The real congressman was on the morning news cycle. He is the guy that inspired the movie starring Tom Hanks.
He and a few congressmen quietly managed to secretly fund the mujahadeen led by Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. They gave them almost $400 million (that's in 1980 dollars!)
This was done with zero leaks, with nobody knowing anything. The small group of congressmen made $400 mil just disappear (anyone know the value of $400mil, 28 years later?)
Very interesting.
Soviet-Afghan war
Main article: Operation Cyclone
In 1980, Wilson read an Associated Press dispatch on the congressional wires that described hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing Afghanistan. Few were paying attention, even in the American government.[citation needed] According to his biographer, George Crile, Wilson placed a call to a staff member of the U.S. Congressional Appropriations Committee who dealt with "black appropriations" (CIA funds) and requested a two-fold increase in the appropriation for Afghanistan. Wilson had just been named to the United States House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, a small panel of lawmakers in the House responsible for funding CIA operations, putting him in a position to make such a request.[7]
This would not be the last time that Wilson greatly increased the CIA budget for its Afghan operation. In 1983, he won the approval of $40 million more, with $17 million especially earmarked for anti-aircraft weapons that could take down the Soviet Mil Mi-24 "Hind" helicopters that caused heavy damage and casualties to the Afghan mujahideen.[8] The following year, Wilson was approached directly by CIA officer Gust Avrakotos, who – breaking the CIA's rule against lobbying Congress for money – asked Wilson for $50 million more. Wilson agreed to the increase and convinced his colleagues in Congress, saying that "The U.S. had nothing whatsoever to do with these people's decision to fight ... But we'll be damned by history if we let them fight with stones."[9] Wilson later succeeded in moving $300 million of unused Pentagon funds into the Afghan operation right before the end of the fiscal year.[10] In this way, Wilson had a significant influence on the level of support the Afghan Mujahideen received from the United States.
Wilson has said that the covert operation succeeded because "there was no partisanship or damaging leaks."[11]
