Petraeus’ stars on the chopping block?

| January 19, 2016

According to the Daily Beast, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter may be considering a reduction in rank for General David Petraeus to Lieutenant General (three stars) because of his flirtation with malfeasance in regards to Paula Broadwell, his extra-curricular activity while he commanding troops in the war against terror and she was, ostensibly, writing his biography. Carter considering the reduction in rank is supposed to send a message to flag officers to rein in their bad behavior;

“The secretary is considering going in a different direction” from the Army, a defense official told The Daily Beast, because he wants to be consistent in his treatment of senior officers who engage in misconduct and to send a message that even men of Petraeus’s fame and esteemed reputation are not immune to punishment.

Pentagon spokesperson Peter Cook told The Daily Beast that Carter had requested the information ex-Army Secretary John McHugh had when he made his recommendation on the matter, before reaching a final decision. McHugh had recommended taking no action against Petraeus.

Well, if the goal is to send a message, I doubt it will work. If a four-star general doesn’t know that an extra-marital affair could get him in trouble, there is a failure of the system. In addition to dipping his pen in the company ink, he also lost control of classified information – there is no cure for stupid. But, yeah, take his rank, cut his pension, cut the pensions of all of those flag officers, while you’re at it, whether they did something bad or not. Might as well cut the pensions of retired Congress people, too.

According to Pentagon figures, a four-star general with roughly the same years of experience as Petraeus was entitled to receive a yearly pension of nearly $220,000. A three-star officer would receive about $170,000.

Yeah, it won’t balance the budget, but I doubt he’ll miss the money.

Thanks to Kristoffer for the link.

Category: Big Pentagon

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Skippy

Never Dip you Pen in Company Ink ! ! ! !
I guess the rules don’t apply to flag officers

Martinjmpr

I’m pretty sure the only rules that DO apply to flag officers are:

1. Don’t get caught
2. Don’t embarrass your boss

😉

Skippy

WORD ^^^^^^
🙂

OldSoldier54

So it seems. Alas …

desert

Ashton Carter, the obama kiss ass! Obama doesn’t like Petraeus because he didn’t kiss obamas ass, so carter will fix that and teach him a lesson, then he will go to the bathhouse with barry the fruitcake!!

Green Thumb

One would think that Assclown Carter would have better things to do like UNFUCK the Army.

Climb to Glory

Word. The most politicized Pentagon ever. Priority número uno for them is politics.

Ex-PH2

‘flirtation with malfeasance in regards to Paula Broadwell’

I thought it was ‘flirtation with Paula B’.

But what do I know?

rb325th

Why is this even happening now? Is this just one more stab at the Old Guard that Obama and his cronies so despise? I get what he did was wrong as hell, and he lost big time for it. He was punished already…
Shouldn’t carter be concentrating on creating a whole My Little Pony Brigade or some other nonsense? It would probably be a more meaningful use of resources than to go back and investigate the investigation that took place before his time.

NECCSEABEECPO

I know it may not make sense but I believe they are prepping the way incase they have to indict HC. I also think that the FBI is going to release in the next 60 days. I it is not right but I think they believe it will lesson the blow on HC…

OC

“My Little Pony Brigade”
Bwahahahaha.
That’s funny right there!!!!

CWORet

A Brony-Brigade?

gitarcarver

Well, if the goal is to send a message, I doubt it will work. If a four-star general doesn’t know that an extra-marital affair could get him in trouble, there is a failure of the system. In addition to dipping his pen in the company ink, he also lost control of classified information – there is no cure for stupid.

If the goal is to send a message, I doubt it will work. If a President doesn’t know that an extra-marital affair could get him into trouble, then there is a failure in the system. In addition to dipping cigars into the company ink, his wife lost control of classified information – there is no cure for stupid.

So let the stupid voters elect the wife president and venerate the ex-President!

calypsofacto

You know what would REALLY send a message about improper safeguarding of classified information in email? Convict Hillary!!

nbcguy54ACTUAL

He’ll use his pension to pay the tax bill on his book deal(s).

Poetrooper

Think for a moment about where else we hear Petraeus’ name mentioned in the news nowadays. He is often used by conservative journalists as an example of a high-ranking government official who was punished for his mishandling of classified information in their discussions of whether or not the Obama administration will indict a former secretary of state.

Could this be a precursor to that event? Could Obama be clearing the way so to speak, creating an informal legal precedent under which to indict Hillary? One could argue that the head of the CIA is just as high-ranking as secretary of state.

Just sayin’…

Guard Bum

My thoughts as well Poe, I suspect their is a little leakage in the granny panties over this and it may partially explain why the Hildebeast is now all gushy over Obumbles.

Claymore

Maybe Petraeus could trade his stars for Hillary some stripes…and a 20 year bid…

Semper Idem

He probably WOULD miss the money. That’s the thing with human nature. When we get accustomed to having luxuries, we can’t imagine life without them. That’s why we hear of J. Random Hollyweirdo whining about how they can’t POSSIBLY live on ten million dollars a year. Shoot, the average person is set for life on ten million, right? Right – but they are so accustomed to the high life that they just can’t imagine life as one of the little people.

Sorry; got too off topic there. You really want to send a message? Reduction in rank to 2LT, forfeiture of all pay and bennies, and loss of all retirement income. Throw in a ban on future Federal employment and that should be plenty. If we’re going to send a message that little ‘indiscretions’ will not be tolerated, we need to start at the top. Remember, a fish rots from the head down.

Silentium Est Aureum

$50k/yr for life is a lot more than he ever handed down at any NJP he ever sat.

It’s also a shit load more than Sandy Berger had to pay for raiding the National Archives.

Luddite4Change

Given that the transfer of classified information occurred when he was CIA Director (after he had been retired from the Army), is the SECDEF just hanging his hat on the affair? Where does that stop, General Eisenhower?

Hayabusa

The unauthorized disclosure of classified info may have occurred when Petraeus was CIA director, but if I understand correctly, it was information that he acquired while still serving on active duty in Afghanistan.

Luddite4Change

True. Perhaps the additional issue that could be used was that he was supposed to turn the note books over to the NDU classified library.

Hondo

The mishandling of classified apparently occurred while he was DIR CIA and after his retirement from active duty. However, it’s possible the affair between Petraeus and Broadwell occurred, at least in part, while he was still in uniform. That earlier misconduct may be what causes him to lose a star and a chunk of retired pay.

I don’t believe post-retirement misconduct can be used to justify an administrative determination that service at a particular active-duty rank prior to retirement was not satisfactory. But adultery (or other misconduct) that occurred pre-retirement may well be a different story.

Luddite4Change

I believe you are correct, that there must be pre-retirement misconduct. I’d have to also think that there are provisions in place for some type of board process, prior to a final determination from the SECDEF.

Unless there is more than just the adultery, I just don’t know if this is the can of worms that the DOD lawyers really want to open.

Luddite4Change

WFIW, if we really want to put a stop to the various types of crap that senior officers have gotten into lately the solution is fairly simple. Make all Flag Officer promotions temporary. You retire as an O-6, unless the individual officer shows that all his/her service at a higher grades was honorable.

If someone is charged, suspended, or relieved they immediately revert to O-6, until final disposition or mandatory retirement.

Hondo

Sounds kinda like a variant of the old pre-DOPMA “RA and AUS” system.

Wouldn’t be very hard to do that. All we’d have to do is make O7 and O8 temporary ranks – like O9 and O10.

Luddite4Change

That system worked pretty well for around 200 years, so it might have had some good points.

Alemaster

I’m not a big Petreus fan but he was blown and is now getting screwed while former acting SecArmy blew and was a hero for it. I’m confused. regards, Alemaster

Climb to Glory

This administration makes me sick. It’s always politics with these fucks. Who needs to win wars. We must battle “climate change.”

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/pentagon-ordered-to-address-climate-change/

Mike P

This administration does nothing that isn’t politically motivated. Even though the FBI investigation of Petraeus was completed prior to the last presidential election, the results and his resignation didn’t occur until Obama was reelected.

While there is speculation that this is setting up for possible charges and prosecution against HC, don’t forget that Petraeus just recently testified in closed session at the Benghazi hearings. Without know what he testified to, this could also be payback or a warning about future testimony. Can’t have the great leaders legacy tarnished you know.

UpNorth

And, whatever Petraeus said in closed testimony, you can bet that Elijah Cummings was on the phone to Øbama and Hillzy within minutes.
This could very well be a pre-emptive strike to head off any bad things that were brought up in his testimony.

Sean

Given that all parties involved have acknowledged that the affair commenced after he retired, and that he had to resign as director of the CIA, and all the public humiliation he has suffered, I don’t really see the point.

Used to be Stillserving

220K per year retired? Unbelievable! Now that I am back in civilian employ. There is no way I will ever have a retirement account big enough for that kind of pension and I earn a six figure income. No wonder none of the flag officers want to stand up against the social engineering this administration is ruining our military with….

Civilian She

Petraeus 2016! Write in.

If HC can run, why can’t he? He’s a hell of a lot better candidate than the whole lot of them. Always thought so even during that time when I was peeved he ruined a sparkling career for some tail (he’s partially why I even paid/ay attention).

The rest is all politics and I am tired of it. Vote Peaches 2016.

robin

What happened, Why didn’t he get prosecuted for adultery by the Army. He admitted the affair. What about Paula Big Boobs with blouse unbuttoned so the General can see them. She is or was a LTC in the Army, why wasn’t she prosecuted for adultery? I will say the General does have an eye for beauty. For an Army 05, she is very attractive. I will also say, the was probably not the only military female to throw themselves at him. I’m sure if it wasn’t for the loneliness and sexual frustration of being combat, the battle tough General would have turned her down. War is Hell…lol

AdamsSamoa

She was a Captain.

D

Actually, she was a Major. Her promotion to LTC was revoked.

Bobo

She was in the USAR when it happened, and not subject to the UCMJ unless on orders.

jonp

Can he do that? I mean, reduce the rank and pension of a retired officer like that?

E-6 type, 1 ea
Devtun

GEN Ward was investigated while on active duty. He had a retirement ceremony attended by VIPs, and instead of taking terminal, was held on AD at the Pentagon (reverting to 2 stars) while investigation was ongoing.

nbcguy54ACTUAL

Generals are never really “retired”. As their promotions are approved by Congress, the rules governing the permanency of their ranks are different. They can be demoted (and even promoted) after leaving the service.

AW1Ed

This just in—>

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/01/19/inspector-general-clinton-emails-had-intel-from-most-secretive-classified-programs.html?intcmp=hpbt1

“Fox News exclusively obtained the unclassified letter, sent Jan. 14 from Intelligence Community Inspector General I. Charles McCullough III. It laid out the findings of a recent comprehensive review by intelligence agencies that identified “several dozen” additional classified emails — including specific intelligence known as “special access programs” (SAP).

That indicates a level of classification beyond even “top secret,” the label previously given to two emails found on her server, and brings even more scrutiny to the presidential candidate’s handling of the government’s closely held secrets.”

Sorry for the thread jack, I thought it was a good contrast. Back to your regularly scheduled discussion. AW1Ed out.

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Club Manager

If half the shit that Fox News attributed to Clinton is true, she needs to spend some time with our favorite bitch in Leavenworth. Never happen but one can dream. Rather than say, “if not for the grace of God there went I” with regards to Petrus, I am just so happy other than the Russian KGB agent who gave me a blow job in Leningrad, none of my illicit friends was interested in anything other than a little strange. And, the KFB agent is actually on the record with CI in Mainz, GE.

James Schardt

I’m actually thinking this is a warning shot across Petraeus’s bow for him to keep quiet. Remember, he was director during the Benghazi attack. He probably knows a lot of stuff they don’t like.

Commissioner Wretched

He probably knows a lot of stuff they don’t want mere mortal nobodies like you and me to know.