Monday, November 12, 2012







David Petraeus Case
New details on the CIA director's affair
          David Petraeus resigned from his position as director of the CIA after news of his affair with Paula Broadwell broke publicly. Patraeus became director of the CIA in 2011 after his work in Iraq and Afghanistan. Patraeus' resignation has been considered a great loss, according to a BBC article. In regards to how Broadwell and Petraeus met, Broadwell wrote a biography on the CIA director. This raises a concern about the manner in which she used Patraeus as her source for covering Benghazi. Was there a national security threat during those months in which the affair took place? How much classified information was Broadwell able to obtain from Petraeus during their relations?
        There has been recent outrage by various parties as new details of the FBI investigation on the  affair have been released. First off, Mrs. Patraeus, who was married to David Patraeus for 38 years, is said to be "furious" and "devasted" about the affair, according to a BBC article. Secondly, memebers of Congress and the White House are now infuriated with how the FBI released details about the case. The BBC news article has a timeline for what major event occured during the FBI investigation. Specifially, Republican Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, was  upset that the FBI decided to inform the White House about the case on election day. The FBI says that there is not a homeland security threat and no requirement for the FBI to tell members of Congress and the White House about the ongoing investigation. There seems to be a power struggle between the FBI and Congress. Congress says they should have been briefed earlier than they were because of the possible national security risks. I believe the fact that the FBI just shared news of this investigation, which started in early summer, shows that there may have been a secret agenda to why the news was released on election day. One heavy question that weighs in the air is, has this affair truly posed a risk to national security or is it simply an embarrasing display of audultry? According to the BBC news article, audultry is a crime in the military. However, Petraeus claims the affair started after he resigned from the Army to take his position in the CIA. Currently, he does not have any charges against him.
        The next question is why is Broadwell harrassing Jill Kelley? Kelley has denied having an affair with Patraeus. Is Broadwell jealous of the fact that Kelley and Patraeus worked in Florida together and are close friends? The investigation began when Kelley reported to the FBI that she was receiving harrassment e-mails, which were sourced to Broadwell. It's interesting that the period in which Petraeus claims the affair ended is around the same time the harassing e-mails directed towards Kelley began. I'm intrigued to learn more information about the nature of why these harrassments came about. There are still lots of unanswered questions regarding this case. 

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