http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29413971/
Ex-CIA executive gets 37 months in prison
Kyle 'Dusty' Foggo had planned to retire and run for Congress
The Associated Press
updated 5:58 p.m. ET, Thurs., Feb. 26, 2009
ALEXANDRIA, Virginia - The highest-ranking CIA officer ever convicted
of a federal felony was sentenced to more than three years in prison
Thursday as part of a bribery and fraud investigation that previously
resulted in the conviction of a California congressman.
Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, who as executive director held the CIA's No. 3
rank from 2004 to 2006, had asked the judge to spare him jail time,
citing his covert work on behalf of the country over two decades at
the CIA, including a supervisory stint in Iraq after the Sept. 11 attacks.
But U.S. District Judge James Cacheris sentenced him to the 37 months
prosecutors had sought for a scheme they said revealed Foggo as a
crass opportunist who wrapped himself in a cloak of patriotism.
The aftermath of Sept. 11
Prosecutor Jason Forge said Foggo took advantage of the nation's and
the CIA's sense of urgency after the Sept. 11 attacks.
"It's no coincidence that Mr. Foggo's fraud took place entirely in
the aftermath of Sept. 11," Forge said. "One man's crisis is another
man's opportunity, and Mr. Foggo proved himself to be a very capable
opportunist."
Foggo plead guilty to a single count of fraud last year as part of a
plea bargain in which prosecutors dropped 27 other counts.
But the exact conduct for which Foggo pleaded guilty is still somewhat murky.
Prosecutors say the fraud encompassed a years-long scheme in which
Foggo's old friend, contractor Brent Wilkes, showered Foggo with tens
of thousands of dollars worth of gifts and luxury vacations in
exchange for steering multimillion-dollar contracts in Wilkes' direction.
They also say the fraud includes Foggo's efforts to get his mistress
hired by the CIA at a six-figure salary for a job for which she was
unqualified.
The defense, though, has construed the guilty plea more narrowly. In
previous hearings, defense lawyer Mark MacDougall has said the guilty
plea boils down to misconduct over a contract for a single pallet of
bottled water.
At Thursday's hearing, Foggo, a San Diego native who now lives in
Vienna, Virginia, told the judge he was motivated to plead guilty in
large part because he wanted to spare the CIA a public trial in which
he would have been forced to divulge government secrets.
"With my acceptance of responsibility my secrets will be kept, and
with that I am pleased," Foggo said.
Planned to run for Congress
Prosecutors, though, said that in the weeks before the plea bargain
Foggo engaged in a tactic known as "graymail," in which he threatened
to needlessly delve into classified information to scare the
government out of pursuing a public trial.
MacDougall said much of Foggo's work for the CIA remains classified,
but it supports the notion of a patriot who made sacrifices and
risked his life for his country.
"He was the man who provided critical assistance to those who turned
the tide of terrorism back" in the months and years after Sept. 11,
MacDougall said.
Wilkes, Foggo's longtime friend, was convicted and sentenced last
year to 12 years in prison. Former congressman Randy "Duke"
Cunningham, a California Republican who admitted taking bribes from
Wilkes, was sentenced to more than eight years.
In court papers, prosecutors said Foggo, had his crimes gone
undiscovered, planned to retire from the CIA and run for Congress in
San Diego when Cunningham retired.
CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield declined to comment on Foggo's sentence,
except to say that the CIA cooperated fully with prosecutors in their
investigation.
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Received on Sat Mar 02 2024 - 00:57:25 CST