A coverup of a potential coverup? It sounds kind of like that story about the CIA watchdog getting a watchdog.

Perhaps the 'destruction' itself is a coverup for the existence of the tapes for administration to buy time until they escape?

It's only 10 am here and I already need some scotch, ugh.

This blame game nonsense is nonsense... let us not get ourselves confused.... what we're talking about is a CIA under GWB... anything, ANYTHING, that happens is the responsibility of GWB...

Once Arlen Specter finishes the important matter of grilling the NFL over destroying the tapes of the Patriots videotaping the coaching signals of the Jets, I am sure he will get to this other piddling videotape destruction.

Hopefully they will keep on digging! Oh and fine bunch indeed!

Let's just take a little walk down TPM's memory lane, and reflect on the fine leadership Goss brought in when Bush directed him to 'clean up' the CIA.

“Nine Fingers” and the Third Man
DEPARTMENT Washington Babylon BY Ken Silverstein PUBLISHED May 9, 2006

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.

Perhaps more importantly, I’m told that Bassett, like Foggo, has connections to Wilkes. Bassett was born in 1949 and raised in the San Diego area (home turf to Wilkes, Foggo, and several other players in the Cunningham affair), where he attended Escondido High School. According to two sources, Bassett and Wilkes know each other and have ties that go beyond the merely social. Bassett has been deployed by the CIA to various overseas assignments and has seen duty in Mexico and Germany, among other places; he previously used State Department and United States Information Agency cover.

Foggo, said my sources, is considered a competent administrator, if not a shining star. “He’s a great logistics guy,” one former intelligence official told me. “He makes the trains run on time. If you need something delivered to Afghanistan, he can make it happen.” But Foggo has apparently gotten into personal trouble at the agency on a few occasions (see Jason Vest’s April 28 post at the POGO blog, which refers to those matters), and one important, not-yet-answered question is: why would Goss name Foggo, a man whom he knew to have a checkered past, to such a high position at the CIA?

So now two of Goss’s close associates, Foggo and Bassett, have a lot of explaining to do about their relationship with Brent Wilkes—”the pivotal figure in the Cunningham affair. And just today, TPMMuckracker pointed out that Gen. Michael V. Hayden, President George W. Bush’s nominee to replace Goss, once hired the services of MZM, the firm owned by Mitchell Wade; Wade has admitted to bribing Randy “Duke” Cunningham. Maybe a coincidence, but definitely an odd one.

* * *
Update, 5:47 PM: TPM Muckraker has now reported that Bassett received a $5,000 consulting fee from Brent Wilkes; I had heard of this and have just obtained documentation on the fee. See page 2 of this financial disclosure form (PDF) filed by Bassett when he was on the Hill.

**************************************

This leads back to Goss/Cheney. All this went down during the heady days of 'hookergate' when you got money for nothing & chicks for free. This is a story that "went away" - I suspect because powerful congressmen in both parties were getting it on in those hospitality suites:
***************************************************

From Harpers 5/9/06 http://www.harpers.org/archive/2006/05/sb-ninefingers-and-third-2308948203

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.

From TPM 5/10/06 http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/000606.php

Time: Nine Fingers Was a Tour Guide
By Paul Kiel - May 10, 2006, 1:20PM
More on Nine Fingers.

Yesterday, we reported that Brent Wilkes had paid Brant "Nine Fingers" Bassett $5,000 while Bassett was a staffer with the House Intelligence Committee under Porter Goss.

Well, now we know what it was for. Bassett had been Wilkes' tour guide:
The $5,000 Bassett accepted from Wilkes was for helping him with a business trip to a part of Europe where Bassett knew "the lay of the land from before" -- presumably a reference to Bassett's earlier work for the CIA, said the person speaking for Bassett. Bassett "was not an employee of [ADCS]. It was a one-off consulting deal" this person said on Bassett's behalf. Wilkes' Washington attorney, Nancy Luque, said Wilkes has done nothing wrong and that Bassett was hired as a consultant "for his knowledge of the area they were working in and facility with the languages spoken there."

And there is another choice detail. Bassett didn't just work under Goss at the House Intelligence Committee. When Goss rose to CIA director, he tapped Bassett for "a second stint at the agency as a consultant in the directorate of operations." Brent Wilkes did indeed have some friends there.

One of them, his close acquaintance Kyle "Dusty" Foggo is finally communicating with the media, albeit through his lawyer:
Bill Hundley, an attorney for Foggo, who told colleagues this week that he will step down from the agency's number three position as Goss leaves, says Foggo denies wrongdoing and is "really more of a victim here." Hundley added that he has not had any inquiries from either the Justice Department or the CIA inspector general, who is investigating whether Wilkes' business received any special treatment from Foggo.

"To him this guy was his friend and he obviously knew he was in the defense contracting business," Hundley says of the relationship between Wilkes and Foggo. But Foggo "is just shocked, really, that he would -- if he did -- have given that amount of money to Cunningham." Hundley added that Foggo may have attended widely reported poker parties that Wilkes threw in a hospitality suite in Washington, "but there was no hanky panky" at these events, he said.

The nagging subtext here for me is that the career
professional re Mr Roderiguez were apparently being set up to take the fall from any "blowback" from the illegal torture ordered up by Addington & Yoo at he behest of Darth Cheney . The part that nags me is that the VEEP's shop was unable to complete the investigation into the destruction of the tape & then hang the CIA 's professionals with at the very least the destruction of the tape -if not the actual torture itself . What do the Career CIA Professional have in "reserve " that has kept the VEEP 's mininons from shutting down this ongoing controversy .What might that "reserve " be -is it the same item that made DIA Goss abruptly resign .It might be the same "reserve" that is leaving fOGGO twisting in the wind. It might be the same "reserve" that CIA field agents -evidently , apparently -are sharing with investigators in Europe looking into war crimes that ultimately might wind up being referred to the Hague .
If I was a employee of the VEEP's shop -who had first hand knowledge of whatever that "reserve " might be all this would probably be nagging at me too - (BTW - whatever happened to Kirakou ? )