly related to his activities as a member of the House
Appropriations Committee.
The investigation’s report lays out for the first time how Mr.
Cunningham maneuvered within the classified world of the Intelligence
Committee to win secret contracts for two friends, Brent R. Wilkes and
Mitchell J. Wade, both contractors.
Lawyers for Mr. Cunningham and Mr. Wade declined to comment on the
report.
A lawyer for Mr. Wilkes was traveling outside the country.
The report is another embarrassment for Congressional Republicans,
who, three weeks before Election Day, are trying to contain the damage
from accusations that former Representative Mark Foley, Republican of
Florida, made sexually explicit remarks in e-mail messages to
Congressional pages.
The report on Mr. Cunningham was made public by Representative Jane
Harman of California, the senior Democrat on the Intelligence
Committee.
Ms. Harman’s action drew a rebuke from Representative Peter Hoekstra,
Republican of Michigan and chairman of the committee, who called the
release "disturbing and beyond the pale."
In an interview, Ms. Harman said Tuesday that the public had a right
to see the conclusions of the inquiry, which was led by Michael Stern,
an outside special counsel, and completed in May.
She said she had been pushing for months for the committee to produce
an unclassified version of the report.
"I thought it would be out in early August," she said, "well ahead of
the election season."
Only the five-page executive summary of the report was released.
The full 59-page report remains classified.
Several crucial witnesses, including Mr. Cunningham, Mr. Wilkes and
Mr. Wade, were not interviewed for the investigation.
Mr. Cunningham’s positions on both the Intelligence Committee and the
Appropriations Defense Subcommittee gave him an advantage in obtaining
classified spending provisions called earmarks.
In theory, the Intelligence Committee is supposed to authorize
classified expenses before the Appropriations Committee puts them into
military spending bills.
But in practice, the Appropriations Defense Subcommittee has sometimes
originated classified earmarks on its own, and the Intelligence
Committee depends on the appropriators for its spending requests.
By serving on both panels, Mr. Cunningham had influence over the
entire classified budget process.
The inquiry found no evidence that staff members of the Intelligence
Committee had profited or expected to profit from Mr. Cunningham’s
dealings.
It also concluded that committee staff members had been suspicious of
Mr. Wade and "disinclined to provide him any favorable treatment."
At the same time, committee staff members repeatedly acceded to Mr.
Cunningham’s demands to steer money to Mr. Wade’s company, MZM Inc.
The report describes how Mr. Cunningham worked to gain support within
the Intelligence Committee for a program run by MZM at the
Counterintelligence Field Activity agency of the Pentagon.
The counterintelligence program has been criticized by civil liberties
groups, which say it authorizes military officials to spy on Americans
under the guise of protecting domestic military bases.
But as a result of a "corrupt conspiracy" between Mr. Cunningham and
Mr. Wade, the inquiry found, the Intelligence Committee’s ability to
monitor the counterintelligence program effectively "appears to have
been seriously impeded."
The report cited Mr. Wilkes’s close friendship with Kyle Foggo,
formerly a top administrator at the Central Intelligence Agency, who
helped manage the agency’s dealings with contractors.
The inquiry found that Mr. Foggo also worked with Intelligence
Committee staff members, including Brant G. Bassett, a former C.I.A.
officer, on classified projects relating to the management of the
agency.
Mr. Bassett and Mr. Foggo provided Intelligence Committee members with
"trinkets" to win favor for their efforts, including a carpet
displaying the words "Global War on Terror."
The report said it was not clear whether these activities violated any
regulation or law, but it recommended further inquiry.
The report suggested that Mr. Foggo, who is under investigation by
federal authorities in San Diego for his dealings with Mr. Wilkes on a
logistics contract, might be facing a broader inquiry than had been
known.
It said the investigation of Mr. Foggo also involved "several large
contracts" managed by an unidentified contractor, who attended a
dinner in June 2003 with Mr. Foggo and Mr. Wilkes at the Capital
Grille here.
Mr. Foggo’s lawyer, Mark J. MacDougall, declined to comment.
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An ever-growing pile of Republican *****.
Harry
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