Maybe Porter Goss' departure from the CIA is all part of some high-minded dispute with John Negroponte over the role of the agency in the post-9/11 world. But if that's the case, isn't this an odd little coincidence? On the first business day after the surprise announcement of Goss' departure, the man he installed in the No. 3 job at the agency has quit in the face of a corruption probe.
As Newsweek is reporting, the CIA is circulating word today that Dusty Foggo is leaving his post as executive director. As we've reported previously, the CIA's inspector general is investigating Foggo's relationship with Brent Wilkes, one of the defense contractors who has been implicated in the Randy "Duke" Cunningham bribery case. Foggo and Wilkes are old college buddies; the inspector general is looking into allegations that Foggo may have steered CIA contracts to companies controlled by Wilkes or one of his relatives, Newsweek says.
The New York Daily News reported over the weekend that the Foggo investigation set off alarm bells among members of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, who in turn added their voices to Negroponte's in pushing Bush to dump Goss. The White House insists that there's no connection between Foggo's troubles and Goss' departure. "It is simply not true that [Goss'] resignation is in any way connected with the Cunningham case," White House spokeswoman Erin Healy told UPI Friday.
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