Six Degrees of Bacon (Maureen Dowd) - NY Times - 5/13/2006

[Coastie for Truth]

I bet you're wondering how someone like Dusty Foggo, who had his C.I.A. badge deactivated yesterday because of his role in a scandal ripe with poker parties, Dominican cigars, prostitutes, Scotch, luxury suites, bribed congressmen, defense contracts and even a rumored Teutonic dominatrix, was ever chosen to run day-to-day C.I.A. operations at such a parlous moment in American history.

It's because of Bacon Guy.

That would be Michael Kostiw, a conservative darling who was Porter Goss's first choice to be the third-ranking official at the C.I.A. He was derailed in 2004 after fellow spooks leaked word to The Washington Post that Mr. Kostiw had left the agency under a hickory-smoked cloud two decades earlier, after being caught shoplifting a $2.13 package of bacon from a supermarket in Langley, Va., near C.I.A. headquarters.

Not the pork you usually associate with Washington.

Mr. Goss, W.'s absurd choice to lead our inept intelligence agency in the battle against Islamic terrorists, was so loony he wanted to put a man in charge of C.I.A. discipline who had to be disciplined for slipping chazerai into his pants, or wherever he put the package to bring home the bacon.

Mr. Goss's departure, after a season spent sulking about losing the president's ear to John Negroponte, has opened the window on a whole new level of incompetence, turf wars, corruption and wackiness. Now we see that the C.I.A. was mired not only in professional mistakes, but also in a complete lack of personal and personnel judgment. The more you know about the people Mr. Goss put in top positions, the scarier it gets.

---snip---


A narrative "time line" of L'Affaire Kostiw follows.

[rodeodance]

1. geesh, I am really thinking our country is in trouble!

--not that I did not before!

[pretzel4gore]

2. dowd should be washing dishes, taking care of her 'man'

why a bushevik mouthpiece (and traitor to boot) like dowd gets any attention is .... is... is troubling
no dowd, no bush, no goss, no 911, no bs.....

[rzemanfl]

3. Wha? Huh? forget the sarcasm thingie? n/t

[pretzel4gore]

5. the pigmedia created bush

no sarcasm at all...this idea that 'biz as usual' and the media will now correct its too easy approach to bushinc (as we are in a 'war' the media felt it needed to support the prez) is a self serving conceit of the pigmedia...maureen dowd cannot hide the fact she helped bush get power; she wanted to bankrupt the public purse (done) -she wants poor people to suffer, and believes killing kids in iraq ok as long as the optics are kept nice for tv.... I hate dowd, and mitchel-greenspan, and coulter and sally quinn. But more then them i hate the bastards like foxnewscnn, bob shieffer and tweety and carlson and brite hum and friedman/novak/stossel and the plague of locusts ted bundy like newsmedia who lie as casually as they crap....
no sarcasm intended. killem all let god sortem out.

[Coastie for Truth]

4. See also: How The CIA Came Unglued, David Ignatius, Washington Post

for confirmation



To understand what went so badly wrong at the CIA under Porter Goss, it's worth examining the career of his executive director, the onomatopoetic Kyle "Dusty" Foggo. His rise illustrates the conservative cronyism, leak paranoia and political vendettas that undermined Goss's tenure.

Foggo was an affable employee of the CIA's Directorate of Support, managing logistical activities in Germany, when he came to the attention of then-Rep. Goss and his aides on the House intelligence committee. Foggo is said to have endeared himself to Goss and his staff director, Patrick Murray, by facilitating trips overseas for members of the House panel.

When Goss and Murray arrived at the CIA in the fall of 2004, their first choice for the agency's No. 3 job of executive director was a former CIA officer named Michael Kostiw, who had many friends in conservative political circles. But Kostiw's nomination was sabotaged when a CIA insider leaked the fact that he had once been accused of shoplifting. The charges were dropped after Kostiw resigned and agreed to seek counseling. Kostiw's past made him an inappropriate choice for such a senior position, in the view of many career CIA officers, but to Murray the leak was evidence of a liberal cabal at the CIA that was determined to obstruct the Bush administration's agenda.

Goss's second choice for executive director was the ingratiating logistical officer. As is standard procedure with such senior appointments, Murray and other senior aides were briefed on Foggo's file, which included what one former CIA official describes as instances of "dumb personal behavior." The briefers included Mary Margaret Graham, then chief of counterintelligence, and Jeanette Moore, then head of the Office of Security, who, according to ABC News, had once reprimanded Foggo about alleged insubordination, though the CIA says a formal letter was never filed. Murray rejected the material about Foggo as petty and is said to have warned Graham, "If this leaks, you're dead."

---snip---

[pretzel4gore]

6. excellent....

i wish someone would do an expose of the media.....there are a couple dozen/hundred vicious criminals running the newsmedia, and they get away with it simply by occasionally doing their job until trust is built up again, then it's back to 'con the people, sell bush as jesus and hide the profiteering' etc

[Rose Siding]

7. I have a question about the shoplifting

A dumb question- Is it possible that it could have been part of CIA training?

[Hoping4Change]

8. Thanks for posting. nt