The resignation of Porter J. Goss as director of the CIA last Friday, is possibly linked to the "Hookergate" scandal. This story is getting bigger everyday and involves all the required ingredients for a good scandal: hookers, poker, the Watergate Hotel, CIA agents and several Congressmen.
The resignation of Porter Goss from the CIA was announced by the Whitehouse last Friday. The announcement was made rather abruptly and without a good explanation, leaving lots of questions unanswered.
One of these questions is whether there's a connection between the resignation of the CIA director and the so-called Hookergate scandal. While there is no direct evidence of such a link, we'll try to show in this article that the facts as they are currently known suggest Goss can be linked to the Hookergate scandal.
The story starts with Congressman Randall "Duke" Cunningham. On March 3, 2006, Cunningham was sentenced to 8 years in federal prison for taking over $2 million in bribes from various defense contractors.
One of these contractors was Brent Wilkes. As owner of a dozen or so contracting firms, Wilkes managed to secure several overpaid defense contracts. One of his companies, Archer Logistics, won a $3 million contract to provide bottled water, first-aid kits and other supplies to CIA agents in Afghanistan, only a couple of months after being founded.
Wilkes is alleged to have paid Cunningham more than $600,000 in bribes, and is also suspected of hooking up Cunningham (and other legislators) with prostitutes in "hospitality" suites at the WaterGate and Westin Grand Hotel (this is where the name Hookergate comes from). Wilkes also hosted weekly parties at these hotels, which began as poker games and quickly degenerated into "frat party bacchanals".
One of the regulars at the poker parties was Wilkes' best friend since high school: Kyle "Dusty" Foggo. Foggo is the CIA's third highest ranking official since November 2004. He has admitted to attending the poker parties, and also hosted some himself at his house in northern Virginia.
The FBI is currently investigating the connection between Foggo and Wilkes. Did Wilkes not only bribe Congressman Cunningham, but also Foggo and possibly other lawmakers and CIA officials?
Foggo was appointed by Porter Goss as the CIA's number 3 in November 2004. The promotion came as a big surprise because Foggo previously held only a middle management position with the CIA.
Harper's Magazine reported last week that the FBI is investigating all government officials that attended the poker parties, including "one person who now holds a powerful intelligence post."
Shortly after this revelation Porter Goss resigned as director of the CIA, without explaining his reasons to do so. Goss denies to have ever attended the poker parties hosted by Wilkes.
The questions that remain unanswered are: Why did Goss give Foggo his out-of-the-blue promotion? Did Goss attend the poker parties hosted by Wilkes? Did Goss accept bribes from Wilkes in return for lucrative CIA contracts? Why would Goss resign so abruptly from the CIA without offering a good explanation?