In a surprising, and fortunate (for the Administration) move, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, General David Petraeus, resigned yesterday, citing an extramarital affair as the reason.
The Wall Street Journal reports
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.
Multiple officials familiar with the investigation identified the woman as the author of a biography on Mr. Petraeus.
It was the second national-security revelation to come to light in the two days after President Barack Obama won re-election. On Wednesday, the Pentagon acknowledged that Iranian fighter planes had fired on an unmanned reconnaissance drone five days before the election. Some Republicans on Capitol Hill were irked that the administration waited so long to make the incident public, while administration officials said they didn’t talk about the attack because the drone program was secret.
Mr. Petraeus’s resignation also comes at a time when the CIA is embroiled in controversy surrounding the events of Sept. 11, 2012, when four Americans were killed in an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. After weeks of conflicting accounts of what happened that night, the CIA acknowledged it had played a central role in gathering intelligence and providing security for the U.S. presence there.
Mr. Petraeus was scheduled to testify before the Senate intelligence committee next week. Michael Morell, who was named acting director of the CIA after Mr. Petraeus’s resignation, will appear instead.
The resignation, which stunned the nation’s capital, represented a fall for a man who had been one of the most celebrated military leaders of his time, a four-star general credited with turning the tide in Iraq and reversing the Taliban’s momentum in Afghanistan.
Administration officials said the White House was briefed on the affair Wednesday by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Mr. Obama was informed Thursday by his staff and met with Mr. Petraeus that day. Mr. Petraeus then offered to resign. The announcement came Friday afternoon.
In a statement to CIA employees, Mr. Petraeus said, “After being married for over 37 years, I showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair. Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours.”
CIA Director David Petraeus resigned as head of the intelligence agency, saying he “showed extremely poor judgment” by engaging in an extramarital affair. Neil King has details on The News Hub. Photo: AFP/Getty Images.
His wife, Holly, the daughter of a West Point superintendent, heads the office for service-member affairs in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency created by the 2010 financial-regulation law.
Multiple officials said Mr. Petraeus’s affair was with Paula Broadwell, a West Point graduate who recently wrote a book on the retired general, “All In: The Education of General David Petraeus.” Efforts to reach Ms. Broadwell were unsuccessful. A spokeswoman for her publisher, Penguin, did not immediately comment.
The computer-security investigation—which raised questions about a potential compromise to national security—points to one reason Mr. Petraeus and the White House decided he couldn’t remain in the senior intelligence position. An extramarital affair has significant implications for an official in a highly sensitive post, because it can open an official to blackmail. Security officials are sensitive to misuse of personal email accounts—not only official accounts—because there have been multiple instances of foreign hackers targeting personal emails.
Okay. Let’s try to absorb this, shall we? The head of the CIA, an Army Legend, who has been married 37 years, all of the sudden resigns over an affair, just a few days before he is scheduled to testy before Congress about the Administrative negligence and possible treason that stood by and watched 4 brave Americans, including an Ambassador get murdered, in real time, and did nothing about it, except fallaciously blame the attack on a video no one has seen.
I question the timing. And, I’m not the only one.
Fox News Military Expert, Lt. Colonel Ralph Peters does, also:
The timing is just too perfect for the Obama administration. Just as the administration claimed it was purely coincidence that our Benghazi consulate was attacked on the anniversary of September 11th. Now it’s purely coincidence that this affair — extra-marital affair — surfaces right after the election, not before, but right after, but before the intelligence chiefs go to Capitol Hill to get grilled. As an old intelligence analyst, Neil, the way I read this — I could be totally wrong, this is my interpretation — is that the administration was unhappy with Petraeus not playing ball 100% on their party-line story. I think it’s getting cold feet about testifying under oath on their party-line story. And I suspect that these tough Chicago guys knew about this affair for a while, held it in their back pocket until they needed to play the card.
I don’t like conspiracy theories, I may be totally wrong, but the timing of this, again, right after the election and right before Petraeus is supposed to get grilled on Capitol Hill, it’s really smells.
Yes, sir. You’re absolutely right.
As with the Iranian Drone Attack, it’s as if the Administration thinks that the citizens it is supposed to be protecting, and paying their salaries, are nothing but a bunch of sheep, who will believe anything they tell us.
By now, you newer readers are saying, KJ, you say you’re a Christian. Doesn’t the Bible say to obey your leaders?
Yes, it does, But, there is an often-overlooked addendum:
6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing.
7a Render to all what is due them: b tax to whom tax is due; c custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.
The underlined verses are the part that this Administration ignores, to their own peril…and ours.
As I wrote yesterday, this Administration reminds me of the old Soviet Union.
And, we know what happened to them.
Mr. President, tear down this wall…of disinformation.
Until He comes,
KJ
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