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David Petraeus: Leaker, Traitor, or Just Plain ‘Whipped’?
21st Century Wire says…
While Edward Snowden’s attorney announced plans this week for his client’s return to the United States, another ‘leaker’ of state secrets, US General David Petraeus, gets a slap on the wrist, pleading guilty to a “misdemeanor”.
It’s interesting to note how Pentagon-friendly quarters of the US media are still characterizing David Petraeus as a “leaker” (a clever bit of spin by Washington’s media operatives). Unlike Snowden, the former CIA director dumped classified national security secrets, in exchange for the affections of his mistress. What’s worse, Petraeus then lied about it to FBI investigators. Some might even say that his actions were tantamount to treason.
If Petraeus is not going to serve a day for his untoward breach of national security, then neither should Snowden. Unlike Snowden, Petraeus was head of the CIA, which makes his indiscretions much worse by an order of magnitude…
SNARED: Gen. David Petraeus with Gen. John Allen, caught in a double honey trap.
Since the onset, the media have handled this story with kid gloves so as not to offend those who aspired to view Gen. Petraeus as much-needed military “hero”, because he picked up the phone and ordered more US soldiers into the meat grinder of Iraq in 2007. Yes, that’s right. You remember “The Surge”, that great ‘troop surge’ of military folklore, still celebrated by FOX News ‘military experts’ and pundits? The fact of that matter is that it was a cheap marketing ploy spun-up at the time to help then President George W. Bush gracefully exit from office in 2008, somehow claiming to have “won the war” in Iraq. A number of US politicians and military brass had attached themselves to “the surge”, most notably, David Petraeus, hailed as a genius for doing what past officials would normally be lambasted for – sending 30,000 US servicemen into an un-winnable, asymmetric and highly illegal war. Beyond all the hype, in reality, Petreaus and other highly myopic US accomplices merely did their part in birthing the next boogeyman in the 100 year-long War on Terror, ISIS.
Both Peteraeus and Allen appear to have been caught up in double-sided honey trap, and what’s most important is what was going on geopolitically at the time – like the Benghazi Hearings, and Barack Obama’s re-election campaign in the fall of 2012. The FBI, and the media, effectively sat on this story until after the election. In addition to this, back in the fall of 2012, sparks were just beginning to fly between the White House and the Netanyahu government in Israel – a devastating political rift which hit its nadir this week with Netanyahu’s speech to Congress.
When Petraeus finally testified at the Benghazi Hearings in Nov. 2012, it should be noted that he had drastically changed his story from what he said in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the CIA/Embassy villa in Libya which left four Americans dead including US Ambassador Chris Stevens. CNN reported the changing of Petraeus’s story as told by U.S. Rep. Peter King (R-NY):
“He (Petraeus) … stated that he thought all along he made it clear that there was significant terrorist involvement, and that is not my recollection of what he told us on September 14,” King said.
“The clear impression we were given (in September) was that the overwhelming amount of evidence was that it arose out of a spontaneous demonstration, and was not a terrorist attack,” he said.
When this story originally broke in 2012, 21WIRE’s Patrick Henningsen outlined many of the key parameters and background of the case which went unaddressed at the time, and still remains so today:
“Paula Broadwell, maiden name ‘Krantz’, is a top-line US intelligence operative, and has links to arms dealer Jan Henrik Jebsen, who set up her position at Tufts University where she ran the Jebsen Center for Counter-Terrorism Studies at Tufts Fletcher School. Jebsen also has ties to arch-neocons Scooter Libby, Douglas Feith, and Michael Ledeen through his board position with the pro-Israeli Hudson Institute. The Hudson is directly tied to Likud in Israel, and works to cultivate the idea of radical Islam as the chief threat to the west. Paula Broadwell is in the middle of this matrix, and she herself has also worked extensively in Israel and Jordan, as one could image.”
David Petraeus together with Mrs Jill Kelley in Tampa, FLA (2012).
“Broadwell’s father Paul Krantz seems to know something, telling the New York Daily News, ‘it’s about more than the affair’. Paula Broadwell may well have been a kind of elite “honey trap”. It’s a complex web, and the American media would do itself a favour by looking into it properly. Enter the spoiler… (…) It’s Jill Kelley [Lebanese-American, maiden name ‘Khawam’] who kicked-off with mistress Paula Broadwell sent her harassing emails telling her to ‘back off’ Petraeus. ‘Socialite’ Kelley’s complaint made to FBI, who then handed it House Leader Eric Cantor (R), and an investigation was launched. Cantor had recently promised Israel’s Netanyahu that the GOP House would act as a ‘check’ on the White House’s apparent de-prioritising of Israel. What’s amazing is how they managed to sit on this until after the election – it would have crashed Obama’s run, so somehow it didn’t.
“Why is Mrs Kelley is an ‘unpaid social liaison’ to U.S. CENTCOM working out of the military headquarters based at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, a base which overseas oversees operations in the Middle East, including Iraq and Afghanistan? ‘Unpaid’ is often a status used for spies working as informants. If that’s the case, then Jill Kelley’s cover is blown. The White House will want to bury this one as deep as possible.”
Another General who managed to avoid much of the heat from the Petraeus Affair, but who appears himself to have been involved with operative Jill Kelley, is none other than US General John R. Allen, who at the time was America’s top NATO commander in Afghanistan. Allen also came under investigation – for “inappropriate communication” with Kelley, the other half of Tampa’s double-honey pot.
Is Allen compromised? Consider where Allen is right now – in the most key position in the US military establishment – coordinating international efforts against ISIS. In Sept. of 2014, President Obama named him Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition against ISIL.
DOUBLE-TROUBLE: Mrs Jill Kelley and Paula Broadwell were working both sides the US defense establishment.
There are a few other possibilities to consider here. Firstly, it is clear that Paula Broadwell was after classified information. The question is: who was she working for? Quite possibly, this was a partisan sting, as evidenced by Broadwell’s connections to the neoconservative establishment (above). It could also have been a faction within the CIA who were keen to push Petraeus out the door in Langley. The other possibility is even more intriguing… Israel has a well-documented history of running espionage programs inside of the US, a fact which has been detailed by many recent federal investigations and damning assessments. In addition, was the revelation in 2014, that Netanyahu was blackmailing then President Bill Clinton circa 1997 with recordings of Clinton’s sex chats with intern Monica Lewinsky – in order to secure the release of Israeli spy ring leader Jonathan Pollard at the time. Was General Petraeus, or General Allen, involved in a similar “leverage” situation as Bill Clinton?
Also, among Kelley’s “powerful acquaintances” included the very FBI agent she allegedly told to look into the emails received from Paula Broadwell – which propelled the entire story to begin with. It appears that Kelley, either out of jealousy or by design – had burned Broadwell’s cover, and the rest is history. One might easily conclude here that Petraeus was first intimate with Kelley, and then after with Broadwell.
Both Petraeus and Allen not only compromised US national security, then were let off the hook after doing so. Contrast this, their adolescent carelessness and exposing high-level military affairs (to foreign governments?), to another US General – James E. Cartwright, who was crucified at the alter of national security for blowing the whistle to the New York Times about the reckless US-Israeli cyber terrorism program, ‘Operation Olympic Games’, which planted the infamous Stuxnet and Flame viruses in Iranian civilian nuclear facilities, as well as Russian facilities too, in an attempt to disrupt, damage and destroy civilian energy programs. Cartwright was indicted under the 1917 Espionage Act, even though details of Stuxnet had long-since known to the public.
Compare the farce of David Petraeus to other cases where the US government has sought to literally destroy genuine patriots and brave whistleblowers like John Kiriakou, Jeffrey Sterling, Thomas Drake, Jesselyn Radack, James Cartwright, Edward Snowden, and Bradley-Chelsea Manning. Such a comparison casts a very shameful shadow on the US system of justice.
Why do Washington bureaucrats and civil servants still insist on serving-up a double standard when it comes to leaks and whistleblowers?
HONEY TRAP: Who was Petraeus’s mistress Paula Broadwell really spying for?
Editorial: A double standard on government secrets for David Petraeus
As a result of the Obama administration’s unprecedented war on national-security leaks, some obscure government officials and contractors who divulged classified information to reporters have been sentenced to prison. But David H. Petraeus, the retired general and former director of the CIA, won’t serve a day behind bars if the government has its way.
Petraeus has agreed to plead guilty to a simple misdemeanor for giving classified information to Paula Broadwell, his biographer and mistress, in 2011. But the Justice Department has asked a judge to sentence him to probation rather than prison. Not only that. It seems Petraeus can look forward to returning in short order to the role of Washington wise man.
Other targets of leak investigations have been less fortunate. Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, a former State Department intelligence advisor, was sentenced to 13 months in prison after pleading guilty to disclosing a report about North Korea to a reporter. John Kiriakou, a 14-year CIA veteran, got 30 months for disclosing to a reporter the identity of an undercover operative who subjected suspected terrorists to “enhanced interrogation” techniques, including waterboarding.
The whiff of a double standard is overwhelming. If anything, a leader at Petraeus’ level should be held to a higher standard than lower-level officials or contractors.
Petraeus’ defenders will note that none of the classified information in several “black books” provided to Broadwell showed up in the biography she wrote. But Petraeus couldn’t have been sure of that when he shared the notebooks, which, he told Broadwell, were “highly classified” and contained “code word stuff.”
And there is another factor that weighs against this lenient disposition: According to a statement of facts submitted to the court and stipulated to by Petraeus, he falsely told FBI agents — during an interview in his CIA office! — that he hadn’t provided classified information to Broadwell. He told that untruth despite having acknowledged in writing on a previous occasion that “I understand that providing false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation is a violation of law.”
Petraeus’ defenders will note that none of the classified information in several “black books” provided to Broadwell showed up in the biography she wrote. But Petraeus couldn’t have been sure of that when he shared the notebooks, which, he told Broadwell, were “highly classified” and contained “code word stuff.”
And there is another factor that weighs against this lenient disposition: According to a statement of facts submitted to the court and stipulated to by Petraeus, he falsely told FBI agents — during an interview in his CIA office! — that he hadn’t provided classified information to Broadwell. He told that untruth despite having acknowledged in writing on a previous occasion that “I understand that providing false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation is a violation of law.”…
Continue this story at LA Times
READ MORE WHISTLEBLOWER NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Whistleblower Files
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21st Century Wire is an alternative news agency designed to enlighten, inform and educate readers about world events which are not always covered in the mainstream media.
Source: http://21stcenturywire.com/2015/03/05/david-petraeus-leaker-traitor-or-just-plain-whipped/
Compromised! But not by Paula Broadwell. They have bigger goods on him.
This type of illegal actions go on hourly by the treasenus Generals and Admrials at the Pentogan. Remember they gave “Orders” to supply a known terrerist organization less then 6 months ago weapons, arms, money, using military aircraft and personnel; which was already listed by NATO/US/International Courts and Laws was illegal to do; yet individuals like this dishonored lowlife scumbag do hourly, while wearing their uniform. DO NOT EVER mix these criminals with the bottom 95% of the military who are honorable; yet these scumbag lowlife top tier military have sided with the corrupt gov, and do anything illegal and do not care. Want to read more FACTS; if your “Man” enough for the truth? Not one person in weeks have provided any allegations differently then illegal. Read:
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