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Report Spells Out Cunningham Crimes
NY Times
By MARK MAZZETTI
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."

Mr. Cunningham resigned from Congress in November after pleading guilty to accepting more than $2 million in bribes from military contractors. His plea was mainly related to his activities as a member of the House Appropriations Committee.

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.

Lawyers for Mr. Cunningham and Mr. Wade declined to comment on the report. A lawyer for Mr. Wilkes was traveling outside the country.

The report is another embarrassment for Congressional Republicans, who, three weeks before Election Day, are trying to contain the damage from accusations that former Representative Mark Foley, Republican of Florida, made sexually explicit remarks in e-mail messages to Congressional pages. The report on Mr. Cunningham was made public by Representative Jane Harman of California, the senior Democrat on the Intelligence Committee.

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."

In an interview, Ms. Harman said Tuesday that the public had a right to see the conclusions of the inquiry, which was led by Michael Stern, an outside special counsel, and completed in May. She said she had been pushing for months for the committee to produce an unclassified version of the report.

"I thought it would be out in early August," she said, "well ahead of the election season."

Only the five-page executive summary of the report was released. The full 59-page report remains classified.

Several crucial witnesses, including Mr. Cunningham, Mr. Wilkes and Mr. Wade, were not interviewed for the investigation.

Mr. Cunningham's positions on both the Intelligence Committee and the Appropriations Defense Subcommittee gave him an advantage in obtaining classified spending provisions called earmarks.

In theory, the Intelligence Committee is supposed to authorize classified expenses before the Appropriations Committee puts them into military spending bills. But in practice, the Appropriations Defense Subcommittee has sometimes originated classified earmarks on its own, and the Intelligence Committee depends on the appropriators for its spending requests. By serving on both panels, Mr. Cunningham had influence over the entire classified budget process.

The inquiry found no evidence that staff members of the Intelligence Committee had profited or expected to profit from Mr. Cunningham's dealings. It also concluded that committee staff members had been suspicious of Mr. Wade and "disinclined to provide him any favorable treatment."

At the same time, committee staff members repeatedly acceded to Mr. Cunningham's demands to steer money to Mr. Wade's company, MZM Inc. The report describes how Mr. Cunningham worked to gain support within the Intelligence Committee for a program run by MZM at the Counterintelligence Field Activity agency of the Pentagon.

The counterintelligence program has been criticized by civil liberties groups, which say it authorizes military officials to spy on Americans under the guise of protecting domestic military bases.

But as a result of a "corrupt conspiracy" between Mr. Cunningham and Mr. Wade, the inquiry found, the Intelligence Committee's ability to monitor the counterintelligence program effectively "appears to have been seriously impeded."

The report cited Mr. Wilkes's close friendship with Kyle Foggo, formerly a top administrator at the Central Intelligence Agency, who helped manage the agency's dealings with contractors. The inquiry found that Mr. Foggo also worked with Intelligence Committee staff members, including Brant G. Bassett, a former C.I.A. officer, on classified projects relating to the management of the agency.

Mr. Bassett and Mr. Foggo provided Intelligence Committee members with "trinkets" to win favor for their efforts, including a carpet displaying the words "Global War on Terror." The report said it was not clear whether these activities violated any regulation or law, but it recommended further inquiry.

The report suggested that Mr. Foggo, who is under investigation by federal authorities in San Diego for his dealings with Mr. Wilkes on a logistics contract, might be facing a broader inquiry than had been known. It said the investigation of Mr. Foggo also involved "several large contracts" managed by an unidentified contractor, who attended a dinner in June 2003 with Mr. Foggo and Mr. Wilkes at the Capital Grille here.

Mr. Foggo's lawyer, Mark J. MacDougall, declined to comment.

David Johnston and David D. Kirkpatrick contributed reporting.

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