EXCLUSIVE: CIA Nominee Hayden Linked to MZM

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CIA nominee Hayden linked to MZM Inc., ... “Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden will be named as the next chief of the CIA, President Bush’s national security ...
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EXCLUSIVE: CIA Nominee Hayden Linked to MZM
By Justin Rood - May 8, 2006, 11:33 AM
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/000581.php

While director of the National Security Agency, Gen. Michael V. Hayden
contracted the services of a top executive at the company at the center
of the Cunningham bribery scandal, according to two former employees of
the company.

Hayden, President Bush's pick to replace Porter Goss as head of the CIA,
contracted with MZM Inc. for the services of Lt. Gen. James C. King,
then a senior vice president of the company, the sources say. MZM was
owned and operated by Mitchell Wade, who has admitted to bribing former
Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham with $1.4 million in money and gifts. Wade
has also reportedly told investigators he helped arrange for prostitutes
to entertain the disgraced lawmaker, and he continues to cooperate with
a federal inquiry into the matter.

King has not been implicated in the growing scandal around Wade's
illegal activities. However, federal records show he contributed to some
of Wade's favored lawmakers, including $6000 to Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA)
and $4000 to Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL).

Before joining MZM in December 2001, King served under Hayden as the
NSA's associate deputy director for operations, and as head of the
National Imagery and Mapping Agency.

King worked at NSA Headquarters in Ft. Meade, Maryland, in 2004 and
2005, both sources told me. "King was out there working on same floor as
Hayden," one former employee with firsthand knowledge of the arrangement
said. "He was doing special projects for Hayden as an MZM employee."
Neither former employee knew details of King's work for Hayden; one said
he thought he was doing "special projects" for the director, while the
other speculated it was "high-ranking advisory work."

The NSA did not immediately respond to my request for comment. Hayden
left the NSA in April 2005 to take the post of Deputy Director of
National Intelligence. The DNI office referred my call on the matter to
the NSA.

As an MZM employee, King was involved in a number of controversial
projects. In 2002, he was a key adviser to the team creating CIFA, the
Pentagon's domestic surveillance operation. In 2004, he was one of three
MZM staffers who worked on the White House Robb-Silberman Commission,
which recommended expanding CIFA's powers.

NSA is home to its own controversial project, of course -- the post-9/11
warrantless domestic wiretapping operation known as the "terrorist
surveillance program." There is no indication that King has been
involved in that project.

"I don't see anything nefarious" about King's work for Hayden, one
employee told me, although he conceded he did not know what projects
King worked on. "I think Hayden needed help."

King became president of MZM when Wade left the company in June 2005,
following revelations he bribed Cunningham to win lucrative federal
contracts. The company has since been sold and renamed Athena Innovative
Solutions. It did not return my call for comment.

=======================

MZM Inc. is a "high-tech national security firm based in Washington, D.C.," Brooke Williams of the Center for Public Integrity wrote (http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/bio.aspx?act=pro&ddlC=40).

"Mitchell J. Wade started MZM in 1993 and stepped down in June [2005] after news reports suggested he did financial favors for Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.) while the lawmaker pushed funding in Congress for programs on classified military intelligence programs on which MZM worked." [1]
http://www.washingtontechnology.com/top-100/2005/100.html

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Top 100 Federal Prime Contractors -- 2005
100: MZM Inc. Top 100 List ... Sources: Washington Technology, Federal Sources Inc. ... 1996-2006 Post-Newsweek Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ...
http://www.washingtontechnology.com/top-100/2005/100.html

USATODAY.com - Secret military spending gets little oversight
WASHINGTON — It took more than a decade for Mitchell Wade to turn his company, MZM Inc., from a small-time Pentagon consulting firm into a booming business ...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-11-08-pentagon-spending_x.htm

Cunningham issues statement on home sale North County Times ...
Cunningham's five-page statement defends his relationship with Mitchell J. Wade, the defense contractor whose firm, MZM Inc., saw its number of government ...
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/06/23/news/top_stories/00_53_576_21_05.txt