Duke says: "I can't undo what I have done but I can atone"...Malto says "*** that, U gonna do time, ***!!"......:)

Bush ally faces 10 years' jail for $2.4 million in bribes
From Tim Reid in Washington





A REPUBLICAN congressman pleaded guilty last night to taking
$2.4 million in bribes in exchange for steering lucrative military contracts
to business associates - the latest scandal to hit President Bush's party.

Randy "Duke" Cunningham, a Californian Republican and decorated
Vietnam War veteran, later tearfully resigned from the House of
Representatives, where he has served since 1988.

"I can't undo what I have done but I can atone," Cunningham, 63,
said, wiping away tears. He faces ten years in jail after pleading guilty to
charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud and wire fraud, and tax
evasion for underreporting his income in 2004.

Cunningham was chairman of the House Intelligence subcommittee
on Terrorism and Human Intelligence and had substantial links to the defence
industry. Suspicions that he used his position as an elected official
illegally to influence Pentagon contracts surfaced last June. It emerged
that he had sold his Californian house for $1,675,000 (£970,000), an
artificially inflated price, to Mitchell Wade, owner of a defence
contracting company, MZM Inc.

Mr Wade put the house back on the market and sold it after
nearly a year for $975,000, a loss of $700,000. Cunningham used the profits
from the sale to buy a $2.55 million mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, California.

Around the same time, MZM, based in Washington, began getting
large government contracts. Cunningham also stayed on a yacht owned by Mr
Wade and docked in Washington. Mr Wade has not been charged with any crime.

Prosecutors said that Cunningham had admitted to receiving at
least $2.4 million in bribes paid to him by several unnamed conspirators
through a variety of methods, including cheques for more than $1 million,
cash, rugs, antiques, furniture, yacht club fees and vacations. "He did the
worst thing an elected official can do - he enriched himself through his
position and violated the trust of those who put him there," US Attorney
Carol Lam said.

Cunningham agreed to forfeit to the Government his Rancho Santa
Fe home, more than $1.8 million in cash, together with assorted antiques and
rugs. Asked by US District Judge Larry Burns if he had accepted bribes from
someone in exchange for his performance of official duties, he replied:
"Yes, your honour."

After the hearing, Cunningham was led away to be fingerprinted
and released until a sentencing hearing on February 27. He had already
announced in July that he would not seek re-election next year. Cunningham's
guilty pleas came amid a series of Republican scandals, most notably the
indictment of Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former chief of staff of *** Cheney,
the Vice-President, over his role in the CIA leak affair. Tom DeLay had to
step down as House leader on being indicted for money-laundering, and Bill
Frist, the Senate leader, is being investigated over a stock sale. All deny
wrongdoing.

VIETNAM HERO AND TOP GUN PILOT



a.. Randy "Duke" Cunningham was born on December 8, 1941, in Los
Angeles and earned a masters in education from the University of Missouri in
1965
a.. He was a teacher and swimming coach before joining the US
Navy at the age of 25 and becoming one of the most highly decorated pilots
in the Vietnam War
a.. Cunningham went on to train fighter pilots at the "Top Gun"
Navy Fighter Weapons School at Miramar Naval Air Station
a.. He served eight terms in the House of Representatives
serving California's 50th Congressional District and served on the powerful
House Appropriations Committee among others
a.. Ironically, Cunningham was recognised by several law
enforcement organisations for his tough-on-crime stance




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