"CIA chief Petraeus resigns over affair uncovered by FBI" by Bryan Bender | Globe Staff, November 10, 2012
WASHINGTON — CIA director and retired Army General David H. Petraeus, the accomplished battlefield commander credited with turning around American fortunes in Iraq before retooling the military strategy in Afghanistan, resigned in disgrace on Friday after admitting to an extramarital affair that some specialists suggested could have compromised national security....
According to the New York Times, government officials said the FBI had investigated whether a computer used by Petraeus had been compromised. In the course of that inquiry, federal investigators discovered the relationship, officials said.
Administration and congressional sources told the Times the woman with whom he was having the affair was Paula Broadwell, author of a biography of Petraeus, “All In: The Education of General David Petraeus,” published this year. Broadwell could not be reached for comment.
The news of his resignation came as a shock to official Washington and across the country, where Petraeus has been regarded as a national hero, feted at the Super Bowl, and talked up as a possible future candidate for president.
I consider him a war criminal, folks.
“Holy Moses,” said Frederick Hitz, a longtime member of the agency’s clandestine service who served for eight years as the CIA’s inspector general. “This floors me. Maybe he was so strait-laced that when this came to the fore he didn’t know how to deal with it. This is a real blow. Oh, how the mighty fall in that city.”
After accepting the resignation, President Obama lauded Petraeus’ contributions, saying that throughout nearly four decades of service he “has made our country safer and stronger.”
“By any measure, he was one of the outstanding general officers of his generation, helping our military adapt to new challenges and leading our men and women in uniform through a remarkable period of service in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he helped our nation put those wars on a path to a responsible end,” Obama said in a statement. “As director of the Central Intelligence Agency, he has continued to serve with characteristic intellectual rigor, dedication, and patriotism.”
In the letter to CIA employees, Petraeus, whose wife Holly — the daughter of the West Point superintendent when Petraeus was a cadet in the 1970s — is a senior official at the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, did not divulge any details of the affair. Holly Petraeus declined to comment through a spokeswoman.
Meanwhile, a CIA official said the agency would not comment publicly, but stressed that the decision to step down had nothing to do with the controversy surrounding the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in September.
Meaning it had everything to do with it. He was to soon testify to the committees investigating that intelligence agency psy-op.
The CIA has taken heat from Congress for failing to provide a clear picture of what happened and who was responsible for the deaths of the US ambassador and three other Americans.
Related: FALSE FLAG PSY OP - US AMBASSADOR ATTACK
Clears it up for me.
Petraeus’s marital infidelity was a breach not only of his marriage vows but also the public trust, several specialists said. In his role as one of the top intelligence officials in the government, he was privy to the nation’s most sensitive national security secrets and may have opened himself up to be compromised.
“Any derogatory information that would lead you to be subject to blackmail by a foreign intelligence service would be potentially a basis for revoking your security clearance or not granting one to begin with,” said John Pike of the GlobalSecurity.org, an Alexandria, Va., think tank. “You are required to disclose any compromising information, from financial irregularities to an extramarital affair.”
That's how Israel's Mossad operates.
Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, said Petraeus’s resignation spares the agency more potential damage.
“Behavior of the kind that is perceived as scandalous would be problematic for the CIA director,” he said. “It would make it harder for the agency to enforce standards among its workforce, and it would be a significant distraction in terms of the agency’s public relations.”
While cautioning that the details of the affair are unknown, he added: “I think he could have chosen to weather the storm if he wanted to, but it would have been difficult.”
Hitz agreed that Petraeus had put himself in an untenable position.
“At that level at CIA there are no secrets,” he said. “With a person of that importance that kind of an affair, had he not chosen to acknowledge it, would have been known. It would have been used in a way that was haunting and disruptive of his work.”
Petraeus, who holds a doctorate from Princeton University, is considered the leading military strategist of the post-9/11 military. He commanded a division in the early days of the Iraq war, where he was credited with crafting a new, more sophisticated approach to military operations that placed greater emphasis on winning over local populations as a way of marginalizing insurgents, not simply using firepower to kill the enemy.
Related:
"General Petraeus also responded to recent reports by the Government Accountability Office and the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction that were critical of his handling of hundreds of thousands of weapons given to Iraqi security forces when he was previously in charge of training those forces. The weapons were not properly registered by serial number and thousands were lost, potentially to insurgent groups, the agencies found. General Petraeus said that early in the conflict, he faced the choice of either quickly getting the weapons to willing Iraqi fighters who were defending the country or delaying while the tracking mechanisms were put in place. The general said he decided to get the weapons out fast, in one case landing in Najaf in Marine helicopters and dumping the weapons out the back hatch to waiting Iraqis. General Petraeus said: “We made a decision to arm guys who wanted to fight for their country.”
Fast and Furious before there was a Fast and Furious, 'eh?
He went on to rewrite the Army’s Counterinsurgency Manual before commanding all US troops in the Middle East. Then, in 2009, Obama called on him to effectively take a demotion by taking command of US forces in Afghanistan as the White House increased American troops there in an effort to beat back the Taliban’s advance. In 2011, when he retired as a four-star general, he was tapped to run the CIA. He has not been without his detractors, but private criticism has mostly focused on what is perceived as his outsized ego.
His boss, James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, said in a statement on Friday that “Dave’s decision to step down represents the loss of one of our nation’s most respected public servants. From his long, illustrious Army career to his leadership at the helm of CIA, Dave has redefined what it means to serve and sacrifice for one’s country.”
The fawning over this scum-shit is more sickening than the sex.
The CIA’s deputy director, career intelligence officer Michael J. Morrell, was named as acting director Friday....
As recently as Monday Broadwell wrote an article for The Daily Beast titled “General David Petraeus’s Rules for Living,” which included this one: “We all will make mistakes. The key is to recognize them and admit them, to learn from them.”
Why did the Globe cut the end of the sentence? My printed paper added "and to take off the rear view mirrors -- drive on and avoid making them again."
I've failed. I keep reading the Boston Globe.
--more--"
Also see: FBI investigation of Petraeus began with e-mail complaint
"Biographer’s threats led to Petraeus FBI investigation; Recipient of emails sought the FBI’s help" by Greg Miller and Sari Horwitz | Washington Post, November 11, 2012
WASHINGTON — The collapse of the impressive career of CIA Director David Petraeus was triggered when a woman he was having an affair with 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 surfaced, FBI investigators were concerned that the CIA director’s personal e-mail account had been hacked and that national security had been threatened. The officials said further investigation, including interviews with Broadwell and Petraeus, led to the discovery that the two were having an affair.
The identity of the woman who received the e-mails was not disclosed, and the nature of her relationship with Petraeus is unknown. The officials said the woman did not work at the CIA and was not Petraeus’s wife, Holly.
The law enforcement officials said the e-mails indicated that Broadwell perceived the other woman as a threat to her relationship with Petraeus.
Attempts to reach Broadwell and her relatives have been unsuccessful, and she has not made a public statement since she was linked with Petraeus on Friday. All three senior officials who described the impetus for the investigation spoke on the condition of anonymity because aspects of the inquiry are ongoing.
Petraeus, a retired four-star Army general who was once seen as a potential presidential candidate, said Friday that he was resigning as CIA chief because he had been involved in an extramarital affair. He has been married for almost 40 years and has two grown children. Broadwell is married and has two young children.
I'm becoming more and more convinced that people who rise to power are perverts. Look at this pair.
In an e-mail sent to a longtime friend Friday night, Petraeus expressed regret for letting down his family and the nation. The friend, who described the contents of the message on the condition of anonymity, said Petraeus conveyed profound remorse in the message....
Other details emerged Saturday indicating that the Petraeus allegations became a secret election-night drama for the Obama administration. That evening, the Justice Department informed the director of national intelligence, James Clapper Jr., that their investigation had unearthed compromising information about the CIA director, according to a senior US intelligence official.
Clapper then spoke with Petraeus and urged him to resign, notifying the White House the next day. That sequence has become a source of controversy, raising questions among some members of Congress about why key intelligence committees were not notified earlier and why the FBI waited before informing the administration about an inquiry that had stumbled onto embarrassing details about the CIA chief.
Oh, they SAT on the STORY until AFTER the ELECTION! Remember when the New York Times did that with Bush's warrantless wiretapping program?
The law enforcement officials did not provide an exact timetable for the investigation, but they said the inquiry started several months ago. They said investigators thought they were dealing with a routine harassment case until some communications were traced to a private e-mail account belonging to Petraeus.
The sexually explicit nature of the communications caused investigators to suspect that someone had broken into Petraeus’s e-mail account, leading to concerns about potential national security breaches, according to the officials.
As the investigation proceeded and more evidence emerged, including Broadwell’s role, FBI investigators realized they had uncovered an affair between Petraeus and Broadwell, the officials said.
The e-mails from Broadwell indicated that she thought the other woman was becoming involved with Petraeus, according to the officials. They said the e-mails were ‘‘threatening and harassing’’ but not specific enough to warrant criminal charges.
One of the officials said that the recipient of the e-mails complained to Petraeus about them and that the FBI later obtained e-mails between Petraeus and Broadwell in which they discussed the harassment.
The investigators first interviewed Petraeus about two weeks ago, the officials said. They reviewed the evidence with him but did not suggest that he should resign or that he would be charged with a crime, according to the officials.
One of the officials said Justice Department officials were unclear on what steps to take after they concluded that there would be no charges and that there had been no breach of national security.
The notification finally came Tuesday evening, while polls were still open across the country. The official said Clapper has not called for his office or CIA to conduct a follow-up investigation or damage assessment, indicating that Clapper does not see the case as a security threat.
Still, the timing of Petraeus’s departure, and the apparent decision by the FBI to withhold information about its inquiry, is already coming under question and criticism from Capitol Hill.
And IT SHOULD!
Senior Senate aides said the Senate intelligence committee did not learn of the matter until Friday, just hours before the Petraeus resignation was announced. Even then, the first word came from news reports, prompting the committee to press the White House and CIA for answers.
The Obama administration didn't inform the relevant committees before then? That's something one expected of the Bush administration. Oh, how little has really changed.
--more--"
So who is the other woman?
"Woman named in affair with Petraeus was a high achiever" by Michael D. Shear | NY Times Syndication, November 10, 2012
WASHINGTON — Paula Broadwell, whose affair with the nation’s CIA director led to his resignation on Friday, was the valedictorian of her high school class and homecoming queen, a fitness champion at West Point with a graduate degree from Harvard, and a model for a machine gun manufacturer.
It may have been those qualities — and a string of achievements that began in her native North Dakota, where she was state student council president, an all-state basketball player and orchestra concertmistress — that drew the attention of David H. Petraeus, the nation’s top spy and a four-star general, as the two spent hours together for a biography of Petraeus that Broadwell co-wrote.
Broadwell’s name burst into public view on Friday evening after Petraeus resigned abruptly amid an FBI investigation that uncovered evidence of their relationship.
But Broadwell was hardly shy about her interactions with Petraeus as she promoted her book, ‘‘All In: The Education of General David Petraeus,’’ in media appearances earlier this year. She had unusual access, she noted in promotional appearances, taping many of her interviews for her book while running six-minute miles with Petraeus in the thin mountain air of the Afghan capital.
Broadwell said in an interview in February that Petraeus was enjoying his new civilian life at the CIA, where he became director in September 2011. ‘‘It was a huge growth period for him, because he realized he didn’t have to hide behind the shield of all those medals and stripes on his arm,’’ she said. Broadwell was 39 at the time.
Her biography on the Penguin Speakers Bureau website says that she is a research associate at Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership and a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. She received a master’s in public administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
A self-described ‘‘soccer mom’’ and an ironman triathlete, Broadwell became a fixture on the Washington media scene after the publication of her book about Petraeus, who is 60. In a Twitter message this summer, she bragged about appearing on a panel at the Aspen Institute, a policy group for deep thinkers. ''Heading 2 (AT)AspenInstitute 4 the Security Forum tomorrow! Panel (media & terrorism) followed by a 1v1 run with Lance Armstrong,’’ she wrote. ‘‘Fired up!’’
On her Twitter account, she often commented on the qualities of leadership. ‘‘Reason and calm judgment, the qualities specially belonging to a leader. Tacitus,’’ she wrote. In another message, she said: ‘‘A leader is a man who has the ability to get other people to do what they don’t want to do and like it. Truman.’’
She also used her Twitter account to denounce speculation in the Drudge Report that Petraeus would be picked as a running mate by Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate for president.
Married with two children, she was described in a biography on the website of Inspired Women Magazine as a high achiever since high school.
The biography says that Broadwell received a degree in political geography and systems engineering from West Point, where she was ranked No. 1 overall in fitness in her class. She benefited from a different ranking scale for women, she told a reporter this year. But ‘‘I was still in the top 5 percent if I'd been ranked as a male,’’ she said.
The official website for Broadwell’s book was taken down Friday, but comments from her echoed across the Internet.
''I was driven when I was younger,’’ she was quoted as saying on the website noting her induction into her high school’s hall of fame. ‘‘Driven at West Point where it was much more competitive in that women were competing with men on many levels, and I was driven in the military and at Harvard, both competitive environments.’’
''But now,’’ she is quoted as saying, ‘‘as a working mother of two, I realize it is more difficult to compete in certain areas. I think it is important for working moms to recognize that family is the most important.’’
Interesting that the printed Globe included this paragraph:
Broadwell also penned three op-eds for the Globe from 2005 to 2009, according to the paper's archives.
Back to your regularly censored, 'er, reedited and rewritten agenda-pushing:
On ‘‘The Daily Show,’’ Jon Stewart summed up Broadwell’s book by saying: ‘‘I would say the real controversy here is, is he awesome or incredibly awesome?’’ A short time later, Broadwell challenged Stewart to a push-up contest, which she won handily. Stewart had to pay $1,000 to a veterans’ support group for each push-up she did beyond his total. Broadwell said he wrote a check for $20,000 on the spot.
Stewart really gave her a grilling, 'eh?
On Friday evening, her house in the Dilworth neighborhood of Charlotte, N.C., was dark when a reporter rang the doorbell. Two cars were in the home’s carport and an American flag was flying out front.
--more--"
There was more cut from my printed article, but I didn't want to waste the time searching for it. Sorry.
Also see: General let usual guard down with Paula Broadwell
That was substituted into the web version in place of the piece in the printed paper that I gave you.
One might even think it's some kind of conspiracy.
"Scandal highlights the strains of modern war" by Kevin Cullen | Globe Columnist, November 11, 2012
The humiliation of retired General David Petraeus has just begun. So, too, have the conspiracy theories. It seems awfully suspicious and perhaps convenient that CIA director Petraeus exits, stage left, just before he was supposed to testify this week before a congressional committee probing the killings in Libya of US Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other men, including Glen Doherty, a former Navy SEAL from Winchester.
Yeah, those conspiracy guys. Better off if you get the story from the never-ending liars from the agenda-pushing propaganda we call a newspaper.
Coming so soon after the election, the Petraeus scandal will fuel all sorts of claims that it was timed to protect President Obama’s campaign, to prevent the truth in Benghazi from emerging, to divert attention from any number of issues, partisan and kooky and whatever.
Okay, when the lying agenda-pushing press hurls the conspiracy mud you know you have hit upon a nerve of truth.
Still, when you get right down to it, this is a sex scandal, and it will be treated as such, because, well, that’s easy and sex sells....
Dismissing it as such makes me think there is more beneath the covers.
Many military families considered the Petraeusus a model couple, a reassuring example of a marriage that could survive long periods of separation and the worry of war, that you can raise good kids and have a good marriage despite the demands of constant deployments.
So much for that public imagery and illusion.
David Petraeus was hardly a year into civilian life before the FBI discovered his affair with Broadwell, herself an Army veteran and current reserve lieutenant colonel. But it seems undeniable that Petraeus’s undoing was sealed in a war zone, and that he and others, commanders and grunts, have been asked to sacrifice too much of their personal lives since the fall of the Twin Towers.
The legacy of that lie lives on and on and on.
On this Veterans Day, it would be a good thing if most Americans would look at what happened to David and Holly Petraeus and ask, “Are we asking too much of our military families?”
Wow. Now he is a victim.
But that is probably asking too much.
--more--"
"FBI was wary of exposing David Petraeus; Had no evidence of security lapse" by Charlie Savage and Scott Shane | New York Times, November 12, 2012
WASHINGTON — High-level officials at the FBI and the Justice Department were notified in the late summer that FBI agents had uncovered what appeared to be an extramarital affair involving Central Intelligence Agency chief David H. Petraeus, government officials said Sunday.
Uh-oh.
But law enforcement officials did not notify anyone outside the FBI or the Justice Department until last week because the inquiry was incomplete and initial concerns about possible security breaches, which would demand more immediate action, did not appear to be justified, the officials said.
The new accounts of the events that led to Petraeus’s sudden resignation on Friday shed light on the competing pressures facing FBI agents who recognized the high stakes of any investigation involving the CIA director but who were wary of exposing a private affair with no criminal or security implications. For the first time Sunday, the woman whose report of harassing e-mails led to the exposure of the affair was identified as Jill Kelley, 37, of Tampa.
Some members of Congress have protested the delay in being notified of the FBI’s investigation of Petraeus until just after the presidential election. Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat who chairs the Intelligence Committee, said Sunday that her committee would ‘‘absolutely’’ demand an explanation.
A close friend of the Petraeus family said Sunday that the intimate relationship between Petraeus and his biographer, Paula Broadwell, began after he retired from the Army last year and about two months after he began work as CIA director....
The affair ended about four months ago, said the friend....
The involvement of the FBI, according to government officials, began when Kelley, alarmed by about half a dozen anonymous e-mails accusing her of inappropriate flirtatious behavior with Petraeus, complained to an FBI agent who is also a personal friend. Agents working with federal prosecutors in a local US attorney’s office began trying to figure out whether the e-mails constituted criminal cyber-stalking.
Eventually they identified Broadwell as a prime suspect and obtained access to her regular e-mail account. In its inbox, they discovered intimate and sexually explicit e-mails from another account that also was not immediately identifiable. Investigators eventually ascertained that it belonged to Petraeus and studied the possibility that someone had hacked into Petraeus’s account or was posing as him to send the explicit messages.
Eventually they determined that Petraeus had indeed sent the messages to Broadwell and concluded that the two had had an affair. Then they turned their scrutiny on him, examining whether he knew about or was involved in sending the harassing e-mails to Kelley.
It was at that point — sometime in the late summer — that lower-level Justice Department officials notified supervisors the case had become more complicated.
It remains uncertain exactly when the information about Petraeus reached Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and Robert S. Mueller III, the FBI director....
What did they know and when did they know it?
--more--"
"Top US general caught up in Petraeus scandal" by Pete Yost and Robert Burns | Associated Press, November 13, 2012
WASHINGTON — The sex scandal that led to CIA Director David Petraeus’ downfall widened Tuesday with word the top US commander in Afghanistan is under investigation for alleged ‘‘inappropriate communications’’ with another woman involved in the case. Some of the material was ‘‘flirtatious,’’ an official said.
Even as the FBI prepared a timeline for Congress about the investigation that brought to light Petraeus’ extramarital affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta revealed that the Pentagon had begun an internal investigation into emails between Gen. John Allen and a Florida woman involved in the case.
Some of the 20,000-plus pages of documents and emails between Allen and Tampa socialite Jill Kelley were ‘‘flirtatious,’’ according to a senior defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the case publicly. It wasn’t immediately clear who wrote the flirtatious notes — Allen, Kelley or both.
Allen succeeded Petraeus as the top American commander in Afghanistan in July 2011, and his nomination to become the next commander of US European Command and the commander of NATO forces in Europe has now been put on hold, as the scandal seemed certain to ensnare another acclaimed military figure....
--more--"
UPDATE: For the latest subplot you can go here.
Also see: Tampa Is Seen as Social Link for Unfolding Scandal
Kennedy School key in David Petraeus saga
The blindness of hero worship
My eyes have been wide-open for some time.
"
This is simply too sensational to be believed. We are being "Conditized." This tawdry tale is distracting us from something we should pay more attention to, like getting shoved off the fiscal cliff and prepped for all-out global war."
"Why the purging? Who benefits? One thing seems certain. While we are distracted with salacious affairs, many things are going on in the background. Like another Israel move against Gaza"
"Cantor 2016
The scandal, which is really getting out of hand,
does have a Jewish conspiracy angle, as it was Eric Cantor who really
set the end of Petraeus in motion. To put it bluntly, if Cantor had not
intervened,
nothing would have come of this 'scandal', and Petraeus would have been
running the CIA until Presidential politics called. Why would Cantor
want to do this?;
So the private CIA purporting to secure the CIA field office in Benghazi did a deal with the proxy fighters in Libya, Sunni Islamist militants who hate America and are generally called 'al-Qaeda', that there would be a spectacular attack on the compound which would increase business for the private CIA and liberate a few imprisoned 'al-Qaeda' fighters held by the Americans. The real CIA either didn't know about it or agreed to look the other way (as many in the CIA look to retire to lucrative jobs with the private CIA). The scandals of allowing this to happen and using 'al-Qaeda' to fight Wars For The Jews were so important that Obama officials lied and blamed everything on the movie. There still is no evidence that there actually was an affair - though Petraeus gave a star-struck biographer w-a-y too much access - but Petraeus got caught in an enormous amount of American-Zionist crossfire.
- Petraeus' candor about Israel made him not 'good for the Jews';
- Petraeus' testimony on Benghazi would not be good for the ongoing series of Wars For The Jews; and
- if Cantor should want to be the first Jewish President Petraeus might well be his biggest obstacle to getting the Republican nomination.
"There are four basic questions.The biggest issue is the only issue in American politics, how Obama retained his Jewish Billionaire funding. He managed to convince the Jews that America could simply no longer fight the expected Wars For The Jews with boots on the ground and full-fledged wars. What it can do is fight the Wars For The Jews using new, smarter means - sanctions, proxy armies, and drones. The sane-ish Jewish Billionaires - i.e., not Sheldon - accepted this as the best possible violence the gentiles could provide under all the circumstances.
Why were repeated warnings from Benghazi about terrorist activity in the area ignored and more security not provided, despite urgent pleas from Stevens and others at the consulate?
Why was the U.S. military unable to come to the rescue of our people begging for help, when the battle in Benghazi lasted on and off for seven hours?
Who, if anyone, gave an order for forces to “stand down” and not go to the rescue of the consulate compound or the safe house? A week before Petraeus’ resignation, the CIA issued a flat denial that any order to stand down ever came from anyone in the agency.
Fourth, when the CIA knew it was a terrorist attack, why did Jay Carney on Sept. 13, David Petraeus to Congress on Sept. 14, U.N. Amb. Susan Rice on Sept 16 on five TV shows, and Obama before the U.N. two weeks after 9/11 all keep pushing what the CIA knew was a false and phony story: That it had all come out of a spontaneous protest of an anti-Islamic video made by some clown in California?
There was no protest. Was the video-protest line a cover story to conceal a horrible lapse of security before the attack and a failure to respond during the attack — resulting in the slaughter?"
So the private CIA purporting to secure the CIA field office in Benghazi did a deal with the proxy fighters in Libya, Sunni Islamist militants who hate America and are generally called 'al-Qaeda', that there would be a spectacular attack on the compound which would increase business for the private CIA and liberate a few imprisoned 'al-Qaeda' fighters held by the Americans. The real CIA either didn't know about it or agreed to look the other way (as many in the CIA look to retire to lucrative jobs with the private CIA). The scandals of allowing this to happen and using 'al-Qaeda' to fight Wars For The Jews were so important that Obama officials lied and blamed everything on the movie. There still is no evidence that there actually was an affair - though Petraeus gave a star-struck biographer w-a-y too much access - but Petraeus got caught in an enormous amount of American-Zionist crossfire.
--MORE--"
Also see: The Benghazi affair
IF AIPAC INDEED BROUGHT PETRAEUS DOWN, WHY IS ISRAEL WEEPING?
Petraeus mistress reveals real motive behind Benghazi attack
UPDATES:
"Paula Broadwell fell short of aims at Harvard" by Callum Borchers, Tracy Jan and Bryan Bender |
Globe Correspondent and Globe Staff, November 15, 2012
Nonetheless, Harvard embraced Paula Broadwell, the biographer with whom former CIA director David Petraeus had an extramarital affair, as a distinguished alumna after “All In: The Education of General David Petraeus” became a New York Times bestseller this year. On Sept. 10, the Kennedy School included Broadwell on an alumni panel of accomplished public servants and the next day hosted a forum at which she discussed her book....
Retired Brigadier General Russell D. Howard, the Jebsen Center’s
director at the time, described Broadwell: “She was an excellent worker,” said Howard, now director of the
Terrorism Studies and Research Program at the Monterey Institute of
International Studies in Monterey, Calif.
Howard recalled Broadwell’s organization of a conference on the
increasing role of women as suicide bombers, a subject she wrote about
in an opinion article on the Globe’s op-ed page in December 2006.
“Because women are stereotyped as nonviolent, they might elicit less
attention and thus execute a stealthier attack,” Broadwell wrote.
“Policymakers should also consider how women from Western societies
can play a greater role in counterterrorism,” she added. “After all, the
element of surprise works both ways.”
--more--"
"Scandal did not imperil US security, Obama says" by Kimberly Dozier and Nancy Benac |
Associated Press, November 15, 2012
WASHINGTON — With Broadwell and Kelley suddenly in the center of the storm, small details suddenly became topics for discussion....
Separately, a US official said the Army has suspended Broadwell’s security clearance. As a former Army intelligence officer, she held a high security clearance. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the source was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Broadwell admitted to the FBI that she had taken classified documents out of secure government buildings, and there were substantial amounts of classified documents on her computer, according a federal law enforcement official, who also was not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity.
The FBI also found classified documents in the search of Broadwell’s house earlier this week, the official said. Broadwell had agreed to the search and had told agents in advance that there would be some there.
Aren't those crimes?
--more--"
WASHINGTON — With Broadwell and Kelley suddenly in the center of the storm, small details suddenly became topics for discussion....
Separately, a US official said the Army has suspended Broadwell’s security clearance. As a former Army intelligence officer, she held a high security clearance. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the source was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Broadwell admitted to the FBI that she had taken classified documents out of secure government buildings, and there were substantial amounts of classified documents on her computer, according a federal law enforcement official, who also was not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity.
The FBI also found classified documents in the search of Broadwell’s house earlier this week, the official said. Broadwell had agreed to the search and had told agents in advance that there would be some there.
Aren't those crimes?
--more--"
Related:
Turns out the only thing we are liberal on is gay marriage, folks.
Has your eye been brought off the ball and diverted, dear readers?
"Al Qaeda links had been suspected in the attack on Sept. 11, but not publicly detailed, and an investigation is underway. US Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three others were killed. The assault occurred around the same time that protests erupted in Muslim countries over an anti-Islam film made in the United States."
That's the cover story bulloney that the propaganda press has boiled down. Turns out a movie was never released, just the trailer was. The protest was the cover for the CIA-Duh attack.
"Petraeus says terrorists’ role was withheld to avoid tip-offs" by Kimberly Dozier and Nedra Pickler | Associated Press, November 17, 2012
WASHINGTON — Testifying out of sight, former CIA director David Petraeus told Congress on Friday that classified intelligence showed the deadly raid on the US Consulate in Libya was a terrorist attack but the administration withheld the suspected role of Al Qaeda affiliates to avoid tipping them off.
The recently resigned spy chief explained that references to terrorist groups suspected of carrying out the violence were removed from the public explanation of what caused the attack so as not to alert them that US intelligence was on their trail, according to lawmakers who attended Petraeus’s private briefings.
He also said it initially was unclear whether the militants had infiltrated a demonstration to cover their attack.
The retired four-star general addressed the House and Senate intelligence committees in back-to-back, closed-door hearings as questions persist over what the Obama administration knew in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks and why its public description did not match intelligence agencies’ assessments....
Because this administration, like so many others before it, lies.
Petraeus told lawmakers that protesters literally walked in and set fire to the facility, according to a congressional official who attended the briefing. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens died from smoke inhalation. Petraeus said security at the CIA annex was much better, but the attackers had armaments to get in.
Separately on Friday, the Democratic leader in the Senate rejected a request from John McCain and two other senators for a Watergate-style congressional committee to investigate the Benghazi attack. In a letter to McCain, Senator Harry Reid said several committees in the House and Senate are already investigating and he would not allow the Senate to be used as a ‘‘venue for baseless partisan attacks.’’
Petraeus was giving his first Capitol Hill testimony since resigning last week in disgrace over an extramarital affair with his biographer. Lawmakers said he did not discuss that scandal except to express regret about the circumstances of his departure and say that Benghazi had nothing to do with his decision to resign. He was brought to a secure room beneath the Capitol....
And yet my newspaper has been full of the s***.
Representative Peter King, Republican of New York, said it remained unclear how the final talking points developed. The edited version was used by UN Ambassador Susan Rice five days after the attack when the White House sent her out for a series of television interviews. Republicans have criticized Rice for saying it appeared the attack was sparked by a spontaneous protest over an anti-Muslim video. After two hours with Petraeus, the Democratic chairman of the Senate’s intelligence committee and the panel’s top Republican sparred over Rice’s televised comments....
I thought talking points were the sole provision of Fox News, Republicans, and the Bush administration. Silly me.
--more--"
UPDATE: Pentagon clears general of misconduct over e-mails
David Petraeus biographer is said to rue affair
Mass. among 23 states where adultery is a crime, but rarely prosecutedTurns out the only thing we are liberal on is gay marriage, folks.
Has your eye been brought off the ball and diverted, dear readers?
"Al Qaeda links had been suspected in the attack on Sept. 11, but not publicly detailed, and an investigation is underway. US Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three others were killed. The assault occurred around the same time that protests erupted in Muslim countries over an anti-Islam film made in the United States."
That's the cover story bulloney that the propaganda press has boiled down. Turns out a movie was never released, just the trailer was. The protest was the cover for the CIA-Duh attack.
"Petraeus says terrorists’ role was withheld to avoid tip-offs" by Kimberly Dozier and Nedra Pickler | Associated Press, November 17, 2012
WASHINGTON — Testifying out of sight, former CIA director David Petraeus told Congress on Friday that classified intelligence showed the deadly raid on the US Consulate in Libya was a terrorist attack but the administration withheld the suspected role of Al Qaeda affiliates to avoid tipping them off.
The recently resigned spy chief explained that references to terrorist groups suspected of carrying out the violence were removed from the public explanation of what caused the attack so as not to alert them that US intelligence was on their trail, according to lawmakers who attended Petraeus’s private briefings.
He also said it initially was unclear whether the militants had infiltrated a demonstration to cover their attack.
The retired four-star general addressed the House and Senate intelligence committees in back-to-back, closed-door hearings as questions persist over what the Obama administration knew in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks and why its public description did not match intelligence agencies’ assessments....
Because this administration, like so many others before it, lies.
Petraeus told lawmakers that protesters literally walked in and set fire to the facility, according to a congressional official who attended the briefing. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens died from smoke inhalation. Petraeus said security at the CIA annex was much better, but the attackers had armaments to get in.
Separately on Friday, the Democratic leader in the Senate rejected a request from John McCain and two other senators for a Watergate-style congressional committee to investigate the Benghazi attack. In a letter to McCain, Senator Harry Reid said several committees in the House and Senate are already investigating and he would not allow the Senate to be used as a ‘‘venue for baseless partisan attacks.’’
Petraeus was giving his first Capitol Hill testimony since resigning last week in disgrace over an extramarital affair with his biographer. Lawmakers said he did not discuss that scandal except to express regret about the circumstances of his departure and say that Benghazi had nothing to do with his decision to resign. He was brought to a secure room beneath the Capitol....
And yet my newspaper has been full of the s***.
Representative Peter King, Republican of New York, said it remained unclear how the final talking points developed. The edited version was used by UN Ambassador Susan Rice five days after the attack when the White House sent her out for a series of television interviews. Republicans have criticized Rice for saying it appeared the attack was sparked by a spontaneous protest over an anti-Muslim video. After two hours with Petraeus, the Democratic chairman of the Senate’s intelligence committee and the panel’s top Republican sparred over Rice’s televised comments....
I thought talking points were the sole provision of Fox News, Republicans, and the Bush administration. Silly me.
--more--"
UPDATE: Pentagon clears general of misconduct over e-mails
