SpyTalk

 "They would meet once a month at a restaurant out in Vienna or in northern Virginia and talk about how they were going to overthrow the regime at CIA," Drumheller said.

Instead, they soon became known as the "Gosslings" for the protective circle they formed around their boss and for what many saw as overbearing attempts to isolate and purge veteran officials.

They are all gone now.

The San Diego Union-Tribune, which followed the story closely, watched Foggo's demise in an Alexandria, Va., courtroom Monday. 

Foggo, 53, who resigned as the executive director of the CIA in 2006, admitted he used his position to steer millions of dollars in lucrative government contracts toward the company of his best friend Brent Wilkes, a Poway [Calif.] defense contractor, prosecutors said Monday.
Foggo was championed by a small group of aides whom Goss brought to Langley from the House Intelligence Committee, which he chaired until Bush selected him to run the spy agency.

After months of turmoil, Goss resigned and the agency shook off the whole crowd like a head cold. Soon after, some of the CIA's best clandestine operatives returned to the fold. They are running the agency now.

But what was the spy agency so anxious to keep the lid on with the lenient plea deal with Foggo?

It wasn't just the mistress on his CIA payroll, or the poker parties and hookers at the Watergate, or lavish gifts to lawmakers, writes Laura Rozen, who broke many stories in the Cunningham-Foggo scandal.  

"No, what truly worried Agency brass were the darker secrets their former top logistics officer was threatening to spill had his case gone to trial as scheduled on November 3."

Read the rest of her enterprising take on the whole sordid mess here.