It turns out one of the Watergate poker parties I had heard was covered in the 90s by the Post was actually reported by an Atlanta Journal Constitution journalist and pal of Charlie Wilson's back in 1994. Here is "A Fun Bunch of Guys When the (poker) Chips Are Down, Depend on Your CIA to Be There," by Joe Murray, Atlanta Journal Constitution, May 20, 1994:

WASHINGTON - The CIA plays for high stakes. Some of the pots are close to $ 1,000.

For these agents, international intrigue isn't the only game in town. Once a week, in a suite at the Watergate Hotel, they play poker. I'm not sure how they chose the Watergate. Perhaps because of a sense of history. Either that or a sense of humor.

Playing cards, these fellows are a bunch of cards. Funny? You wouldn't believe it. I'm telling you, they'll kill you.

I stopped by the game with my old friend, Charlie Wilson, the Texas congressman from my home town. Charlie is a CIA kind of guy. He rode with the rebels in Afghanistan's revolt against the Soviets. A year ago, he received the CIA's "Honored Colleague" medal, first time ever that it went to anyone outside the agency.

A book written by "60 Minutes" producer George Crile is soon to be published about Charlie's exploits. A movie deal is also in the works. Harrison Ford supposedly is interested. Maybe there'll be a role for me. Is Smiley Burnett still around?

Meanwhile, I was getting to know his CIA pals. I was meeting Charlie in the lobby of the Watergate. He said to be sure to wait for him.

"Don't go up to the desk and ask where the CIA poker game is," he warned. "Then they'd have to take care of you."

I asked, exactly, what he meant by take care of me.

"Oh, nothing elaborate. Probably they'd just dress you in a chef's uniform and say you were some Hungarian cook who suffered a heart attack."

Charlie laughed loudly. I laughed weakly.

It turned out they were a great bunch of fellows. For one thing, they smoke cigars. Never mind that the suite is on a no-smoking floor. We hit it off right away.

Charlie brought gifts as well, a sack full of pistols that included a Soviet automatic used by Russian paratroopers. "Note that it's bored for a silencer," Charlie said. They nodded approvingly.

Everybody was given pens, the kind that are definitely mightier than the sword. Instead of ink cartridges, these carry .32 cartridges. Pop the end and you pop the enemy.

All of a sudden everybody in the room started snapping their pens. I started to duck.

"How's it work?"

"Oh, this is great!"

"Boy, I wish I'd had it this afternoon."

"If only Aldrich Ames were here."

Funny? You wouldn't believe it.

Charlie and I didn't stay long. But I had the opportunity to ask them about world hot spots. I'd been a few places where they go. Tbilisi, in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, for instance.

One of the agents looks Russian and, on occasion, is Russian. I asked him if Georgia's ousted leader, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, was really dead. Supposedly he committed suicide. "Gamsakhurdia is really dead," he said.

As I was leaving, they offered me one of their cigars, a Dominican. I offered them one of mine, a Cuban.

"Geez! Take our whole box," I was told.

The agent added, "You know, of course, this is considered contraband. But you've done the right thing as a good citizen. You've turned it in to the proper government agency. Be assured that very shortly it will be destroyed by fire."

Interesting. Now we know a bit more: the Watergate suite was presumably paid for by Wilkes. The poker parties were happening every week, for years. At least among congressmen Charlie Wilson was a regular. And some folks from the CIA. Interesting.

Also heard tonight there was a third hotel between the Wilkes-era at the Watergate and the Wilkes-epoch at the Westin Grand: a time period in the late 1990s when he rented space at the Capital Hilton.

It's funny, from the moment Cunningham pled guilty in November, I remember thinking about the particular Congressional subcommittees he was on and how it made me think of Charlie Wilson's position on the defense appropriations subcommittee and how much secret power he had from that perch. Here's what I wrote at the time back in November:

If you've read Charlie Wilson's War, you might remember how powerful was the subcommittee that both Wilson and until today, Randy "Duke" Cunningham, sat on, the House Appropriations committee subcommittee on defense. As I remember from the book, that subcommittee was aggressively courted not just by defense contractors, but by lobbyists for foreign governments interested in swinging US defense spending in certain directions. It is really where the checks are signed, and decisions about funding sometimes wholly undebated aspects of US national security policy are made. What I'm wondering is, is the Cunningham story one of just simple corruption, or is there more to it? Was he bought just to help steer contracts to MZM, or was there other stuff going on? Stuff that had policy implications?

The pattern is interesting, and not only for what it says about Cunningham: it speaks also about the ends of the people who cultivated him. Was the Wilkes/Wade operation wholly just about making a lot of money, or something else? Why does Wilkes seem from so early on to be so connected to elements of the CIA? There's his long friendship with Foggo, including when Wilkes accompanied Foggo to Central America (Honduras, el Salvador, Panama) when Foggo was reportedly a CIA money man funding the contras during Iran Contra; and Wilkes would bring down mostly right-wing congressmen from Washington for a front-row view of the action. There are hints that at least Wilkes considered himself a kind of de facto CIA adjunct or associate, a friend of the Cold War era Agency, particularly in Central America. Perhaps it was useful too for the CIA to have friends in Wilkes' position, in private companies, who, as the San Diego Trib wrote, knew how to grease the wheels. And useful to all of them were a few key congressmen, needed to authorize the funding to pay for it.

More from POGO, Muckraker, and the Post.

Posted by Laura at April 28, 2006 08:50 PM