After only 19 months on the job, CIA Director Porter Goss abruptly resigned this morning. The main stream media is describing the resignation as simply the latest move in the White House shake-up. Of course, to look for any other possible explanation is to engage in irresponsible speculation. So, instead, I will just point out a couple of recent news items.
There was this in the Wall Street Journal
Federal prosecutors are investigating whether two contractors implicated in the bribery of former Rep. Randall “Duke” Cunningham supplied him with prostitutes and free use of a limousine and hotel suites, pursuing evidence that could broaden their long-running inquiry.Besides scrutinizing the prostitution scheme for evidence that might implicate contractor Brent Wilkes, investigators are focusing on whether any other members of Congress, or their staffs, may also have used the same free services, though it isn’t clear whether investigators have turned up anything to implicate others.
Then an article in Harpers by Ken Sliverstein that had this intriguing statement:
I’ve learned from a well-connected source that those under intense scrutiny by the FBI are current and former lawmakers on Defense and Intelligence comittees-including one person who now holds a powerful intelligence post.
As numerous bloggers have pointed out, there is only one person that fits this description- Porter Goss.
The San Diego Union Tribune added this:
Wilkes hosted parties for lawmakers and periodic poker games that included CIA officials as well as members of the House Appropriations and Intelligence committees. Cunningham, who sat on both committees, was a frequent guest, according to some of the participants in the poker games. People who were present at the games said one of the regular players was Kyle Dustin “Dusty” Foggo, who has been Wilkes’ best friend since the two attended junior high school in Chula Vista in the late 1960s. In October, Foggo was named the CIA’s executive director – the agency’s third-highest position.
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