Comments (8)

anon wrote on July 18, 2007 3:40 AM:

The source of the Kelly C--Sonny Callahan shows up on page 8 of transcript--has been mentioned before. However, it's interesting that Callahan is mentioned in the transcript. It doesn't say Callahan did anything underhanded but...if you're going to quietly buy a large boat, you buy it from Sonny Callahan? Wilkes pays Callahan $200k--or Duke says he does--but isn't that in itself kind iffy? Callahan was on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, etc. and the chairman of the Energy and Water Development subcommittee. Doesn't a $200k check from Wilkes--even for a large boat--require some explanation? Maybe I haven't been following closely enough and it's irrelevant but, considering the other owners of the Kelly C, I wonder why/how Callahan bought/sold/explained the boat.

Chief wrote on July 18, 2007 8:24 AM:

I see Duke Cunningham is in the news again, this time as a possible witness. I spent many years around Naval aviation so let me give you some insight into how good Mr. Cunningham was, so you can see how far he has fallen.

Mr. Cunningham was a Navy pilot. A Naval Aviator. Now, all military pilots are not created equal. There is a definite hierarchy among them and while they won’t often display it to non-aviators, each pilot know her/his place.

First off, to be a military pilot, you have exceptional, at least by mere mortal standards. During flight training (Navy & Air Force) there comes a branching and propeller pilots and helicopter pilots are shunted off and the best qualified become jet pilots.

Of those that become jet pilots, a.k.a. ‘jet jockeys’, the Navy’s Carrier Qualified are the elite. Landing an air plane on a moving and bobbing air craft carrier at night requires a skill that I can only imagine. And of these absolute best of military aviators only two percent, or one out of every fifty, get invited to the Navy’s Top Gun school.

We’ve all seen the movie “Top Gun” starring Tom Cruise. What ever your opinion of Mr. Cruise, he perfectly and exactly captured the attitude and essence of a Naval Aviator. Top Gun graduates are in the top one-tenth of one percent of all those who become military pilots, not of those that begin pilot training but of those that graduate.

Mr. Cunningham was in that elitest of the elite category. What a sad story, his downfall.

modmom wrote on July 18, 2007 9:11 AM:

Wade-former Intel Officer w US Naval Reserves received "proffer agreement":

It should be noted that Mitchell Wade provided information to the Government pursuant to a "proffer agreement" This agreement prohibits the Government from using against Wade directly at trial, the statements and information that he provided. It does not, however, extend any protections
to any other individuals, and it explicitly permits derivative use of the information that Wade provided-

Beginning in approximately March 1987, Wade served as a Commissioned Intelligence Officer in the U.S. Naval Reserves. In the 1990's, he received an Honorable Discharge as a Lieutenant
Commander.
4/ -
According to recent interviews conducted by investigators with current and former DoD employees, Wade was also employed with a DoD entity hown as the Defense Testing and Evaluation
Support Activity (DTESA). At DTESA, Wade supported several classified programs.

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m g wrote on July 18, 2007 9:52 AM:

BREAKING ONDCP explicity asked to travel in support of republican canidates

http://www.reason.com/blog/show/121467.html

m g wrote on July 18, 2007 9:53 AM:

BREAKING ONDCP explicity asked to travel in support of republican canidates

http://www.reason.com/blog/show/121467.html

MagickMuffin wrote on July 18, 2007 1:16 PM:

Look who else Duke-Stir is dishing up on.....From pg 11

Cunningham was told by Wilkes that he was hiding money in a bank account in Panama that could be used to make payments to him.
When asked if he was aware of any wrongdoing by other members of Congress, Cunningham said that Wilkes had hosted fundraisers for Tom Delay and Jerry Lewis. Cunningham also stated that he had observed Wade and Katherine Harris having meals together.

anon wrote on July 18, 2007 5:54 PM:

Does anyone know where/how Sonny Callahan got the boat in the first place? He's credited in several articles as the "designer" of the boat. And, yup, he was pretty active lobbying for and supporting various military boat building projects.

Here's another question: What's up with the Electronic Data section of the affidavit? (Pp 69-74.) Did they recover the data? What was on the disks? Are they suggesting it was too hard to recover or the materials were moved to some other place? Seems like there might be some interesting stuff on those disks, etc. Is this just boiler plate or is something else going on?

johnnydoughey wrote on July 18, 2007 8:27 PM:

I noticed that one of the questioners, or at least present for the questions was an IRS employee. Does Cunningham still have to settle with the IRS, or was that finalized with the prosecution's deal? I saw some pretty expensive items which could be included in income, if not.
Same question concerning Wilkes and Wade. It looks as though, even after finishing with the bribes and such, the IRS might have some pretty severe reprimands in mind...