Re: General David Petraeus tipped to take over CIA
Hillary has not made any official announcement yet that I could find, though she signaled she *may* stay on for a second term with Obama. A check on her State Dept page shows business as normal. She was in Australia as of the 9th.
November 12th, 2012, 17:06
American Patriot
Re: General David Petraeus tipped to take over CIA
WASHINGTON--Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton really is quitting and not planning to stick around if President Barack Obama is re-elected. She said Thursday during a Town Hall meeting with State employees if Obama wins a second term, she'll stay on until there is a replacement.
Said Clinton, "I think I have made it clear that, you know, I will certainly stay on until the president nominates someone and that transition can occur. But I think, after 20 years -- and it will be 20 years -- of being on the high wire of American politics, and all of the challenges that come with that, it would be probably a good idea to just find out how tired I am. Everyone always says that when they leave these jobs.
"...And then, you know, the election is, you know, going to, I'm sure, suck up a lot of the attention from following areas that we think are so important: you know, trying to resolve frozen conflicts; trying to, you know, bring food and health care and education to desperately poor people; trying to build up America's reputation and reality in so many places in the world. But the good news is, you know, maybe we can even get more done if they're not paying attention. So just factor that in.
"And I think, from my perspective, I will, you know, just work as hard as I can till the last minute I have the honor of being secretary, and certainly do everything, no matter what I do -- which I have no idea what it will be -- to support all of you. And I am happy to work with Vice President Biden, who does an excellent job and is a huge advocate and supporter for this department and for USAID.
"So it's a little odd for me to be totally out of an election season, since, as secretary of state, I cannot participate. But, you know, I didn't watch any of those debates....:
November 13th, 2012, 14:03
American Patriot
Re: General David Petraeus tipped to take over CIA
Wow.... This is getting deeper and deeper, now General Allen in involved. And the woman who started it all was involved with HIM..... go figure....
November 14th, 2012, 07:35
Ryan Ruck
Re: General David Petraeus tipped to take over CIA
ABC's Denver affiliate is coming under fire for accidentally running a phony cover of Paula Broadwell's biography of General David Petraeus. The cover read, All Up In My Snatch. The real book title is All In.
During the broadcast, 7NEWS showed an image of Broadwell's biography of Petraeus that is called, "All In: The Education of General David Petraeus."
However, when the 7NEWS reporter went on the Internet to get an image of the book cover, the reporter mistakenly grabbed a Photoshopped image that said, "All Up In My Snatch." (View image here.)
"It was a mistake," said KMGH-TV News Director Jeff Harris.
...
"It was a regrettable and an embarrassing error. We are mortified this appeared during our 5 p.m. news broadcast. The editor pulled the image of the book cover from the Internet without realizing it had been doctored. We sincerely regret the error and have corrected the story to avoid any recurrence of its broadcast. We are following up internally as well to avoid a repeat of this inexcusable oversight," Harris said.
November 14th, 2012, 13:25
American Patriot
Re: General David Petraeus tipped to take over CIA
Lol
November 14th, 2012, 14:27
American Patriot
Re: General David Petraeus tipped to take over CIA
Patraeus WILL TESTIFY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 14th, 2012, 14:34
American Patriot
Re: General David Petraeus tipped to take over CIA
Krauthammer: White House 'Held Affair Over Petraeus's Head' For Favorable Testimony On Benghazi
Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer on Tuesday said the White House used David Petraeus’s affair to get the CIA director to give testimony about the attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that was in line with the administration’s position on the matter.
Appearing on Fox News's Special Report, Krauthammer said, "The sword was lowered on Election Day" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: I think the really shocking news today was that General Petraeus thought and hoped he could keep his job. He thought that it might and it would be kept secret, and that he could stay in his position. I think what that tells us is really important. It meant that he understood that the FBI obviously knew what was going on. He was hoping that those administration officials would not disclose what had happened, and therefore hoping that he would keep his job. And that meant that he understood that his job, his reputation, his legacy, his whole celebrated life was in the hands of the administration, and he expected they would protect him by keeping it quiet.
And that brings us to the ultimate issue, and that is his testimony on September 13. That’s the thing that connects the two scandals, and that’s the only thing that makes the sex scandal relevant. Otherwise it would be an exercise in sensationalism and voyeurism and nothing else. The reason it’s important is here’s a man who knows the administration holds his fate in its hands, and he gives testimony completely at variance with what the Secretary of Defense had said the day before, at variance with what he’d heard from his station chief in Tripoli, and with everything that we had heard. Was he influenced by the fact that he knew his fate was held by people within the administration at that time?
As a point of reference, ABCNews.com reported on September 14:
The attack that killed four Americans in the Libyan consulate began as a spontaneous protest against the film “The Innocence of Muslims,” but Islamic militants who may have links to Al Qaeda used the opportunity to launch an attack, CIA Director David Petreaus told the House Intelligence Committee today according to one lawmaker who attended a closed-door briefing.
This of course was the administration line for almost two weeks after the attacks.
With that in mind, Krauthammer drove his point home further a few minutes later:
http://newsbusters.org/sites/default...us%20Obama.jpgKRAUTHAMMER: Of course it was being held over Petraeus’s head, and the sword was lowered on Election Day. You don’t have to be a cynic to see that as the ultimate in cynicism. As long as they needed him to give the administration line to quote Bill, everybody was silent. And as soon as the election’s over, as soon as he can be dispensed with, the sword drops and he’s destroyed. I mean, can you imagine what it’s like to be on that pressure and to think it didn’t distort or at least in some way unconsciously influence his testimony?
That’s hard to believe.
If Krauthammer is correct, it's going to be very interesting to see if and how the Obama-loving media reports it.
Stay tuned.
Re: General David Petraeus tipped to take over CIA
The title of this thread ought to read: "General Patraeus tipped over as head of CIA".... /sigh
Petraeus mistress had "substantial" classified data on computer: sources
By Mark Hosenball
WASHINGTON | Wed Nov 14, 2012 2:16pm EST
(Reuters) - A computer used by Paula Broadwell, the woman whose affair with CIA director General David Petraeus led to his resignation, contained substantial classified information that should have been stored under more secure conditions, law enforcement and national security officials said on Wednesday.
The contents of the classified material and how Broadwell acquired it remain under investigation, said the officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to comment publicly.
But the quantity of classified material found on the computer was significant enough to warrant a continuing investigation, the officials told Reuters.
President Barack Obama told a news conference on Wednesday that there was no indication so far that any classified documents had been disclosed as a result of the scandal but said he will not prejudge the investigation results.
As a reserve officer in military intelligence, Broadwell - co-author of a biography on Petraeus - had security clearances that gave her access to classified material, several officials said. However, government rules require classified material to be stored in secure locations or computers.
Two officials familiar with the case said that one question investigators are asking was whether Broadwell followed government rules for handling classified information.
Late Monday, FBI investigators searched Broadwell's residence in Charlotte, North Carolina, an action that officials said occurred with Broadwell's consent.
Attempts to reach Broadwell, who has remained mainly out of the public eye, have been unsuccessful. She was seen late Tuesday at her brother's home in Washington, D.C.
It is unclear where or how Broadwell acquired the classified information. During the FBI investigation that led to the discovery of the affair between Petraeus and Broadwell, both individuals denied that Petraeus had supplied her with any classified information and the FBI accepted those explanations, law enforcement sources have said.
CRIMINAL CHARGES UNLIKELY
Law enforcement officials also have said that they believe the continuing FBI probe into the matter is likely to end without criminal charges. If Broadwell is found to have mishandled classified information, she could face action under administrative security regulations.
Still, the latest developments could quash hopes among some at the Justice Department and in Congress for a quick end to a scandal that this week also ensnared the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Marine General John Allen.
Petraeus has made no public statement since he announced his resignation as CIA chief on Friday.
The retired four-star Army general has agreed, however, to testify to Congress about the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, amid questions over the CIA's actions before, during and after the assault on September 11, 2012.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein said Petraeus was willing to testify about the Benghazi attack but the timing had not yet been decided, a spokesman for the California Democrat said.
Meanwhile, U.S. lawmakers also are demanding to know more about the timeline of the FBI's probe into Petraeus' affair with Broadwell.
Representative Lamar Smith, the Texas Republican who heads the House Judiciary Committee, wrote FBI Director Robert Mueller asking for both a timeline and whether Petraeus is the focus of a criminal probe.
"Has the FBI concluded that General Petraeus is not the subject of any criminal or intelligence-related investigation?" Smith asked in the letter.
Earlier on Wednesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, speaking in Perth, Australia, warned against jumping to conclusions over the actions of Allen, a day after placing him under investigation in connection with the Petraeus scandal.
Allen, who denies any wrongdoing, is being investigated for potentially inappropriate communications with Jill Kelley, a Florida socialite who is at the center of the Petraeus case.
Panetta defended his decision to refer the case to the Pentagon's inspector general and for suspending Allen's nomination to another top position in the U.S. military, saying it was a prudent step "until we determine what the facts are."
PRAISE FOR ALLEN IN AFGHANISTAN
At the same time, he praised Allen's work commanding the Afghan war effort, a position he retains despite the probe.
"No one should leap to any conclusions here. General Allen is doing an excellent job at ISAF, in leading those forces," Panetta said, referring to the NATO-led force in Afghanistan.
"He certainly has my continued confidence to lead our forces and continue the fight."
Defense officials and people close to Petraeus say neither he nor Allen had a romantic relationship with Kelley, a 37-year-old wife and mother who is described as a prominent presence in military circles in Tampa.
She may have been seen as a rival by Broadwell, who sent Kelley a series of anonymous, harassing emails which touched off an investigation that uncovered evidence of an affair between Petraeus and Broadwell, according to a law enforcement source.
FBI investigators decided to pursue the matter when they found the messages contained information about the CIA chief's activities that was not publicly available, law enforcement officials said.
Kelley had gotten to know both Petraeus and Allen as a volunteer setting up social events at MacDill Air Force Base outside Tampa, headquarters of U.S. Central Command.
Allen and Kelley communicated often enough over the past two years to produce between 20,000 and 30,000 pages of email and other messages, which were turned over to Defense Department investigators on Sunday.
The actual volume of communications is likely much smaller, an official said, as the printouts include messages involving other people and email threads including prior communications.
A senior defense official told Reuters the messages were seen as inappropriate because they were "flirtatious" in nature, not because they dealt with sensitive information.
But another U.S. official said the Pentagon only decided to refer the matter for investigation after an initial look found the communications to be of "a sufficient character" to warrant further review.
(Additional reporting by Phil Stewart in Australia, Patrick Rucker, David Alexander, Rick Rothacker, David Ingram, Tabassum Zakaria, Susan Cornwell, Matt Spetalnick, Margaret Chadbourn. Writing by Warren Strobel; Editing by David Lindsey and Philip Barbara)
November 14th, 2012, 19:56
American Patriot
Re: General David Petraeus tipped to take over CIA
Is David Petraeus's Affair Really a Scandal?
The media is relentlessly following developments in the former CIA director's extramarital transgressions
By Teresa Welsh
November 14, 2012 RSS Feed Print
The media has breathlessly followed the twists and turns of the unfolding investigation into the affair former CIA Director David Petraeus had with his biographer, Paula Broadwell. Now Gen. John Allen, commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and Florida socialite Jill Kelley are also implicated.
Petraeus, the former top commander in Iraq and Afghanistan, allegedly began his affair with Broadwell shortly after he started his tenure at the CIA. He has been married for 37 years, and in a letter to CIA staff described his behavior as "unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours."
[See a collection of political cartoons on the David Petraeus Scandal.]
The affair was uncovered by the FBI after it began an investigation in response to complaints from Kelley, a Petraeus family friend, that she was receiving "harassing" E-mails. It is alleged that the E-mails came from Broadwell, who thought Kelley was also competing for Petraeus's attention. The nature of the Florida woman's relationship with Allen has been called into question, after additional "potentially inappropriate" E-mails were discovered between the two. Kelley and Allen, who are both married and deny having an affair, threw social events together for senior leaders at the Central Command. While an affair is not against the rules at the CIA, under military regulations adultery can be a crime.
U.S. News's Susan Milligan says the country and media have falsely created a sense of scandal around the investigations. She said instead we should be focusing on things like climate change, the war in Iraq, and the fiscal cliff, which are actually scandals.
Why is anything involving sex considered so outrageous? Why is the Petraeus-Broadwell affair anybody's business but theirs (and their spouses)? And Allen's so-called "potentially inappropriate" E-mails? The only evidence so far is that he reportedly referred to Tampa "socialite" (is that a contradiction in terms?) Jill Kelley as "sweetheart." What Taliban standards are we employing if a quaint term of endearment is considered inappropriate?
[Read the U.S. News Debate: Should David Petraeus Have Resigned as CIA Director?]
Heather Hurlburt, writing for U.S. News's Debate Club, says the ordeal is more than just a personal tragedy for Petraeus and has larger implications. Because of the leadership roles he held, it is an institutional one as well:
None of the institutions involved looks likely to emerge untarnished. It's clear that senior military and intelligence leaders tolerate a great deal of hypocrisy and unequal power relations among themselves, while punishing it among subordinates; that the FBI at best had a problem with inappropriate behavior by "Agent Shirtless" and at worst abused its surveillance powers considerably …
November 14th, 2012, 20:51
American Patriot
Re: General David Petraeus tipped to take over CIA
In 911 calls, Kelley tried to invoke diplomatic immunity
NBC's Pete Williams and Michael Isikoff detail new information surrounding Jill Kelley, one of the women at the center of the controversy surrounding Gen. David Petraeus' resignation from the CIA.
By NBC News staff
Audiotapes of several 911 calls placed by Florida socialite Jill Kelley as the media descended on her Tampa home show she complained about what she considered trespassing on her property and attempted to invoke diplomatic-type privileges.
Follow @NBCNewsUS
“I am an honorary consul general, so I have inviolability,” Kelley told a 911 dispatcher. “They should not be able to cross my property. I don’t know if you want to get diplomatic protection involved as well?”
A South Korean official confirmed to NBC News that Kelley is an honorary consul for South Korea, but said she has no diplomatic immunity. He said Kelley assists the consulate based in Atlanta on occasion with things like passports and visas but is not an employee.
The U.S. State Department said Kelley has no formal affiliation with that U.S. agency.
“I can assure you that she does not work for the State Department and has no formal affiliation with the State Department,” State Department Spokesman Mark Toner said.
In other calls to Tampa police, Kelley said strangers had entered through a gate and were bashing on her door, trying to push it open. In another call, Kelley said at least 10 people were blocking her alley so she couldn’t get into her driveway.
Kelley, 37, became involved in the scandal that led to the resignation of CIA Director David Petraeus after complaining to the FBI about anonymous, threatening emails she received.
Her complaint touched off an investigation that uncovered an apparent affair between Petraeus and his biographer, Paula Broadwell.
During the investigation, the FBI traced the allegedly threatening emails to Broadwell.
Kelley and her husband, who is a surgeon, are close friends of the Petraeus family. She has been a volunteer social liaison to the MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, often hosting parties for top brass.
More information is emerging about Jill Kelley, the woman whose complaints inadvertently alerted the FBI to Gen. David Petraeus' affair, including the fact that she received help from Petraeus and Gen. John Allen during her sister's bitter custody battle. NBC's Kerry Sanders reports.
On Wednesday, a Department of Defense official confirmed to NBC News that Kelley’s special access to the base, which she had been granted due to her participation in community outreach events, has been suspended. Now, if she wants to enter the base, she must go in like any other individual and show her ID and get a daily pass. The official said the reason for the suspension is because she is part of an ongoing investigation.
The investigation also uncovered emails between Kelley and Gen. John Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, which a Defense Department official described as "potentially inappropriate."
But another defense official told NBC News on Tuesday that the emails had been misconstrued.
“There was no affair,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
It also emerged this week that Petraeus and Allen had intervened in a Washington, D.C., custody battle in September that involved Natalie Khawam, Kelley's twin sister. As FBI investigated Petraeus, he and Allen intervened in nasty custody battle Defense official fires back, denies Afghanistan commander exchanged 'inappropriate' emails
They wrote letters on behalf of Khawam, who was found by a judge to have "severe personal deficits in the areas of honesty and integrity."
In an interview with TODAY, Kelley’s brother, David Khawam, threw his support behind Kelley.
“My sister, number one, is a mother. She has three kids. She’s extremely dedicated to those kids. Number two, she’s a wife. She’s extremely dedicated to her husband. And he to her,” he said. “This is something that’s going to brand her for life.”
November 14th, 2012, 20:52
American Patriot
Re: General David Petraeus tipped to take over CIA
The more I find out about this woman, the more I believe she was using these Generals to get them into a position to either blackmail them or worse.
November 14th, 2012, 20:55
American Patriot
Re: General David Petraeus tipped to take over CIA
Socialite Jill Kelley stripped of military pass
Tom Vanden Brook and Donna Leinwand Leger, USA TODAYShareComments
The Tampa socialite who triggered the David Petraeus investigation appears wary of media firestorm.
3:28PM EST November 14. 2012 - TAMPA — Jill Kelley, the socialite whose complaint to the FBI began the unraveling of the David Petraeus affair, was known for her parties for members of the military in Tampa.
But unless you held the rank of general or admiral, you weren't likely on the guest list, according to one retired senior officer who didn't want his name published.
"A colonel is about as low as she'd go," said the officer, who served at the U.S. military's Central Command (CENTCOM) in Tampa and knows the players in the Patraeus scandal. "People like that only want senior people around."
Nearly all lines in the increasingly tangled scandal involving Petraeus lead back to Kelley, whose complaint about anonymous, threatening e-mails triggered the FBI investigation that led to the former general's downfall as director of the CIA. And now Kelley is the center of an investigation of the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan over possible "inappropriate communications" between the two.
Tuesday, Kelley's pass to go on MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, home to CENTCOM, was revoked because of the investigation. Called a "Friends of MacDill" pass that allows easier access to the base, the first one was issued to Kelley in November 2010 after she submitted information, including her Social Security number, for a background check.
Over the last few days Kelley has called police several times, trying to invoke purported "diplomatic protection" to keep the media and public away from her Tampa home -- even though she has no official title or standing.
"You know, I don't know if by any chance, because I'm an honorary consul general, so I have inviolability, so they should not be able to cross my property. I don't know if you want to get diplomatic protection involved as well," Kelley told a 911 dispatcher, who agreed to pass the information along to police.
In three other calls to police on Monday, a caller identified herself as Jill Kelley and reported trespassers on her property.
"They're trying to push the door open; they won't leave," she says in one call.
"Are you sure you don't know who these people are?" the dispatcher asks.
"I do not know who they are, no," she responds.
Foreign Policy reports that the 37-year-old Kelley is an "honorary consul" to South Korea -- a title described as symbolic, with no official responsibilities.
According to the senior officer, Kelley and her husband, Scott, provided a sort of venue where high-ranking members of the military could be entertained.
At one party, held on the front lawn adjacent to bustling Bayshore Blvd., foreign officers outnumbered U.S. military about 10 to 1 as they mingled with the mayor and other local dignitaries, he said. There was a band, speakers and cocktails. The French and Italian officers seemed to enjoy themselves greatly, he said.
"The opportunity to rub shoulders just doesn't happen on the base," he said.
Much of the entertaining was done with her surgeon husband, Scott, at their bayside home a few miles from base.
On Wednesday gauzy cream-colored curtains covered the windows at the stately Georgian waterfront mansion.
Jill Kelley's Mercedes S500 with its honorary consul license plate remained parked in the three-car carriage house beside a Volvo 880 while media camped in the alley behind the house.
Peeling paint and well-worn wooden rocking chairs on the porch of the 6-bedroom, 4 ½-bath house in the posh North Hyde Park neighborhood gave an air of neglect in an area where most of the homes are meticulously landscaped. The Kelley's purchased the 1923 brick house in 2004 for $1.5 million.
About six months ago, Jill Kelley became a volunteer for the International Council of the Tampa Bay Region, president Gary Springer said. She was introduced to the group by another volunteer, he said.
The council, one of 92 around the United States, partners with the State Department to coordinate professional exchanges with visitors from other countries as part of the International Visitor Leadership Program, Springer said.
Young and mid-career professionals and leaders spend three weeks in the United States "to basically have encounters with Americans to see how we live, work, learn and play," Springer said. "Many have never had any contact with Americans at all. It's part of the public diplomacy program of the United States."
The Council in the Tampa Bay region manages hundreds of volunteers in nine counties, he said. The volunteers help host professional programming, cultural activities, social outings and home hospitality, he said.
Kelley has hosted "a couple of groups," Springer said.
"She's a delightful host," he said. "She's been a wonderful volunteer for the organization."
Kelley, who has not spoken with reporters, leaves the house occasionally, but otherwise appears to be growing increasingly wary of the firestorm that she touched off.
Sunday night, she and her husband released a statement saying that they have been friends with Petraeus and his family for over five years.
"We respect his and his family's privacy and want the same for us and our three children," the statement said. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Kelley tried in the summer to get the FBI to drop the investigation she triggered after it began churning up personal information.
The newspaper, quoting unidentified people familiar with the case, said Kelley, a fixture in Tampa's social and military community, developed "misgivings" after friends urged her to drop the matter, saying it would only cause bigger problems.
In the end, the probe led to Paula Broadwell, Petraeus' biographer and the source of the original threatening e-mails. That, in turn, uncovered Broadwell's extramarital affair with Petraeus, who was forced to resign last week as CIA director.
Broadwell, who was kept largely out of sight since the scandal broke, was spotted -- and photographed -- at her brother's home in Washington, D.C. , on Tuesday.
It has also led to a Pentagon investigation of what a Pentagon official called possible "inappropriate" e-mail exchanges between Kelley and Gen. John Allen, commander of allied forces in Afghanistan.
Allen's nomination to become the next commander of U.S. European Command as well as the NATO supreme allied commander in Europe was put on hold this week at the request of Defense Secretary Leon Panetta
A senior U.S. official told the Associated Press that other senior U.S. officials who read the e-mails determined that the exchanges between Allen and Kelley were not sexually explicit or seductive but included pet names such as "sweetheart" or "dear."
The official said that while much of the communication — including some from Allen to Kelley — is relatively innocuous, some could be construed as unprofessional and would cause a reasonable person to take notice.
Allen, 58, has been allowed to stay in his job as commander of the Afghan War and provide a leading voice in White House discussions on how many troops will remain in Afghanistan — and for what purposes — after the U.S.-led combat operation ends in 2014.
The FBI decided to turn over the Allen information to the military once the bureau recognized it contained no evidence of a federal crime, according to a federal law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the matter on the record and demanded anonymity. Adultery, however, is a crime under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Allen worked to save his imperiled career. He told Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that he is innocent of misconduct, according to Col. David Lapan, Dempsey's spokesman.
At a news conference Wednesday in Perth, Australia, Panetta said, "No one should leap to any conclusions," and said he is fully confident in Allen's ability to continue to lead in Afghanistan. He added that putting a hold on Allen's European Command nomination was the "prudent" thing to do.
November 14th, 2012, 20:58
American Patriot
Re: General David Petraeus tipped to take over CIA
Long story short, and very carefully worded here... my wife and I knew a person like this. She married a good friend of mine. He lost his clearance within HOURS of getting married.
She was the daughter of a spy from Czechoslovakia. We knew something was up with her. We tried to warn him and we basically threatened her.
All for naught. He lost his clearance, she got her citizenship, dumped him and last I heard she was chasing after higher and higher military ranked boys, starting with Lts. and working her way up..... lost track of her a few years back.
November 14th, 2012, 21:00
American Patriot
Re: General David Petraeus tipped to take over CIA
And here is what I am talking about....
Who benefits from the strange sequence of events in the Petraeus affair?
Editor's note: On Wednesday, November 14, retired Gen. David Petraeus announced he will voluntarily testify before Congress about the events in Benghazi on September 11, 2012.
Honey Trap. The phrase played a big role in the movie “Munich,” when a sexy assassin lured an Israeli hit man to bed and killed him.
Now questions are being raised about whether it might have played a role in the soap opera that brought down CIA boss David Petraeus and may end the career of our top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen.
“So-called honey traps are typically used by foreign spy agencies to ensnare top men, such as General Allen and former General Petraeus, in order to try to extract information out of them,” Wall Street Journal reporter Maria Abi-Habib said yesterday in an audio dispatch from Afghanistan posted on WSJ.com.
There is no evidence the generals’ female friends are spies, but Abi-Habib says the affair has raised concerns “of a so-called honey trap, which was a very famous spy tactic used by the KGB.”
Wow. Just when you thought the plot couldn’t get any thicker, it does. Even cheap novels are usually more conventional with their story lines.
But this real-life tangle is so messy that a scorecard is in order. Jill Kelley is the woman who received the harassing e-mails from Paula Broadwell that set off the investigation that led to the discovery of Broadwell’s affair with Petraeus. Both Allen and Petraeus are close to Kelley, who lives in Tampa, and Allen succeeded Petraeus in Afghanistan and was nominated to be the next commander of NATO, a nomination now on hold.
As riveting as the “honey trap” theory is, there are also serious caveats. Although Allen reportedly sent up to 30,000 e-mail pages of correspondence to Kelley, some of it described as “potentially inappropriate,” there is no public evidence they had a sexual relationship. And reporter Abi-Habib doesn’t offer any evidence to support the “concern” she cited. I e-mailed her, asking for any details, but got no response.
Part of the anything-goes atmosphere stems from the fact that there are so many shocking events spilling out so quickly that it’s hard to get your head around them.
In ordinary times, the fact that the FBI was reading the emails of the CIA chief and discovered an affair with his biographer would have been sensational enough.
That the probe and discovery happened in the middle of a presidential campaign but was kept secret by the Justice Department until the votes were counted — that, too, would have been enough. The claim that President Obama didn’t know anything would ordinarily cause a political storm.
Yet the central issue — so far, at least — remains the connection to Benghazi. Petraeus’ bizarre role in affirming the White House political line that the murderous attack on the anniversary of Sept. 11 was not a preplanned terror attack but a spontaneous hijacking of a demonstration about an anti-Muslim video never made any sense. That narrative was false — there was no demonstration to be hijacked — and Petraeus would have come under withering questioning at a scheduled congressional hearing this week for spinning that yarn.
Instead, he is suddenly and conveniently out, his career and life in shambles and his testimony canceled. And all of that happens in the week between the election and the hearing.
You don’t have to be a conspiracy buff to wonder who benefits from the strange sequence and the torrent of leaks from the administration about the case. Petraeus’ silence becomes even more important with the ABC News report that he recently went to Libya to “personally investigate” the attack to prepare for his testimony.
Petraeus was the most acclaimed military commander of our era, and his behavior, which is said to include the use of anonymous e-mail names, is as tragic as it is puzzling. He set high standards for himself and his soldiers, according to Vernon Loeb, who helped Broadwell write her biography.
Loeb, an editor at The Washington Post, said in an essay that he never guessed that Broadwell and the general were having an affair. He had covered Petraeus in Iraq, and was deeply impressed by him.
“He’d always preached to his protégés that character was what you did when no one was watching,” Loeb said of Petraeus. “And he would always hasten to add, from his most public of perches, that ‘someone is always watching.’ ”
He was right about that. As this bizarre case continues to unfold, the whole world is watching.
This column originally appeared in the New York Post. For more, click here.
The David Petraeus affair has to be a dream you wake up from. It can't be true.
Surely the FBI agent at the heart of the investigation couldn't have been sending shirtless photos to Jill Kelley, the damsel in distress and wealthy socialite in Tampa, Fla., who was allegedly being harassed by Paula Broadwell. Broadwell, of course, is the former mistress and Petraeus biographer who wins the prize for the least clothing worn in an interview with Jon Stewart, who asked her the most pressing question raised by her book about the former Army general and Central Intelligence Agency director: "Is he awesome, or incredibly awesome?"
Then another general fell. As federal agents were carrying a computer out of Broadwell's house in North Carolina, the Pentagon announced that the FBI was investigating four-star Marine Gen. John Allen, who took over in Afghanistan after Petraeus went to the CIA. Allen is said to have sent thousands of pages of emails to Kelley, whose complaint about Broadwell got this whole story going.
All of which raises an important question about national security: What's in the water at the Pentagon, stupid juice?
It's hard not to follow all this and resist thinking, "I'm dumb, but I'm not that dumb." Each character is so predictable this story could go straight to HBO. In Broadwell, Petraeus met his match in mixing love and career - he'd married the daughter of the superintendent at West Point - but failed to realize she was attracted as much to the four stars on his shoulder as to his sense of humor and love of long walks on the beach.
The two stars collided at a large apres-lecture dinner at Harvard when she asked for some time to ask a few questions, as she was a "researcher." (So that's what they call it nowadays.) He even gave her his card (and here I thought I was the only one with his personal email address!). She posed her questions, sometimes while running six-minute miles with him, and thus was the biography "All In" produced.
Those around Petraeus saw how blinded he was, questioning how much access she had. There was a war going on, after all. He listened to some criticism, once telling her to put away the revealing outfits when in Afghanistan. But his door stayed open.
With Petraeus' resignation, it's time to rethink why personal stupidity that doesn't affect someone's job should automatically result in resignation. In matters romantic, we can all be stupid. Once the FBI saw that it had uncovered an extramarital affair, not an affair of state, the agency should have reined in that rogue topless agent and called it a day. But it didn't, and when Director of National Intelligence James Clapper learned of Petraeus' behavior, he told him he would have to resign - and eventually the president accepted.
There was no crime or breach of national security. The rules regarding personal behavior at the CIA are more lenient than those in the military. The antiquated fear that someone with a sexual secret can be blackmailed is operative only if Clapper and others make it so. If having an affair isn't enough to get someone fired, then it probably isn't enough to be used as blackmail.
Petraeus rightly didn't think he would have to resign until last week. The Petraeus family was picture-perfect just last month at his daughter's wedding. He must have known then that all hell was about to break loose - the investigation was well- along - but he probably thought he would keep his job.
Which raises another question: Why is there a different standard of private conduct for public servants than, say, for the reporters who cover them, or the lobbyists hoping they'll approve the weapons system they're selling? (On second thought, maybe the standards are the same, as illustrated by the resignation last week of Lockheed Martin's incoming chief executive officer over a "close and personal relationship" with a subordinate. At least he got $3.5 million to soften the blow.)
Yes, government officials are stewards of the public trust in a way that private executives are not. Still, it's not clear that the Puritan streak that persists in U.S. public life is serving the public interest.
Divorce rates in the military are higher than they've been in more than a decade. Multiple deployments are hard on everyone, from grunts to the brass. Are we willing to fire all these people if we find out about their infidelities?
Imagine the second term of President Bill Clinton had his terrible affair not consumed Congress and the rest of us. A few months ago, Petraeus watched as his friend Brett McGurk lost his chance to become ambassador to Iraq over an affair with a reporter. It didn't matter that everyone - from former President George W. Bush to the current president - thought McGurk would be a great ambassador. He'd been exposed by emails to his then-girlfriend, now wife. Nothing unethical or criminal was found, yet they both lost their careers over it.
Once upon a time, it would have been hard to expose Petraeus. Love letters could be stashed away in a box. No more. Love may be fleeting, but email is forever. We've now had this technology long enough to know that any time you click "Send," your innermost thoughts may become known not just to the recipient but to your employer, the recipient's employer, the FBI and the New York Times. Yet we keep tapping away, day and night, giving our ephemeral feelings technological permanence. It's a worldwide addiction. We can't stop ourselves.
The FBI can, however. What's criminal here is that the agency kept investigating even after realizing what it had on its hands was a reckless affair - and aren't they all? - not a threat to national security.
We're not Saudi Arabia. We don't stone adulterers. The punishment suffered privately is more than enough.
November 14th, 2012, 21:08
American Patriot
Re: General David Petraeus tipped to take over CIA
FBI agent sent shirtless photo to Kelley before email investigation, officials say
The woman who triggered the investigation that led to the resignation of CIA chief David Petraeus threw lavish parties for top military brass – and also racked up debt. NBC's Kristen Welker reports.
By NBC News staff
The FBI agent who was asked by Jill Kelley to look into disturbing emails she received was a friend of hers and never had a further part in the investigation, a senior law enforcement official said Tuesday.
The official says the FBI agent had met Kelley many months before she complained to him about the threatening emails -- allegedly sent by Paula Broadwell, Gen. David Petraeus’ biographer and a woman with whom he is believed to have had an affair.
The agent sent Kelley a photo of himself with no shirt, "as a joke, a gag" at least six months before she began receiving the troubling emails, the official said. There is, the official said, no indication that the relationship between the two was anything more than a friendship.
But the official says that after Kelley came to the agent with her complaint, he faded from the picture and was not in on the investigation. Then agents discovered the shirtless photo in her e-mails, which was reported to his supervisors, resulting in an internal investigation into whether he acted inappropriately.
He's the same agent who contacted House Republicans in October to complain that the investigation was stalled. But, the official said, the agent was far out of the loop and had no idea all of the investigative activity still under way at that point.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s office called the FBI on Oct. 31 asserting that it had heard from an FBI agent who raised concerns that the matter was being covered up or not being taken seriously.
Those who know the two women at the center of General David Petraeus' affair scandal are speaking out. Jill Kelley's brother says she is "dedicated" to her husband, while Paula Broadwell's friend calls her "a pretty great person." NBC's Kristen Welker reports.
"I was contacted by an FBI employee concerned that sensitive, classified information may have been compromised and made certain (FBI Director Robert) Mueller was aware of these serious allegations and the potential risk to our national security,” Cantor said in a statement.
Cantor's office was told that the case was being actively investigated by the FBI, and so it would have been wrong for the FBI or Justice Department to inform higher-level officials in the administration about the probe earlier -- because they were unsure at that point what they were dealing with. In the end, according to multiple officials, investigators determined there was no criminal wrongdoing.
The agent provides yet another link to Kelley, who has become a central figure in the scandal that led to the resignation of Petraeus over his affair with Broadwell: Her complaint to the FBI kicked off the investigation, and her emails with another major military figure, Gen. John Allen, have led to an investigation over allegations of “inappropriate” emails between Allen and Kelley. Allen replaced Petraeus as commander in Afghanistan last year.
The emails between Allen and Kelley do not signify the two had an affair, a defense official told NBC News on Tuesday. “There was no affair,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The emails in question could be misconstrued, the official said, predicting that the investigation will prove Allen’s innocence.
NBC News justice correspondent Pete Williams contributed to this report.
November 14th, 2012, 21:10
American Patriot
Re: General David Petraeus tipped to take over CIA
http://www.globalpost.com/sites/defa...ell_affair.jpg A complaint by a friend of the Petraeus family, Jill Kelley, that she was receiving harassing emails would eventually lead FBI investigators to correspondence between David Petraeus and his biographer, Paula Broadwell, that revealed they had had an affair. This picture shows them together in July 2011. (ISAF/Getty Images)
Petraeus affair: 'Shirtless' FBI agent under investigation
In yet another bizarre twist to the David Petraeus scandal, reports say the FBI agent who originally investigated Jill Kelley's complaint that she'd received harassing emails had sent her pictures of himself shirtless.
The newest protagonist in a cast that already includes the former CIA director, his wife, their friend, his biographer-turned-lover and the head of NATO forces in Afghanistan is a man referred to as "the shirtless FBI agent."
The Wall Street Journal first introduced him to us: He is the contact to whom Jill Kelley, a friend of the Petraeus family and, we now know, correspondent of Gen. John Allen, first reported receiving harassing emails.
Those messages were eventually traced to Paula Broadwell, Petraeus's biographer and mistress, uncovering the affair that led the general to resign from the CIA.
But by the time he did, the federal agent himself would be under scrutiny. Full coverage of The Petraeus Affair
According to the Journal's sources, the agent is a friend of Kelley and, as her inbox would later reveal, had "sent shirtless photos to Ms. Kelley well before the email investigation began."
That detail wasn't known to his superiors at the start of the probe and in any case, officials told the New York Times, the agent was never part of the team of cyber specialists assigned to the investigation.
Nevertheless, the Times reported:
"The agent, who was not identified, continued to 'nose around' about the case, and eventually his superiors 'told him to stay the hell away from it, and he was not invited to briefings,' the official said."
Some were concerned that he had become "obsessed," according to the Journal.
The agent even took it upon himself to blow the whistle when he became convinced that his superiors were trying to sweep the matter under the carpet, the Times said:
"Because of his 'worldview,' as the official put it, [the agent] suspected a politically motivated cover-up to protect President Obama. The agent alerted Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, who called the FBI director, Robert S. Mueller III, on Oct. 31 to tell him of the agent's concerns."
Sources told the Journal that the agent, who has not been named, is now under investigation by the FBI's internal affairs watchdog.
The Times quoted its source as saying that the agent's actions were "a little embarrassing," but ultimately did not affect the investigation.
Yet, as questions are asked about who knew what when — and specifically, how the House majority leader came to be informed, apparently by accident, weeks before the president or members of the House and Senate intelligence committees — the shirtless FBI agent may prove more than just a bizarre sidenote in this more-than-bizarre scandal.
November 14th, 2012, 21:11
American Patriot
Re: General David Petraeus tipped to take over CIA
Twenty to thirty thousand emails, shirtless photos, illicit sex ("under" a desk, no less): are we sure the Petraeus scandal isn't actually a viral marketing campaign for the next season of Gossip Girl? If you haven't been paying attention to the still-developing drama (we're expecting a secret pregnancy to break this afternoon, followed by a covered-up drug overdose), today is probably a good time to start: catch up with our handy explainer. The Cast of Characters
Full size http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/1856...jpg/medium.jpg David Petraeus: the beloved "military intellectual" who resigned as director of the CIA last Friday, citing "extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair." Increasingly looking like the sanest person in this tangled web, which isn't saying much. Married with children. Full size http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/1856...jpg/medium.jpg Paula Broadwell: Army Reserve officer, military commentator, and co-author of the Petraeus biography All In (there are no more title-related jokes left to be made at this point, sorry) and Petraeus's Confirmed Secret Girlfriend #1. Exposed her affair with Petraeus by employing the same cyberstalking tactics (and the same level of tact and expertise) used by bratty 8th graders. Married with children. Full size http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/1856...jpg/medium.jpg Jill Kelley: close Petraeus family friend and volunteer military social liaison, which is apparently a more boring term for "socialite"; according to the Tampa Bay Times, Jill Kelley has "established a name for herself as an extravagant hostess with a military guest list" and the Kelley mansion is "the place to be seen for coalition officers." She's also Petraeus's Maybe Secret and/or Wannabe Girlfriend #2. Well, according to multiple sources, the two were totally just friends, but that's not what Broadwell thought: she started sending Kelley aggressive emails from an anonymous account (way more on her emails later), which eventually led to the FBI probe. Married with children. Full size http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/1856...jpg/medium.jpg General John Allen: Succeeded Petraeus as the top US commander in Afghanistan, but that's not the only thing the two men have in common: both are four-star generals and apparently extremely careless with their email correspondence! The FBI uncovered somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 documents, most of them e-mails (maybe some of them were Gchats?), of "potentially inappropriate" communication between Allen and Kelley. Allen "disputes that he has engaged in any wrongdoing," and some other officials say the only thing he did wrong was call Kelley "sweetheart," because he is from Virginia. Mmmk. Married with children. Full size http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/1856...jpg/medium.jpg Anonymous Shirtless FBI Agent: The wildcard! If you're still following, you'll recall that Kelley contacted a FBI agent in Tampa after receiving threatening emails from an anonymous source, who we now know to be Broadwell. The FBI agent was Kelley's friend, and a very special friend, at that: he had apparently sent shirtless photographs to Kelley, but "long before" this investigation. According to the Wall Street Journal, supervisors told Anonymous Shirtless FBI Agent that "he was to have nothing to do with the case," even though he never actually had a formal role in the investigation. To make matters weirder (It's possible! Keep reading!), he thought the case was getting covered up to protect Obama and spilled everything to Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, thus speeding up the scandal's exposure. Maybe he really wants everyone to see his pecs?
What the Fuck Happened
Petraeus was sleeping (and frenetically emailing) with Broadwell until last June, which is also when Broadwell emailed Kelley to tell her to stay away from Petraeus, after which Kelley told her FBI friend, prompting an official investigation, which found that the emails were from Broadwell, and that Broadwell and Pretraeus were having an affair, and ALSO that Kelley and Allen were emailing up a storm...the FBI friend was worried that the investigation would go too slowly so alerted Congress, which pissed off Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and a bunch of other politicians who thought the FBI mishandled the case and also made everything much more quickly; Petraeus resigned last Friday. Phew! How Petraeus and Broadwell Went About Their Adulterous Business
According to CBS, the duo "composed draft emails which they both could read on a shared private email account," which is apparently "a cyber trick known to teenagers and terrorists in an effort to hide their communications." I CAN'T BELIEVE I NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT. Also, I thought teenagers left inappropriate comments for each other on Instagram when they didn't want anyone to know what they were up to? (Feel free to take that tip, FBI, if you're not too busy sending shirtless pics.) Matters of National Security
Did Broadwell ever obtain classified information from Petraeus that could've compromised national security? That's unclear as of now. Her home in Charlotte, North Carolina, was searched last night by FBI officers who took away two computers and 10 boxes; according to the WSJ, they found copies of classified documents, but Petraeus and Broadwell both denied that he had given her the documents, and FBI officials believe them. Hmm.
A comment Broadwell made in an address at the University of Denver last month suggesting that the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi had something to do with a secret CIA prison also made people nervous, but the CIA called her theory "baseless." About Those Emails (The Ones You Really Care About)
Officials say Broadwell used a variety of email addresses to send anonymous missives to an account shared by Kelley and her husband. Their content has been called "childish," "threatening," and "accusatory" by those in the know. According to the WSJ:
One asked if Ms. Kelley's husband was aware of her actions, according to officials. In another, the anonymous writer claimed to have watched Ms. Kelley touching "him'' provocatively underneath a table, the officials said.
According to CBS, Broadwell's emails also contained "private security information about Petraeus' travel schedule," which may have incited the FBI probe — they thought she somehow had intel on Petraeus, but it turns out she was just using info that he had sent her himself. ("Hey babe, I'll be back from an overseas mission at 7. Tacos tonight?") We are very curious why Broadwell would've told Kelley about his travel schedule? Was it like a "you THINK you know Petraeus but I know what Four Seasons he's staying at on Friday night" kind of thing?
According to CBS, Petraeus knew that Broadwell was emailing Kelley, and he "asked her to stop."
But Broadwell didn't stop with Kelley. According to The Washington Post:
The senior official said Allen received at least one e-mail about Kelley from an unidentified account that eventually was traced to Paula Broadwell, a former Army officer who was Petraeus's biographer and, it turns out, his mistress. "
WHAT? Broadwell was secretly emailing Allen, too? Why? Perhaps it's time for the "secret pregnancy" conspiracy theories... Damage Control
According to Reuters:
A source close to the family said that Kelley is now being advised on how to respond to the Petraeus uproar by one of Washington's most prominent trial lawyers, Abbe Lowell, a family friend who has represented high-profile criminal defendants like former U.S. Senator John Edwards and disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Lowell did not respond to requests for comment.
Kelley has also enlisted the help of Judy Smith, a well-known crisis PR manager who is the model for the ultra-effective fixer and spin doctor Olivia Pope in the ABC Thursday night TV drama "Scandal."
Oh my God. Family Matters
How is Holly, Petraeus's wife of 38 years, holding up? Retired Army Col. Steve Boylan told ABC's "Good Morning America" that she "is not exactly pleased right now. Furious would be an understatement."
The saddest detail we've heard so far is from this New York Times piece, from the scene in front of Broadwell's house:
Written in the family's driveway in gold-colored chalk was a child's inscription: "Dad ♥s Mom."
Wait, this is a LOVE PENTAGON! Has anyone drawn a LOVE PENTAGON diagram yet?
Yesterday, BuzzFlash at Truthout laid out the case that Eric Cantor was likely attempting a longshot last minute effort to tip the election for Romney when he contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director at the behest of a rogue FBI agent. We noted that Cantor was assisting an agent in undermining the agent's chain of command in doing so, based on the agent's charges of anonymous harassing e-mails being sent to a woman who he was sending shirtless photos of himself to.
In fact, we noted that the FBI found the behavior of the agent who Cantor championed so inappropriate that they ordered him to cease and desist from involvement in the investigation and is currently conducting an inquiry into his actions. The agent, furthermore, had no cybersecurity expertise and normally would have had little or no role in the investigation, except that he appeared to have an apparent yen for Jill Kelley and dislike of President Obama that an anonymous FBI spokesman has termed "obsessive." The latter he obviously shared with Eric Cantor.
In the ongoing unfolding of this salacious tale, it is worthy to note information that the Wall Street Journal (owned by Rupert Murdoch) in an article today (November 14):
On Tuesday, people familiar with the case said that at one point in the summer, after the investigation began pointing to larger potential national security issues, Ms. Kelley tried to get the FBI to drop the matter. The people said she made the request because she was worried about the personal information being provided to investigators.
Ms. Kelley, a 37-year-old volunteer who organized social events for military personnel, developed misgivings after friends in her Tampa social circle urged her to drop the matter, saying the probe would only cause bigger problems, the people familiar with the case said.
Ms. Kelley's apparent regret points to one of the more unusual aspects of the case: what began as a seemingly minor case of cyberstalking mushroomed into fears that the Central Intelligence Agency director's personal email account had been hacked, which spawned concerns the CIA director might have passed sensitive information to his mistress. Each of those fears ultimately proved unfounded, U.S. officials familiar with the probe said. But the investigation eventually exposed Mr. Petraeus's relationship with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, leading to his resignation, according to U.S. officials familiar with the probe.
In short, by the time Cantor had applied pressure to the FBI on Halloween, Jill Kelley, the original complainant – who the shirtless photo FBI agent (under FBI investigation for his actions) was allegedly championing – had allegedly sought to withdraw her charges, but by then the horse was out of the barn.
As for the original charges of harassing e-mails by Jill Kelley, were a US citizen without connections to lodge such a complaint to the FBI, it is highly doubtful that one would get past the reception desk. In fact, it is highly probable that even a local police station would not pursue the matter. At this time, the FBI is not disclosing nor implying that any laws were broken.
This leads to what may have been perceived by Cantor, through cutthroat political instinct or conversations with GOP national campaign advisors, as an opportunity to redirect media coverage from Hurricane Sandy and an improving economy in the last seven days of the campaign.
For the last 2-3 weeks prior to Election Day, FOX focused heavily on a Romney line of attack that had fallen off the front pages: Obama had failed to protect US lives in Benghazi. Never mind the hypocrisy of Republicans talking about keeping Americans from dying after Bush's failure, despite warnings, to stop the 9/11 attack and the thousands upon thousands of deaths in the Iraq/Afghanistan wars. A key prong of the Romney strategy was to bog Obama down in media discussion of the Benghazi attack – and keep him on the defensive. But it wasn't working. FOX appeared to be in an alternative universe as it downplayed the devastation of Hurricane Sandy and kept up a relentless obsession with Benghazi.
In fact, a comment that Paula Broadwell made in a speech that the CIA was holding prisoners in the US Benghazi building was also mentioned on FOX News.
In a separate twist in the tangled matter of Mr. Petraeus's resignation, the CIA disputed a theory advanced by Ms. Broadwell that insurgents may have attacked the U.S. consulate and a CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11 in a bid to free militants being held there by the agency. Ms. Broadwell suggested that rationale for the consulate attack in an address at the University of Denver on Oct. 26.
"I don't know if a lot of you had heard this, but the CIA annex had actually taken a couple of Libyan militia members prisoner and they think the attack on the consulate was an attempt to get these prisoners back," she said then. "It's still being vetted."…
In addition, the source of her comment may not have been intelligence information, but news reports. Earlier in her address, she cited findings of a report that day by Fox News. Immediately after, she mentioned the possibility that the CIA had held militants at the site, which the Fox report also mentioned.
The Sept. 11 consulate attack resulted in the deaths of US Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. One person briefed on US intelligence said that reports focused on two main motives for the attack: inspiration from the violent protest that day at the U.S. embassy in Cairo, and the exhortation of al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri to avenge the death of his second in command. The possibility of attackers trying to free detainees never came up, this person said.
This week, lawmakers are slated to receive a series of closed-door briefings on both Benghazi and the FBI investigation that turned up the affair between Mr. Petraeus and Ms. Broadwell. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has one such briefing on Benghazi scheduled Tuesday. On Wednesday, leaders of the House intelligence committee—Rep. Michael Rogers, a Michigan Republican who chairs the panel and Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, the top Democrat—will be briefed by FBI Deputy Director Sean Joyce and acting CIA director Michael Morell.
If the FBI Petraeus investigation that started with an issue of "harassing e-mails" had become the fodder of the mainstream media prior to the election, it would have likely led, as some analysts have pointed out, to the Romney campaign and Republicans citing Petraeus's resignation (if it had been forced to occur prior to November 6) as a cover for alleged CIA bungling in Benghazi.
That might have shifted the focus of the last week of the election from Obama's enhanced presidential stature during the ruinous Hurricane Sandy and the positive jobs report to a focus on four deaths in Libya.
It is hard to think that this was not a goal of Cantor when he chose to bring up a grudge – with such potentially explosive electoral implications -- held by an FBI agent he did not even know to the head of the FBI, just days before the presidential election.
November 14th, 2012, 21:24
American Patriot
Re: General David Petraeus tipped to take over CIA
Sorry, Jill Kelley, you probably don’t have ‘diplomatic inviolability’
Posted by Max Fisher on November 14, 2012 at 10:49 am
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/.../156335252.jpg
Tampa socialite Jill Kelley never got paid for her time organizing events for staff at the nearby MacDill Air Force base and for senior officers at her home, but she did appear to earn two forms of compensation: the friendship of Gens. David Petraeus and John R. Allen, who are among America’s most prominent military leaders, and, later, an unofficial title.
When U.S. Central Command named Kelley an “honorary ambassador” last year to thank her for her time, it appears to have been wholly symbolic, carrying no official responsibilities or rights. But Kelley has been known to drop the “honorary” from that title, and appeared to represent herself as a formal diplomatic officer in a recent 911 call to Tampa police. Here’s the Associated Press report on the call (emphasis mine):
In the phone call to authorities, Jill Kelley, a party hostess and unofficial social liaison for leaders of the U.S. military’s Central Command in Tampa, cited her status as an honorary consul general while complaining about news vans that had descended on her two-story brick home overlooking Tampa Bay. “You know, I don’t know if by any chance, because I’m an honorary consul general, so I have inviolability, so they should not be able to cross my property. I don’t know if you want to get diplomatic protection involved as well,” she told the 911 dispatcher Monday.
Alas, Kelley almost certainly does not have diplomatic “inviolability” or right to “protection,” and not just for the most obvious reason that she is not an actual diplomat. The immunity only applies to a country’s official diplomatic representatives abroad, and, alas, Tampa is still not considered a foreign country.
To wit, U.S. diplomatic staffer Raymond Davis can avoid Pakistani prosecution for his role in shooting two Pakistanis, but if he comes back to Washington, D.C., and double-parks his car, it’s going to get ticketed like everyone else’s. But, again, unless a very surprising new piece of information emerges, to the best of our knowledge, Jill Kelley is not an official diplomat to or from any country, which means that she does not enjoy diplomatic protection.
Still, Kelley would not be the first “honorary consul” to attempt to leverage that title into actual diplomatic privileges. In 2006, an honorary consul at the Senegalese consulate in Singapore had a great idea for making some cash on the side: he converted part of the diplomatic building into a casino, which generated hundreds of thousands of dollars. Alas, the casino was illegal, and honorary consuls do not have diplomatic immunity, so the Senegalese man was arrested and charged. Kelley, if she truly does believe that she possesses diplomatic “inviolability” in Tampa, might want to keep this anecdote in mind in case she feels tempted to, say, double-park. The “Honorary Consul” vanity plates on her Mercedes-Benz S500 don’t prevent her from getting tickets.
