Afforded extensive access by General Petraeus, his mentors, his subordinates, and his longtime friends, Broadwell embedded with the general, his headquarters staff, and his soldiers on the front lines of fighting and at the strategic command in Afghanistan to chronicle the experiences of this American general as they were brought to bear in the terrible crucible of war. All In draws on hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews with Petraeus and his top officers and soldiers to tell the inside story of this commander's development and leadership in war from every vantage point.*snort*
“After being married for over 37 years, I showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair,” Mr. Petraeus said in his statement, expressing regret for his abrupt departure.and then
Mr. Petraeus has been married for 38 years and has two children.posted by lullaby at 5:39 PM on November 9, 2012 [1 favorite]
So "hacking" here means looking at his laptop while he's in the bathroom?I'm not sure how the FBI would discover that, but even if it were the case - not still not cool when you're the director of the CIA
But given this woman has probably been heavily vetted anyway, and given that Petraeus is not some relatively expendable, low-level analyst, but somebody whose skills and personal qualities (well... such as they are) are very important to international security right now, my cold-hearted view would be that he should be retained unless they know something really bad that we don't.You can't be serious. I don't think an affair is a big deal in general, but if it's against the rules, and you break the rules and you're the director of the CIA it's a serious problem. It means you can be blackmailed, susceptible to being seduced by spies for other countries, etc.
Bill Clinton had the highest security access of anybody in the US government when he got a blow job in the oval office. He was retained in his position.Yes, because he was an elected official who could not be fired.
Justinian, just curious what you're basing this on? Are you just assuming he was caught? I mean it's quite possible he couldn't tolerate being in a compromised position any longer and came forward on his own. Or maybe he confessed to his wife and she said he had to do the right thing with regard to his job, who knows?Hahahahah.
Assuming the "stumbled upon the email during the course of an unrelated investigation" story is true... why is the FBI investigating the CIA?The CIA isn't allowed to engage in any activities inside the U.S. So if broadwell was doing something illicit, it would be the FBI that would be doing the investigation.
Government officials said that the F.B.I. began an investigation into a “potential criminal matter” several months ago that was not focused on Mr. Petraeus. In the course of their inquiry into whether a computer used by Mr. Petraeus had been compromised, agents discovered evidence of the relationship as well as other security concerns. About two weeks ago, F.B.I. agents met with Mr. Petraeus to discuss the investigation.We don't know if she personally was the source of the 'hack', or what.
Yes he could, via conviction and removal by the Senate, on impeachment charges brought by the House.Impeachment isn't really the same thing as "being fired", IMO. Technically you're only supposed to be impeached for "high crimes and misdemeanors", and the republicans argued that perjury, not the affair itself was the problem. If you're not an elected official, (or appointed to certain positions like a judgeship or the fed chair) then there are different rules governing when you can be fire and for what.
The biographer for resigning CIA Director David Petraeus is under FBI investigation for improperly trying to access his email and possibly gaining access to classified information, law enforcement officials told NBC News on Friday.posted by delmoi at 12:24 AM on November 10, 2012
A Federal Bureau of Investigation inquiry into use of Mr. Petraeus's Gmail account led agents to believe the woman or someone close to her had sought access to his email, the people said.Someone's always watching.
The F.B.I. investigation that led to the resignation of David H. Petraeus as C.I.A. director on Friday began with a complaint several months ago about “harassing” e-mails sent by Paula Broadwell, Mr. Petraeus’s biographer, to an unidentified third person, a government official briefed on the case said on Saturday.---NY Times
The beginning of the end came for CIA Director David Petraeus when Paula Broadwell, a younger married woman with whom he was having an affair, “or someone close to her had sought access to his email,” according to the Wall Street Journal’s description of an FBI probe. Associates of Petraeus had received “anonymous harassing emails” that were then traced to Broadwell, ABC’s Martha Raddatz reported, suggesting she may have found their names or addresses in his e-mail.Jesus, what the hell? She hacked into his account to send harassing emails from it?!
It's unfortunate because he really has been among our best and brightest, but if we truly are a meritocracy on these mattersHow would you even know, when most of what he does is secret? He's certainly done a good job of shmoozing with washington journalists Micheal Hastings wrote about him in rolling stone back in january, and he certainly hasn't been very positive on him since the scandal broke.
it is surely no coincidence they chose that particular tweet to publish in full (something completely unnecessary in an article of this nature). There's more than a hint that she basically slept her way to the top.She obviously was sleeping her way to the top. She got incredible access to the guy and used her relationship with him to write a book and in doing so got her all over TV as a military expert/pundit. That isn't even remotely fair to all the people who couldn't (or didn't want to) use their looks and body to get ahead by sleeping with powerful men.
leave their computer logged into Gmail when they leave the room?The same problem would come up with their official government email anyway.
And proof against external attacks, like keyloggers on the President's computer?If there are keyloggers on the presidents computer, then there are far bigger problems then his Gmail getting hacked.
I'm not sure why you keep insisting it's okay for officials with high security to have personal accounts when this post is about an instance when it was not ok.It still isn't clear at all that she actually hacked his account, first of all. She sent a threat to a potential rival, and that triggered an investigation, which lead the FBI to find out about emails between the two of them. In the initial reporting it was less clear but now it seems clearer. Maybe we'll get the exact story at some point, and maybe not.
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."Honey, this is not okay. You are being crazy. Please stop it. I love you."
* Broadwell has some gmail account with a non-identifying address which she uses to communicate with PetraeusIn this scenario, there is no "hacking" of any type involved, except by the FBI... and the emails to Broadwell from Petraeus could have been from either his own anon gmail account (likely) or his official account, but in any case, tracing the IP would have shown a startling origin if he ever mailed from work.
* Petraeus & Broadwell engage in sexy talk on Broadwell's anon gmail account
* Broadwell becomes jealous of other woman for whatever reason (not necessarily because she had access to DP's email)
* Broadwell acquires email address of OW (Other Woman)... this takes no hacking; virtually everyone has an easily accessible email address where they can be contacted
* Broadwell sends harrassing email about Petraeus to OW from her anon gmail account
* OW tells Petraeus she's getting scary anonymous email
* Petraeus talks to Broadwell about it via email to her anon account
* OW, apparently unsatisfied with outcome, speaks to FBI, and since the scary/harassing emails reference Petraeus, they respond
* FBI discover that the anon email belongs to Broadwell, and see sexy talk from someone who is apparently Petraeus, and presumably check it out to see if it is actually him, or someone either hacking his email or pretending to be him, ultimately determining it is, in fact, him.
Unless there's something else, I really want to know how this is a matter for the FBI.My understanding is that the third woman who received the email was so freaked out she contacted the FBI herself. What I read earlier suggested she might have done that from his account but now I'm reading she might have just gotten the email that way, or it's possible she never had the account at all.
This is kind of a weird story. That Jon Stewart clip made it seen as if there was already some knowledge of the relationship between Broadwell and Petraeus.She was his official biographer, and she didn't pretend she wasn't friends with the guy. She also called him her mentor.
Just because the fella in this case happens to be the CIA director doesn't make it any more nefarious, it seems pretty clear that Broadwell was just garden-variety crazypants.Sure, it was garden-variety crazy pants, but the woman who received the threats had no way of knowing that. If she had known what was going on, she might not have contacted the FBI.
It's pretty amazing he would even try something like this. I would think the Director of the CIA would take it for granted that he is under 24 hour surveillance by other agents, other countries and any number of other organizations. To think none of them are going to notice you are having an affair seems unbelievable.The thing to remember is that they were already spending a lot of time together. All they would need to do would be to add sex to the meetings they were already having. Also, people at the CIA were a little concerned about how much access she had.
are you really saying that you're cool with outsourcing the NSA's functions to a private company?Handling email for government officials is not the NSA's job. It obviously works with private companies in the US on their own 'cyber security' , and it's obviously capable of working with Google to make sure that any government gmail accounts are extra secure. Obviously, the FBI was able to figure out what was going on here, so it's not like the account was opaque to the government anyway.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., has suggested that if not for the agent's call, the matter might never have been disclosed, or at least, not when it was revealed.Curiouser and curiouser. I don't see how the agent's call to Cantor after being taken off the case wouldn't run afoul of FBI rules.
But the official insists that's not the case.
[...]
The official says the call to Capitol Hill came from an agent who was initially involved in the investigation but who was later removed from the case because he knew an associate of one of the people being investigated.
muddgirl: Bill Clinton had the highest security access of anybody in the US government when he got a blow job in the oval office. He was retained in his position.Not if you recall that he's only the 2nd president in US history to be impeached.
Doesn't this actually contradict your assertion that Americans are a bunch of uptight prudes who want to punish Petraus for his perceived sexual improprieties? Not only did Clinton successful keep his job, he's a revered politician and humanitarian.
The involvement of the F.B.I., according to government officials, began when Ms. Kelley, alarmed by about half a dozen anonymous e-mails accusing her of inappropriate flirtatious behavior with Mr. Petraeus, complained to an F.B.I. agent who is also a personal friend.So that's how it got the FBI's attention, she had an agent as a friend. Can you imagine how this would have blown up if the regular police had dug deep enough?
Meanwhile, the F.B.I. agent who had helped get a preliminary inquiry started, and learned of Mr. Petraeus’s affair and the initial concerns about security breaches, became frustrated. Apparently unaware that those concerns were largely resolved, the agent alerted the office of Representative Eric Cantor, Republican of Virginia, the House majority leader, about the inquiry in late October. Mr. Cantor passed on the agent’s concerns to Mr. Mueller.That agent is going to have some major explaining to do for dragging the politicians into it.
fleacircus: The differences between Broadwell and Holly Petraeus are also pretty striking -- frumpy midwester recruit's wife vs. Ivy League, would-be supermodel."Lookism" is about appearance discrimination, which that comment doesn't make. Pointing out that one of the ladies is a good deal more attractive than the other is pertinent to a discussion of incidents that are based upon sexual attraction.
From what I can tell Holly Petraeus is an army elite brat and Broadwell is more of a "midwester" from North Dakota who went to a public high school. Lookism is dumb.
In an October 26 alumni symposium at the University of Denver, Paula Broadwell said that the CIA annex at the Benghazi consulate came under assault on Sept. 11 because it had earlier “taken a couple of Libyan militia members prisoner and they think the attack on the consulate was an effort to try to get these prisoners back. It’s still being vetted.” (That information was not part of the CIA’s timeline of the Benghazi assault, and Eli Lake of the Daily Beast reports that the CIA has denied any such detention.) “I don’t know if a lot of you have heard this,” Broadwell prefaced her remarks by saying.posted by tonycpsu at 9:28 AM on November 12, 2012 [1 favorite]
It was a surprising disclosure, given the deep classification of the CIA’s detention policies — and the enormous political stakes surrounding the Benghazi assault. But in many ways, it was only natural for Broadwell, given her evolution from Petraeus protegee to biographer to paramour and unofficial spokesperson.
Kudos to Ackerman for his mea culpa. It can't be easy to publicly admit that you bought into the hero-worship surrounding Petraeus. I will say in his defense that in an era where the only way you can cover the wars is to embed with the military units, it must be exceedingly difficult to report in an unbiased enough manner to get the truth out without being sent homeThe thing is, the affair really has nothing to do with whether or not he was a great man or whether or not the "Cult of Petraeus" was creating a reality distortion field. It's kind of ironic and somewhat ridiculous that suddenly the fact that he had sex with an attractive women who was totally into him means he wasn't what he said he was - or whether or not he was just a master of self-promotion (which is what I think).
To the best of my knowledge they have not yet instituted e.g., a strict division of classified material into various circles and workgroups of need-to-know privilege with a rigorous logging mechanismTo the best of your knowledge? I'm sorry but, seriously, how would you even know? These comments are just completely ridiculous. You have no idea how things work in the classified echelons of the US government.
But go on, tell me what the CIA/NSA were doing while your country's secrets were being laid bare. They probably know a lot more than me, so perhaps this is all 9-dimensional chess?This is the other bizarre thing here, you're not even an American. How is it even any of your business? Why do you even care so much?
What we do know is that Broadwell got access to his private account Gmail and began using some of that information to harass someone else.Actually, we don't know that at all. In fact, that seems to have been incorrect early reporting.
Well that backfired to such an extent that the FBI got involved. Is you honestly think there's no lesson to be learned from individuals with highly classified information using private accounts, then I don't know what to say.Um, hello. Nothing got leaked through the email, and no rules were broken by Petraeus. The FBI recommended he resign because he broke the CIA rule about having affairs. What if the person he was sending sexy chats too had been his wife, not a woman he was having affair with? The problem was the affair and the fact it had been discovered because the FBI got an email warrant on Broadwell.
The other thing: It seems possible that Petraeus could have kept his job. Maybe he didn't want all of this to come out, or come out in slow drips and drabs while he tried to run the CIA. According to the reporting, Obama was reluctant to accept his resignation right away. Of course, Obama might not have known all the sordid details that have come out.Doesn't this actually contradict your assertion that Americans are a bunch of uptight prudes who want to punish Petraus for his perceived sexual improprieties? Not only did Clinton successful keep his job, he's a revered politician and humanitarian.Not if you recall that he's only the 2nd president in US history to be impeached.
Every year careless hackers, cyberstalkers and others are undone by the digital trails they leave behind for law enforcement to collect and trace back to them.posted by tonycpsu at 1:58 PM on November 12, 2012
But who would have thought the nation’s top spy chief would be undone so easily by digital footprints left behind in Gmail?
In the irony of ironies, the distinguished career of CIA Director and former Afghanistan war commander David Petraeus appears to have come unhinged after authorities traced the location of the sender of threatening e-mails that were written from an anonymous Gmail account and sent to a woman in Florida.
Spencer Ackerman is nobody's idea of a neocon. But like a lot of American liberals, he seems to struggle to reconcile a belief in the equal dignity of foreign people and their right to self-determination with the assumed superiority of the foreign policy of unrestrained American power. I don't blame him too much for that assumption; after all, that anything resembling a non-interventionist foreign policy is inherently unserious is one of the few universal truisms of contemporary media. The result, though, is a craving for like men like Petraeus, messianic figures who can resolve the inherent contradictions within the liberal interventionist philosophy.posted by tonycpsu at 2:26 PM on November 12, 2012 [2 favorites]
I admire Ackerman for the willingness to revisit his past work and expose himself to public scrutiny. But as long as he imagines that the problem lies within his individual failures to maintain appropriate skepticism-- as long as anyone in the media does-- these problems will manifest themselves. We are ready to believe in hegemony with a lighter footprint, the benevolence of drones, the capacity to wage war without getting our hands dirty, the ability to occupy a country without violating its rights, and the magic morality of Barack Obama, from whose fingertips springs righteousness-- ready to believe, that is, in any fantasy, as long as it ends with American victory and American blamelessness. Petraeus is only a symbol.
the "mea culpas" from the like of ackerman are not heroic -- they're creepy.Can't be both? (Well 'heroic' is a bit much here, but 'good' certainly applies)
WASHINGTON—A federal agent who launched the investigation that ultimately led to the resignation of Central Intelligence Agency chief David Petraeus was barred from taking part in the case over the summer due to superiors' concerns that he had become personally involved in the case, according to officials familiar with the probe.I'm thinking the porn parody is released before the Hollywood production.
New details about how the Federal Bureau of Investigation handled the case suggest that even as the bureau delved into Mr. Petraeus's personal life, the agency had to address questionable conduct by one of its own—including allegedly sending shirtless photos of himself to a woman involved in the case.
We began our work as Petraeus was assuming command of a faltering war effort. Broadwell began reporting, relying on extensive military contacts, among them numerous members of Petraeus’s inner circle. She made her first of four or five lengthy reporting trips to Afghanistan in the late summer of 2010, somehow managing to juggle her responsibilities as a mother of two small boys with trips to a war zone.There's also a video interview with Loeb that adds a lot of detail.
As someone who has found himself closer than I ever wanted to be to incoming fire, I was impressed by her energy and commitment to the book. My role was far less dramatic: I sat in my basement in Maryland and wrote what was virtually a real-time narrative fashioned from the torrent of e-mails, documents and interview transcripts Broadwell sent my way.
From the outset, the editors at Penguin Press were quite clear about what they wanted: a book on the rigors of command told from an inside point of view. The ultimate narrative tracked what turned out to be a year in command for Petraeus. The book is not a traditional biography, although it does contain a series of biographical digressions about him. I had no say over the book’s ultimate take on Petraeus, which some have found excessively laudatory. Broadwell was free to make whatever revision or modifications she desired to the text, and did so liberally. To my mind, in any event, the book remains a valuable chronicle of his year in command and makes clear that the war wasn’t going all that well.
Full access
Before Broadwell’s first trip to Afghanistan, I wondered whether she really had the kind of access necessary to deliver the book we’d promised. But she wore down whatever resistance Petraeus may have had to the project, which he never agreed to make an authorized biography.
By the time of Broadwell’s last reporting trip to Afghanistan, her access was exclusive: She flew out of Kabul on Petraeus’s jet after an emotional change-of-command ceremony and accompanied him during a barnstorming tour he made of European capitals on his way back to Washington.
I always thought that Broadwell’s motives were pure, and I always wondered why Petraeus was granting her the access that he did. The two must have seen a lot of themselves in each other — they shared the West Point bond, an addiction to physical fitness and running and an uber-optimistic, never-say-die outlook on life.
Later, the agent became convinced — incorrectly, the official said — that the case had stalled. Because of his “worldview,” as the official put it, he suspected a politically motivated cover-up to protect President Obama. The agent alerted Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, who called the F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, on Oct. 31 to tell him of the agent’s concerns.posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 9:45 PM on November 12, 2012 [2 favorites]
There were indications, however, that the affair was first uncovered a few months ago during an investigation by the FBI. A U.S. national security source said the FBI had stumbled across evidence of Petraeus' affair during an apparently unrelated investigation of news leaks.And at a University of Denver talk last month, Broadwell suggested that the Benghazi consolate attack may have been an attempt to free prisoners held at a separate CIA site:
During a talk last month at the University of Denver, author Paula Broadwell said the CIA had detained people at a secret facility in Benghazi, and the attack on the U.S. Consulate there was an effort to free those prisoners. President Barack Obama issued an executive order in January 2009 stripping the CIA of its authority to take prisoners.Fox News (I know, I know) cites anonymous/unnamed sources saying that there were prisoners at the CIA annex in Benghazi:
A well-placed Washington source confirms to Fox News that there were Libyan militiamen being held at the CIA annex in Benghazi and that their presence was being looked at as a possible motive for the staged attack on the consulate and annex that night.I hope that the Republican hard-on for some kind of Benghazi scandal results in an actual investigation, because it seems very plausible that the CIA is running secret, illegal prisons in violation of an executive order.
According to multiple intelligence sources who have served in Benghazi, there were more than just Libyan militia members who were held and interrogated by CIA contractors at the CIA annex in the days prior to the attack. Other prisoners from additional countries in Africa and the Middle East were brought to this location.
The Libya annex was the largest CIA station in North Africa, and two weeks prior to the attack, the CIA was preparing to shut it down. Most prisoners, according to British and American intelligence sources, had been moved two weeks earlier.
According to a senior U.S. defense official, the FBI has uncovered between 20,000 and 30,000 pages of “potentially inappropriate” e-mails between Allen and Jill Kelley, a 37-year-old Tampa woman whose close friendship with Petraeus ultimately led to his downfall. Allen, a Marine, succeeded Petraeus as the top allied commander in Afghanistan in July 2011.Can someone check my understanding of the present story?
That's within the bounds of standard practice, I think.Sure, people keep their titles in retirement: president, senator, governor, etc. My problem is that when you're the director of the CIA you really shouldn't be calling yourself "general" as much or hitting up DC parties in your generals uniform.
Now, that said, part of me says that it's inappropriate for the head of the CIA to be addressed as 'General', even if he's a retired general, because the CIA is a civilian organisation and it's inappropriate
New details about how the Federal Bureau of Investigation handled the case suggest that even as the bureau delved into Mr. Petraeus's personal life, the agency had to address questionable conduct by one of its own—including allegedly sending shirtless photos of himself to a woman involved in the case.Oh he was totally just trying to do a reverse honey trap where he sleeps with her and then checks to see if she'll leak classified material! He was doing it for his country!
I'm thinking the porn parody is released before the Hollywood production.Sounds like a Cohen brothers film, even without the obvious parallel to Burn After Reading
Wikipedia Speculation About Petraeus Affair - 10 Months AgoHah. My guess is it was just based on her demeanor or the Daily Show and other TV appearances. Earlier I linked to an MSNBC segment she did where she was talking about their runs together in Afghanistan "I graduated at the top of my class, physically, so I could give him a real run for his money, so to speak". Looking back it looks like she might have been trying to slip in a sly innuendo.
I mentioned this upthread, but early Reuters articles that I read cited a "national security source" saying that the affair was exposed as a result of investigations into leaks:I wonder if the "national security source" isn't the same agent who had the hots for Kelly. At this point, people seem to be leaking all kinds of stuff - and not all of it accurate. My guess is that a lot of people who have been hearing rumors about this in the FBI and CIA are "leaking" to their reporter friends so they can feel like they're "in the loop" and reporters are running with it because saying anything about this will get you pageviews and plaudits.
There were indications, however, that the affair was first uncovered a few months ago during an investigation by the FBI. A U.S. national security source said the FBI had stumbled across evidence of Petraeus' affair during an apparently unrelated investigation of news leaks.
Can someone check my understanding of the present story?A bunch of bored, ambitious, socially climbing, and extremely physically fit people with were fucking each other.
A couple of other data points to note. First, Broadwell’s father made a somewhat cryptic comment yesterday that may be being explained now:posted by tonycpsu at 7:24 AM on November 13, 2012 [4 favorites]“This is about something else entirely, and the truth will come out,” he told the Daily News.Second, as I noted early yesterday morning, Jill Kelley has hired some of the most astoundingly powerful criminal defense and PR help imaginable:
“There is a lot more that is going to come out … You wait and see. There’s a lot more here than meets the eye.”
He said that his daughter, who’s at the center of the controversy that prompted CIA director David Petraeus to resign from his post, is a victim of character assassination, and that there’s something much bigger lurking behind the curtain.
They hired Abbe Lowell, a Washington lawyer who has represented clients such as former presidential candidate John Edwards and lobbyist Jack Abramoff. And the couple are employing crisis PR person Judy Smith, who has represented big names like Monica Lewinsky, Michael Vick and Kobe Bryant.Now, let’s be honest, an innocent recipient of a handful of crank non-threatening emails, as Kelley was commonly portrayed when her name first came out, does NOT need that kind of heavy hitter professional service. Seriously, Abbe Lowell is not only a great attorney, he is as preeminent a counsel as exists for spook and national security defense cases. No one in their right mind pays for that unless they need it, especially 1,000 miles away from his office.
Another oddity occurred last night: The North Carolina home of Paula Broadwell was searched for nearly four hours by a full on execution team from the FBI. From the New York Times:On Monday night, F.B.I. agents went to Ms. Broadwell’s home in Charlotte, N.C., and were seen carrying away what several reporters at the scene said were boxes of documents. A law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the case remains open, said Ms. Broadwell had consented to the search.The key word in that quote that strikes me is “consensual”. Broadwell has lawyered up too, having hired prominent Washington DC defense attorney Robert F. Muse. If an attorney feels his client is the target of a proposed search, he does not consent, he makes the officers get a warrant and search for only what a court orders and nothing else. You have to wonder what was being searched for that Broadwell and her counsel were not more worried about?
1. Was Jill Kelley involved with Petraeus too?That was the first question I had. When Broadwell wrote all those "hands off my man" e-mails was it just because she was being insanely possessive? Or is Petraeous a serial philanderer?
Kelley unwittingly found herself at the middle of this scandal after reportedly receiving several threatening emails from an anonymous account. The 37-year-old Tampa resident, who is married to a cancer surgeon and volunteers with the military, got to know Petraeus when he was stationed in Florida, and the Kelleys are said to be family friends with the general and his wife. There are plenty of pictures to prove the two couples spent some time together. While most news accounts include an anonymous source saying Kelley and Petraeus weren’t romantically involved, it’s still not entirely clear why Broadwell felt the need to send the harassing emails. Was it just a misunderstanding or did Broadwell know there was more going on between Petraeus and Kelley?
clavdivs: He will probably come through this with his family and walk into millions for books and speeches....just like obama.So, in your fantasy alt-earth, Obama is making millions for books and speeches right now?
How many times do you have to write “I am in the desert and I have a boner” to fill up 30,000 pages?posted by Egg Shen at 8:09 AM on November 13, 2012 [5 favorites]
The answer is 2,820,000, if you use 12-point Arial, but that is beside the point.
The first email sent anonymously to Jill Kelley, the Tampa, Fla., woman who reported the threatening emails to the FBI, in May referred to Kelley socializing with other generals in the Tampa area and suggested it was inappropriate and should stop, according to the source close to Kelley, who spoke with NBC News on condition of anonymity.So was this really even a "Threat" at all, or just catty criticism?
You guys- 20,000 to 30,000 emails between Kelley and Allen?? Over how long a period? Someone do the math on this!It's over a two year period, so about 30-40 a day. But I would imagine they were probably using it like IM, rather than writing whole letters.
3.) Tampa housewife boo-hoos to FBI agent about emails, because apparently she's really stupid, or completely ignorant of how intelligence investigations tend to spiderweb out.I think he sent the shirtless pictures before she ever came to him with the threatening emails.
4.) FBI agent sends shirtless photos to Tampa Housewife.
1.) General Petraeus and Paula Broadwell have been making with the sexy time under his desk in a war zone.Supposedly... supposedly the affair only started when he was a civilian back in DC, and after she'd written the book. But of course we don't really know.
2.) She writes a hagiographic book.
3.) They continue to run and frolic, or whatever it is that military brass call it.
All that said: There has to be more to this story than we're hearing. Else, it just doesn't make sense that it would blow up like this.It sounds to me like bored FBI agents decided to use their fancy wiretapping ability to snoop into people's love lives.
Based on what we know, he should definitely be relieved of his duties and barred from .gov employment for a very long time. But I wouldn't call "trying to take down the President with a political scandal" treason -- just a major dick move.Last I checked, we have not declared war on congressional republicans.
the FBI has uncovered between 20,000 and 30,000 pages of documents — most of them e-mails — that contain “potentially inappropriate” communication between Allen and Jill KelleyAnd, like tonycpsu said above, also:
The senior official also emphasized that the volume of communications between the two “was nowhere near” 20,000 to 30,000 personal messages. The official said the high page count reported by the FBI may have been the result of printing numerous individual messages that contained lengthy threads of earlier exchanges.posted by lullaby at 9:43 AM on November 13, 2012
Kelley, for whatever reason, targets Petraeus. Broadwell sees something or hears about some potential hanky-panky, and flips out. She is new to this whole game, and thinks that there is a Special SoulBond between her and Petraeus. She, already being in his email, gets Kelley's info and emails Kelley some variant on, "I saw what you did with the General. Stay away from him."Actually, it sounds like Broadwell's letters might not have anything to do with her relationship to Petraeus at all.
The emails that Jill Kelley showed an FBI friend near the start of last summer were not jealous lover warnings like “stay away from my man,” a knowledgeable source tells The Daily Beast.So yeah, who knows what the beef here was. When we only knew about Petraus and Broadwell's relationship, and nothing about Kelly and Allen and the rest, it made sense to assume that the broadwell->Kelly emails were related to Petraeus at all. But at this point, we can't even really assume that the emails had anything to do with her affair with Petraeus. It could have been some totally unrelated beef.
The messages were instead what the source terms “kind of cat-fight stuff.”
“More like, ‘Who do you think you are? … You parade around the base … You need to take it down a notch,’” according to the source, who was until recently at the highest levels of the intelligence community and prefers not to be identified by name.
The base described is MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, where Kelley serves as an unpaid “social liaison.” The source reports that the emails did make one reference to Gen. David Petraeus, but it was oblique and offered no manifest suggestion of a personal relationship or even that he was central to the sender’s spite.
Kelley herself seemed mystified as to what was behind the emails, much less who sent them.
“I don’t know who this person is and I don’t want to keep getting them,” she told the FBI, as recounted by the source.
When the FBI friend showed the emails to the cyber squad in the Tampa field office, her fellow agents noted that the absence of any overt threats.
“No, ‘I’ll kill you’ or ‘I'll burn your house down,’” the source says. “It doesn’t seem really that bad.”
The squad was not even sure the case was worth pursuing, the source says.
“What does this mean? There’s no threat there. This is against the law?” the agents asked themselves by the source’s account.
Maybe I'm just incredibly cynical, but the notion of a politician, particularly a Party-loyal enough politician to have the House Majority seat, doing what...is right...rather than what is politically expedient...seems strange to me. Particularly this close to an election, when something like this could have shaken things up.I don't really see how it could have helped. The republicans were pushing Bengazi, Bengazi, Bengazi. The fact that Petraeus might have been banging his biographer would have taken the focus off Bengazi - and Petraeus had been embraced by the republicans as much as Obama. He was practically idolized by them during the Iraq war.
For me, the question isn't "why didn't this come out before?" but "why has this come out now?" Who benefits?It sounds like this was in the works, but they wanted to avoid doing it before the election. Obviously, if Petraeus had resigned a couple weeks before the election the republicans would have flipped out and claimed it was all part of some Bengazi conspiracy/coverup/whatever.
Gary: David Simon's take on this is an excellent read.Thank you. That's a great read, and really gathers and directs some vague thoughts I've been pushing around for a while.
Just three months after they posed with David and Holly Petraeus, strands of Gasparilla beads hanging from their necks, the Kelleys were hit with a foreclosure lawsuit.posted by Egg Shen at 1:34 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]
The suit, brought by Central Bank against the Kelleys and Kelly Land Holdings, centered on a three-story office building at 300 E Madison St. in downtown Tampa. Court records show they owed the bank nearly $2.2 million, including attorney fees. ...
Since the Kelleys have been in Tampa, records show, one or both have been subjects of lawsuits nine times — including an $11,000 judgment against them that originated in Pennsylvania.
Ongoing cases, the court records show, include an indebtedness case from Chase Bank; a foreclosure case from Regions Bank; and a credit card case from FIA Card Services.
Petraeus, 60, told one former associate he began an affair with Broadwell, 40, a couple of months after he became the director of the CIA late last year. They mutually agreed to end the affair four months ago, but they kept in contact because she was still writing a dissertation on his time commanding U.S. troops overseas, the associate said.So wait, the commercial biography and the dissertation are two different things? The book came out in January but the dissertation is still being written? After the affair had ended? Wow, that's a little awkward. Who would want to carry on writing about someone that they had stopped having an affair with? Who would want to carry on corresponding with someone they had stopped having an affair with?
Whenever Petraeus testified in the halls of power, they all showed up to pump his fist and spew superlatives. Someday, they said, Petraeus would be included in the prestigious pantheon of West Point military gods: Grant, MacArthur, Patton, and Eisenhower.posted by the man of twists and turns at 2:36 PM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]
But now that’s all out the window. Now, he’s just another big man who fucked around and got caught. He’s in the process of being disgraced. His friends are turning their backs. At least one reporter who used to belong to King David’s “cult,” Spencer Ackerman, has publicly disowned him. The salacious details about his under-the-desk romps will probably continue to be splashed all over tabloid pages for months like the chief spook’s warm jizz.
The man’s career is unraveling by the minute, and I’m enjoying every second of it.
Kelley also seems to think she has something called “diplomatic inviolability” perhaps tied to her made-up role as “unofficial social liaison”?There are certain types of people whose downfall I'm just going to get too excited about, no matter how I much I try to deny it and act like a better person.
Over the weekend she called 911 over the weekend to help chase people off her yard. And this is what she said, according to transcripts of the 911 call …
“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, who agreed to pass the information along to police.
Based out of the couple's mansion, the Doctor Kelley Cancer Foundation claimed on its tax forms that it "shall be operated exclusively to conduct cancer research and to grant wishes to terminally ill adult cancer patients."How is it that everybody in this story leads such fantastically complicated lives? I'm just thinking about Broadwell who juggled being a "soccer mom" (as she referred to herself) a book, jaunts all over the world, a dissertation, and a love affair. I mean the mom and the dissertation bit would have been more than enough for most people, don't you think?
By the end of 2007, the charity had gone bankrupt, having conveniently spent exactly the same amount of money, $157,284, as it started with -- not a dollar more, according to its 990 financial form. Of that, $43,317 was billed as "Meals and Entertainment," $38,610 was assigned to "Travel," another $25,013 was spent on legal fees, and $8,822 went to "Automotive Expenses."
The Kelleys also listed smaller expenses that appear excessive for a charity operating from a private home, including $12,807 for office expenses and supplies, and $7,854 on utilities and telephones....
"She is an ‘honorary consul' of the Republic of Korea," the official said. "She assumed this position last August thanks to her good connections and network."So apparently honorary consul titles are given out based on Klout score?
Park Police planned to hold it for 90 days, per policy, and then send it back to the North Carolina Department of Transportation.I swear to god I don't what the hell is going on with this story.
Broadwell's attorney, Robert F. Muse, confirmed that Broadwell, a North Carolina resident, lost her driver's license in the park.
Miss Khawam filed for bankruptcy in April this year, filings show. She owed more than $3 million spanning taxes, property debts, legal fees and personal loans to associates – including $800,000 from Mrs Kelley and her husband, who have taken her in at their Tampa mansion.A "Republican source" is quoted as saying that they are fun, friendly people who "have hit difficult times." Really? Difficult times? I would say that they are careless people who have gone into millions of dollars in debt while throwing lots of fabulous parties.
Separately she is being sued in Maryland for $100,000 in legal fees and in Florida by her former boss Barry Cohen, a prominent Tampa lawyer, who claims in his lawsuit that she "fraudulently omitted Rolex watches, sable mink furs and a diamond ring" from her bankruptcy filing, which she denies.
Mr Cohen's action came in response to a lawsuit against him from Miss Khawam, who accused him of breach of contract and failing to take action to a complaint of sexual harassment. Mr Cohen denies the allegations.
ABC News has learned that Gen. Allen also received an anonymous e-mail traced to Paula Broadwell, claiming Jill Kelley was a seductress.So Paula wasn't just sending emails to Jill, she was sending them to other people as well. I really have to wonder why she had such a bee in her bonnet about Jill Kelley.
The judge wrote that Khawam "has exhibited an utter disregard for the child's interest" in maintaining a meaningful relationship with his father, that she "has extreme personal deficits in the areas of honesty and integrity," and that she has exhibited a "willingness to say anything, even under oath, to advance her own personal interests at the expense" of her husband, the child, and others.That's pretty devastating. And remember that Petraeous and General Allen both wrote letters to the court praising Natalie's character.
"The court fully expects that Ms. Khawam's pattern of misrepresentations about virtually everything, including the most important aspects of her life, will continue indefinitely," the judge wrote.
One of the odd subplots in the Petraeus story is the decision of Gens. Petraeus and Gen. Allen to intervene in the intense custody dispute between Jill Kelley's sister Natalie and her estranged husband Grayson P. Wolfe. Wolfe turns out to be a former Bush administration official who worked in Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad (Bremer's outfit) opening Iraq up to private sector investment.posted by tonycpsu at 9:02 PM on November 13, 2012 [8 favorites]
As the Petraeus story becomes more and more convoluted, two things because clearer and clearer: one, essentially none of any of this relates to national security in any way and is therefore none of our business; and two, the more apparent that fact becomes, the more we—shamefully, uncontrollably—want to know.Yup!
Except he sort of ignores the whole notion of access to confidential information, sharing email accounts, etc.Well, again, the FBI has said nothing illegal happened, and that Broadwell said some of the confidential information on her machine didn't come from him. Broadwell does have a security clearance herself
I realize that there are a lot of details here, but the FBI has said specifically Broadwell told them that the documents didn't come from Petraeus, and that they believed her. Presumably they do know who sent them to her. And again, she has (or had, anyway) a security clearance.Petraeus also denied to these associates that he had given Broadwell any of the sensitive military information alleged to have been found on her computer, saying anything she had must have been provided by other commanders during reporting trips to Afghanistan.That dog don't hunt.
How did General Petraeus know it wasn't a honeypot? That's the real problem.Maybe because she was a west-point graduate and had a security clearance herself? She wasn't some random person off the street. She was his biographer. She had access too him for months, got classified information as a part of that job, and wrote a book about him. All of this (supposedly) before they started having sex. I mean, it is possible to have a reasonable confidence that a person is not a spy, right? That's what the whole security clearance system is supposed to do, and Broadwell passed, before she knew Petraeus, and she had a ton of access to him before the affair started. That's why the affair began.
There are potentially several crimes involved. Not likely to be prosecuted, but Petraeus and Broadwell are both potentially criminally culpable, given what's known at the present.What are you talking about? I'm pretty sure the FBI itself determined that nothing illegal had taken place.
I think Simon misses the point. How does he know that no harm has been done here? Petraeus was the Head of the CIA. If he or Allen were loose with nonpublic info to these women and maybe more, that's problematic.I don't know about Kelley, but again, Broadwell had a security clearance - and she had ton of access for the purpose of writing her book, all before and unrelated to the affair.
Daily Kos: Jill Kelley (Khawam). The Lebanese Mata Hari?Wow, that's pretty racist. She's from a Lebanese Christian family; therefore, she's probably a spy? And OMG look at her foreign sounding maiden name!
Where are Jill Kelly and her sister from originally? I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out they have ties with foreign intelligence. -- empathRight, because everyone who spent their childhood in another country ought to be suspected of being a spy. I mean, Obama spent most of his childhood in Indonesia, how could anyone trust him with national security secrets!?
So Paula wasn't just sending emails to Jill, she was sending them to other people as well. I really have to wonder why she had such a bee in her bonnet about Jill Kelley.Here's the thing - I don't think Broadwells emails to Kelley had anything to do with her worrying about Kelley "stealing" Patraeus. She just thought she was a skank and maybe worried that she might end up causing problems for the other generals. (Or in other words, as a military mistress she thought Kelley was giving military mistresses a bad name, or not doing it right, or whatever. Too Indiscrete) . She may also have worried that Kelley might have messed up Allen's careers, which she obviously ended up doing and so it might have just been concern over Allen getting involved with a "bad influence"
TransGas Development President Adam Victor told us he met Kelley in August at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, where she was introduced to him as a close friend of then-CIA Director David Petraeus who had many business contacts in South Korea.The seedy underbelly of the military industrial complex. People in high positions getting super-swank deals solely because of who they're connected too. IMO this is quite a bit less "ethical" then affair with broadwell, but it would never have been reported if not the sex scandal.
Yes. This is exactly this sort of thing that, writ large, has put Greece where it is today.Well, I kind of think it's what's put the US where it is throughout the 20th century. It's something that's gone on forever.
Paula Broadwell, the author who allegedly had an affair with former CIA Director David Petraeus, is suspected of storing significant amounts of military documents, including classified material, at her home, potentially in violation of federal law.posted by syzygy at 4:47 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]
A source familiar with case told ABC News that Broadwell admitted to the FBI she took the documents from secure government buildings.
b: just garden variety potential stuff, some of which is clearly as yet not deterministically settled. E.g., lying under oath, violation of various rules regarding the handling of confidential information, etc. I'm not thinking of anything grand or trying to make a big moral case here, just saying that there probably have been laws broken, given the office he was filling at the time.Lying under oath? What oath? Petraus and Broadway both admitted everything when they were questioned by the FBI, and they've never been under oath. I agree that broadwell might have mishandled some classified material, but it was apparently not something the FBI was interested in at the time (maybe now with all the media coverage, they are trying to cover their asses by re-opening a closed investigation so that they can claim there was some legitimate reason for them to be doing this)
but Petraeus and Broadwell are both potentially criminally culpable, given what's known at the present.So you said 1) Given what we know at the moment and 2) Petraeus and Broadwell potentially broke laws.
At one point, Kelley is said to have made known her desire to jump with the U.S. Special Operations Command Parachute Team, composed of paracommandos from the nation’s most elite units. She was told such jumps are a rare privilege reserved for VIPs. She is said to have replied, in essence, “I’m a VIP.”posted by Egg Shen at 8:28 AM on November 14, 2012 [5 favorites]
By one knowledgeable account, Kelley was allowed to make the jump. She is not said to have made a particularly favorable impression with the team. ...
“Do not ever bring that lady back here again,” the team leader is supposed to have said afterward, according to [a] former intelligence officer.
The chain of events that followed would see the agent shamed for supposedly sending Kelley a shirtless picture of himself, although according to one knowledgeable law-enforcement source, it actually was a photo of himself with what appears to be a prominent politician and some other guys at a casual outing where they had their shirts undone.posted by enn at 8:55 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]
Back then, the ever-calculating Petraeus, who had married the West Point superintendent’s daughter after graduating, was on his way up. The general’s star was within reach—he was only one rank away—and being in command of the “Devil Brigade” (our brigade), was absolutely vital to getting him there. During his tenure with the 504th, he had to kiss and lick as many hairy, hemorrhoidal assholes as possible. He had to guffaw and slap all the right backs; he had to seriously impress. He had to do whatever was necessary to reach the pinnacle. No bridge too far for that son of a bitch. Can do. Will do. Yes sir, whatever you want, sir.Do "good" officers mostly wind up retiring as Colonels and Captains, leaving only those who can play the Pentagon games to advance?
Traditional psychological operations, including the creation and delivery of messages via leaflet, loudspeaker, radio or television; the newer "influence operations" associated with the creation of Web sites and the use of social media to extend U.S. influence, both overtly and covertly; and the separate clandestine and covert activities associated with influence, deception and perception management.So, back to my crazy conspiracy theory (just for fun) - could an company like Fulcra, or whatever it's called, help produce a film that is maximally offensive to Muslims, then use various channels to stoke the fire to try to manufacture anti-American sentiment and / or riots, the kind we saw on September 11 of this year? I know, huge stretch, and if you look hard enough, you'll always be able to find evidence for whatever pet theory you want to support. But until the info comes out, it's fun to poke around and speculate :)
Later, the agent became convinced — incorrectly, the official said — that the case had stalled. Because of his “worldview,” as the official put it, he suspected a politically motivated cover-up to protect President Obama. The agent alerted Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, who called the F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, on Oct. 31 to tell him of the agent’s concerns.So presumably the 'official' would have described him as a him to the reporter who got that quote. People who know this guy have been talking about this guy, there's no reason to think that she's a woman and everyone involved is hiding that while at the same time mocking him for being an idiot.
Kelly later dialed the number on the card to tell the agent she had been receiving a series of unnerving emails. The chain of events that followed would see the agent shamed for supposedly sending Kelley a shirtless picture of himself, although according to one knowledgeable law-enforcement source, it actually was a photo of himself with what appears to be a prominent politician and some other guys at a casual outing where they had their shirts undone.Yeah, a topless female FBI agent at a 'casual outing' with a prominent politician... There is no way the media would keep that quiet.
Now, two days after the election, Petraeus turns in a hurried resignation letter, citing the affair as the grounds for his resignation. But, really, if that's all there is to the story, would Petraeus have resigned so quickly / would those above him have demanded his immediate resignation?Maybe he just wanted to avoid a drawn out media frenzy. Obviously the press would be even more interested in the story if he continued at the CIA. Didn't help because the media was so bored after the election (seriously, who cares about this "fiscal cliff" B.S? That's not going to get many clicks)
Then again, perhaps it's that the skills that make for an outstanding commanding officer at the company and field grades are a liability once one reaches the Pentagon, so only the politicians and double-dealers thrive there. Do "good" officers mostly wind up retiring as Colonels and Captains, leaving only those who can play the Pentagon games to advance?Probably. People identify with people like them, so fi the people in charge are all a bunch of shameless suckups, they're going to recruit new sameless suckups into the group.
Jill Kelley... has lost the privilege of visiting MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa without an escort. ...posted by Egg Shen at 11:12 AM on November 14, 2012
A Defense official confirms to ABC News that Kelley participated in a base program known as the "Friends of MacDill" where she was placed on a master list that allowed her to clear security when entering the base.
A person must be nominated to enter the program, and must pass a background check by the wing's security office. The official did not know who nominated Kelley for the program.
The Defense official said Kelley's privileges under the program have been taken away "as she is involved in an ongoing investigation."
SOS International, Ltd. (SOSi) and its partner, Advanced C4 Solutions, were awarded a contract to provide the U.S. Department of State with local facilitation and life support services in Libya. Leveraging its experience supporting contingency operations in semi- and non-permissive environments, the SOSi/AC4S team will provide the State Department with the necessary logistical support and resources to secure and sustain the U.S. embassy staff.I have to say that just the web of strange, private 'intelligence' and 'operations support' companies is quite intriguing to delve into, even if there is no connection to any of this other stuff. Makes you think about how much our country spends annually on these kinds of operations, and how much of that is wasted. I'd bet these operations 'waste' a lot more than social services operations do. A lot more pork here to be handed out to cronies.
(a) A governmental entity may require the disclosure by a provider of electronic communication service of the contents of a wire or electronic communication, that is in electronic storage in an electronic communications system for one hundred and eighty days or less, only pursuant to a warrant .... A governmental entity may require the disclosure ... of the contents of a wire or electronic communication that has been in electronic storage in an electronic communications system for more than one hundred and eighty days by the means available under subsection (b) of this section.tl;dr: older emails can be had with an administrative subpoena (no judicial oversight) with prior notice, or secret access with a court warrant as jackflash wrote; and email 180 days old or newer require a warrant.
(b)
(1) A governmental entity may require a provider of remote computing service to disclose the contents of any wire or electronic communication to which this paragraph is made applicable by paragraph (2) of this subsection—
(A) without required notice to the subscriber or customer, if the governmental entity obtains a warrant issued using the procedures described in the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure (or, in the case of a State court, issued using State warrant procedures) by a court of competent jurisdiction; or
(B) with prior notice from the governmental entity to the subscriber or customer if the governmental entity—
(i) uses an administrative subpoena authorized by a Federal or State statute or a Federal or State grand jury or trial subpoena; or
(ii) obtains a court order for such disclosure under subsection (d) of this section;
except that delayed notice may be given pursuant to section 2705 of this title.
By the end of 2007, the charity had gone bankrupt, having conveniently spent exactly the same amount of money, $157,284, as it started with -- not a dollar more, according to its 990 financial form," HuffPost's Jason Cherkis and Christina Wilkie report. "Of that, $43,317 was billed as 'Meals and Entertainment,' $38,610 was assigned to 'Travel,' another $25,013 was spent on legal fees, and $8,822 went to 'Automotive Expenses.I just wonder who contributed to the charity and do they feel cheated? Did she get checks from her favorite Generals? It reminds me of politicians who set up re-election PACs and then live on the proceeds-- some, like Sarah Palin, never even run for election. I wonder how her contributors feel about that?
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.Whoopsy.
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.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 1:44 PM on November 14, 2012 [2 favorites]
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.
The demotion came after retired Army Gen. David Petraeus resigned as CIA director because of an extramarital affair and Marine Gen. John Allen was being investigated for potentially improper communications with a woman.That does not bode well for General Allen.
"Secretary Panetta insists that leaders within the Department of Defense exemplify both professional excellence and sound judgment," Little said. "The secretary is committed to ensuring that any improprieties or misconduct by senior officers are dealt with swiftly and appropriately."
“We’re Lewinsky-ing Paula Broadwell,” said Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a filmmaker who produced Miss Representation, a documentary dissecting biased media portrayals of women and girls.The article goes on to say that Monica Lewinsky's life was forever damaged...but oh yeah, she has just signed a $12 million deal to tell her life story.
As with Lewinsky, much of the coverage of Broadwell has focused on her exchange with another women. Even an intelligence community source described emails Broadwell sent to Petraeus family friend Jill Kelley (who’s also the woman whom General Allen reportedly had “inappropriate communications” with over email) as “kind of cat-fight stuff.”
Women have long been unfairly assigned the role of gatekeepers of sexuality morality, a designation that makes them easy to blame when men fall short, said Occidental College professor of politics Caroline Heldman. “The onus should be on Petraeus,” she said. “He has a lot more to lose and he’s a lot more to blame in that breach.”
Instead, said Heldman, media coverage give “the impression that Broadwell’s the bad woman, the slut, manipulative and conniving, a climber.”
Metadata can include not only your IP address, but to whom and when you're sending emails, and in other cases, the exact location of your cell phone for weeks or months at a time. And police get this type of data in everyday investigations without a warrant at a staggering and alarming rate.Yet another aspect of the story that is taking off in a different direction-- how did the FBI investigation start and why did it continue? And is this a call to curb the Surveillance State?
But finding the location of the sender was just the beginning. From there, "armed with information about where the messages originated, the FBI is believed to have drawn up a list, as far as was possible, of who was at those locations when messages were sent," the BBC reported. Because the IP addresses were hotel WiFi hotspots, the FBI obtained the hotel records at the various locations.
But how, exactly? Again, we don't know the precise procedure used, but hotel records -- which are private -- can also be obtained with just a subpoena and do not require a judge to sign off on anything.
I really don't know what she thought was going to happen when she confessed to the world that she sucked off the President but she could not have imagined that she ...Just a guess, she probably thought it would be better then going to prison for obstruction of justice? since that would have been the only other choice offered to her by the special prosecutor?
Well, exactly. Or that broadcasting anonymous warnings to military officials would result in Kelley's getting the cold shoulder? It was all risk with no potential upside.Except, a normal person would expect there to be any risk. The only risk a normal person would think of would be that Kelley might find out she sent them and that would cause... what? some drama in what sounds like an already drama filled social scene?
The military has revoked U.S. Army security clearance for former CIA director David Petraeus' mistress
Warren said it was decided the pass suspension would be in the best interest of the Air Force base community. Kelley can still enter the base but now must report to the visitor center and sign in like everyone who doesn't have a pass.So she can still go on the base but she has to sign in...like a peasant. Think she will bother?
Kelley was also appointed honorary consul for South Korea for the city of Tampa several months ago, and still holds that position, said Kristen Smith, executive assistant at the South Korean consulate in Atlanta, which also covers Florida. Smith didn't know how Kelley got the honor and did not know specifically what she did on behalf of South Korea.I'm waiting for this thing to be revoked. I have an idea it must mean something but so far no one seems to know what.
A senior official told CBS News correspondent David Martin the vast majority of the emails between Allen and Kelly were "completely innocuous" and the general believes many of the 20-30,000 pages under scrutiny are duplicates.Interesting. "The vast majority" does not mean all.
Kelley would write things like, "saw you on television and you were terrific," and Allen was respond, "thanks, sweetheart." The official said the two never discussed sex and that Allen had never been alone with Kelley.
Nonetheless, Pentagon and FBI sources told CBS News correspondent Bob Orr the communications are "potentially inappropriate" and "flirtations," and another source said they were likely more than just innocent exchanges - noting that the Pentagon's Inspector General is involved for a reason.Bingo.
Broadwell allegedly warned Gen. Allen that Kelly was "a seductress."This is the first we are hearing that other officers were contacted by Broadwell in regards to Kelley. I notice none of the others are being named or investigated like General Allen.
Broadwell allegedly sent similar warning to other military officers at the U.S. Central Command.
an investment by the Kelleys in a Tampa office building turned into a dispute with the tenant over $28,000-a-month rent. The couple didn't pay the mortgage and entered into foreclosure.Oh they sound like swell people. If you recall Natalie also sued her bankruptcy lawyer (who happened to be her ex-boss.) See a pattern here?
Attorney Barry Cohen represented the Kelleys in the case, but they turned around and sued him over legal fees, claiming he overcharged them by $5,000. The suit was dismissed, but court documents did not say what happened.
South Korea may strip Jill Kelley of her status as “honorary consul” in light of the scandal that involves top U.S. national security brass, an embassy spokesman told POLITICO.But what will she do with her shiny new license plate?
“We’re looking very closely at what’s happening around this person, this scandal, and her reputation,” said TJ Kim, a counsellor at the South Korean embassy in Washington, D.C.
He added that there “could be some possibility” that she would lose the title.(snip)
There are between 10 and 20 people in the United States who carry South Korea’s honorary consul title, Kim said. Kelley’s role is to serve as a liaison between the Atlanta consulate and the Korean community in Florida, but Kim added that because she was given the title in August, she hasn’t yet done much in the actual role.
Wow, Delmoi, it's been so long I barely remember the story. I remember that she was confessed the story to some woman and announced that she had kept the dress. That was always the detail that made me think she wanted to get Clinton in trouble.Linda Tripp. But Lewinsky thought of her as a friend, that she was just sharing what was going on in her life with someone she could trust. Who happened to be recording it, and Tripp went directly Ken Starr herself
Kelley’s role is to serve as a liaison between the Atlanta consulate and the Korean community in Florida, but Kim added that because she was given the title in August, she hasn’t yet done much in the actual role.Somehow I kind of doubt much was ever going to happen for the South Koreans even without the scandal.
A person close to the woman who triggered the investigation that ended the CIA director David Petraeus' career says the first anonymous email in the case was sent to Gen. John Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan.Kelleypatrol? I can't stop laughing. So the first email warned General Allen to stay away from Jill Kelley? Oh wow, that was sure to be effective. Who thinks like this? It is as if Broadwell has the mentality of a 10 year old.
The person says the mysterious email in May came from someone who used the handle "kelleypatrol." Allen forwarded it to Tampa socialite Jill Kelley. The person close to Kelley spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.
That email, which investigators traced to Paula Broadwell, the CIA director's mistress, warned Allen to stay away from Kelley. In the email she said she knew Kelley and Allen had a meeting scheduled.
Kelley received as many as five anonymous emails in June, and one noted an upcoming meeting with Petraeus.
With demand for all things Petraeus at an all-time high, the publisher will release [Fred Kaplan's The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War] on Jan. 2, 2013, two weeks earlier than originally planned.posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 3:39 PM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]
Military scandals have been a cash cow for publishers this year. No Easy Day—former Navy SEAL Matt Bisonnette's account of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden—managed to knock Fifty Shades of Grey off its perch, spurring publishers to find their own Navy SEAL memoirs to hawk to eager readers. And while Paula Broadwell's All In doesn't address the scandal its become so closely linked with head-on, but we're guessing its brisk climb up the charts has something to do with her and Petraeus' steamy affair. It's just a shame neither Simon & Schuster or Penguin will be able to get these new books on shelves before the holiday season.
And, who knows, her inherited culture may have had something to do with her reaction to Broadwell’s emails. Lebanon is a place where you kind of have to take threats seriously. And, reaching out to a friend in the government in a way a lot of Americans might consider inappropriate is routine in Beirut (hence seeking “wasta” or a personal connection via the shirtless FBI guy).It may actually explain one non-spy reason why she might have done what she did and also why she would seek to cultivate as many connections as possible.
"It's just crazy. It's like a small big town," commented a woman walking by the stakeout at Paula Broadwell's brother's home. It includes about a dozen photojournalists from the major news organizations.posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 3:51 PM on November 14, 2012
"I thought it was a movie set," said neighbor Vedoster Ingram.
Some photographers are on the sidewalk in the front of the stately yellow house and some are in the public alleyway behind the home.
So the CIA had taken a few detainees. No big deal, right?posted by syzygy at 3:53 PM on November 14, 2012
Right, until biographer Paula Broadwell came along. As news of her affair with CIA Director David Petraeus emerged, folks started mining the Broadwell public record. As first reported by IsraelNationalNews.com, Broadwell had given some remarks at the University of Denver on Oct. 26, the same day of the Fox News piece that frames this sprawling series of posts. And Broadwell was up on the news; she took a question about Petraeus’s handling of Benghazi and steered her audience to Fox!
The Wall Street Journal reports that FBI investigators discovered classified documents on the paramour’s computer. Where did Paula Broadwell get them? And now the account surfaces of a speech Mrs. Broadwell made at the University of Denver on Oct. 26 in which she revealed the news that the CIA had been holding two terrorist prisoners at the consulate and the attack was an attempt by terrorists to rescue them. Where did she get this information? Was she making stuff up to sell her book or did she inadvertently spill a state secret coaxed from a lover?You know I had an idea earlier today that this was going to turn into a White House Scandal, not because I believe the President had anything to do with this sordid mess but because my local news group (WRAL) carried the story this morning and every single comment brought up Obama. It is the timing. People (FOX news watchers) are sure that there is no coincidence here. Benghazi attack-election-Petraeus resigns. They connect the dots (or FOX connects the dots for them) and are convinced Obama is at the center of it all.
The CIA says that story is not true, and maybe it isn’t, but you would expect the CIA to deny it even if it were. (snip)
We’re asked to believe that the FBI investigation into the general’s affair, with its enormous national-security implications, was conducted over a period of weeks and the president was never told anything about it until Mr. Petraeus submitted his resignation. A half-dozen government agencies, in this fanciful telling of the story, treated the president as if he were a virgin in a bordello, all to preserve his “innocence” in the final weeks of a bitter election campaign. If the president didn’t know what was going on upstairs, this is incompetence bordering on criminal malfeasance.
With no facts, we have only the tangled web of lies in the changing official stories. Was the general intimidated — if not blackmailed — into joining the president, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice in their ridiculous story, told over and over, that the Benghazi attack was set off by demonstrations protesting that obscure video?
The F.B.I. agent who helped start the investigation that led to the resignation of David H. Petraeus as C.I.A. director is a “hard-charging” veteran counterterrorism investigator who used his command of French in investigating the foiled “millennium” terrorist plot in 1999, colleagues said on Wednesday.posted by syzygy at 4:06 PM on November 14, 2012
The agent, Frederick W. Humphries II, 47, took the initial complaint from Jill Kelley, the Tampa, Fla., hostess who was socially active in military circles there, about e-mails she found disturbing that accused her of inappropriately flirtatious behavior toward Mr. Petraeus.
Mr. Berger took issue with news media reports that have said his client sent shirtless pictures of himself to Ms. Kelley.He was posing with dummies?
“That picture was sent years before Ms. Kelley contacted him about this, and it was sent as part of a larger context of what I would call social relations in which the families would exchange numerous photos of each other,” Mr. Berger said.
The photo was sent as a “joke” and was of Mr. Humphries “posing with a couple of dummies.” Mr. Berger said the picture was not sexual in nature.
RUSH: Okay. So, as far as Krauthammer is concerned, the Obama regime held the scandal over Petraeus' head for favorable Benghazi testimony. But now? Now Petraeus has resigned, or been pushed out, whatever is the case. So now the theory is that Petraeus is free to tell the truth and so his testimony on September 13th -- which was, by the way, "It was a spontaneously combustible little protest out there brought about by the filmmaker."Well that is quite a little theory Rush has got. Heads, he wins, tails, he wins. Petraeous was being blackmailed but now the affair is out, he can tell the truth. If the truth is not something that the Right Wing wants to hear, well then Petraeous is still being blackmailed.
Petraeus did say that, that he traveled to Benghazi himself and did his own investigation. Now he's been fired, or allowed to resign, because somebody who knew about this affair for a long time finally went public with it. You know, it's a reasonable thing to think he might have been blackmailed over this, and it's reasonable to think that he might have wanted to get out from under the blackmail by resigning.
So now everybody's waiting with bated breath for his testimony tomorrow and/or Friday before the Senate and/or House in their off-site, closed-door committees. And there's a bunch of conventional wisdom that's sprung to life that says, "He's gonna go in there and he's gonna tell everybody that it wasn't the video! He's gonna go in there and tell everybody it was not spontaneous-combustion protest.
"He's gonna go in there and tell 'em it was Al-Qaeda, and Al-Qaeda was there, and they were building up, and they planned the attack, and it was for a whole bunch of reasons, but the video had nothing to do with it." I'm sorry; that's not what I think is going to happen. I just don't think it works that way. I mean, a lot of people are holding out hope for honesty and integrity and the American way and doing the right thing.
But would somebody tell me where that's happening in our government?
Would somebody tell me where that can be relied on anywhere, by anybody, at the government level?
I don't see it.
And I think they've still got something to hold over Petraeus.
FBI agent in Petraeus scandal was once based in SeattleI guess they became friends during that case.
The agent was identified as Frederick W. Humphries II. His connection to the Pacific Northwest -- and hence to Reichert -- dates back to the 1999 Millennium bombing plot. [snip]
Reichert represent's the 8th District, which is encompasses a large part of suburban King County east of Lake Washington. Before being elected to Congress, he served as King County's sheriff.
A man who sped away from base security on a motorcycle after an altercation at MacDill Air Force Base was shot and killed Wednesday evening, the military said. ...Fuck this. I want a complete investigation. Special prosecutor. The whole shmear.
At about 6 p.m., security was called to the altercation, which wasn't described, at a camping area inside the base, said a statement from the Air Force. A veteran was involved in the altercation with another person, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the incident publicly.
One of the people sped away on his motorcycle and security tried to stop him, the news release said.
He evaded them and went to the Dale Mabry Gate. Law enforcement engaged him and he was shot, the military said.
Rush Limbaugh: Al-Qaeda ‘Gave Up Osama Bin Laden’ To Make ‘Obama Look Good’You've got to hand it to Al-Qaeda for their bipartisan efforts. They paved the way for Bush's crazy wars, but they are happy to help Obama out too. With enemies like that, who needs friends?
We now know that the existence of a personal relationship between Mrs. Broadwell and Gen. Petraeus had been suspected and whispered about by his senior-level colleagues and by his personal staff in the military, who worried that it might become publicly known, since before the time that he came to run the CIA.Except that I thought their affair began after he was confirmed. They spent time together because she was his official biographer, but they keep saying the affair began in January of this year and was over by the summer.
We also know that when he was nominated to run the CIA, that nomination was preceded by a two-month FBI-conducted background check that likely would have revealed the existence of his relationship with Mrs. Broadwell. The FBI agents conducting that background check surely would have seen his visitor logs while he commanded our troops. They would have interviewed his military colleagues and regular visitors and those colleagues who knew him well, working with him every day, and thus learned about his personal life. That’s their job.
That information would have been reported immediately to President Obama and to the Senate Intelligence Committee, prior to Gen. Petraeus‘ formal nomination and prior to his Senate confirmation hearing.
It’s obvious that someone was out to silence Gen. Petraeus. Who could believe the government version of all this? The same government that wants us to believe that FBI agents innocently and accidentally discovered the Petraeus/Broadwell affair a few months ago and confronted Petraeus with his emails a few weeks ago is a cauldron of petty jealousies. From the time of its creation in 1947, the CIA has been a bitter rival of the FBI. The two agencies are both equipped with lethal force, they both often operate outside the law, and they are each seriously potent entities. Their rivalry was tempered by federal laws that until 2001 kept the CIA from operating in the U.S. and the FBI from operating outside the U.S.[snip]There's plenty more if you want to bother reading it all.
Isn’t it odd that FBI agents would be reading the emails of the CIA director to his mistress and that the director of the FBI, who briefs the president weekly, did not make the president aware of this? The FBI could only lawfully spy on Gen. Petraeus by the use of a search warrant, and it could only get a search warrant if its agents persuaded a federal judge that Gen. Petraeus himself — not his mistress — was involved in criminal behavior under federal law.
This weekend, we were supposed to salute our soldiers on Veterans Day,There is more, of course, but I have to warn you it contains this, " You have to understand the sort of pressure he was under in Afghanistan which probably caused for him to cheat on his wife.
But this year, we celebrated it in a different way.
It's tough to deal with when a leader has been found to betray us.
Therefore, it was sad to hear about the scandal of Gen. David Petraeus.
The problem is that whenever one messes around with the females,
They will always share the details to the public circle by word-of-mouth or through e-mails.
Did you catch last week’s Top 12 list on the back page of Newsweek?posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 7:03 PM on November 14, 2012
Yes, it was disgraced CIA director David Petraeus giving “Rules for Living” and it was penned by his biographer and mistress Paula Broadwell.[snip]
4.) There is an exception to every rule. (To a limit)
5.) We all make mistakes. (Some are too big to fix, though.)
Obama Meep-Meeps The Generals?, Letter to the Editor, The Dish, 14 November 2012
The Petraeus case is an excellent example - he was denied the post he most cherished (chair of the JCS) and instead given CIA. But he was required to set aside his uniform and give up his entourage of 50 (amazing!) who followed him in his final appointments. He was denied "special" access to the White House and the president while he ran CENTCOM and Afghanistan. He and other generals were told to treat the chain of command seriously.posted by ob1quixote at 10:00 PM on November 14, 2012
Obama also has become the biggest general slayer since Harry S. Truman. He fired Stanley McChrystal and now David Petraeus, the man who flogged rumors about his own suitability for high political office.
2. She’s just a social climber, albeit a pretty damn canny one. On this view, Kelley and Sis (and Hubby, but especially the twins) really want to fit in with and be High Society with all the trimmings (consistent with not-nice Lebanese stereotype bruited on another thread). And the way to be Somebody in Tampa is to rub shoulders with The Nice Men at the Local Military Base — who just happen to be in charge of carrying out the country’s entire overt and covert warmaking. It’s Salafi-esque, all about the McMansion on the Bay, rubbing shoulders (or hands under the table) with the mighty, the Merc, the “consul” honorific (calls herself “Ambassador,” sez someone), et nauseating cetera.posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:24 AM on November 15, 2012 [1 favorite]
There’s absolutely zero to be shocked about that Broadwell went for the conqueror, the winning general. That’s what it’s always been all about, down the centuries and across the Risk board. If Genghis Khan had been in the room, Petraeus would have been dumped faster than a Texas liberal. Now you may want to say that Petraeus hasn’t exactly scored one of the great military victories in history, and I’m with you on that. All he did was use his Counterinsurgency 101 readings to start basic, obvious CI tactics in Iraq, because, unbelievable as it might seem, we had none, none whatsoever, until he started the Surge.posted by the man of twists and turns at 6:53 AM on November 15, 2012 [4 favorites]
Still, that was more than enough for the US press to make him the best thing since Belisarius.
A computer used by Paula Broadwell, the woman whose affair with CIA Director 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.posted by Egg Shen at 6:58 AM on November 15, 2012 [1 favorite]
The contents and amount of the classified material - and questions about how Broadwell got it - are significant enough to warrant a continuing investigation, the officials said.
QIbHom: Several other US generals have also been accused of treating staff very badly. Which just kind of goes along with the talk above of how generals are political animals, and the really talented military talent never make it that high.Now, come on - what about Gen. Colin Powell? Author of the Powell Doctrine, which helped get us into the second Iraqii War; proponent of the strategy of "Shock and Awe", which was as effective for us in Iraq and Afghanistan as it was for everyone else - dating back as far as Alexander the Great's elephants; and of course the genius who presented unimpeachable proof of Iraqii WMA development to the UN.
He manipulated the White House into escalating in Afghanistan. He ran a campaign in Iraq that was brutally savage."posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:26 AM on November 15, 2012
The snapshot shows Humphries — bald, muscular and shirtless — standing between a pair of equally buff and bullet-ridden target dummies on a shooting range.Punctuation matters!
In Unusual Report, TV Journo Divulges Her Recent Conversations With Petraeus, David Taintor, Talking Points Memo, 15 November 2012
In the summer of 2009, Broadwell told several prominent experts on counterinsurgency warfare that she had been asked by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the newly installed Afghan war commander, to assemble a team of first-tier academics and experts who would conduct an outside evaluation of McChrystal’s highly anticipated review of his war strategy.Does this remind anyone of Jill Kelley asking for an $80 million dollar finder fee in her one meeting with the Petroleum guy? It is as if they don't even know how little they know.
She pressed experts in Washington and Cambridge, Mass., to join her review panel and lobbied senior U.S. military officials in Kabul to back her fledgling “red team” effort, military jargon for an outsider evaluation. The prospective team held a couple of meetings, according to one person who was involved.
But senior military officials who were on McChrystal’s staff said Broadwell was not asked to spearhead an evaluation. The officials, who like others requested anonymity to speak freely about Broadwell and Petraeus, said her attempt to assemble a “red team” review panel was rejected after McChrystal’s aides decided that her experience, her connections and her academic credentials were too thin.
Phillips account included her personal reaction to the news of Petraeus’ affair with Paula Broadwell as well as her personal vouching for Petraeus’ honesty.And what the hell is that supposed to mean? "Not taking Petraeous off the hook at all, but there were two people" We know there were 2 people; no one ever suggested it was a rape. A love affair is TWO people. What passes for "journalism" these days is mind-boggling.
“I also have never known him to tell me something that is not true,” Phillips told Meade. Phillips added that she never experienced Petraeus acting “flirtatious” or “inappropriate.” But she did report that Petraeus confidants describe Broadwell as “aggressive” and a woman who “works her magic.”
“Not taking Petraeus off the hook at all, but there are two people, obviously, in this situation,” Phillips said.
Just Devil's advocating here, but my understanding is that the first email from KellyPatrol was sent to general Allen. There's been some mention that emails from KellyPatrol indicated that the sender knew about the movements of top military personnel (perhaps general Allen).Oh please. It should have been obvious that whoever was sending the emails knew about the generals because she was a member of the same "community" Agent Shirtless is just a paranoid nutjob.
“The process of appointing an honorary consul calls first of all for the recommendation of our embassy in Washington,” says the official, requesting that his name not be used because of the sensitivity of the issue. “Then the ministry will consider that proposal, and we will discuss the issue with the State Department.”In other words the Koreans thought they could meet important military personnel through Ms. Kelley and so gave her an empty, worthless title. Which she took as something on a par with a real ambassadorship. They should have at least showered her with gifts, if she could actually get them what they wanted. Her "honorary Consul" title is unpaid and rather pathetic, just like Ms. Kelley herself.
The official portrays Kelley as fitting the ideal for an honorary consul. “She’s a very social person, very active in the social scene.”[snip]As an aggressive hostess with high-level military contacts, she reportedly made an indelible impression on [Han Duk-soo] before he returned to Seoul early this year to become president of the powerful Korea International Trade Association. He saw her as an influential go-between as Korea and the US expanded economic ties after approval of the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement.[snip]
In the case of Kelley, one of 15 honorary Korean consuls in the US, she provided lines of communication to senior officers at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, headquarters of CENTCOM, the US Central Command.
Their brazen appearances at the annual Office of Strategic Services Dinner in Washington D.C. on October 27 came just two weeks before Petraeus' dramatic resignation last Friday.I just had to link because of the language: Paramour and brazen! Sounds positively Victorian. I'm just missing the word hussy; how dare she be confident! (I'm a little curious as to how she should have looked? Contrite? Embarrassed?)
A photograph shows Broadwell at the event, according to NBC sources, and guests noted she was confident - rather than a woman under investigation for potential national security breaches.
She said Thursday that the twins, Jill Kelley and Natalie Khawam, came to the party uninvited, took their photo with Rubio and quickly left without donating money to his Senate campaign. Aviles posted a photo of the twins with Rubio on Twitter.Ya gotta hand it to those socialites, they worked their butts off trying to make the GOP scene. Odd that they didn't throw any money into his campaign. I guess if it is not a party supply or a jewel or gown for themselves, they are cheapskates. It reminds me of someone who makes a big show of going to church but doesn't throw any money into offering plate.
A Rubio spokesman says the senator doesn't recall meeting the twins and added that Kelley has invited him to parties but he never attended. An attorney for Kelley did not return a phone call.
Meanwhile, off the record, current and ex-CIA officers are telling the press that they never liked Petraeus in the first place. A package of stories in Time portrayed CIA analysts bristling at Petraeus’ martinet style. “The agency’s not a militaristic organization,” one ex-official huffs to the magazine, “They don’t welcome people barking orders without debate.” That follows on a story in the New York Times before Petraeus’ downfall that CIA officials were disinclined to fall in line behind the ex-general. “The attitude at the agency is, ‘You may be the director, but I’m the Thailand analyst,‘” went one memorable quote sourced to an anonymous CIA veteran.I did remember reading that the CIA does not like having outsiders appointed to the directorship and there was a lot of speculation when the affair broke that it was someone inside the CIA that started the ball rolling.
“Military guys tend not to do well, because they treat senior people like Lt. Colonels on their staffs,” one former intelligence official tells Danger Room. “He tried to avoid that. But the bearing is the bearing.”
Former CIA chief Michael Hayden took pains not to criticize Petraeus in any way. But in an interview with Danger Room, he made it clear that the Agency has to go beyond the drone strikes that characterized the Petraeus Epoch at Langley.
But Khawam's troubles don't just end there. She is also currently being sued in Montgomery County for failing to pay the lawyer's fees in her divorce - believed to be in the region of $100,000.So if she is declared bankrupt, will she be able to write off her taxes as well?
The case has been on the court docket for nearly a-year-and-a-half but took a backward step in April when she filed for bankruptcy.
On the bankruptcy filing, Khawam lists $3.2 million in unpaid debt, plus $53,000 she owes the Internal Revenue Service.
Broadwell had been hunting for the perfect gift for Petraeus over the summer and nearly sealed the deal at a security forum in Aspen on July 28. She had allegedly implored Facebook friends for a connection to the then-reigning Tour de France champion. “Can anyone introduce me to Lance Armstrong?” a source who spoke to The New Republic said she wrote.She sounds a bit driven for someone who was no longer having a physical affair.
Broadwell, a noted networker, apparently found that connection: just days before news of the affair appeared in the headlines, she bragged in a tweet that she was scheduled to meet Armstrong on a run in Aspen. “Heading 2 @AspenInstitute 4 the Security Forum tomorrow! Panel (media & terrorism) followed by a 1v1 run with Lance Armstrong,” she tweeted.
While attending the Aspen Security Forum, Broadwell began sharing her plans to introduce the two high profile figures, telling at least six people there about her scheme to hook the two up for a bicycle ride.
The U.S. Department of State says foreign governments have 1,038 honorary consuls in America, and Austria has just over two dozen of them.On the other hand this article states "Honorary consuls do not have the same rights as permanent diplomatic officials, and Kelley's home is not entitled to any specific protection." So maybe she can't get a ticket, but the premises are not protected.
To start the office in late October, Unwin received a map of Austria, stamps for official documents, a CD and sheet music of the national and European anthems, and three flags. He has been studying German and plans to visit Austria this summer.
John McCain, along with several of his fellow Republicans, skipped a classified Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee briefing on the Benghazi consulate attack to hold a press conference about the lack of information on the Benghazi consulate attack.Really this partisanship shit is getting out of hand.
McCain said, "I'm upset that you keep badgering me."So he was caught in a ridiculous position and therefore he had to act like an old lion with a sore paw to get over his embarrassment. I wonder if he just forgot he had a meeting? Alzheimers or incompetent staff?
McCain's spokesman Brian Rogers later told the media McCain missed the Benghazi hearing "due to a scheduling error."
Even before the scandal broke, she had begun to wear out her welcome, flooding senior officers' inboxes with emails and requests for help organizing her social functions. Her constant presence caused some officers' aides to worry about the appearance of an attractive, outgoing woman cozying up to senior military leadersI think I have figured out what went wrong with Jill Kelley's life-- she was trying to do too much, too fast. The life she wanted, accomplished Socialite Hostess, takes years and big money and bigger connections. It seems like she and her sister and her husband were all running out of money and therefore she got too pushy and frantic trying to make it happen faster.
Even so, the letters were unwise and inappropriate, according to military and intelligence analysts who say the expressions of support for Khawam have become symbols of questionable behavior by two of the nation's top warriors.[snip]I think this is going to be another black mark against General Allen who is already being investigated for unseemly behavior.
The letters from Petraeus and Allen - written as the FBI was uncovering the scandal - suggest they did not follow military and intelligence guidelines that warn senior officers to avoid linking their official work with personal activities in their civilian lives.
The letters from Petraeus and Allen to the judge in Khawam's custody case, which appear in the court record, were submitted five months after Khawam's divorce was finalized on April 6.The article goes on to give more details on the allegations by Natalie of physical abuse which the judge dismissed as complete fabrication.
She was ordered to pay child support of $982 a month to her ex-husband, Grayson Wolfe, a lawyer in Washington. He has not responded to requests for comment.
Khawam filed for bankruptcy less than a week after the divorce was final.
‘Call of Duty: Black Ops 2’ [...] was just released this past week.I saw a clip of this on the Rachel Maddow show a couple of days ago. The game itself looks pretty good. He looks OK, same build, same face with grey hair, although I'm not sure I would know it was him unless someone told me.
The story line, written by David S. Goyer, includes Petraeus in several key scenes in the game. We first see him as part of the game in a preview where in one of the single-player cut scenes where he is given one of the prisoners to board onto the aircraft, which was named the ‘USS Barack Obama’. The Petraeus character is also seen talking with Admiral Tommy Briggs about the possibility of a geopolitical conflict that starts the game. In a later cut scene, Petraeus is seating on a military plane with the fictional Commander in Chief
The Virginia Beach company, Kriss Arms, would say nothing about how Broadwell came to star in the six-minute promotional video, sharing her insights on the combat benefits of a lightweight automatic weapon. Nor would they say if Broadwell was paid for the appearance – though her co-star in the video told ABC News that he was provided airfare and hotel accommodations, but no other compensation.But while she may or may not have been paid, watchdog groups are "troubled" by her appearance
"It's one of these basic things that you see in Washington constantly, which is access for contractors to help them get a foot in the door," said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project On Government Oversight, a non-partisan group that seeks to expose abuses of power, mismanagement, and government waste.I would find it extremely surprising if she didn't get more for her time (and proximity to Petraeous) than hotel accommodation and airfare-- otherwise why would she bother? Her book was coming out in January with a big book tour to follow. Don't forget she has 2 kids and a husband, so I doubt she had a lot of extra time on her hands.
Brian said she suspects the company saw an opportunity to put its little-known product in view of one of the most powerful voices on military policy in the country. "I think it's honestly pretty brilliant on the part of the company," she said. "But it's one of these sad things that we're fighting so hard. It's an uneven playing field. That is not how a contract should be decided."
A man and woman arrived to the home on Mount Vernon Avenue before dusk Thursday, but the FBI confirmed the two people were not federal agents. After 15 minutes inside, the pair left with a gray sweater and a black bag of unknown items.and sure enough there is a picture of a man carrying a wadded up item of clothing and a woman carrying a black trash bag with some stuff.
My friend astutely pointed out that not only did she dishonor her career, she also dishonored the affair itself and her life as a mistress: “She went Fatal Attraction,” my friend commented. “She had no dignity for her affair. I do think there is such a thing as a classy mistress, dignified infidelity.” But instead Broadwell “put her career, his career, her family, his family, on the line.” Indeed, their destructiveness as lovers has been morbidly elegant, and total.posted by the man of twists and turns at 7:11 AM on November 16, 2012 [1 favorite]
It might sound paradoxical, the idea that there is a dignified way to have an affair, or what another friend calls “controlled and managed adultery,” but there is indeed an art to being a discreet, non-vindictive, classy paramour.
Topsy leaned forward. “I never minded about Honey, you know,” she said, slightly lowering her voice. “Quite a nice girl, but thick as a yard of lard. She wasn’t the first, either. Not by a long way. I was Joshua’s mistress once myself.”posted by MonkeyToes at 7:22 AM on November 16, 2012 [2 favorites]
“Really?” He knew he was going to hear it all, whether he wanted to or not.
“Oh, yes,” said Mrs. Lavish. “People understood more then. It was all quite acceptable. I used to take tea with his wife once a month to sort out his schedule, and she always said she was glad to have him out from under her feet. Of course, a mistress was expected to be a woman of some accomplishment in those days.” She sighed. “Now, of course, the ability to spin upside down around a pole seems to be sufficient.”
In the modern era, office-holders with forgiving spouses simply do not resign from powerful jobs because of a temporary, non-criminal, consensual adult sexual liaison, as the history of the FDR, Eisenhower, JFK, LBJ, and Clinton presidencies attest. So, why is Petraeus different? Someone wants to silence him.posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:40 AM on November 16, 2012
Petraeus’s downfall is only as great as we choose to make it. He was an exceptional military officer, and he helped steer a turnaround in what had been a hopeless, bloody mess of a war in Iraq. But his lionization by admiring and opportunistic politicians and fawning journalists and biographers—such as Paula Broadwell, the woman he was involved with—has been craven and boundless: Petraeus as America’s Prometheus. This derived in part from our habit of turning flesh-and-blood men into Paul Bunyans, but it was also the product of a gigantic official spin campaign in which the Bush Administration sought, through Petraeus, to retell the U.S. war in Iraq as a success story.posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:54 AM on November 16, 2012 [1 favorite]
The social climber complains to Tampa mayor Bob Buckhorn that she, along with former CIA director David Petraeus and Gen. John Allen have been “exploited by the media,” in e-mails obtained by the Tampa Bay Times Friday.Who is writing her dialog? "But the truth will one day prevail?" Who talks (er..writes) like that?
"I wouldn't care — if they got the facts right and the focus was on the criminal that stalked all of us," she wrote on Tuesday, in an apparent reference to Paula Broadwell, Petraeus’s biographer and mistress. "But the truth will one day prevail." Kelley is said to know the mayor socially.
"to put insult to injury, your police dept gave the local 911 tapes to the press!" Kelley’s cell phone number was released in the police dispatch recordings and as a result, she says she has been “receiving threats all night."I think Buckthorn is going to find his party invitations are dried up. Oh who am I kidding. Once the parties start up again the Mayor will be just as welcome as ever.
Buckhorn told the newspaper that he didn’t act on Kelley’s complaint and called the police tapes "public record."
After hosting a reception for Buckhorn in April 2011, Kelley frequently traded emails with him and dropped names ranging from the King of Jordan to Allen and Petraeus, whom she referred to informally as "Dave."A textbook case of how to be a social climber. "I was at the WH with my friends in the administration" You almost have to admire her. Anyone familiar with the Lucia books will recognize how to exaggerate brief encounters and imply intimate connections with people who are acquaintances.
Among the dozens of emails were Kelley's description of her role as "ambassador to the coalition," hosting visitors to Central Command at her home for a 15-course Lebanese meal at her home. Kelley's family is originally from Lebanon.
And in March 2012, when a Tampa DJ nicknamed "Bubba The Love Sponge" said he was going to "deep fat fry" a Koran as a stunt, Kelley emailed the mayor, claiming that Petraeus and Allen asked her about "getting this dealt with." She said she considered getting her "1st Amendment lawyer" to sue the DJ.
The mayor responded that the city was "working on it."
"OK keep me in the loop," Kelley wrote. "Gen Allen will be calling me from Afghanistan at 1 p.m on this-and our next step."
Just days before the scandal broke, Kelley emailed Buckhorn, a Democrat, and gushed about visiting the White House.
"I was at the WH with my friends in the Administration this weekend - the stress was surreal!" she wrote. "But glad POTUS has been reelected!"
On Friday morning, Paula Broadwell was seen furiously texting during breakfast, but the couple's mood remained light. Later that day, news would break of Gen. Petraeus's resignation. That evening, around suppertime, Slate would identify Paula as the general's ex-mistress. But for now, apparently, things were good.God. The timing. Of course you have to wonder if her husband knew about the affair before the weekend. I hope he did because taking your wife on a romantic weekend to celebrate her 40th birthday only to be told a) I had an affair, honey and b) and by the way it is going to be national news, would put a damper on the weekend.
For dinner, Scott Broadwell pulled out all the stops and took the mother of his two children to the kind of place locals propose marriage in--the Inn at Little Washington--the kind of restaurant that could serve as the setting for whatever scene a Julia Roberts or Renee Zellweger rom-com spends 90 minutes leading up to. The place champions local farmers and food artisans, and encourages diners to visit their gardens and orchards by walking the path through what it describes as "the Field of Dreams." It also has bizarrely personalized menus.
The Broadwells arrived at the restaurant a happy couple. They didn't leave that way.
What happened in that hour or so between the seating and dessert is anyone's guess (a spokeswoman for the Inn said it was the restaurant's policy not to comment on guests).
Did Paula Broadwell laugh in the face of fate and order the "Tin of Sin" American osetra caviar with peekytoe crab and rillette to start?
Did they debate the merits of the "Marriage of Hot and Cold Foie Gras" with Sauternes jelly and fig marmalade?
However it started, the ramifications will continue to flow. Gen. John Allen, Petraeus' successor in leading NATO troops in Afghanistan, insisted the 20,000 to 30,000 pages of emails he shared with Kelley are not evidence of an affair. Both Petraeus and Allen are friends of Kelley. Their names appear in the court file of Kelley's twin sister's tumultuous divorce, according to the New York Post. Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., are also mentioned. This has a bad look to it on its own.Also mentioned? In the divorce proceedings?
Central to some of the other political associations is the man who was the vice chair of finance for John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign: Democratic fundraiser and lobbyist Gerald Harrington. According to those who know Harrington, he has had an "on-again off-again" relationship with Khawam, who got divorced last April and lost a contentious battle for custody of her four year old son. He extended Khawam a large personal loan worth $300,000, according to her bankruptcy records.Wow. You know, the sheer scale of the grift here is just amazing. I mean, part of me almost admires the chutzpa it would take to pull this sort of long con off.
Update, 4:52 p.m.: According to the Associated Press, the CIA excised mentions of terrorist groups from the talking points “so as not to alert them that U.S. intelligence was on their trail.” Pentagon spokesman George Little had said the day following the attack that the U.S. would retaliate, but did not give any specifics as to who was responsible.posted by homunculus at 6:15 PM on November 16, 2012
But there’s a wary undertone to these discussions because few military spouses believe that adultery is worthy of the tabloid-like headlines it has received during the last few days, particularly if there are no national security issues at stake (which there don’t appear to be in the current scandal). Many military spouses feel that the avalanche of media interest in the Petraeus affair is disingenuous at best—at worst, prurient with a pinch of schadenfreude. Not only do none of us want our marriage parsed by others, but we hear the profound truth in the Onion’s recent headline, “Nation Horrified to Learn About War in Afghanistan While Reading Up On Petraeus Sex Scandal.” Ten years of combat, and this is what grabs America’s attention?posted by the man of twists and turns at 1:36 AM on November 17, 2012 [3 favorites]
These headlines reflect (and they are not cherry-picked) the Weekly Standard’s investment in Petraeus and his consistent advice that America remain in Afghanistan for the foreseeable future. This view was echoed on talk radio and Fox News—that President Obama was somehow “weak” for wanting to withdraw from Afghanistan too quickly, and that Petraeus was the man whose advice we should ultimately follow.posted by the man of twists and turns at 5:25 AM on November 17, 2012 [7 favorites]
It has become common rhetoric in both major political parties to “defer to the generals” on foreign policy—the notion that military experts know more than the President. But we are not a banana republic: In the United States, the President is the Commander-in-Chief and the generals follow his command. This does not mean generals and other experts are not consulted. It does not mean that they are the ultimate arbiters of war. The Constitution outlines that Congress declares war, presidents devise it, and generals wage it. Our Founders preferred civilian rule to military, knowing full the dangers of the latter.
That generals should have a primary or even final decision in our foreign policy runs counter to the core principles of our constitutional republic. So does the concept of perpetual war itself.
TAMPA — Her business card is utterly ordinary. No big titles. No hint of connections with the military and political elite. It lists her address, her phone number and her name in elegant script:She puts "Honorable" on her business cards? Of course she does. I'm amazed she left it at "Honorable" and didn't add "Consul, Ambassador, and White House Liaison."
"Honorable Jill G. Kelley."
But the outsized portrait of herself that Kelley presents to the world will fit on no card. It's seen in her emails to Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn and others. She drops names. She mentions lunch at the White House in a casual aside, one of three visits she has made there in the last six weeks.
In his day every social invitation and meeting with a civilian was examined by his staff to make sure it would not reflect poorly on the military, said Zinni, a Virginia resident who is now an outside director of the aerospace company BAE Systems.Retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni was chief of U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base 10 years ago. I guess things have loosened up since he left allowing Jill, the human shark, more than enough wriggle room to snork up all the generals carelessly left lying around unguarded.
Zinni said his staff judge advocate — an office providing legal support to a military commander — helped him navigate these sometimes perilous shoals.
[Jill Kelley] didn't exactly impress the leader of the Henry B. Plant Museum Board in the three years after then-Mayor Pam Iorio appointed her.Boy, I bet Buckthorn is regretting that decision now. It is amazing how many pies she had her fingers in and how many people now claim they were lukewarm on her personae. Yet she scampered up the social ladder like an overly-caffeinated monkey and may yet profit from someone else's adulterous affair; TV show, book, or exclusive interview, somehow she will elevate her status and bask in the profitable glow of publicity
"She was a wild-card appointment from the mayor and has not been active or effective," Executive Director Cynthia Gandee e-mailed city officials in April. "However, we felt we should talk with her."
Despite the weak endorsement — and the fact that she showed up at only seven out of 24 meetings her first term — Mayor Bob Buckhorn reappointed her in May to another three years
Merriam-Webster Online — Trend watch » 'Inviolable':"Lookups spiked on November 14, 2012.Yeah I bet they did. Lets not forget that this is the same woman who declared, "The truth will prevail."
Petraeus accepted an award in a ceremony at the Kelleys' home last year: A photo (right) shows Petraeus kissing Jill Kelley on the cheek after he was presented with an award in the summer of 2011.What award and why in the Kelley home? I don't dare hope this was some made-up award from Jill herself. Because that would be spectacularly delicious (and sure to be residing in a land fill by now.)
The Vienna Convention defines the difference between Honorary Consuls and career Consular Officers. Honorary Consuls do not benefit from the same privileges and immunities as diplomats and are not usually referred to as diplomats. See articles 63-67 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.Most honorary consuls are businessmen. They leverage the position as a networking opportunity. South Korea was misled by J. Kelley's hostessing skills and contacts into assuming she was someone who could advance South Korean interests. She failed. The title is an empty one and she should be ashamed to use it.
"Didn't she only get accreditation three months ago?" says John Gokcen of Kirkland, honorary consul general for Turkey and the current president of the Consular Association of Washington.From the same article about the real lives of Honorary Consuls
"Then she thought she was queen of the world. When we see this kind of thing, it's a disgrace to the consular corps. We feel embarrassed."
Four hours' free parking at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport — "if you're on consular duties, like picking up a VIP."posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 12:30 PM on November 17, 2012 [1 favorite]
Another perk is being invited to hear the governor give the State of the State address, which some might argue perhaps isn't a perk, and also an invite to watch a newly elected governor being inaugurated.
As for a common perception of honorary consuls not having to pay parking tickets: not true, says Gokcen.
He says he tells his family, "Be careful. Watch how you behave. I don't want somebody saying the Turkish consul was violating the speed limit."
The bureau probably would have ignored Kelley's complaint had it not been for information in the emails that indicated the sender was aware of the travel schedules of Petraeus and Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan. Instead, the FBI considered this from the earliest stages to be an exceptional case, and one so sensitive that FBI Director Robert Mueller and Attorney General Eric Holder were kept notified of its progress.posted by dejah420 at 1:57 PM on November 18, 2012
....
An AP review of court records found only nine cases over the past two years that identified cyberstalking or cyberharassment as the underlying crime in federal criminal complaints.
As a long-haired Lebanese-American socialite usually photographed in bright, tailored dresses, Kelley has more photogenic glamour than an academic from Bismarck who favors a severe hairstyle. Bluntly put, Kelley looks the part of the stereotypical homewrecker more than Broadwell does—which is, I’m guessing, a large part of why her visage, not Broadwell’s, has become one of the iconic images burned into the public mind in regards to this affair.Also, a look at the four-star lifestyle.
Although American generals have long enjoyed many perks — in World War II and in Vietnam, some dined on china set atop linen tablecloths — the amenities afforded to today’s military leaders are more lavish than anyone else in government enjoys, save for the president.posted by the man of twists and turns at 5:18 AM on November 19, 2012 [3 favorites]
Tampa, Florida -- Not only did Jill Kelley have MacDill's top brass over at her house, but 10 News has learned she also took multiple flights on military aircraft at taxpayer expense.So not just emailing Gen. Allen, but flying around with him?
In at least one instance, Kelley flew to the nation's capital with General John Allen, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan.
Top officers have access to VIP planes like the C-40, a sort of mini-Air Force One with special communications gear. There's also a modified corporate jet, the C-37A, reserved for high-level officers.
10 News has made numerous requests for flight records to see just how many times Kelley has flown on government-owned planes, but so far the Pentagon says it has not been able to track down the answer.
Retired porn star Jill Kelly should thank her lucky stars General Petraeus couldn't keep it in his pants because his sex scandal scored Kelly a major job offer from porn giant Vivid Entertainment!!! TMZ obtained a letter from Vivid head honchoIt's important that somebody is profiting from this sex scandal, and who better than a porn star? I can't wait for the title to be revealed, hopefully it will use the word peter.
This patent work involves a well-established physicist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Dr. Clifford Krowne, who is listed as a managing member of FullProof LLC's four-person team.posted by syzygy at 9:52 AM on November 20, 2012
Krowne is a highly regarded expert on Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) technology, one of the military's most controversial and secretive research programs. His esteemed research background seems at odds with the tawdry details of the Petraeus sex scandal.
Reached by phone Monday, Krowne told The Huffington Post that FullProof's work concerned science, but said he couldn't comment on the work "because it's a private business." Still, Krowne insisted that whatever was going on with FullProof did not concern him or his work.
"I have nothing to do with it," Krowne said, adding that he did not know why his name was listed on the FullProof incorporation documents filed with Florida's Division of Corporations in mid-August. "I'm not doing anything ... I can't talk to you about it," he said.
Krowne then warned: "News people pursuing stories that is of no relevance to anyone should be very careful."
Like most meritocracies, Petraeus Inc. started off as a force for good. The brainy outsiders took over from flabby, self-satisfied insiders, making the world a little more just and a lot more efficient along the way. (By most accounts, the counterinsurgency manual Petraeus produced during the Iraq war was a major advance in military doctrine.) But, as Young predicted, the outsiders eventually became entitled insiders themselves. They filled their ranks with cronies. They resisted new ways of thinking and become overly susceptible to flattery. The Post describes how Petraeus welcomed the growing hoards of groupies who descended on his command posts, including conservative think-tankers from Washington, for whom he arranged office space and aircraft. Not for nothing did he earn the nickname “King David.”How Washington Makes Love For War
There is one anecdote about Broadwell that perfectly captures the pathology of the foreign-policy establishment: according to one account, when Broadwell would be mildly challenged on aspects of her presentations, she “would frequently become defensive and beg off,” offering responses along the lines of, “Whoa, I thought we were just having a friendly discussion here, not a debate.” In the Beltway foreign-policy community, strategy debate is inherently unfriendly and to be avoided.posted by the man of twists and turns at 3:28 AM on November 21, 2012 [3 favorites]
Broadwell was wishing she never made the leap from Petraeus’ biographer to bedfellow. Her brother says she is “devastated” and racked by guilt over the affair that ended the 60-year-old retired four-star general’s career and jeopardized his 38-year marriage."Jeopardized his marriage"? this is the first I've read that his marriage is in jeopardy. It certainly would not surprise me, especially if Petraeous' retirement means Holly is cut off from the volunteer work she was doing, but I would feel sad for her if the marriage does end over this nonsense.
“She’s been devastated by this,” Stephen Kranz told People magazine. “She is filled with guilt and shame for what she’s done.”
The revelation of Broadwell’s regrets came as she bloodied a female news photographer’s forehead Monday in a confrontation outside the biographer’s Charlotte, N.C., home. Broadwell smacked the photographer with the driver’s-side door of her Nissan Pathfinder SUV.
“I had my camera and in all the chaos the door slammed and I got hit in the head with the flash,” said Nell Redmond, a freelancer for The Associated Press. Redmond suffered a small cut and is not pressing charges.
if you read All In carefully, the book's tone will remind you of pretty much any other authorized bio of any major figure in business or politics (particularly in business), and it will most particularly remind you of almost any Time or Newsweek famous-statesperson profile.posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 2:41 PM on November 21, 2012 [5 favorites]
Which means: it's impossible to tell the difference between the tone of a reporter who we now know was literally sucking the dick of her subject and the tone of just about any other modern American reporter who is given access to a powerful person for a biography or feature-length profile.[snip]
The real scandal in the Petraeus episode isn't that a would-be journalist was sleeping with her subject, it's that lots and lots of other journalists are doing the same thing – metaphorically, anyway.
Nor was Broadwell without a larger plan. After running with Lance Armstrong in July, she volunteered her secret purpose to at least six new acquaintances at the Aspen conference. That evening, over drinks, she told a small group that she had been arguing with her mentor about the direction of her career. Republican moneymen, she said, had approached her about a Senate run in North Carolina. She was tempted. Petraeus, she said in an irritated tone, rejected the idea out of hand. What was her position, he asked, on abortion? Climate change? Gun control? Gay marriage? Tax cuts? Social Security vouchers? Her answers, he told her, would not fit either party, and she should not sell herself out.posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 2:55 PM on November 21, 2012
But then, after years of volunteering at Army posts, the couple settled down in Virginia, and Holly dove into the unglamorous world of financial scams and illegal foreclosures that threaten military families. She worked as director of the Better Business Bureau’s Military Line for six years, providing financial education and advice to soldiers and their wives. Inspired by her and David’s own mistakes—she has said that their first purchases as newlyweds were a red convertible sports car, an apartment they hadn’t seen, and a foosball table—she devoted herself to helping others in financial trouble.[snip]I had read about her volunteer work, I did not know that it was parlayed into a job.
In January 2011, Elizabeth Warren recognized Holly’s passion for assisting military families by appointing her the assistant director of service-member affairs at the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a post she still holds
Before she became enmeshed in a controversy that would take down the director of the CIA, Jill Kelley was considered so valuable to the MacDill Air Force Base community that she was awarded the Joint Chiefs of Staff's second-highest honor to a civilian.Who knew you could get an award for "introducing the Commander, early in his tenure, to local and state officials, particularly the Mayor of Tampa and the Governor of Florida"?
The award was approved by then-Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time, and presented to Kelley on March 18, 2011, by then-Gen. David Petraeus at a ceremony in Washington.
The award recommendation initially was made by Petraeus while he was commander of U.S. Central Command, said Navy Cmdr. Patrick McNally, spokesman for the office of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Col. Otero says the award also speaks to favoritism. He says it is an unusually high honor.Hmmm. I have to wonder if she would have received that honor if she was 6o years old and frumpy. I am also beginning to wonder about the nature of her relationship with Petraeus. He may just be susceptible to flattery, but he seems to be the one behind many of her special awards.
"Soldiers that work in that command -- the captains, the majors, the sergeants, the master sergeants -- they don't have access to the four-star [general]. It's impossible to have access to the four-star."
Kelley's attorneys sent a cease-and-desist letter to New York businessman Adam Victor; a complaint to the Florida bar against Tampa attorney Barry Cohen, and a letter to the U.S. Attorney's Office demanding that it investigate to find out who in the FBI leaked her name to the news media. Representatives of attorney Abbe Lowell emailed copies of the letters to The Associated Press.posted by the man of twists and turns at 5:25 AM on November 28, 2012
lodurr: SLoG: I am also beginning to wonder about the nature of her relationship with Petraeus. He may just be susceptible to flattery, but he seems to be the one behind many of her special award.lodurr, while I agree with the points you are making... her actual influence and access are far more dangerous than the fact that his tab-A did or did not go inside her slot-B.
People are too quick to assume actual canoodling IMO. The insinuation that canoodling might at some point occur is usually much more powerful. Just ask a successful stripper.
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*cough*
posted by mykescipark at 3:06 PM on November 9, 2012 [18 favorites]