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Duke Cunningham and shady CIA contracts? Check out my reported post at Tapped on what I was told recently about not just Pentagon contracts Cunningham steered to those contractors who enriched him, but CIA contracts as well. It's interesting that "coconspirator 1" from the Cunningham indictment, Brent Wilkes of ADCS Inc., was, according to sources, the college roommate at San Diego State University and long-time friend of a top CIA official promoted by Porter Goss (Cunningham's former colleague from the House Intelligence committee). One CIA contract that Wilkes' company reportedly received was to ferry water into Iraq for CIA personnel:
As to whether the Cunningham money trail runs through Langley, stay tuned. Posted by Laura at November 29, 2005 10:16 PMSo far most of the attention in the Randy “Duke” Cunningham corruption case has focused on his guilty plea Monday admitting to charges that he conspired to take $2.4 million in bribes (cash, carpets, antiques and real estate), evade taxes, commit mail fraud and wire fraud, and steer Defense department contracts to those who enriched him. Those defense contracts were facilitated by Cunningham’s position on the House Appropriations committee subcommittee on defense – in effect, the subcommittee that writes the checks for Pentagon contracts.
But intelligence sources tell the Prospect that not to be overlooked is Cunningham’s position on the House Permanent Select Intelligence committee (HIPSI), and CIA contracts Cunningham may have helped steer to benefactors, particularly to companies chaired by Cunningham’s alleged co-conspirator Brent Wilkes, CEO of San Diego-based defense contractor ADCS Inc., and a major Republican campaign contributor.
The Prospect [has learned] that Wilkes’ company received at least one CIA contract – to supply CIA employees in Iraq with water, early into the invasion. Sources say such a contract may have been facilitated not only by the hundreds of thousands of dollars Wilkes steered to Cunningham, but also by the fact that Wilkes’ university roommate and long time friend is a recently promoted top CIA manager, K. “Dusty” Foggo. A career CIA operations support officer, Foggo was somewhat controversially appointed by incoming CIA director Porter Goss -- Cunningham’s former colleague on the House intelligence committee -- last year to be the executive director of the Agency, in effect, the CIA’s #3 official and day to day administrative manager of the $5 billion agency. (See Jason Vest’s profile and this Walter Pincus piece for background). An intelligence source says that Wilkes even jokes about Foggo having a virtual office (“a playpen”) in Wilkes’ company’s offices in the Washington, D.C. suburbs of Chantilly, Virginia. Wilkes’ attorney Michael Lipman wouldn’t comment on whether government investigators were reviewing any CIA contracts ADCS might have received, he also declined to say whether Wilkes was cooperating with the investigation. Wilkes has not yet been indicted.
In August, agents from the FBI, IRS, and Defense Department raided the San Diego office headquarters of Wilkes’ company, ADCS, Inc. and Wilkes’ home, looking for “documents and computer records pertaining to government contracts secured by ADCS Inc.,” the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. Earlier, the paper reported that Wilkes had flown Cunningham and former House majority leader Tom DeLay on the private Lear jet belonging to another Wilkes’ company, Group W Transportation. The Washington Post reported in August that another Cunningham co-conspirator, Mitchell Wade, former chairman of defense contractor MZM Inc., was also formerly a consultant to Wilkes’ company, ADCS Inc.