Hayden Linked to MZM, the Hookergate Pimp
UPDATE: We know the whole Porter Goss resignation smells. It's simply not credible to say that Bush had been thinking about this for a long time. It also stretches the imagination that Goss' departure doesn't have something to do with the Duke Cunningham scandal and the hooker poker parties that went down at the Watergate. Josh Marshall has a fascinating post, which is worthy of your attention.
Hayden, President Bush's pick to replace Porter Goss as head of the CIA,
contracted with MZM Inc. for the services of Lt. Gen. James C. King, then
a senior vice president of the company, the sources say. MZM was owned and
operated by Mitchell Wade, who has admitted to bribing former Rep. Randy “Duke”
Cunningham with $1.4 million in money and gifts. Wade has also reportedly
told investigators he helped arrange for prostitutes to entertain the disgraced
lawmaker, and he continues to cooperate with a federal inquiry into the matter.
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Okay, so things just got even more dicey for Hayden.
Lt. Gen. James C. King was working high in MZM when he was contracted by Hayden.
Who was King's boss? None other than the man who admitted bribing the Dukester
and bragged to reporters that he was also the congressman's pimp. King has
not been implicated in hookergate, but he worked for the guy who brought Duke
down and threatens to bring down many others.
It's interesting that the guy now tapped to head the CIA hired a man from a
company that was bribing people in Congress so they could get sweetheart defense
deals.
Are you guilty by association? Or do you just have bad judgment? Will someone blackmailing you care about the difference? The head spook can't be this oblivious to whom he hires.
Oh, and one more detail. King was part of CIFA. Yep, that program. I can't wait
to hear where the questions go on this one. Hayden's going to have to answer
for King and MZM. Why didn't Hayden know what was going on? It gets more
delicious by the minute.
As an MZM employee, King was involved in a number of controversial projects.
In 2002, he was a key adviser to the team creating CIFA, the Pentagon's domestic
surveillance operation. In 2004, he was one of three MZM staffers who worked
on the White House Robb-Silberman Commission, which recommended expanding
CIFA's powers.NSA is home to its own controversial project, of course — the post-9/11
warrantless domestic wiretapping operation known as the “terrorist surveillance
program.” There is no indication that King has been involved in that
project.“I don't see anything nefarious” about King's work for Hayden,
one employee told me, although he conceded he did not know what projects King
worked on. “I think Hayden needed help.”
Bush still isn't vetting his people. What's the FBI doing anyway? Maybe they're not even being asked to check people out. Does Bush still think he can just pass anyone
off, just because he's the president? I guess so, after all, it's worked for
a very long time.
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