A source tells me that after Wilkes got the water contract from the CIA, his nephew Joel Combs, the ostensible proprietor of Archer Logistics, called up a third party to say that they had the means to ship pretty much anything into Iraq. The gasket was now open. Perhaps more valuable than the $2.3 million Wilkes got from the initial Agency contract, was the "designated CIA seller" stamp he seemed to get with it. And I also was given to understand that, given Wilkes' friend Foggo's position as a top logistics officer for the Agency responsible for getting supplies to Agency personnel in the Afghan and Iraq theaters at the time of the contract, Wilkes wasn't likely responsible for shipping the water, just providing the actual bottled water. In other words, the $2.3 million doesn't really represent the value of the contract at all, which seemed to come with something more valuable: free international shipping into a goldmine of a war zone (something Combs seemed to be suggesting others in their business/social circle might piggyback off of). Similarly, I learned, it was widely known among the group of Wilkes associates in Washington that Combs was Wilkes' nephew and employee. In other words, it is implausible that Foggo, who was very close to Wilkes, would not have known that a company headed by Combs awarded a CIA contract was essentially a front for Wilkes.

Posted by Laura at May 17, 2006 07:30 PM