NYT: INVESTIGATION into CUNNINGHAM'S SECRET CONTRACTS

[mod mom]

Report Spells Out Abuses by Former Congressman

By MARK MAZZETTI
Published: October 18, 2006
WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 — 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.”

-snip

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.

-snip

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/18/washington/18inquire.html?hp&ex=1161144000&en=96b2680002002a81&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[mod mom]

1. Repthugs only care about the release of info not the illegal action:

"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.”

[Catrina]

2. No wonder he was such a rabid war supporter.

Billions of dollars wasted on a war that should never have happened. And still many Americans haven't made the 'war for profit' connection. Halliburton and KB&R were only the more obvious war profiteers. 'Contractors' like Wilkes and Wade and dozens of others benefited.

What's so disgusting is how honest people tried to fight this war and were smeared as traitors and liars by these criminals and their supporters.

Wilkes is a shady character from all I've read and the one who gave the parties for all these 'players' for years. I hope this investigation will eventually end up stopping this criminal ring operating inside the government.

And what happened to Porter Goss and his co-horts? They make the mafia look good. All the while they were stealing money appropriated for the war, the troops were going without proper life-saving gear.