L’affair Petraeus widens
Ya know, I’m not a big conspiracy guy, but there’s some really weird stuff going on. Tman sends us a link to Associated Press that says that somehow General John Allen, Petraeus’ replacement in Afghanistan, is involved in this whole Petraeus/Broadwell scandal;
In a new twist to the Gen. David Petraeus sex scandal, the Pentagon said Tuesday that the top American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen, is under investigation for alleged “inappropriate communications” with a woman who is said to have received threatening emails from Paula Broadwell, the woman with whom Petraeus had an extramarital affair.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in a written statement issued to reporters aboard his aircraft, en route from Honolulu to Perth, Australia, that the FBI referred the matter to the Pentagon on Sunday.
Panetta said that he ordered a Pentagon investigation of Allen on Monday.
And while that’s going on, The Blaze, in a link sent to us by Stu, reports that the FBI was searching Broadwell’s house last night;
A spokeswoman for the FBI has confirmed agents went to Broadwell’s home in Charlotte on Monday night. However, FBI spokeswoman Shelley Lynch declined to say what the agents were doing there.
FBI agents appeared at Broadwell’s home carrying the kinds of cardboard boxes often used for evidence gathering during a search.
Obviously, the government is more concerned with investigating this illicit affair than they are interested in investigating the four deaths at the Benghazi consulate. Already, in four days, we know more about this affair than we know what happened in Benghazi over two months ago. And if it’s not related to Benghazi, at the very least, it was manufactured to distract us from the Benghazi investigation.
Given the number of senior military officers who have fallen to scandal in the last several months, I think we need to clean house at the Pentagon. Or maybe flag officers needs a sensitivity class on how to conduct themselves, or at the very least a nice little semi-annual power point presentation on things NOT to do while in their offices.
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Big Army
I keep wondering how this could possibly get worse then I keep getting that question answered. Its not enough that a real no shit American Hero is disgraced, now we have to try to see how much shit we can throw to the wall.
I mean at this point it’s just getting too fucking silly to be real. Doesn’t really matter. The ones really getting screwed are the troops
Seems to be an awful lot of Flag Officers taking hits lately.
Yezhovshchina anyone?
We just go the official talking points on this seconds ago. So I guess now its a thing…..its like a bad hollywood thriller. All the top guys get replaced by passive sheep and then the country gets taken over…..nothing to see here.
At least the North Korean way to obliterate a General is way more straight forward.
#3 HH6
If I understood you correctly, it sounds as if there is a purge of the officers, to be replaced by Barry’s hand-picked PC pussies. My thoughts as well.
Damn. I liked GEN Allen. He seemed pretty squared away.
Take one look at Jill Kelley. She looks like she’s right out of “Real Housewives of Tampa”.
She’s an “unpaid social events coordinator” at Macdill, married to a prominent cancer surgeon and apparently there is “30,000 pages” YES, 30,000 pages of email between her and General Allen.
You know the “girlz a playa'”
If Mattis goes…that will confirm it for me. This is awfully weird. McCrystal/Caldwell/P4/Allen and I’m not tracking any top AF or Navy dudes. Dempsey has already drunk the Obama cool aide. He just did an ad for AFN with a Seseme street muppet…..I was speechless this morning when I saw it.
What’s really awesome [that’s sarcasm, btw] is based on past scandals (like Tailhook), the enlisted will be subject to MORE sexual harassment/fraternization briefings than they already are. Funny how when an officer gets a zipper malfunction, it means the enlisted need more corrective training.
I thought extramarital affairs were a feature, not a bug, of Dem administrations (see one Clinton, Billy Jeff). You’d think the media would be cheerleading for Petraeus and Allen, telling us how none of this matters.
“Given the number of senior military officers who have fallen to scandal in the last several months, I think we need to clean house at the Pentagon. Or maybe flag officers needs a sensitivity class on how to conduct themselves, or at the very least a nice little semi-annual power point presentation on things NOT to do while in their offices.”
Or at minimum a fucking class on how not to get caught.
Weird? Weird doesn’t even begin to cover the Twilight Zone nature of this shit.
I guess the administration’s policy of releasing bad news only after lunch on Friday’s is blowing up in their faces. C’est dommage.
For anyone who hasn’t actually read up on this stuff lately, some links:
http://news.msn.com/staging/top-general-investigated-in-petraeus-scandal
http://news.msn.com/politics/info-emerges-in-petraeus-case-congress-irked-1
http://news.msn.com/politics/petraeus-case-shows-fbis-authority-to-read-email
That does it. I”m going to make sure that the FBI knows EXACTLY what I’m up to at all times. I’m going to pay a visit to their Chicago office every time I finish something and make them read it while I sit there. I’ll even sign it for them and leave hair samples everywhere.
I just like to get my tax money’s worth out of my employees. 🙂
MikeD–no shit. I was on AD when Tailhook broke. Nothing but officers/aviators in that gauntlet, but funny, I don’t recall ANY khakis sitting through our (quite literally) dozens of hours of training in the immediate aftermath.
You know, people are suggesting that maybe he resigned to get out of testifying.
What if it’s reversed? What if he resigned so he could say exactly what’s on his mind? If he’s resigned, he doesn’t have to worry much about dealing with his “superiors”. I put that in quotes, because I don’t hold those in his chain of command to be of higher character than Petraeus.
I’m with headhunter6…waiting to see who falls next.
Did anyone check in the alley for pods????
I saw on the news the FBI agent who broke this whole thing open was found to have sent shirtless pictures to Ms Jill Kelly, the one who helped start this whole mess.
It seems that this FBI agent had a thing for her. I don’t know how far it got. But she went to him when she started getting these threatening emails. I would guess that the FBI agent, having been “obsesed” with Kelly saw an opportunity to do her a favor, and here we sit. One retired General’s reputation in a mess, one current General’s reputation being demolished, at least two families being screwed up.
@15: If he resigned to get out of testifying, it was a foolish plan – last I heard, they’re planning on calling him in to testify anyway.
@18
Right. And he’d know that.
That’s why its an interesting idea to consider that he might have retired so he could truthfully testify without going against any employer’s interests.
The 20K-30K pages of emails is… damn, that’s weird. Let’s pick the lowest amount and the longest time period (Jan 1, 2010 -> yesterday), that’s 1047 days, so an average of 19 pages PER DAY.
Unless he’s sending her chain e-mails with forwards -or, worse, attached files?- I have no idea how the hell someone, especially someone who is so damn busy, can e-mail that much. I also have no idea why anyone would want to. Fuck, if Kate Upton told me e-mails turned her on, I’d be bored after page 3 or so.
I’m really curious to see if we get more info, and I sincerely hope Allen is innocent of any wrong-doing.
Unfortunately, even if Allen is proven innocent of anything, his name will be forever linked with this garbage.
@6 The one who is “squared away” is Jill Kelley. She’s at the center of the ruination of two generals in the space of a week.
She couldn’t have done better if she was an Al-Queda operative.
Stay tuned. This isn’t over by a long shot.
@23: And my guess is if she was an unpaid ‘event coordinator’ or some such thing at a base, we’ll get some news coming out of that base fairly soon, too. I can’t imagine that was all on the up and up.
That was at 22. Not self-referential.
Bread and circuses, folks. Fiscal cliff? What cliff? The White House just invited the heads of SEIU, AFL-CIO, NEA and others, like John Podesta, to talk about the cliff. Nothing to see here, move along. Benghazi? Nothing to see, look over there, somebody exchanged e-mails with someone else, and there was an affair. Much more important. Jawn ‘Fing Kary for SecDef? Look! 30K e-mails.
If it were me, I’d haul Broadwell into a small, dark room, and find out why she was threatening Kelley. Kelley seems to be the eye of this storm, not the poor innocent “friend of the family” she’s been made out to be.
Oh, and while I was at it…I’d toss Kelley’s house, too. Just for shits and giggles.
@25 UpNorth, you’re correct. All of the meetings — labor, progressives, business, and politician — to do with the “fiscal cliff” are behind closed doors. So much for our “transparent government.”
Like the saying goes: “Here’s what you want, and here’s what you’re gonna pay for it!”
This is a linkg to an NBC video, with another link to a separate video, off to the left side:
http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/49802743/
Watch both of them. As Alice said “Curiouser and curiouser.”
PintoNag is right: this is far from over.
The abundance of 4 star officers either relieved or under investigation in last few years is amazing…
Gen Pace, GEN McKiernan, GEN McChrystal, ADM Fallon, ADM Stavridis, GEN Ward, GEN Ham, Gen Cartwright, Gen Allen, GEN Petraeus…
Gen Allen’s Senate confirmation hearings as SACEUR/NATO chief has been suspended…essentially the end of the line for Gen Allen’s upward mobility. He is scheduled to relinquish ISAF command to replacement Gen Joe Dunford in a few months. Gen Allen must be assigned another 4 star post or retire within 60 days after he leaves ISAF to avoid being reduced to Maj Gen. If he is kept on active duty pending conclusion of investigation (these go on for many months), Gen Allen will suffer same fate as former 4 star MG Kip Ward…a make work “special assistant” position as a 2 star while he awaits the outcome.
Allegedly the illicit e-mail traffic goes back to while he was the deputy at CENTCOM as a 3 star under GEN Petraeus & Gen Mattis…this is very very bad news for Gen Allen. He was one step away from assuming command of SACEUR, the most glamourous & historic 4 star theater posting in U.S. military and now faces the very real possibility he may be retiring as a 2 star once all is said and done.
Add Gen Ward to the “demoted” column: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1112/83770.html
For many years, military officers were considered by the public as honorable men and women, worthy of respect. With so many officers under investigation or being dismissed on one way or another – PLUS – the consistent news stories of veterans being just this side of psychotic, rampaging murderers equals the military as a whole is now views as just a collection of sub-human, murderous f*ckers out to rape anyone and kill whenever ordered.
Petraeus’s circle of friends, protoge’s, and like-minded officers are being cut out of the service as if they are a cancer. This was not unexpected – after every war the US sees the Guardians regain control and return the military to existing for the next war. What is unusual is the breadth of this biopsy. CENTCOM, EUCOM, AFRICOM, HQMC – interesting nexus: the battlegrounds for Jihad in our century, where the jihadists are winning.
Inside of a week, we’ve seen America’s top 3 intelligence agencies (in terms of competence and results: DoD, State, and CIA) removed – so there’s no one to tell the POTUS of problems. We’re seeing the 4-stars who could have told the POTUS of problems – and have acted to protect America – removed.
Odierno is next. He was a protoge’ of Petraeus.
It just gets deeper and deeper.
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/13/15130151-defense-official-fires-back-denies-afghanistan-commander-exchanged-inappropriate-emails
http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/13/15119278-infidelity-intrigue-and-politics-a-timeline-of-the-david-petraeus-case?lite
Getting rid of some of the highest paid 0’s is one way to cut the military budget. 😉
And it is now getting weirderd and weirder:
http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/13/15147228-as-fbi-investigated-petraeus-he-and-allen-intervened-in-nasty-child-custody-battle?lite
I can only say “WTF?”
This whole thing kinda reminds me of “Wag the Dog”, except if the “script” had been written by Soap Opera writers.
@15 and 18,
Now that he’s no longer head of those Christians In Action, he could very well say he signed a nondisclosure and cannot provide any details. His successor can also say he wasn’t in charge at the time and was not privy to those details.
Scubasteve: actually, no. Congressional committees hear classified testimony in closed session periodically. And – like the President – by virtue of their position Congressmen are both authorized and cleared to hear it. NDA would not apply, as this would be an authorized disclosure and NDAs apply only to unauthorized disclosures.
For an example, look at the Pike and Church committee hearings of the 1970s.
FIRST ON CNN: Paula Broadwell military promotion revoked
By Barbara Starr
The Army has revoked the promotion of Paula Broadwell, the one-time mistress of CIA Director David Petraeus, according to a Defense Department official.
Broadwell, a major in the Army reserves, had been approved last August for promotion to lieutenant colonel. The Army made the decision to revoke the promotion earlier this month, a Defense Department official told CNN. The source declined to be named because of the sensitive nature of the personnel information.
Since the Petraeus scandal broke, Broadwell has been under investigation by the Army for having classified information in her home without permission. She was initially on the list of approved promotions back on August 28, 2012. But under Army regulations “if new information comes to light” within six months of a promotion date it could make the person ineligible. Broadwell was deemed ineligible for promotion because she is under investigation for a matter that could result in her being punished by the Army, the official said. The promotion is revoked until the matter is resolved, the official said. If cleared, she would be eligible again.
Her security clearance, which was suspended last year, also has not been reinstated.