NYT: Report Spells Out Abuses by Former Congressman(Duke/Harmon released)

[Pirate Smile]

Report Spells Out Abuses by Former Congressman

By MARK MAZZETTI
Published: October 18, 2006

WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 — Former Representative Randy Cunningham pressured and intimidated staff members of the House Intelligence Committee to help steer more than $70 million in classified federal business to favored military contractors, according to a Congressional investigation made public on Tuesday.

-snip-
The inquiry also found that despite numerous “red flags” about the propriety of a particular contract for work on a controversial Pentagon counterintelligence program, committee staff members for three years “continued to accept and support Mr. Cunningham’s growing requests for this project.”

-snip-
The report is another embarrassment for Congressional Republicans, who, three weeks before Election Day, are trying to contain the damage from accusations that former Representative Mark Foley, Republican of Florida, made sexually explicit remarks in e-mail messages to Congressional pages. The report on Mr. Cunningham was made public by Representative Jane Harman of California, the senior Democrat on the Intelligence Committee.

In an interview, Ms. Harman said Tuesday that the public had a right to see the conclusions of the inquiry, which was led by Michael Stern, an outside special counsel, and completed in May. She said she had been pushing for months for the committee to produce an unclassified version of the report.
“I thought it would be out in early August,” she said, “well ahead of the election season.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/18/washington/18inquire.html?hp&ex=1161144000&en=96b2680002002a81&ei=5094&partner=homepage

The Republicans are squealing about Ms. Harmon's hardball.

I say :yourock:

[Robbien]

1. Oh dear lord, the report calls providing hookers "trinkets"

Mr. Bassett and Mr. Foggo provided Intelligence Committee members with “trinkets” to win favor for their efforts

Nice to see that Foggo is still under investigation. I thought the matter was dropped.

About time the report finally got out.