Gen Petraeus resigns as CIA dir over affair; story seems rather incomplete

[Lemur]

So General David Petraeus just announced he is resigning due to an extramarital affair. A few thoughts:

1. It's not unheard-of for an official to resign over bedroom shennanigans, but it's rare.
2. In the US military an affair can be grounds for dismissal, but DP is no longer in uniform.

Sounds to me like there is some other, messier situation, and everyone agreed that confessing to an affair was a good way to make an exit without creating further fuss. Not being paranoid—I don't think there's some evil conspiracy—but this prosimian smells a rat.

Linkage.

[Strike For The South]

I don't know hoss, think he got a hold of one of those voting machines?

[Lemur]

Oh, sorry, I took a situation that is completely suspicious and mentioned that it was suspicious. I forgot that pointing out things like the well-documented failings and insecurities of e-voting machines is fringe conspiracy stuff dominated by the crazies doing security research at Johns Hopkins, Princeton, Rice, and Stanford Universities, the Brennan Center for Justice, and the Government Accountability Office. TINFOIL HAT CROWD!

I apologize, Strike, I really do, and I will never, ever look at a suspicious or seemingly incomplete announcement from a public official and ask "What important bits are they leaving out?" ever again. It's just irresponsible of me.

[Strike For The South]

Oh, sorry, I took a situation that is completely suspicious and mentioned that it was suspicious. I forgot that pointing out things like the well-documented failings and insecurities of e-voting machines is fringe conspiracy stuff dominated by the crazies doing security research at Johns Hopkins, Princeton, Rice, and Stanford Universities, the Brennan Center for Justice, and the Government Accountability Office. TINFOIL HAT CROWD!

I apologize, Strike, I really do, and I will never, ever look at a suspicious or seemingly incomplete announcement from a public official and ask "What important bits are they leaving out?" ever again. It's just irresponsible of me.

Well, you've deflated all the fun out of that.

Getting some strange is probably not the best idea as head of the CIA and there is talk in right wing radio land that this woman had tried to access his computer. Hence the admission and the registration.

Could it have something to do with Bhenghazi or some other kerfuffle in some far off land, it's possible. There may be something coming down the pike that he wants to get out of the way of.

Sorry Dad.

[Lemur]

NOW GO TO YOUR ROOM AND NO XBOX.

-edit-

(True story: I was helping a woman I work with who was having trouble with some basic computer stuff. I gentled my tone and tried to be as non-threatening as possible, explaining each step in as positive a way as I could. She recoiled, stared at me, and yelled, "Don't use your dad voice! Your'e using your dad voice! This is really creeping me out!")

[Hooahguy]

Goddamn it. He was an inspiration for me.

.

Excuse me while I take down his picture on my wall.

[Xiahou]

Are you suggesting that Petraeus was a peace living hippy who didn't support Obama's exceptionally aggressive tactics?

I'm suggesting that less than 3 days after Obama was reelected, Petraeus resigned.

Could it be as simple as being caught/blackmailed over an affair? Sure. But the timing is awfully strange.

[Beskar]

The timing is actually very good for a hand over. As there is all the ruckless and upheaval of people losing seats and others gaining seats, a shakeup at the start of an election is a good idea.

[Visor]

The timing is actually very good for a hand over. As there is all the ruckless and upheaval of people losing seats and others gaining seats, a shakeup at the start of an election is a good idea.

And there is a lot going on, this will have less attention brought to it as a result.

[Lemur]

As I suspected, it's a bit more involved and messy than the announcement led us to believe. Moral of the story: Wimmenz be crazy.

The FBI investigation [...] began with a complaint several months ago about ‘‘harassing’’ emails sent by Paula Broadwell, Petraeus’ biographer, to an unidentified third person, a government official briefed on the case said Saturday.

When FBI agents following up on the complaint began to examine Broadwell’s emails, they discovered exchanges between her and Petraeus that revealed that they were having an affair [...]

The [woman] who complained about harassing messages from Broadwell, according to the official, was not a family member or a government official. One congressional official who was briefed on the matter Friday said senior intelligence officials had explained that the FBI investigation ‘‘started with two women.’’

''It didn’t start with Petraeus, but in the course of the investigation they stumbled across him,’’ said the congressional official, who said the intelligence officials had provided no other information about the two women or the focus of the inquiry. ‘‘We were stunned.’’

[rvg]

Cherchez la femme...

[Ronin]

I'm not what you would call a social conservative, but having been married i do think adultery is wrong. People in top government positions should be too busy doing their freaking jobs to cheat on their wives; otherwise they're probably just abusing their position to get some pussy and/or other non-productive endeavors.

he broke the 11th commandment.

[Major Robert Dump]

Since no one has made reference to the title of the book written by his biographer/mistress

I hope he went ALL IN.


FYI some sources are saying the emails were more cryptic and harassing than threatening, and the only reason an investigation was launched is likely because the victim as BFFs with some agents...

As per the "accessing his computer" accusation, the way they exchanged letters was to write drafts on their civilian emails, save them in the draft folders, and then the other would log into the others account and read those drafts, so that there would be no actual email trail. Pretty smart. But I bet you a zillion copies of ALL IN that she read his other emails, which is what turned her on to this other woman. She also mentioned some things at a university lecture that led people to believe the ideas came from the General, notably that we had detainees in the Libya consulate

And for the consipracy theorists, it should be noted that REPUBLICAN Eric Cantor had this info 10 days before the election and sat on the fact that the Generals affair had come up during an indirect investigation.

It should also be noted that as soon as the FBI asked the General about it, he copped to everything and told them stuff they didn't even know..... such honestly is rare in DC

**edit: I'd hit it

[rory_20_uk]

Americans do seem to have a very odd respect for elected officials - such as how Presidents get to keep the title after leaving office which to me makes no sense.

Based upon these almost religious ideals, anyone who is caught breaking them generally then takes a tumble even though it is highly likely there are many others that are not caught.

The chain of events might be very simple. It might be very complicated. I don't imagine anyone will know for several decades.

[Lemur]

Oh for crying out loud, heard on the radio while driving to work that yet another general is involved. You gotta be freakin' kidding me.

And one of the FBI agents in the case was sexting one of the suspects.

And it turns out Elmo is giving hot love to teen boys.

Everybody seems to be having a very difficult time keeping it in their pants.

-edit-

FYI some sources are saying the emails were more cryptic and harassing than threatening, and the only reason an investigation was launched is likely because the victim as BFFs with some agents...

Yeah, all of that seems to be confirmed ...

[rvg]

Yeah, Elmo disappoints me. Kevin Clash needs to get a Jerry Sandusky puppet.