dagblog - Comments for "PETRAEUS RESIGNS! "

Jane Mayer @ newyorker.com, A

artappraiser — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 16:51:43 +0000

Jane Mayer @ newyorker.com, A Petraeus Puzzle: Were Politics Involved? Nov. 11:

[....] According to the Times, approximately two weeks ago, F.B.I. investigators confronted Petraeus personally about the matter. After talking to him, they were satisfied that there were no breaches of national security or other crimes involved. It was then, the Times reports, that Petraeus certainly became aware of the investigation, if he had not known of it before. Interestingly, he did not offer his resignation at once, raising the question of whether he would have resigned at all if he hadn’t been asked to when the issue was about to become public [....]

The Times uses the word “murky” to describe what happened next, and there are many puzzling aspects. But according to the Times, at the end of October, a week or so after the F.B.I. investigators confronted Petraeus, an unidentified F.B.I. employee took the matter into his own hands. Evidently without authorization, he went to the Republicans in Congress.[....]

UPDATE #2 Yikes: AP photo

artappraiser — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 00:02:38 +0000

In reply to PETRAEUS RESIGNS!

UPDATE #2 Yikes: AP photo of Jill Kelley, and her twin sister, with Petraeus and his wife Holly. From 2010.

from Name of Other 'Other' Woman Revealed @ Greg Mitchell's Pressing Issues blog, Nov. 11.

Yup, FBI sources are trying

artappraiser — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 01:16:07 +0000

In reply to Appears there may have been a

Yup, FBI sources are trying to make it clear that nobody else in government knew about this until after the election was almost over or over:

FBI probe of Petraeus began with "suspicious emails"
By Tabassum Zakaria and Mark Hosenball, Reuters, Nov 10, 2012

WASHINGTON, [....] Meanwhile, new details emerged on Saturday about developments in the final days leading to Petraeus' departure from atop the CIA.

Clapper was notified by the FBI on Tuesday evening about 5 p.m. - just as returns in the U.S. presidential election were about to come in - about "the situation involving Director Petraeus," a senior intelligence official said. Clapper and Petraeus then spoke that evening and the following morning.

WHITE HOUSE NOTIFIED WEDNESDAY

"Director Clapper, as a friend and a colleague and a fellow general officer, advised Director Petraeus that he should do the right thing and he should step down," the official said.

Clapper is a retired Air Force lieutenant general; Petraeus served nearly four decades in the U.S. Army.

On Wednesday, Clapper notified the National Security Council at the White House that Petraeus was considering resigning and President Barack Obama should be informed, the official said.

U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials agreed to discuss the Petraeus matter only on condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity and because it is the subject of a law enforcement investigation.

Once Petraeus' name turned up in the investigation, the importance of the FBI inquiry was immediately escalated, as investigators became concerned the CIA chief somehow might have been compromised, the law enforcement official said.

However, the official and two sources briefed on the matter said no evidence has turned up suggesting Petraeus had become vulnerable to espionage or blackmail [....]

Several officials briefed on the matter said senior officials at the Pentagon, CIA and Congress knew nothing of the FBI's investigation of Petraeus until Thursday afternoon at the earliest, and some key officials were not briefed on the details until Friday.

There is no evidence at this time that anyone at the White House had knowledge of the situation involving Petraeus prior to the U.S. presidential election on Tuesday, which saw Obama elected to a second four-year term.

Another U.S. government security source said it was not until Friday afternoon that some members of the House and Senate intelligence oversight committees were notified about Petraeus' resignation by Clapper's office.

The congressional committees were told that it was a personal issue that Petraeus had to discuss with his wife. When pressed, a representative of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said it involved another woman. [....]

Appears there may have been a

artappraiser — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 21:10:11 +0000

In reply to PETRAEUS RESIGNS!

Appears there may have been a little bit of Fatal Attraction-type craziness by Broadwell involved in causing all of this:

FBI probe of Petraeus triggered by e-mail threats from biographer, officials say
By Sari Horwitz and Greg Miller, Washington Post, November 10, 2:17 PM

The collapse of the dazzling career of CIA Director David H. Petraeus was triggered when a woman with whom he was having an affair sent threatening e-mails to another woman close to him, according to three senior law enforcement officials with knowledge of the episode.

The recipient of the e-mails was so frightened that she went to the FBI for protection and help tracking down the sender, according to the officials. The FBI investigation traced the threats to Paula Broadwell, a former military officer and a Petraeus biographer, and uncovered explicit e-mails between Broadwell and Petraeus, the officials said.

When Petraeus’s name first surfaced, FBI investigators were concerned that the CIA director’s personal e-mail account had been hacked and security had been breached. But the sexual nature of the e-mails led them to conclude that Petraeus and Broadwell were engaged in an affair, the officials said.

The identity of the woman who received the e-mails was not disclosed, and the nature of her relationship with Petraeus is unknown. The law enforcement officials said the e-mails indicated that Broadwell perceived the other woman as a threat to her relationship with Petraeus [....]

Why are FBI anonymice telling WaPo this now? I suspect it's because Fox News et.al. are piling on the suggestions that this is all a phony FBI story ginned up in order for Petraeus to resign before testifying on Benghazi (just heard as much from Fox News on in the background.)

Yes, for all their

PeraclesPlease — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 20:41:30 +0000

In reply to I realize this might rub some

Yes, for all their "tolerance" I've yet to see "progressives" restrain themselves from gloating over a Republican/conservative affair.

There's always an exception why these things are too important /hypocritical to ignore.

Meanwhile, I see a great need for people to get laid. A need that reaches across the divide, trumps election cycles and partisan bickering.

Of course orgasms threaten national security, as they should.

Found the new article at the

artappraiser — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 20:11:31 +0000

In reply to PETRAEUS RESIGNS!

Found the new article at the NYT quite interesting on the intersecting lives of 3 people which do happen to have amounted to more than a hill of beans in this world

Petraeus, Seen as Invincible, Self-Destructs

(By Scott Shane, Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Peter Baker withThom Shanker, Michael R. Gordon and David E. Sanger contributed reporting from Washington, and Viv Bernstein from Charlotte, N.C.)

Examples:

She recounted how she had first e-mailed Mr. Petraeus about her doctoral dissertation and then showed up in Afghanistan, where he helped her in what she called a mentoring relationship, as he had many young officers. She said she and Mr. Petraeus shared an interest in fitness and that he took her running.

“That was the foundation of our relationship,” she said. From time to time, they would go running in Kabul. “For him, I think it was a good distraction from the war.”

From her many profiles and interviews, Ms. Broadwell, who was born while Mr. Petraeus was a West Point cadet, emerges as a younger, female version of him: travel to 60 countries; service in intelligence, special operations and with an F.B.I. counterterrorism task force; Harvard degree; wife of a physician; mother of two boys.

Once Mr. Obama took office, he did not speak regularly with Mr. Petraeus, preferring to restore what he considered the normal chain of command. For his part, Mr. Petraeus disdained some of the president’s aides, once telling an associate that David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s political guru, was “a complete spin doctor,” Bob Woodward later reported in a book. Mr. Petraeus was effectively banned by the administration from Sunday talk shows but maintained private communications with journalists and lawmakers.

A key moment in the turnaround of the tense relationship between the president and the general came when Mr. Petraeus met with Rahm Emanuel, then Mr. Obama’s chief of staff and his lookout for possible rivals. In roundabout ways, not quite explicit but understood by both men, Mr. Petraeus assured Mr. Emanuel that he had no intention of running for president, according to people informed about the conversation.

But amid the media storm, many friends and admirers of the family thought of Holly Petraeus, his wife of 38 years, herself descended from a distinguished line of military officers. In a March 2012 profile, USA Today referred to her as “Army royalty,” noting that her great-great grandfather fought in the Civil War and the Indian Wars, and that her great-grandfather and grandfather had also served — a point she herself made while testifying before the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs in February 2011.

“I come from a military family, one that has a tradition of service going back to the Revolutionary War,” she said then. “My father served in the Army for over 36 years, fighting in both World War II and Vietnam. Two of my brothers also served in Vietnam and, of course, my husband is currently serving. And I’m a military mom as well.”

Mrs. Petraeus has carved out a prominent role for herself as an advocate for the financial education of military families.

I understand your stance, but

Aunt Sam — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 18:23:08 +0000

In reply to Circumspection is good but

I understand your stance, but without facts anything one may state is only assumptions and thus, does more harm than good for any to speculate.

In this case for sure, I think it would not serve any positive or productive purpose to enter into throwing opinions on what may or may not have happened.

Circumspection is good but

EmmaZahn — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 18:05:35 +0000

In reply to From what I've read, it's a

Circumspection is good but will all the facts ever be known?

For the record whatever the facts turn out to be, my estimation of Petraeus' character, specifically his honor, is greatly enhanced by his resignation even if the breach is simply having an extra marital affair. We tend to accept that soldiers are ready to die in service of their country but how many have the strength of character to risk their hard-earned reputations?

From what I've read, it's a

Aunt Sam — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 17:15:16 +0000

In reply to Generally, yes,

From what I've read, it's a mandate that if there is an extra marital affair discovered, there is an immediate loss of security clearance. This is due to many issues, one being the real possibility of someone attempting to use this for blackmail in an attempt to get classified data, etc. In this instance, the FBI's investigation is concerned about her ability to obtain access to his computer, specifically emails, et al.

In reality, due to the regulations and standards in place - especially in his case where he has the top security clearance, I don't see how he had another viable option - he could have, of course, offered to step aside temporarily if and until the investigation proved there was no breach, but that's not something I believe he even considered.

He was the head of the CIA, not many others have his clearance and data access.

I think we need to be somewhat circumspect here until all the facts are known.

Generally, yes,

EmmaZahn — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 16:43:07 +0000

In reply to In general, we should ignore

Generally, yes, however....

Maybe violating his own personal code together with the professional embarrassment shattered his confidence enough to prompt him to resign but seriously, how likely is it that if it were just an affair, he would have resigned over it? and how likely that the FBI would be investigating it? The whole thing just screams security breach.