Reidblog [The Reid Report blog]

Justin Rood at TPM Muckraker posted an interesting story yesterday, explaining why the Bush Administration’s explanation for Porter Goss's sudden departure from the CIA looks increasingly lame. Here's another piece of evidence suggesting that the CIA chief's dismissal was wholly unexpected: one of Goss's top aides traveled to Iraq just days before his boss was let go and had absolutely no idea of what was coming down the pike. “The turf-battle line is purely a cover story,” said a former CIA official I spoke with. “The reason they had to act now was because they were scared about what's going to come out about [the Cunningham scandal].”

Goss has no direct role in the Cunningham affair, at least nothing that has been definitively reported, but several key people close to him do. They include Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, whom Goss had picked to fill the number-three slot at the CIA and who resigned yesterday, and Brant Bassett (nickname “Nine Fingers”), previously a CIA official and senior staffer on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence when Goss was chairman.

Foggo is closely tied to Brent Wilkes, the San Diego defense contractor who is alleged to have bribed Cunningham and provided him with prostitutes. Foggo has admitted he was at some of Wilkes's now-infamous parties at Washington hotels—though he denies any knowledge of the prostitutes—and the CIA and law enforcement authorities are carefully examining his relationship with the defense contractor. Newsweek has reported that Foggo, Cunningham, and Bassett/“Nine Fingers” attended a Wilkes poker party at the Westin Grand Hotel.

I've learned that Bassett's role in the broader story may be more involved than that. Two former CIA officers told me that Foggo, Bassett, and a third man—a CIA official close to Goss, whose name I learned but am withholding because he remains undercover—have been friends for years and worked together overseas. According to these two sources, Bassett and the undercover officer (whom Goss brought up to the 7th Floor at Langley when he took over the CIA) positioned Foggo to be picked by Goss for the number-three slot.

• Foggo out
• Monkey business
• In your face
• It has been named
• The spy who went back into the cold
• Duke residue
• Get Out ... ! ... Prostution???