Hayden Might Get Meired in His Own MZMuck

It's getting messy in spookland:

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...

Thanks to lambert for the tip.

MZM, Inc. Now where have I heard of those entrepreneurs before? And why does the name Virgil Goode ring a bell? Ah, yes! Theolock!

Kos points us to the following news story regarding an apparent bribe to a very conservative Republican Congressman from California, Randy "Duke" Cunningham from an obscure defense intelligence company called MZM, Inc.

...There's this piece from The Roanoke Times:

"U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Rocky Mount, was instrumental in MZM's decision to locate an office in Martinsville, according to a press release from Gov. Mark Warner.

MZM was the top campaign contributor to Goode in 2004, according to Web site opensecrets.org."

Actually, MZM was the top campaign contributor to Virgil Goode in the 2003-2004 election cycle, which includes the years 2003 and 2004...

On 11/3/2003, the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission announced that, thanks to the intervention of one Rep. Virgil Goode, it was happy to provide $250,000 to be provided to a certain company called MZM as an incentive for MZM to locate a facility in Martinsville, Virginia. In addition, $250,000 in incentives would be provided from the Governor's Opportunity Fund.

That's $500,000 total. But wait, there's more money for MZM involved. According to a 11/3/03 press release from the Governor's office, MZM also received incentives via a $127,000 grant from the Martinsville-Henry County Chamber's Partnership for Economic Growth. This press release also notes that "U.S. Congressman Virgil H. Goode, Jr. was instrumental in securing this project for Virginia."

That's $627,000 received by MZM --that we know of-- in this sweetheart deal...

The Martinsville Bulletin of October 31, 2003 reported, "Goode said Wednesday that he was involved in bringing MZM to Martinsville. 'I am pleased that I was able to alert a first-class company to the strong work force and other attractive business features in the Martinsville-Henry County area and to get the company to take a serious look at locating an operation here,' the congressman said in a statement issued Thursday. Efforts to lure MZM to Martinsville have taken place quickly. After Goode provided the initial lead, Harned said, the Martinsville Economic Development Department 'worked very aggressively with this (project) for a month.'"

Fifteen days later, on 11/18/2003, MZM sent another PAC contribution to Virgil Goode, for $1,000, bringing the grand total of MZM PAC contributions to Goode to $11,000. MZM's PAC did not contribute to Goode before or after these dates.

Of course, $11,000.00 may seem like chump change to a bigwig politician like Virgil Goode. But it's important to note that these are only the PAC contributions...

Theolock goes on to list a number of contributions to Goode from MZM executives in 2003, including $4000 from Lt. Gen. James C. King amd $4000 from his wife, Jeneane C. King.

Who knew you could be an Air Force Lt. General and an "MZM, Inc., Executive Officer" subcontracting with the Air Force at the same time? Isn't the multiverse great? Being two places at once like that violates conservation of mass, doesn't it? If not that, perhaps it's some other law.

Back to the story:

That's $29,851.00 from MZM employees and staffers. Add in the PAC contributions and you've got $40,851.00, which is not chump change in a rural Virginia House race.

Goode continues to receive MZM funds... And Theolock goes on to list them for 2005, including:

KING, JAMES C. LT. GEN., 03/04/2005, $2000.00, MZM INC./SR. EXEC. V.P. FOR NAT. S.
KING, JENEANE C, 03/04/2005, $2000.00, MARRIED TO JAMES KING...

...Yes, that's right: every single individual contribution to Virgil Goode thus far in 2005 has been from an employee of MZM or a spouse of an employee of MZM. The 2005 contributions sum up to $46,625.00.

That makes a grand total of $87,476.00 to Virgil Goode from MZM. Thanks to Virgil Goode's intervention, MZM received a total of $627,000 in government incentives packages.

[This article is cross-posted from Irregular Times]

Perhaps our concerned Congressmen should investigate the connections between General Hayden and Lt. General King a bit more closely.

There may be more than one warp in space-time here.