A former third-ranking official at the CIA pleaded guilty on Monday to fraud charges related to accusations he improperly steered agency contracts to his best friend, the Justice Department

The CIA’s former executive director, Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, admitted steering contracts to friend Brent Wilkes, who already is serving a 12-year sentence for bribing former Republican Congressman Randall “Duke” Cunningham, the department said.

It said Wilkes, a one-time Republican fundraiser, had made Foggo a standing offer of a high-paying job, and the two hid their relationship from the CIA and used shell companies to conceal Wilkes’s interest in the CIA contracts.

More at Yahoo News

H/T Bat!

As QuestionGirl posted in the previous two posts here and here, it seems thugs and hooligans of America’s underbelly get preferential treatment from the Bush administration (and from Congress). Well, now they’re doing it again:

Fraud Crackdown Comes With a Loophole

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Bush administration plan to crack down on contract fraud has a multibillion-dollar loophole: The proposal to force companies to report abuse of taxpayer money will not apply to work overseas, including projects to secure and rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan.
[...]

Critics including the watchdog group Taxpayers Against Fraud said the overseas exemption raises suspicions.

“I hate to sound cynical, but what lobbyist working for a contractor in Iraq wanted this get-out-of-jail card?” asked Patrick Burns, spokesman for the government watchdog group.

“I’m not saying that’s the way it went - I’m just suggesting that’s the most logical line to draw,” said Burns. “I think somebody’s got some explaining to do.”

Up to 18,000 votes unaccounted for, and republicans don’t see a problem.

Jim Greer, a typical republican, doesn’t seem able to grasp the idea that, for democracy to work, ALL VOTES MUST COUNT!

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - A Democratic candidate has dropped a lawsuit over her 369-vote loss in a 2006 congressional race because a federal investigation will meet the same goals as the court case, her lawyers said.

Christine Jennings withdrew the suit in state court Monday as the Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress, began testing electronic voting machines she claims malfunctioned in Sarasota County last year.

State testing failed to disclose any problems that could explain why the touch’screen machines failed to register results from up to 18,000 voters in the 13th District race.
[...]

Republicans hailed Jennings’ decision as a victory. “While Christine Jennings finally did the right thing by giving up her frivolous lawsuit, it comes a year too late,” said Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer.

By Mariah Blake
The Christian Science Monitor

Hamburg, Germany - Nearly two years after it was supposed to be completed, the Pentagon’s largest single’site construction project is [tag]languishing unfinished, due to shoddy workmanship, poor planning, flawed design, spiraling costs, and an ongoing fraud investigation.
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The problems are so severe that neither the US Air Force - overseeing the project - nor the construction company it has partnered with can predict the final budget or completion date, according to the US Government Accountability Office (GAO).

“The project is in serious trouble, and there are no good solutions,” says Gregory Kutz, the GAO’s managing director of special investigations. “Sorting it out could take years, if it can be sorted out at all.”

The problem is the unfinished Kaiserslautern community center, that’s designed to house 844,000 square feet of shops and lodging. It is part of a $2 billion makeover of Kaiserslautern Military Community, the US military’s largest overseas base and a key player in its global troop realignment plan.

As other bases across Europe close, southwest Germany’s “K-town” is picking up pieces of their missions and becoming a central gateway for American troops abroad and a logistical hub for Middle East operations.

read more HERE

By Maya Roney
Business Week Online

The outside of Susan Sabin’s house in Lenexa, Kan., is covered with lemons: lemon’shaped foam cutouts, twinkling lemon Christmas lights, and a lemon-adorned wreath on the front door. If you go to her Web site, you can see for yourself. You’ll also see photographs of splintered beams, bowed floors, and a graphic that declares: “Pulte Homes sold me a lemon!”

Sabin has been called crazy, but she’s not the only dissatisfied customer. The Internet has rapidly become an outlet for frustrated homeowners to chronicle their bad experiences with new homes they have found to be structurally defective. Homeowners can now post complaints, discuss legal options, and warn future buyers on at least a dozen builder-directed “gripe sites,” with names such as www.crapconstruction.com and www.khovsucks.com.

Careless Building During Boom?

As home values decrease and home sales slow in many parts of the country, construction problems seem to have become an even bigger concern for homeowners. “I notice the traffic has definitely picked up,” says Andy Martin, a longtime consumer advocate who runs three sites: www.FightPulte.com, www.FightDiVosta.com and www.FightDelWebb.com. The three sites serve as national clearinghouses for those who think they may be victims of shoddy construction. During the housing boom, builders were working fast to keep up with all the people gobbling up new properties, and Martin believes the quality of building suffered as a result. “The pendulum swung too far in (the builders’) favor,” he says. “The Internet now is rising to level the playing field.”

read more HERE