E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSThe woman who triggered the investigation that led to the resignation of CIA chief David Petraeus threw lavish parties for top military brass – and also racked up debt. NBC's Kristen Welker reports.
Then-CIA Director David Petraeus and Gen. John Allen, commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, intervened in a Washington, D.C., custody battle in September, writing letters on behalf of a woman who was found by a judge to have "severe personal deficits in the areas of honesty and integrity."
The woman, Natalie Khawam, is the twin sister of Tampa socialite Jill Kelley, who has emerged as a central figure in the scandal that led to Petraeus’ resignation last week.
The letters, which have been obtained by NBC News, were filed in court on behalf of Khawam, who the judge hearing the case harshly criticized for a “stunning willingness to say anything, even under oath, to advance her own interests.”
At the time, Khawam was seeking to relax a judge's order restricting her visits with her now 4-year-old son. Holly Petraeus, the wife of the ex-CIA director previously signed an affidavit in support of Khawam, according to the lawyer for Grayson Wolfe, Khawam's ex-husband. The letters were first reported by the New York Post.
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images file
Gen. John Allen, right, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, and former CIA Director David Petraeus appear ath the White House on April 28, 2011.
The letters came to light after Kelley emerged as a key player in the scandal surrounding emails that officials say were written by Petraeus biographer Paula Broadwell – a trail of correspondence that led to Petraeus’ resignation as CIA director and a Pentagon investigation of Allen over what defense officials have described as “potentially inappropriate” emails he exchanged with Kelley.
The legal battle between Khawam and Wolfe has been bitter, according to court records. Both sides have accused one another of repeatedly lying to the court -- including about invitations to events involving prominent members of Congress.
The court records also shed some light on the lifestyle of the Kelley family: At one point, the judge -- who had directed Kelley's sister to pay child support and the legal fees of her ex-husband -- noted that Khawam lived "rent-free in Florida with her sister" in a home described as a "ten bedroom mansion in a beautiful neighborhood right on Tampa Bay."
The judge also ruled that Jill Kelley was a "patently biased and unbelievable witness" when she testified about an alleged case of domestic abuse by her twin sister's ex-husband.
In a Nov. 9, 2011, ruling, D.C. Superior Court Judge Neal E. Kravitz dismissed Kelley's testimony that she saw Wolfe push Khawam down a flight of stairs inside the Kelleys’ home. Kelley testified that her sister was holding the couple's baby in one hand and "somehow was able to stand her ground on the staircase" as Wolfe, "who is substantially larger and stronger ... pushed Ms. Khawam from above with both hands and all of his might."
Read David Petraeus' letter to the court
Read Gen. John Allen's letter to the court
"The court does not credit this testimony," Kravitz wrote, after calling Kelley an "unbelievable witness." He called it "part of an ever-expanding set of sensational accusations against Mr. Wolfe that are so numerous, so extraordinary and ... so distorted that they defy any common sense view of reality."
Amy Scherzer / Tampa Bay Times via Zuma Press
Natalie Khawam, twin sister of Jill Kelley.
Petraeus and Allen entered the case two months ago, penning separate letters attesting to Khawam’s parenting.
"My wife and I have known Natalie for approximately three years, getting to know her while serving in Tampa, Florida, through her friendship with Dr. and Mrs. Scott Kelley," Petraeus wrote in his letter dated Sept. 20, identifying himself under his signature as "General, U.S. Army (Retired.) "
He added that he has observed Khawam with her son on many occasions, "including when we hosted them and the Kelley family for Christmas dinner this past year." It was "clear to me," he added, that Natalie's son "would benefit from much more time with his Mother and from removal of the burdensome restrictions imposed on her."
Allen's letter, dated Sept. 22, which identified him under his signature as "General, United States Marine Corps," is similar. It stated that he had gotten to know Khawam while serving at the U.S. Central Command in Florida and observed her with her son "on multiple occasions" at "command social functions."
"In light of Natalie's maturity, integrity and steadfast commitment to raising her child, I humbly request your reconsideration of the existing mandated custody settlement," the letter concluded.
Defense official fires back, denies Afghanistan commander exchanged 'inappropriate' emails
A source familiar with Kelley’s views said Tuesday night that both Petraeus and Allen have been friends of Kelley and her sister Khawam for years. The source added: “When you're involved in a custody issue, you want letters of support. There is nothing unusual about that.”
Sandra Wilkof, the lawyer for ex-husband Wolfe, said the letters from both high ranking military men misstated the facts of the case. Both letters asked the court to change the terms of a "court settlement" between the couple. In fact, Wilkof, said, "There was no court settlement. There was a court order," she said, awarding custody to Wolfe and supervised visits for Khawam.
ISAF via Reuters file
Meet the people who have been pulled into the scandal that caused Gen. David Petraeus to resign.
Judge Kravitz has not given Wolfe a free pass. He wrote in the Nov. 9, 2011 ruling that Wolfe "does not possess an entirely healthy psychological make-up.” And he noted that Wolfe had taken “questionable deductions” on his tax returns and “may have been less than fully candid in his testimony about contacts he may have had with the FriendFinder online dating service.”
But he has saved his harshest words for Khawam, writing that “Mr. Wolfe … is much more honest than Ms. Khawam, and he conducts himself with far greater integrity.”
In the ruling, he found that Khawam had taken the couple's son to Florida when he was only four months old and refused to tell Wolfe of his whereabouts, ignored court orders to allow visits with his father, changed the boy's first name without his father's knowledge and made unfounded claims of abuse against her ex-husband.
"The evidence established that Ms. Khawam has extreme personal deficits in the areas of honesty and integrity," Kravitz wrote. "Ms. Khawam's false domestic violence petitions (and her equally false testimony at trial relating to many of the same allegations) are merely the most stunning examples of Ms. Khawam's willingness to say anything, even under oath, to advance her own personal interests at the expense of Mr. Wolfe, the child, and others."
Khawam's lawyer, Greg Jacob, with the law firm of O'Melveny & Myers, did not respond to requests for comment.
In the latest wrinkle in the case, Wolfe's lawyer filed a motion on Oct. 26 opposing the efforts of Khawam to modify the visitation schedule, saying that neither of the letters by Petraeus and Allen promised “corroborating testimony” relevant to the court's determination.
The motion also argued that Khawam had misrepresented social events she had asked the court to let her attend with her son. In one case, Wolfe's motion stated, Khawam had asked the court to let her take her son to a "family clambake" at "the personal invitation" of Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse. In fact, the motion states, this was "nothing more than a … political fundraising event."
On other occasions, the motion states, Khawam had sought to take her son to events with "Senator Kerry" and the baptism of "former Congressman Patrick Kennedy's child" in New Jersey. In fact, the motion states, the invitation to be with Sen. John Kerry was a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee event in Martha's Vineyard and that he denied her request to take the boy to those events because he did not believe it was in "the child's best interests."
More from Open Channel:
Follow Open Channel from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook
Leave a Comment:
The more I see and hear, the more this whole situation smells more like really dead fish! Rotten from the outside in. It is far too convenient for someone we have always trusted and respected as a military leader and who has been at the forefront of battle in these regions to suddenly be cast in this role. I believe the real betrayal is much higher up and far dirtier than the indescretions of Petraeus. Perhaps the American Public should be asking why both The Secretary of State Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta are both conveniently "out of the Country" as this boil continues to fester. The AMERICAN PUBLIC best open their eyes and follow the "crooked" time-line" ...and the smell. Congress needs to get on the stick and get some real answers here. Americans who serve this country in un-armed positions as Ambassadors and first responders need to have their backs covered. Our leaders seem to be taking a Cover Your A** attitude instead.
Who needs WikiLeaks when you have something like this? I wonder what other dirt one might find when perusing the personal email accounts of other high-ranking officials...
President Obama still hasn't addressed the Benghazi situation...
Why on earth should the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense spend much time on this at the moment???
I can't see any connection to the Secretary of State -- none of these people report to her or to my knowledge have ever reported to her. What do you want her to do? The Secretary of Defense asked that the Allen matter be investigated by the appropriate DoD office and that the Senate speed confirmation of some appointments. What more do you want him to do at the moment? I'm really, really sure that the country has better things for these cabinet officers to do than spend time on this matter.
Petraeus doesn't report to the Secretary of Defense or the Secretary of State; he reports to the Director of National Intelligence, who reports to the President. And, the only charge against Allen, who does report to the Secretary of Defense, is that he may have exchanged some inappropriate email with a woman. Beyond that, we don't even know anything about the emails, except that the FBI investigated and wasn't concerned about them.
Are you really sure that you want to "get some real answers"? How many more extramarital affairs of senior military officers do you want to see uncovered? Haven't we exposed enough of the private lives of our senior military officers already? Haven't we destroyed the careers of enough senior, highly respected military officers already?
Geez.
You had me up to there. I stopped, as I remembered the sexual abuse and harassment that goes on in the military, and the cover-ups that have gone on through the decades and generations. My thanks to Doonesbury's character Melissa for representing the many victims/survivors.
WTF. Why are these generals involved with these people, don't they have more important issues on hand?
Looks like Obama and his people has some questions to answer. This thing is going to be big
Why? Is this going to be the Issa investigation that may bring down the president so he can install Swartznager into the presidency. You live in a fantasy world since both of these generals are Republicans
Yes, this just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser!!!
Obama should have tried to talk Patraeus out of resigning. From everything I've heard so far, it was not something that warranted loosing such an accomplished CIA director. And now the next Commander of NATO, Gen Allen's job is in jeopardy over this groupie cat fight? It doesn't make sense so far, but things come out every day, so at this point, nothing would surprise me.
But as far as Hillary Clinton having anything to do with it, that really doesn't make any sense. The government cannot just drop everything and spend their time worrying about this groupie cat fight.
Connie...there is literally zero logical link or evidence to suggest that what you're saying is anything but wild baseless conjecture based on your obvious politically one-sided inclinations to hope that somehow this is bigger than Petraeus' indiscretions and his friends attempts to help cover it up. Throwing around that sort of mindless mock intellectual drivel makes you look silly.
The best conspiracy theory I have heard so far is the following...this is compiled from many news sources but all can be verified. I am not saying this is true but to comment on this post, it seems like a discussion of the best conspiracy theory is appropriate. The logic is difficult to poke holes through and even if not true, the conspiracy theory (as opposed to what may have really happened) would make a good book or movie.
If anything, it does make you wonder and leads to more questions than answers...
Petraeus did not volunteer to resign, he was "encouraged" to resign by James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, according to the news reports. As of late October, Petraeus went to Libya on fact-finding mission on what happened at the CIA Annex and the US Consulate for his upcoming testimony on Benghazi. One does not go to Libya almost two months after the attack just before a hearing to get information unless one thinks they will still have a job and be the Director of the CIA when the hearings begin. The fact that General Petraeus went to Libya in late October indicates that he did not expect to resign from the CIA as a result of the affair and fully expected to testify at the Congressional Hearing in two weeks.
Instead, he was thrown under the bus after the election after he served his purpose. Recall that the original story of the video and the spontaneous demonstration came from Petraeus and was the Administration's spin on Benghazi until news reports finally led to the admission that it was a terrorist attack.
The explanation of blaming the YouTube video for the events at Benghazi were a cover-up to hide the fact that the United States and CIA still had active black-sites (detention) facilities overseas in Libya, in direct violation of Executive Order 13491, Ensuring Lawful Interrogations which was passed on 22JAN2009.
So...to walk through this...
The Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi targeted more than just a State Department consulate. One of the buildings hit was a covert CIA installation. However, the attack took place at two different places because the CIA Annex is about 1 mile from the US Consulate in Benghazi.
Up to this point, that separate base was described by administration officials only as a "safe house" or "annex" to the nearby consulate. We are now told that CIA agents and other intelligence officials were operating out of Benghazi conducting "delicate" missions, including the search for over 20,000 deadly shoulder-fired missiles previously owned by Muammar Qaddafi's Libyan forces.
Both the CIA outpost and the consulate were attacked on Sept. 11. Two of the men killed, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, were hit by indirect fire while defending the intelligence post (CIA Annex) not the consulate. Doherty and Woods were found on the roof of the intelligence base manning a single machine gun that was caked in blood, suggesting they continued firing after they were hit by a mortar round approximately seven hours after the attack began. U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and information analyst Sean Smith were also killed in the attack about 7 hours earlier at the consulate.
There is no way the Director of the CIA, General Petraeus, would not be told of an coordinated attack on a CIA Annex. In fact, General Petraeus was briefed that night by the CIA Station Chief about the attack and that it was a terrorist attack that took place there. There are news reports also that a drone recorded the attack in real-time and broadcast the attack to the State Department and Intelligence officials.
However, news reports state that no Libyan or non-American diplomats stationed in Benghazi say they knew of the existence or purpose of the CIA annex. Top Libyan security officials in Benghazi and Tripoli, as well as diplomatic representatives who worked closely with Americans here, said they had no idea about the compound, which unlike the consulate had no signs of American life outside its tall gates. There were no concrete barriers in front or barbed wire on the top of its concrete wall.
Libya's deputy interior minister, Omar al-Khadrawy, and the deputy interior minister for Benghazi, Saleh Daghman, told McClatchy Newspapers they didn't know that the CIA had kept a base there. Neither did the second in command of Benghazi's largest revolutionary brigade, the Libyan Shield. Two consuls from allied nations who met frequently with Americans said they didn't know the CIA annex existed until after the deadly Sept. 11 attack.
Lawmakers have questions about what the CIA was doing in Benghazi -- but they also have questions about Petraeus' initial Sept. 14 briefing in which, according to sources, he characterized the attack as more consistent with a flash mob, where the militants showed up spontaneously with RPGs. Lawmakers at the briefing said that Petraeus seemed wedded to the narrative that the attack was linked to a demonstration and was spontaneous as opposed to pre-meditated.
Other administration officials, including Vice President Biden, have indicated that initial claims the attack was spontaneous were based on intelligence at the time.
So, there is already a contradiction. A CIA Annex was attacked on Sep.11 and the station chief briefed the Director of the CIA, General Petraeus, that night. How do you explain the testimony that Petraeus gave Sep. 14 when it contradicted what the station CIA Chief, the station chief in Libya had told them Sep. 11?
Furthermore, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was alerted about 50 minutes after the start of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and dispatched troops from Europe within hours, according to a timeline by the Defense Department. How do you explain the fact that Petraeus' testimony also contradicted Panetta's briefing, and what everybody at the time was saying?
In an Oct.26 talk in Denver, Broadwell said the CIA base in Benghazi had detained members of a Libyan militia and that may have been one reason the U.S. mission was attacked on Sept. 11.
News reports now state that according to a source on the ground at the time of the attack, the team inside the CIA annex had captured three Libyan attackers who attacked the US Consulate 7 hours earlier. These Libyan militia attackers were then taken to the CIA Annex for interrogation. That is where Broadwell's statement comes in when she says "the CIA annex had actually taken a couple of Libyan militia members prisoner, and they think that the attack on the consulate was an attempt to get these prisoners back." She was referring broadly to the consulate as the combined US Consulate/CIA Annex attack since they were initially referred to together listing the CIA Annex as a "Safe House" for the Consulate. When the CIA Annex was attacked in an effort to free their militia members, the CIA was forced to hand over the three Libyan prisoners to the Libyan authorities when they fled Benghazi.
Of course, the CIA denies this saying the CIA has not had detention authority since January 2009. That's when the President signed executive order 13491. The CIA claims any suggestion that the agency is still in the detention business is "uninformed and baseless."
In summary, this is why the story was made up about the video, to cover up the fact that Executive Order 13491, Ensuring Lawful Interrogations was violated which allegedly got rid of all these detention Black Sites. Had news that the US still had Black Sites to hold detainees come out before the election, there could have been too many questions putting re-election in jeopardy. And, who better to give the story about the video but the director of the CIA who was investigated for an affair...for which the affair could have been used as leverage to fabricate a patently false story about a YouTube video to cover up the fact that Executive Order 13491 was just on paper. However, after the election, the information about Petraeus' affair was leaked and General Petraeus was forced to step down from his post as Director of the CIA.
Later this week, Congress will hold a hearing to investigate Benghazi. General Petraeus will not testify because he was forced to resign. That is, unless he is subpoenaed.
JRS; Very plausible, thanks!
Some "TOP SPY".... They weren't really "e-mails"....They used a technique called a "Shared Folder" on a bogus account that each had access to, they would communicate back and forth in the folder....It's been used by Terrorists, Drug Traffickers and teenagers to keep their parents from seeing what they are doing...
----EPIC FAIL.
The longer this stays in the forefront of the media, the less the spotlight gets shined on the real and serious problems of this country. It's typical of the mass, attention-deficit syndrome so prevalent in our country today. Instead of wasting time posting here about something we have no control over, we should all be taking that same time and writing the White House and Congress urging them to stagnant economy and exploding deficit.
Why harrass our generals if there is no security risk? This is a private matter. How much money will be wasted on this when foreign invaders are sneaking into the US at the Mexico border then pretending to be immigrants in order to steal US resources.
Build DE-FENCE already!
Not much to comment on EXCEPT - keep watching and listening...there is much more to this than meets the eye. Debt trouble, twin sisters both with not the best of reputations for honesty......KEEP watching. This could turn out to be a huge mess for all parties concerned......possibly even overseas involvement.
When I look back at the work, the will and the commitment women in my generation put into pushing up the glass cieling, opening doors for the next generation of women and withstanding all sorts of difficulties in the arena of womens rights, I am completely disgusted by these in their forties women who have found NOTHING more important to do with their lives than chase men, ignore their kids,wreck up families, party around and generally behave like seventh graders. Really? I can only assume the whole pack of them are very primitive.And don't get me started on the squandering of a Harvard education.
There is another point here. Women, we all know it, are the ones that send the signals to men. Men on the other hand usually are so flattered that a woman noticed them that they immediately go brain dead. Men are biologically set up to think "sex" women are set up to think money and power. We will only become an enlighted society when everyone figures this out. In the mean time we can expect a lifetime of media scandal and soap operas, ask yourselves, why does this interest everyone so much. Lets get on with the business of the country and get out of other peoples bedrooms.
Apparently not when it comes to cheap, two dollar hussies fresh out of the plastic surgeon's office.
Does anyone else remember the president saying several people have been detained? Where should we detain suspected terrorists, a broom closet? or maybe the Burger King down the street. Come on!!
JRS. that's interesting but you lost me after about 300 words. :)
I can't wait for tomorrow and a thousand more words will be needed to explain everything.
10 thousand emails between these girls and the four star generals? You got to be kidding me! :) I don't believe that for one thing. 10 thousand emails for a spammer would be a challenge in that amount of time. There is no way that Allen or Petraeus is generating that many emails. But they may have been a target of a huge email spam event.
Or a conspiracy.....just saying....the Pres is being pretty quiet about this, Clinton has conveniently announced that she is too busy fo rhte benghazi event and testimony and Pannetta, oh where to start there.....worthless? Yup
“stunning willingness to say anything, even under oath, to advance her own interests.” - that describes most politicians in Washington to a T!
Oh you republicans bloodhounds have got him now! I'll bet you can get Obama out of office in 2016 with dirt like this!
"...stunning willingness to say anything, even under oath, to advance her own interests.” Welcome to American society and the land of the entitled narcissist.
Just a quick question here; wouldn't it have been appropriate to put this information out before the election?
NBC's Andrea Mitchell, who is an ardent and rather vociferous supporter of Barrack Obama, broke this story.
But, she did so after the election, even though much of this information was known as far back as September.
It's pretty clear she and NBC held the story. The only question is whether or not that was done at the behest of the White House.
If there is a Benghazi connection to any of this, and there may be because Kelly talks about a secret CIA prison in Libya, that would tend to spell C O V E R U P.
FBI have raided the home of the biographer in NC and discovered Top Secret ducuments in her possession on Monday. This is much more than a scandel, there is violation of law with legal ramifications. Despense with the ideaology that an affair has no consequences involved with these top military officials, there is a violation of national security issues surrounding this whole investigation. Where is Hillary Clinton? Off in Aussie Land wine tasting ... her arrogance alone is far beyond understanding. If you or me John Q Public were at work and required to be in an investigation and skipped? I can hear the judge now if wine tasting was the excuse. Some of you people are so far beyond simple logic on all of the issues surrounding all of this, there isnt time to pull your head out of your rectial disfunction. Of course, the White House didnt know anything about all of this ... (cough cough). We can get the info about Broadwell's race record at a split 7 minutes, but no one knows they were pounding in the sack.
Just when you think it couldn't get any better, A TWIN SISTER shows up in the plot and single.
(ps) i was reading some of the comments after posting, is this the correct story to post this on?
I can't say that this series of events has anything to do with the cover up of the events that killed our Ambassador. However, I am sick by the clearly intentional effort by mainstream media to ignore the ramifications of the news of this issue being undisclosed by our president! This is an investigation of our top CIA man and our top General in a war who, by the way, is under consideration for Supreme Commander of NATO. The president did not know?; and that is ok with all of us. Why are we all accepting this situation? This is a clear cover up with national security ramification in order to avoid yet another scandal before election and I can't find anyone on news or radio, other than Rush and his colleagues, asking anything about it. I am very much afraid of what this means to our country.
JRS, way too long, this is a forum for posts, not novels, anyway I suspect few read such long post. I know I didnt.
Good Morning Girls. What's the dirt today?
My bet is the skanky Lebanese twins are running some type of high level brothel service to the military. Thus they have a million dollar mansion and lifestyle! They speak Arabic so they may have some other connections as well.
Connie-835027
RE: your post #1
Please, you have not one factual piece of evidence to even make the accusations that Sec. of State Clinton or Sec of Defense Leon Panetta had ANYTHING to do with the 'mess' that these generals find themselves entangled. If you do, why not post the FACTS which may lend credence to your allegations and assumptions? As far as Sec. Clinton or Mr. Panetta "being out of the country", what do you expect of a Secretary of State to do, sit in her office in Washington? Same with Sec. Panetta. In fact, Both Clinton and Panetta are in Australia at the ANNUAL defense conference in Australia which was booked MONTHS ago before this sordid episode even was made public. Your hypothetical rant, hopefully, is based on your political bent. If not, you need to somehow attach yourself to reason and facts and not fantasy!
You will notice you never see pictures of Holly Patraeus.
General - I completely understand. Carry on
Haven't we exposed enough of the private lives of our senior military officers already? Haven't we destroyed the careers of enough senior, highly respected military officers already?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
TJSM-N
I don't think "WE" have destroyed anyone, they just seem to accomplish on their own. And I do think this is a big deal in the way of national security. Pilow talk sinks ships as every spy knows.
JRS -
Interesting. Broadwell speaking about the CIA detaining prisoners at the 'safe house'...sounds like some highly confidential pillow talk. She leaked that. I'm wondering if Petraeus told her other things earlier in the year which she passed on to make herself sound important. I've seen other websites alluding to that possibility. Do you think she could be the source of the "White House Leaks?"
To many this seems like much to do about nothing. It is not. What the ole saying "if you lie down with dogs, you're gonna get fleas". These Generals should have known better than to get involved with these wanna be's. They are in positions that demand a higher level of security and judgement when it comes to forming relationships. This is exactly how the USSR would get a spy into high places. Maybe a hot chick or a person with money to burn. Dismissing this as a personal matter is a big mistake.
Petraeus should have vetted his friends. Appears he was befriended by the twins for eventual favours..Broadwell affair aside.
In my opinion, there should be a law making it punishable by prison sentence to engage in behavior that could jeopardize the integrity of those selected to highly sensitive National Security positions (CIA, NAS, FBI Director). This would level the playing field by making it costly for these women of opportunity. As it stands, they get a slap on the wrist, while the nation goes into near crisis from the loss of key leaders. I'm not excusing ther laps of good judgement, but both parties are culpable and should be held accordingly.
In our next episode, the shirtless FBI agent gets a dead rose and is kicked off the island...
JRS, sorry, I think it's more reasonable that the administration always knew about the affair and was using it to keep petraeus in line. After the election, they must have asked him to take the fall for benghazi and he finally had enough.
Benghazzi wasn't about hiding a detention center, it was about the fact that al qaeda is alive and well and orchestrating attacks stepping on Obama's "bin laden is dead, gm is alive" applause line.
Next month, I bet we find that GM has more structural problems than anyone knows since nothing has really changed in their business other than a tsunami hit japan and caught them an 18 month breather.
@ JRS,
I like your take and summary on this, up until the very end. I think your conclusion kind of fizzled out a little bit. I don't believe the affair is linked to Benghazi whatsoever. Simply because Petraeus can be made to testify regardless.
I do believe, however, that the CIA was in fact operating out of the embassy. This seems to be the modus operandi of theirs lately. My memory is poor on this event, but does anyone recall the ex-CIA operative that got into the firefight in some Middle Eastern city a year or two ago and took shelter at a US embassy? Was it Turkey? He was supposedly "privately employed" but the whole cover story stunk a mile away.
Dear Gen Patreaus and General Allen, If you would please take the time to hear me out I would appreciate it. First I am not a ladder climbing socialite with no military affiliation willing to trade sex for favors. I am a veteran in need. If you could put the needs of combat veterans ahead of your adolescent behavior of whoring around for a few minutes how about getting in touch with me. You 2 are a disgrace to the uniform I so proudly wore that I want to puke. A couple of horny old geezers who would drop everything and abandon you mission and men when a plastic surgery breast augmented middle eastern floozie comes prancing around your office. Gentlemen ,you two suck. I hope you enjoy divorce court.
@johnbarker, it is not 10,000 emails, it is pages of hundreds of emails. Not hard to accomplish considering headers, footers, etc. And sorry you are unable to comprehend beyond 300 words of @JRS's input. It reads like a well written news article and I find this all VERY interesting. All the facts are there that the whole Benghazi / Patraeus / DumbBroadwell thing IS connected.
This is totally a "Wag the Dog" situation with timing spun intricately in connection with the recent election. It is clear. And for those who don't believe our govt and agencies wouldn't go to these lengths, sheesh people, truth is stranger than fiction. Look at "Argo" as well and tell me that our leaders aren't capable of pulling stuff like this off. Incredible watching this all play out. Wow.....
This whole thing stinks to high heaven. Why are we so worried about who these guys talk to or write letters to? We are way too worried about sex in this country. They are all adults so it's their problem. Let's not ruin our great generals...it's not like we have a bunch of 3 and 4 star generals sitting around waiting to fill their shoes. These guys are the best of the best on what they do so who cares if one had an affair and the other sent flirtatious emails. Why was the FBI investigating this to begin with? There's got to be much more to the story here. They were not using their positions for sex so sexual harassment is out the window. They did not appear to breach any security so that's out the window. They were not foreign nationals so that's out the window. What are we doing here? I think we have much more important things to be doing w/ our time then investigating this crap.
@living, the anti-Obama movement thinks they have a smoking gun to finally nail the President.
@JRS, It's good until the third paragraph where you have forgotten that the first words from the President were "terror attack." Granted, terror attack is a vague description of the more direct "terrorist attack", but in the early hours of an investigation only numb-nuts like Romney and W. speak without having their "ducks in a row."
Patreus and Allen got caught with their "security briefs" down.
you are an ass ! all of this "INTEL" coming out has to do with what happened in Benghazi.And for your information in some branches of the service,an affair will literally kill your military career,they will boot you out and you will lose everything you've put into your career ! As for your thinking that is A-OK for our high ranking military officials to behave this way is WRONG,I support our troops fighting a war that will never be won,and I applaud the ones that fight for our country,my father who passed away 2 yrs ago served proudly in the military and retired after 22 years.In reality,some men need to learn to keep it in their pants,high ranking military officials or not,the things happening in this country right now are definitely more important than a booty call and quit thinking all these responses are about ousting the current government ,they'll accomplish that all by themselves with all this stuff coming out !
I believe there is more to what has been said to the media. It is my opinion that undercover spy pertains to Broadwell, whether it be for Russia, Afghanistan or some nation that is after our most sensitive moves and plans. If the FBI doesn't find something to this effect then I'll bite myself - no one else has to.
Benghazi - the CIA is doing funky stuff all the time.... that's their job... I don't think it's the least bit mysterious that they would have a safe house, that they would be reluctant to discuss it, and that they wouldn't let out complete information about the attack the day it happened ... and might even purposely obscure the real story... I think it's naive to bitch about it.
Petraeus - if you google images for Holly Petraeus, you will immediately understand why he would prefer to hang out with the likes of Kelley and Broadwell.... not very surprising either
FBI not notifying Congress - I'm sure the FBI peeks at senior officials emails and does minor investigations every day... if they notified Congress every time they found out about a potential email security problem or a DC official banging someone Congress wouldn't get anything..... wait, they don't get anything done anyway.....
I'm sure it'll get looked at carefully.... but you Romney sour grapes guys moaning that there is an Obama conspiracy, that Clinton / Panetta is involved, etc.... you guys look silly....
Thanks, although I like spy novels, something like this in real life is not good for the country. I figured that providing a summarized "conspiracy" theory would be good to put them all in one place since I hear on news reports that many are floating around but they never mention them. Although these are presented here for entertainment purposes only and in no way should be considered fact.
Two alternative conclusions...
If you did buy into the fact that "someone" was trying to cover up violations of Executive Order 13491, on 18OCT2012 - Sen. Dianne Feinstein said that the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) may have been "mistaken" in what he told the White House following the Libya terror attack. The Director of National Intelligence also was the one that "encouraged" Petraeus to resign. So, one could make the connection that the White House has plausible deniability because they really did get bad intelligence from the DNI who was trying to hide the Black Sites and the fact that the Intelligence agencies were in violation the Executive Order.
The other wild explanation is that Paula Broadwell is a female "Yuri" like in the movie No Way Out, only she went to West Point instead of the Naval Academy. There are new reports today that the FBI removed classified information from her home.
Change the names and there is a plot for a really interesting book.
Petraeus:
Hey, hey, Paula, I wanna marry you.
Hey, hey, Paula, no one else could ever do.
I've waited so long for the war to be through,
Paula, I can't wait no more for you.
My love, my love.
Paula:
Hey Pet, I've been waiting for you.
Hey, hey, hey, Pet, I want to marry you too.
If you love me true, if you love me still,
Our love will always be real.
My love, my love.
Both:
True love means planning a life for two.
Being together the whole day through.
True love means waiting and hoping that soon,
Wishes we've made will come true.
My love, my love.
Awwwwwww, wasn't that sweet!
xoxoxo
Petraeus did not die in the line of duty
he was ruined in the line of booty
His wife looks like his mother. Give the guy a break!!!
Please address President OBAMA as "PRESIDENT OBAMA". He won get over it!
Looks like Obama and his people has some questions to answer. This thing is going to be big.
The government controlled media will create another diversion if they have too.
teatotally, your nickname is totally appropriate. Seriously, how is this a coverup for President Obama? The government does NOT control mainstream media, that's just a fantasy of Faux News, concocted to explain/justify their obvious bias in favor of extreme right-wing propaganda. I'm pretty sure General Petraeus did not create a fictitious affair to help Obama escape the Benghazi investigation. Especially since Petraeus is a Republican. And married for 37 years.
You guys are pathetic losers. Face it, you lost the election. Time to put on some man pants and figure out what you need to do to be more competitive in four years from now. Here's a hint: it has nothing to do with birth certificates or conspiracy theories. It has to do with having a real plan to make this country work better for all the people, not just the one percent.
XIZDU, I like your enthusiasm but the USA is not a monarchy. We changed that with the American Revolution of 1776.
People can refer to Obama any way they want and there is no special requirements or laws for addressing or refering to him as there are in many countries that have monarchies.
In Thailand you can be sentenced to death if you insult the King. Be glad you live in a country that does not have those kind of laws.
The frothing, delusional wingnuts are out in force, frantic to pin everything, ANYTHING on President Obama. Of course, it must have be he that introduced all these people to each other, so he could force the generals' resignations some time in the future. Diabolical!!
This is a sordid situation, but hardly unusual. But I'm sure a number of crazed rightwingers venting their spleens on this thread will spend their waking hours trying to find a connection to Benghazi, their lode stone.
Bengahzi has the potential to end obama's second term before it even gets started.
@XIZDU: He is a joke, The Golfer-In-Chief, "Hawaii B-O", The "Pimp with a Limp" remember?....he is such an embarrassment. Truly
xizdu And I'm sure you always addressed Bush as President Bush every time you wrote or talked about him. I think NOT. Is it OK to say president Hussain like they say W for former President Bush?
Quit trying to act like a school marm getting your children to address adults as Mr. and Mrs. We are adults if you can't handle adults addressing the current resident of the White House as Obama go to the Sesame Street site and have at it.
Hey XIZDU: How about NO! How about he deserves absolutely NO respect at all? How about you keep drinking the juice so you can believe that everything is beautiful. No? Im surprised since being blind and all to everything over the past 4 years that was the start of the destruction of the US. Still believe that he is going to help the US out? Then you deserve everything you get, ten-fold. What is the average increase in national debt per president...... over 4 years? Who has the highest? Who's wife had the highest cost for staff and events? Hmmmmmmm yup, change is coming, you just keep waiting for it.
You obviously dont have a gov job, or been in the military.Wait a minute....are you one of the many that are taking advantage of NOT having to work, receiving free government money, food stamps, unemployment and realize you can make more money doing nothing than actually working and contributing to society? I wonder. I am sure you will come back with some witty knee-jerk reaction remark towards my post, I wont lose sleep over it. I have entirely too many things to deal with that are reality-based such as making sure my employees can keep their jobs so they can keep feeding their families, keep taking care of our veterans that actually gave their health to serve this glorious country of ours and so forth.
So keep your hand out and keep accepting the promises that have never been delivered. Karma is a wonderful thing and as one lemming jumps, so follow the rest!
He will always be OBamination....he is not my president and will never respect him...I respect the position..I do not have to respect the man.
Bob-902090
I understand exactly how you feel, I feel the same way about the nitwits callinbg themsewlves republicans, you know the mathmatically challenged, voodoo, apocalypse believing, Man-God in the sky morons who are responsible for the greatest security lapse in our country's history on 9-11-2001, you know the real american abominations.
He told me to call him Barry...
trouble1954, what no BOLD HYSTERICAL HAND WRINGING IN LARGE FONT CAPITAL LETTERS? Glad to see you're back on your meds. We can all thank Obamacare for that.
Steve C, Nice to see you maintaining an adult conversation by not calling people names and launching personal attacks. Why is it you feel the need to try to belittle someone for not agreeing with your point of view? I thought you guys were the party of free thinkers and the party with the biggest tent. I suspect that that is true as long as the person entering that tent thinks the same as you do or is willing to cast a blind vote for your party. See that is what drives your every move. Getting votes! Yes it worked! Sadly but true. Ask most of the people who voted for Obama's second term for a decent reason why they voted for him and you will get crickets chirping. I believe the democratic party is the party of the miss and un-informed. I'm not speaking about you personally but the average dem voter who you know and I know is totally clueless when it comes to what is going on with our government. By the way I am not calling them stupid, I'm calling them ignorant. Big difference!
Xizdo - I'm sure you referred to President BUSH as "Dubya." And then there was "Bubba", "Tricky Dick," etc. Obama is getting the same treatment and blatant disregard as every other president. Get over it.
I'm usually one of these people who rolls their eyes at conspiracy theorists, but between this and the whole Benghazi ordeal being tamped down by the press until after the election....I can't stand Fox news, but dang it we need some news organization out there who's not afraid of losing favor with POTUS. I learned more about Benghazi from foreign news sources than I did here in the States. That is shameful.
that is too true,and you know if all this came out before the election,the results would have been different and we "lucky" people wouldn't be getting more of what we got the last 4 years,like more unemployment,more people losing their houses,more families not able to take care of their own,more people willing to take more free handouts and take it from those who need it, obamacare.Sad to say I really used to believe in democracy.And speaking of the election,how in the hell did our sitting president get the "favorite" vote,especially after the last 4 years ???? you people need to look at the map again !
for Allan1234 -- For your information I am a registered Democrat,I did not vote my party in 2004 or in 2008.You can live in Obamaland,I choose not to.If he is doing such a "good" job as president,where are all the new jobs ? Why are people still losing their homes ? Where is the economy picking up ? None of the above is happening and will not happen in the near future,yet all of you that voted for him again subject the rest of us to 4 more years of the same and of the promises that won't be kept.I was raised that you work for what you want,what's your excuse? Please use your brain and think about the last 4 years,now think about the next 4 years and where our great country will be ! yea
But all of those Presidents were white, so it was ok to disrespect them. Now we have a 1/2 African President and everything that is negative towards him is racist!
Mark from Va.
When you have people like the republicans, who consider climate change a matter of opinion, when they believe that evolution is not real and the world is 6,000 years old, when they consider themselves as prophets of God, and all of this flies into the face of reality and science, then yes, I do feel that its not a matter of a difference of opinions, its a difference in intelligence, they are nitwits and juvenile thumbsuckers who rely on a mysterious Man-God in the sky to deliver them from the mistakes that their lives are. Let's, also, not forget about the morons in 7 states that want to secede from the union, all 600,000 out of 25,000,000. Wonder how long Texas would remain Texas without our military?
I guess Connie knows more than anybody else in America (except the people really involved in this scandal). Of course, the whole thing smells rotten, because it is. These two women were trading on their friendship and/or relationship with these two high ranking military men in order to get favors. Of course Kelley's brother said she is a good mother and wife. I'm still laughing over that!
I'm waiting for the brother-sister-twin triangle to be peeled off this onion haha
It's like these two had absolutely nothing but time on their hands.....
Now they're going to dig through letters of recommendation written? How about job performance references they gave? Somebody's digging deep, especially for a situation began with FBI snooping through emails because a friend of an agent asked them to.
Yes! Isn't it amazing that the FBI jumped into action when someone complained about harassing E-MAILS, for heaven sakes. YOU try calling the FBI and telling them you are getting harassing e-mails you would like them to investigate. You will have to hold the phone a good while before the agent stops laughing enough to tell you to take your problem down the hall.
What's with these 60 yr old military types who feel they can keep up with a woman 20 yrs their junior. No chance guys, go back to your brides who might actually care for you.
Bill Clinton was 49 when he was "not" having sex with Monica Lewinsky. She was 22. 27 year difference. Trust him with your daughter?
finsII - These men had power and the women involved were willing participants. It is utter betrayal for these men to have done what they did to hurt their wives. Wives and children are the only injured parties in extramarital affairs. Mrs. Petraeus and Mrs Clinton supported and cared for these men and their children for years and this is their thanks? To be dragged into the public eye knowing their husbands cheated on them? I'm sure the women involved knew these guys were married and thought that their personal knowledge of them might gain them some power and, dare I say it, money? Oh, and where is Monica Lewinsky now?
Unless these betrayals involve a breach of national security, they do not affect you or I, so move on.
Semper Fi, you multi-star clowns, remember that old cliche' or does that only apply to fellow soldiers?
I think broadwell can at least pass for 30 or early 40(although that big forehead is getting hard to look at, lol), that kelley broad looks at best a rough 55, please someone tell her agent, it's not working.
If you think Broadwell's big forehead is a turn-off, look at Gen. Patraeus' forehead...oh, wait.
I swear, as weird as thing is and continues to be, the Judge Kravitz in the sister's custody case is going to turn out to be Lenny and the case is going to show that he's had inappropriate emails with a female general in Florida which will reveal top secrets about the wife of the FBI agent who sent the shirtless pictures to the other sister.
The love triangle is dead. Here's to the Love Pentagon...
If I was Petraeus, I'd p h u c k her too
Bu you're not Petraeus so she would't spit on your little weenie if it was on fire!!!!!!! ROFLMAO :D
Patraeus and Allen both got their weenies stuck in cRaZy. Very careless.
But Patraeus' weenie got stuck in a cRaZy that happens to hold a Top Secret Security clearance. That is the crazy that should be investigated. Broadwell is more than just another camp following ho. The question is: who does SHE answer to?
How the mighty have fallen... no denying the power of the almighty punany.
Problem here is of course they all think they are better than the rest of us until the chit hits the fan. Been around a lot of these types both military and regular people all the way from execs to entertainers and the top people think they can do anything with impunity because their money will get them out of it. Look at the guy from the major software company on the run for allegedly killing someone. I used to work with a buyer for a major big box store then who put messages on my answering machine on exactly what he expected when we were going to meet the next time which were enough to get him and myself arrested if anyone ever heard them. That's how stupid some of them are.We like to think that rich people who are high up in society are all nice people and there are plenty of them however the snakes far outnumber those kind of people.
This is about as stupid as that guy who called in a bomb threat to a phone that had caller i.d.!!
Like a bunch of damn Kardashians !
The Pantygon is Melrose Place. Winning wars of occupation was never in the cards
WoW! What a swirlie party this is gonna be. I wonder if the movie leads have already called their agents!
The plot thickens.
But if she is judged harshly for the above reasons, what about all the politicians who do the same?
When I worked for the USDA Forest Service, every piece of paper, every envelope, every postage meter seemed to have printed on it a warning that private use of office supplies would result in loss of employment, a fine and possible imprisonment.
I wonder what the penalty is for private use of office supplies in the military?
Is that McDonald Carey doing the voice over for this piece?
And who proof reads this? "-- including about invitations to events involving prominent members of Congress." (para 6) As if this story isn't hard enough to follow - I do not appreciate poor sentence structure.
No one proof-reads this stuff. NBC doesn't have any copy editors. Wait until you see how badly the apostrophes are misused.
I hope the Army recruiters are getting a good handle on this, sex, boose, chicks, anonymous emails, custody fights, clambakes, war, what's not to join the Army for.
And the plot sickens.
If we insist that our heroes be totally immured from Bimbo Attacks than we'll have no heroes. I think of myself as loyal to my wife. However that Paula Broad, well she has a rack I'd die for.
And if Betrayus decides to "go nuclear" and is going to tell what he really knows at the Congressional Hearings, it's getting that "rack" that he died for.....
He'll die tragically in a terrible car accident on the way to Capitol Hill....No Rack is worth that....
Mike: They are probably using his son in the Army as leverage. Accidents happen, like you say. Petraeus will say say whatever they tell him to say to protect his son.
OMG! What we have here are simply 2 old, ugly (albiet very intelligent) men with superior status who fell (like everyother man we know on this planet) to the wiles of a pretty face and salicious body. I bet each one of can count at least 10 people we know personally who have been just as stupid as these men to suscumb to such idiocies as these men did. We the people are not without fault as we allowed these and thousands more to live without their families to keeptheir lives somewhat balanced. Realistically, these men are just typical morons like every other neighbor on your block who is doing the same thing. These men are high ranking, highly paid individuals whith our lives in their hands but don't you think after a while they go beyond stupid and do what probably many of you reading this do and fall of the cliff. They are not God! Come clean and call it what it is...political c--p, rumor mongering by some and the viciousness of envious people who like to see others thrown into the garbage because they got caught like they probably did when they were caught. Pious never sinful people do gooders calling themselves Christians or patriotic or whatever hogwash only wanting to make themselves feel better. Remember when your brother, sister, mother, dad or grandpa were caught doing the samething? Do you believe there has never been any other woman or man who has lied in a child custody battle or divorce hearing and called on their familes and friends for support. This is all old trash and I suggest we all without sin keep our mouths shut because "what goes around...comes around" and we might be reading about you.
1
This is like a soap opera.
I hate soap operas.
Dumb rednecks OUT of USA... NOW!
Let me get this straight, all of the hanky panky was uncovered by reading e-mails. Boy these people are not the sharpest tools in the shed. Reminds me of the kid that left a note on the front door telling his parents that he hid the house key under the door mat.
You said it Stevie! When I think of what I'm reading "TOP RATE INTELLIGENCE" Isn't the 1st thing that pops in my head! ;0
Here is a message for everyone. If you send an email or receive one it is in an archive somewhere and can be read by people in the government even years later if certain conditions exist like national security etc. Deleting one just puts it where you can no longer access it just like erasing your hard drive. All the data is still on it just the headers that point to the placement of the data are deleted and unless you wipe it with certain secure software which in some cases takes a day or two it can be read by techs. If the guy who is the top spy so to speak did not know this why was he even in that position.
At least one of these People Who Should Have Known Better was our nation's TOP SPY. It boggles the mind how irresponsible and careless he's been.
Sounds like "YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS". Well these people are working, not sure who is paying who, but it is one way of increasing employment.
Could all this be a PROMO to the Great book that will be coming out. On the 600 page of the book with be the total discussion of the KINKY SEX in they ARMY cama clothing. They all drive away in their HUMMER into the SUNSET!!!
Funnnnny!
Tune in tomorrow for another episode of, "As The Stomach Turns".
Privileged people live in some soap opera alternate reality.
Nurse Betty, anyone?
Ok, what does a custody case has to do with anything? This is like a bad soap. I think they need to focus on how the FBI handled this investigation.
Oh I think they will, that is when their heads stop spinning.
why the FBI and not the people in this thing. Of course the FBI was slow in making sure nothing of a security nature was involved but you have peoples lives involved here and washing you dirty laundry in public could have alerted any one who was involved in anything they may have been able to prosecute. In the one case if you read it there were over 30,000 pages of emails they had to go through which had to take a lot of time.
Open Sesame!
& down the rathole fell two deceitful generals.
how were these stupid idiots in control of anything that has to do with "intelligence"...
Bad judgment lead to dumb mistakes, ending in Hell. Certainly not the management style required of our top soldier in the military. Writing letters of recommendation about someone the judge called a Liar was the dumb mistake. Knowing the Liar through a relationship of bad judgment is the downward spiral. General Eisenhower and Kay Somersby relationship remains an "allegation" that was never proven, end of story. It appears these people were Wanna Bees, like the dummies that crashed a White House Gala. They schmoozed with Brass to be able to name drop, and flutter around in high ranking officer circles as social butterflies without the butter.
Mark my words..this is much more to this than meets the eye.....twin sisters and another doing a biography...two of the three almost totally broke and in trouble due to financial situations, one of them loosing custody of her child.....and the main one (biographer)....too smart and sharp for her own good. Did you not hear the retired CIA operative on the news last night that said - "these are the exact kinds of women that I recruited for clandestine operations and to gain information for a higher cause"....that kind of hits the nail on the head...there is MUCH more than we are currently hearing or may ever hear. This will be swept quickly under the rug so as not to embarass or loose credibility for those really at the top.
And they're all dogs.
No... two beasts and a dog.
I maintain you can't buy that kind of a mansion on the salary a surgeon makes. They make a lot of money for sure; but not that much!
This is like I went to a shrink and she told me of these other peoples problems, and I walked out feeling I didn't have any problems after all. I went back again, not because I had another problem. I just wanted to hear the latest problems of these people.