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The General should have kept it zipped up!

Tuesday, November 20, 2012 7:11

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Anything and everything anytime

Former C.I.A. director General David Petraeus had to resign because of an extra-marital affair. A juicy sex scandal, exactly what the U.S. media loves.

According to Petraeus associate Steven A. Boylan, Petraeus began an affair with Paula Broadwell, principal author of his biography, All In: The Education of General David Petraeus, in late 2011 when he was no longer an active duty military officer. Petraeus reportedly ended the affair in the summer of 2012, around the time that he learned that Broadwell had been sending harassing emails to a longstanding family friend of the Petraeuses, Jill Kelley.

Kelley, a Florida socialite who frequently entertained senior military personnel at her and her husband’s Tampa mansion, had approached an acquaintance who worked for the FBI Tampa Field Office in the late spring about anonymous emails she considered threatening. The Bureau traced the emails to Broadwell and noted that Broadwell appeared to be exchanging intimate messages with an email account belonging to Petraeus, which instigated an investigation into whether that account had been hacked into or was someone posing as Petraeus. According to an Associated Press report, rather than transmit emails to each other’s inbox which would have left a more obvious email trail, messages were left in a draft folder which were then read when the other person logged into the same account.^[179]

Although US Attorney General Eric Holder was aware early on that the FBI had discovered an affair, it was not until November 6, 2012, that Petraeus’ nominal superior, Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper, was advised. That same evening Clapper called Petraeus and urged him to resign. Clapper notified the White House the next day, November 7. After being briefed on November 8, President Obama summoned Petraeus to the White House where Petraeus offered his resignation. Obama accepted the resignation on November 9, and Petraeus cited the affair when announcing that same day that he would be resigning as CIA Director.