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

[rvg]

Well thats prob cos there like communists that are capable of all sorts of double think where he can be viewed as a moral leader

I'm not sure I understand what you mean.

[gaelic cowboy]

He's still playing. What's the problem?

I dont have a prob with Tiger but for a while it looked like he would have to quit and it was you got to admit a silly silly thing

[rvg]

I dont have a prob with Tiger but for a while it looked like he would have to quit and it was you got to admit a silly silly thing

It only looked like that. He took his hiatus of shame, then came back with a vengeance.

[gaelic cowboy]

I'm not sure I understand what you mean.

How do they square what he says on telly about the nations family values with what he has done over the years ??

[rvg]

How do they square what he says on telly about the nations family values with what he has done over the years ??

Who does?

[HopAlongBunny]

The only reason I can think of for a CIA dir resigning is a breach of national security. The CIA has been involved in some loopy stuff in the past, but it is very rare for anyone "up chain" to take a fall. Likely this will play as a personal decision, motivated by personal reasons and quietly disappear.

[gaelic cowboy]

Who does?

Who indeed

[Xiahou]

No one has mentioned the obvious reason? Obama was reelected.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Possibly. On the other hand, he's worked at CIA for the administration already....

In a sad parallel, the heir apparent at Lockheed Martin stepped down for having an affair with a subordinate. Better parachute than the general's though.

[Xiahou]

Possibly. On the other hand, he's worked at CIA for the administration already....

And one term was apparently enough....

[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]

normally I would say that you Americans are all prudes, that this is another sex "scandal" that is a personal matter and nothing else.
but in this case I see the point.....the head of the CIA should be able to keep an affair secret....this is just incompetence.

[CrossLOPER]

Who indeed

When he talks himself into a corner his brain reboots, but still produces replies.

[Lemur]

normally I would say that you Americans are all prudes, that this is another sex "scandal" that is a personal matter and nothing else.
but in this case I see the point.....the head of the CIA should be able to keep an affair secret....this is just incompetence.

Well, reading not-too-terribly-deeply between the lines, it looks like the following took place:

1. Gen. Petraeus had at least one mistress, possibly (probably?) more
2. Mistress A was convinced that another woman was, in fact, Mistress B
3. Mistress A sent threats to potential Mistress B
4. The threats were sufficiently convincing/unhinged/creepy that Mistress B contacted the FBI (and they musta been doozies, 'cause you don't normally call the feds when somebody emails you to KEEP YOUR WHORE HANDS OFF MY MAN)
5. FBI discovers the love triangle, as well as Mistress A's access to Things She Should Not Have Access To

And everyone does the hokey-pokey ...

[The Lurker Below]

Well, reading not-too-terribly-deeply between the lines, it looks like the following took place:

1. Gen. Petraeus had at least one mistress, possibly (probably?) more
2. Mistress A was convinced that another woman was, in fact, Mistress B
3. Mistress A sent threats to potential Mistress B
4. The threats were sufficiently convincing/unhinged/creepy that Mistress B contacted the FBI (and they musta been doozies, 'cause you don't normally call the feds when somebody emails you to KEEP YOUR WHORE HANDS OFF MY MAN)
5. FBI discovers the love triangle, as well as Mistress A's access to Things She Should Not Have Access To

And everyone does the hokey-pokey ...

when senior public officials get caught doing the hokey pokey they should step down. theirs is a position of trust and respect: a portion of that "competence" referred to earlier is maintaining the trust and respect.

when entertainers get caught for the same behavior it's understandable for them to lose their sponsorships. but it seems just about hypocritical to lose their fanbase. backstabbing bastards want to see their heroes in the headlines and then when they get the biggest headlines ever they jump ship.

[Lemur]

when senior public officials get caught doing the hokey pokey they should step down. theirs is a position of trust and respect: a portion of that "competence" referred to earlier is maintaining the trust and respect.

Well, I dunno, if a public official can do his or her thang and be discreet, I don't see a problem. Seems like the issue that took out Gen. Petraeus was a lover who (a) went nutso and (b) demonstrably had access to stuff she should not have.

[gaelic cowboy]

When he talks himself into a corner his brain reboots, but still produces replies.

so you dont think society gets het up on all sorts of silly stuff while real scandalous behaviour can be ignored??

Generically WHO means society what ever it's supposed to mean today it's probably shaped by the media and the watershed on tv

although specifically the WHO is Republican voters who can elect Newt on a VALUES vote I just assumed I didnt need to spell it out thats all.

[CrossLOPER]

she doesn't seem worth it, but when do they? Also,

[Lemur]

No one has mentioned the obvious reason? Obama was reelected.

We should call that Xiahou's razor: When choosing between competing explanations, or faced with uncertainty, it is Obama's fault.

[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.

[Lemur]

Just skimming some of the info coming out about the FBI investigation, the various principals' behavior, and the kinda-sorta Congressional involvement, the whole thing looks like a cluster-muck. There's clearly some weird **** that went down, and not just between the sheets. Bunches of people with strange agendas trying to do odd things. Exemplum gratum, apparently the FBI agent who was sending beefcake shots of himself to one of the women also believed everything was a conspiracy to protect Obama, and personally leaked information to Cantor and other Congressional GOP peeps. Nobody is clear on whether the shirtless wonder broke the law or not. What a mess.

So, uh, we have various horny generals, an oversexed biographer, a partially-clad conspiracy nut FBI agent, and ... who knows how weird it will get from here on in.

I think I'll wait for someone to write the book. It sure sounds like there's a lot of untangling to do before anyone can accurately assess how this ten-car-pileup went down.

[HopAlongBunny]

It sounds more like a plot-summary for a Mel Brooks movie. We can only hope