CIA Is Investigating Its No. 3

The CIA inspector general has launched an investigation of the agency’s No. 3 officer and his ties to a defense contractor accused of seeking to bribe former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, according to current and former U.S. intelligence officials.

The probe is the first sign that the inquiry surrounding the disgraced San Diego Republican could spread beyond Pentagon contracts to the upper ranks of the CIA. Cunningham, who pleaded guilty to bribery charges late last year, was sentenced Friday to eight years and four months in prison.

The CIA inspector general is investigating Executive Director Kyle “Dusty” Foggo. Before his promotion in late 2004, Foggo was a senior CIA procurement officer in Frankfurt, Germany, where he was in a position to oversee contracts for supplies distributed to agency operatives in Iraq and elsewhere.

“It is standard practice for CIA’s Office of Inspector General -- an aggressive, independent watchdog -- to look into assertions that mention agency officers,” CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said. “That should in no way be seen as lending credibility to any allegation.”

Foggo has long-standing ties to Poway, Calif., defense contractor Brent Wilkes, a key figure in the Cunningham criminal bribery probe. Wilkes has been identified by lawyers involved in the investigation as “co-conspirator No. 1” in the scheme to bribe Cunningham for lucrative defense contracts.

Foggo and Wilkes have been close friends since they were classmates at Hilltop High School in Chula Vista, Calif., in the early 1970s, according to reports in the San Diego Union-Tribune. The two were high school football teammates, then San Diego State University roommates, and each served as best man at the other’s wedding.

Foggo was not available for comment.

Wilkes has not been charged with a crime. But government documents allege that coconspirator No. 1 agreed to give more than $525,000 to Cunningham for assistance in securing lucrative federal contracts.

Companies run by Wilkes have won tens of millions of dollars in federal contracts in recent years.

Gimigliano declined to comment on whether Wilkes’ companies had also won contracts with the CIA, citing the inspector general review. But in a written statement, Gimigliano said: “Mr. Foggo has overseen many contracts in his decades of public service. He reaffirms that they were properly awarded and administered.”

The inspector general’s investigation was launched within the last several weeks, and was first reported by Newsweek magazine.

Foggo has been with the CIA since 1982, and has handled overseas assignments in Central America as well as Europe.

He is to continue to serve as the CIA’s executive director during the investigation.