Petraeus said to be shocked by girlfriend's emails
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TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - CIA Director David Petraeus was shocked to learn last summer that his mistress was suspected of sending threatening emails warning another woman to stay away from him, former staff members and friends told The Associated Press Monday.
Petraeus told these associates his relationship with the second woman, Tampa socialite Jill Kelley, was platonic, though his biographer-turned-lover Paula Broadwell apparently saw her as a romantic rival. Retired Gen. Petraeus also denied to these associates that he had given Broadwell any of the sensitive military information alleged to have been found on her computer, saying anything she had must have been provided by other commanders during reporting trips to Afghanistan.
The associates spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to publicly discuss the matters, which could be part of an FBI investigation.
Petraeus, who led U.S. military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, resigned his CIA post Friday, acknowledging his extramarital affair with Broadwell and expressing deep regret.
New details of the investigation that brought an end to his storied career emerged as President Barack Obama hunted for a new CIA director and members of Congress questioned why the months-long probe was kept quiet for so long.
Kelley, the Tampa woman, began receiving harassing emails in May, according to two federal law enforcement officials. They, too, spoke only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. The emails led Kelley to report the matter, eventually triggering the investigation that led Petraeus to resign as head of the intelligence agency.
FBI agents traced the alleged cyber harassment to Broadwell, the officials said, and discovered she was exchanging intimate messages with a private Gmail account. Further investigation revealed the account belonged to Petraeus under an alias.
Petraeus and Broadwell apparently used a trick, known to terrorists and teenagers alike, to conceal their email traffic, one of the law enforcement officials said.
Rather than transmitting emails to the other's inbox, they composed at least some messages and instead of transmitting them, left them in a draft folder or in an electronic "dropbox," the official said. Then the other person could log onto the same account and read the draft emails there. This avoids creating an email trail that is easier to trace.
Broadwell had co-authored a biography titled "All In: The Education of General David Petraeus," published in January. In the preface, she said she met Petraeus in the spring of 2006 while she was a graduate student at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and she ended up following him on multiple trips to Afghanistan as part of her research.
But the contents of the email exchanges between Petraeus and Broadwell suggested to FBI agents that their relationship was intimate. The FBI concluded relatively quickly - by late summer at the latest - that no security breach had occurred, the two senior law enforcement officials said. But the FBI continued its investigation into whether Petraeus had any role in the harassing emails.
Petraeus, 60, told one former associate he began an affair with Broadwell, 40, a couple of months after he became the director of the CIA late last year. They mutually agreed to end the affair four months ago, but they kept in contact because she was still writing a dissertation on his time commanding U.S. troops overseas, the associate said.
FBI agents contacted Petraeus, and he was told that sensitive, possibly classified documents related to Afghanistan were found on her computer. He assured investigators they did not come from him, and he mused to his associates that they were probably given to her on her reporting trips to Afghanistan by commanders she visited in the field there. The FBI concluded there was no security breach.
One associate also said Petraeus believes the documents described past operations and had already been declassified, although they might have still been marked as "secret." Broadwell had high security clearances on her own as part of her job as a reserve Army major working for military intelligence. But those clearances are only in effect when a soldier is on active duty, which she was not at the time she researched the Petraeus biography.
During a talk last month at the University of Denver, Broadwell raised eyebrows when she said the CIA had detained people at a secret facility in Benghazi, Libya, and the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate and CIA base there was an effort to free those prisoners.
Obama issued an executive order in January 2009 stripping the CIA of its authority to take prisoners. The move meant the CIA was forbidden from operating secret jails across the globe as it had under President George W. Bush.
CIA spokesman Preston Golson said: "Any suggestion that the agency is still in the detention business is uninformed and baseless."
Broadwell did not say who told her about CIA activities in Libya. The video of Broadwell's speech was viewed on YouTube.
A Petraeus associate said the retired general was shocked to find out about Broadwell's emails to Kelley. Petraeus was not shown the messages, but investigators told him the emails told Kelley to stay away from the general in a threatening tone.
Petraeus told former staffers and friends that he was friends with Kelley and her surgeon husband, Scott, and regularly visited their brick home with imposing white columns overlooking Tampa Bay.
Jill Kelley, 37, served as a sort of social ambassador for U.S. Central Command, hosting parties for the general when Petraeus was commander there from 2008-2010.
A photo shows Petraeus and his wife, Holly, with the Kelleys and Jill's identical twin sister Natalie Khawam in the Kelleys' front yard, decked out in party beads with a pirate flag in the background. Khawam, is a Tampa lawyer who works on health care fraud and whistleblowers cases, according to her Linkedin profile, which was removed from the professional networking site Monday. The sisters - hard to differentiate in the picture with their matching long dark locks and black dresses - also competed in a cook-off filmed for a Food Network show called "Food Fight" in 2003.
Jill Kelley regularly kept in touch with then-Gen. Petraeus when he became commander of the Afghan war effort, the two exchanging near-daily emails and instant messages, two of his former staffers say. But those messages were exchanged in accounts that his aides monitored as part of their duties and were not romantic in tone, the staffers said.
Kelley did not answer the door at her Tampa home Monday morning, and later left her home by car without talking to reporters. The Kelleys hired Abbe Lowell, a Washington lawyer who has represented well-known clients including lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former presidential candidate John Edwards, and released a statement Sunday through a Washington-based crisis management firm that she and her family had been friends with the Petraeus family for five years and wanted to respect their privacy.
Petraeus and his family are devastated over the affair, especially Mrs. Petraeus, who "is not exactly pleased right now," after 38 years of marriage, said Steve Boylan, a friend and former Petraeus spokesman who spoke to him over the weekend.
"Furious would be an understatement," Boylan told ABC's "Good Morning America." The couple has two adult children, including a son who led an infantry platoon in Afghanistan as an Army lieutenant.
Broadwell is married with two young sons and lives in Charlotte, N.C. She has not returned phone calls or emails seeking comment.
As the criminal investigation continued into the emails to Kelley, FBI Director Robert Mueller and eventually Attorney General Eric Holder were notified that agents had uncovered what appeared to be an extramarital affair involving Petraeus, said one of the law enforcement officials.
Broadwell and Petraeus have each been questioned by FBI agents twice in recent weeks, with both acknowledging the affair in separate interviews. The FBI's most recent interviews with Broadwell and with Petraeus both occurred during the week of Oct. 29, days before the election, one of the law enforcement officials said. The FBI notified Obama's director of national intelligence, James Clapper, of the investigation on Tuesday Nov. 6, Election Day.
Clapper called Petraeus that night and urged him to resign. Clapper informed the White House late Wednesday, and aides informed the president Thursday morning, before Petraeus came to personally hand in his resignation letter.
Some members of Congress are questioning why they weren't told sooner. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, said she wants to investigate why she had to find out from news reports Friday.
But there were at least a couple of members of Congress who heard inklings of the affair before the election. Republican Rep. Dave Reichert of Washington state received a tip from an FBI source that the CIA director was involved in an affair in late October. Reichert arranged for an associate of his source at the FBI to call House Majority Leader Eric Cantor on Saturday, Oct. 27, according to Cantor spokesman Rory Cooper.
The FBI agent who contacted Reichert was the same one who first received the allegations from Kelley, a federal law enforcement official said Monday night. That agent's role in the case consisted simply of passing along information from Kelley to the FBI agents who conducted the investigation, but that agent was subsequently told by his superiors to steer clear of the case because they grew concerned that the agent had become obsessed with the investigation, the official said. The agent was a friend of Kelley and long before the case involving Petraeus got under way, the agent had sent Kelley shirtless photos of himself, according to this official. The Wall Street Journal first reported that this FBI agent was kept away from the case.
Cooper told The Associated Press Monday that Cantor notified the FBI's chief of staff of the conversation but did not tell anyone else because he did not know whether the information from a person he didn't know was credible.
"Two weeks ago, you don't want to start spreading something you can't confirm," Cooper said.
The FBI responded by telling Cantor's office that it could not confirm or deny an investigation, but assured the leader's office it was acting to protect national security. Cooper said Cantor believed that if the information was accurate and national security was affected, the FBI would, as obligated, inform the congressional intelligence committees and others, including House Speaker John Boehner.
One of the law enforcement officials who spoke to the AP said long-standing Justice Department policy and practice is not to share information from an ongoing criminal investigation with anyone outside the department, including the White House and Congress. The official said national security must be involved to notify Capitol Hill, and that was not the case in the Petraeus matter.
Petraeus' affair with Broadwell will be the subject of meetings Wednesday involving congressional intelligence committee leaders, FBI deputy director Sean Joyce and CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell.
Petraeus had been scheduled to appear before congressional committees on Thursday to testify about the Benghazi attack that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens. Morell is expected to testify in place of Petraeus.
Feinstein and others didn't rule out the possibility that Congress will try to compel Petraeus to testify about Benghazi at a later date, even though he's relinquished his job.
___
Yost reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Nedra Pickler, Larry Margasak, Adam Goldman and Robert Burns contributed to this report.
Petraeus told these associates his relationship with the second woman, Tampa socialite Jill Kelley, was platonic, though his biographer-turned-lover Paula Broadwell apparently saw her as a romantic rival. Retired Gen. Petraeus also denied to these associates that he had given Broadwell any of the sensitive military information alleged to have been found on her computer, saying anything she had must have been provided by other commanders during reporting trips to Afghanistan.
The associates spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to publicly discuss the matters, which could be part of an FBI investigation.
Petraeus, who led U.S. military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, resigned his CIA post Friday, acknowledging his extramarital affair with Broadwell and expressing deep regret.
New details of the investigation that brought an end to his storied career emerged as President Barack Obama hunted for a new CIA director and members of Congress questioned why the months-long probe was kept quiet for so long.
Kelley, the Tampa woman, began receiving harassing emails in May, according to two federal law enforcement officials. They, too, spoke only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. The emails led Kelley to report the matter, eventually triggering the investigation that led Petraeus to resign as head of the intelligence agency.
FBI agents traced the alleged cyber harassment to Broadwell, the officials said, and discovered she was exchanging intimate messages with a private Gmail account. Further investigation revealed the account belonged to Petraeus under an alias.
Petraeus and Broadwell apparently used a trick, known to terrorists and teenagers alike, to conceal their email traffic, one of the law enforcement officials said.
Rather than transmitting emails to the other's inbox, they composed at least some messages and instead of transmitting them, left them in a draft folder or in an electronic "dropbox," the official said. Then the other person could log onto the same account and read the draft emails there. This avoids creating an email trail that is easier to trace.
Broadwell had co-authored a biography titled "All In: The Education of General David Petraeus," published in January. In the preface, she said she met Petraeus in the spring of 2006 while she was a graduate student at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and she ended up following him on multiple trips to Afghanistan as part of her research.
But the contents of the email exchanges between Petraeus and Broadwell suggested to FBI agents that their relationship was intimate. The FBI concluded relatively quickly - by late summer at the latest - that no security breach had occurred, the two senior law enforcement officials said. But the FBI continued its investigation into whether Petraeus had any role in the harassing emails.
Petraeus, 60, told one former associate he began an affair with Broadwell, 40, a couple of months after he became the director of the CIA late last year. They mutually agreed to end the affair four months ago, but they kept in contact because she was still writing a dissertation on his time commanding U.S. troops overseas, the associate said.
FBI agents contacted Petraeus, and he was told that sensitive, possibly classified documents related to Afghanistan were found on her computer. He assured investigators they did not come from him, and he mused to his associates that they were probably given to her on her reporting trips to Afghanistan by commanders she visited in the field there. The FBI concluded there was no security breach.
One associate also said Petraeus believes the documents described past operations and had already been declassified, although they might have still been marked as "secret." Broadwell had high security clearances on her own as part of her job as a reserve Army major working for military intelligence. But those clearances are only in effect when a soldier is on active duty, which she was not at the time she researched the Petraeus biography.
During a talk last month at the University of Denver, Broadwell raised eyebrows when she said the CIA had detained people at a secret facility in Benghazi, Libya, and the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate and CIA base there was an effort to free those prisoners.
Obama issued an executive order in January 2009 stripping the CIA of its authority to take prisoners. The move meant the CIA was forbidden from operating secret jails across the globe as it had under President George W. Bush.
CIA spokesman Preston Golson said: "Any suggestion that the agency is still in the detention business is uninformed and baseless."
Broadwell did not say who told her about CIA activities in Libya. The video of Broadwell's speech was viewed on YouTube.
A Petraeus associate said the retired general was shocked to find out about Broadwell's emails to Kelley. Petraeus was not shown the messages, but investigators told him the emails told Kelley to stay away from the general in a threatening tone.
Petraeus told former staffers and friends that he was friends with Kelley and her surgeon husband, Scott, and regularly visited their brick home with imposing white columns overlooking Tampa Bay.
Jill Kelley, 37, served as a sort of social ambassador for U.S. Central Command, hosting parties for the general when Petraeus was commander there from 2008-2010.
A photo shows Petraeus and his wife, Holly, with the Kelleys and Jill's identical twin sister Natalie Khawam in the Kelleys' front yard, decked out in party beads with a pirate flag in the background. Khawam, is a Tampa lawyer who works on health care fraud and whistleblowers cases, according to her Linkedin profile, which was removed from the professional networking site Monday. The sisters - hard to differentiate in the picture with their matching long dark locks and black dresses - also competed in a cook-off filmed for a Food Network show called "Food Fight" in 2003.
Jill Kelley regularly kept in touch with then-Gen. Petraeus when he became commander of the Afghan war effort, the two exchanging near-daily emails and instant messages, two of his former staffers say. But those messages were exchanged in accounts that his aides monitored as part of their duties and were not romantic in tone, the staffers said.
Kelley did not answer the door at her Tampa home Monday morning, and later left her home by car without talking to reporters. The Kelleys hired Abbe Lowell, a Washington lawyer who has represented well-known clients including lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former presidential candidate John Edwards, and released a statement Sunday through a Washington-based crisis management firm that she and her family had been friends with the Petraeus family for five years and wanted to respect their privacy.
Petraeus and his family are devastated over the affair, especially Mrs. Petraeus, who "is not exactly pleased right now," after 38 years of marriage, said Steve Boylan, a friend and former Petraeus spokesman who spoke to him over the weekend.
"Furious would be an understatement," Boylan told ABC's "Good Morning America." The couple has two adult children, including a son who led an infantry platoon in Afghanistan as an Army lieutenant.
Broadwell is married with two young sons and lives in Charlotte, N.C. She has not returned phone calls or emails seeking comment.
As the criminal investigation continued into the emails to Kelley, FBI Director Robert Mueller and eventually Attorney General Eric Holder were notified that agents had uncovered what appeared to be an extramarital affair involving Petraeus, said one of the law enforcement officials.
Broadwell and Petraeus have each been questioned by FBI agents twice in recent weeks, with both acknowledging the affair in separate interviews. The FBI's most recent interviews with Broadwell and with Petraeus both occurred during the week of Oct. 29, days before the election, one of the law enforcement officials said. The FBI notified Obama's director of national intelligence, James Clapper, of the investigation on Tuesday Nov. 6, Election Day.
Clapper called Petraeus that night and urged him to resign. Clapper informed the White House late Wednesday, and aides informed the president Thursday morning, before Petraeus came to personally hand in his resignation letter.
Some members of Congress are questioning why they weren't told sooner. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, said she wants to investigate why she had to find out from news reports Friday.
But there were at least a couple of members of Congress who heard inklings of the affair before the election. Republican Rep. Dave Reichert of Washington state received a tip from an FBI source that the CIA director was involved in an affair in late October. Reichert arranged for an associate of his source at the FBI to call House Majority Leader Eric Cantor on Saturday, Oct. 27, according to Cantor spokesman Rory Cooper.
The FBI agent who contacted Reichert was the same one who first received the allegations from Kelley, a federal law enforcement official said Monday night. That agent's role in the case consisted simply of passing along information from Kelley to the FBI agents who conducted the investigation, but that agent was subsequently told by his superiors to steer clear of the case because they grew concerned that the agent had become obsessed with the investigation, the official said. The agent was a friend of Kelley and long before the case involving Petraeus got under way, the agent had sent Kelley shirtless photos of himself, according to this official. The Wall Street Journal first reported that this FBI agent was kept away from the case.
Cooper told The Associated Press Monday that Cantor notified the FBI's chief of staff of the conversation but did not tell anyone else because he did not know whether the information from a person he didn't know was credible.
"Two weeks ago, you don't want to start spreading something you can't confirm," Cooper said.
The FBI responded by telling Cantor's office that it could not confirm or deny an investigation, but assured the leader's office it was acting to protect national security. Cooper said Cantor believed that if the information was accurate and national security was affected, the FBI would, as obligated, inform the congressional intelligence committees and others, including House Speaker John Boehner.
One of the law enforcement officials who spoke to the AP said long-standing Justice Department policy and practice is not to share information from an ongoing criminal investigation with anyone outside the department, including the White House and Congress. The official said national security must be involved to notify Capitol Hill, and that was not the case in the Petraeus matter.
Petraeus' affair with Broadwell will be the subject of meetings Wednesday involving congressional intelligence committee leaders, FBI deputy director Sean Joyce and CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell.
Petraeus had been scheduled to appear before congressional committees on Thursday to testify about the Benghazi attack that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens. Morell is expected to testify in place of Petraeus.
Feinstein and others didn't rule out the possibility that Congress will try to compel Petraeus to testify about Benghazi at a later date, even though he's relinquished his job.
___
Yost reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Nedra Pickler, Larry Margasak, Adam Goldman and Robert Burns contributed to this report.
reminds me of junior high. "he's my boyfriend, you stay away" who thinks there is any "privacy" in email???? put anything in writing of any form, that's a permanent record
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This guy is the head of the CIA, and he is shocked by the emails? That comes off as beyond clueless.
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Hell hath no fury....
This is becoming more bizarre by the minute. Anyone who is thinking about infidelity should think twice. I used to think the only issue to worry about would be catching a nasty disease. It sure seems there are a lot of kooks out there. If you are in a committed relationship, it's not worth it.
The only thing missing is the FBI cover-up emails that didn't disclose this whole thing to the public earlier.
Only thing missing is a long non stop car ride a astronaut and a little bit crazy....
The women dressed like she could be a topless dancer or something similar. Â Why is anyone surprised?
He always has the option of just being quiet. Quite frankly if I were him I would be more worried about what was going on at home than I would be with the emails of this petty woman. The whole thing has become very absurd.
It's getting better by the minute: shirtless photos by the agent ? FBI at day, Chippendales at night?Â
(After the elections) we the media are now willing to find and figure all these enlightening facts.
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Actual leadership is completely gone in the US.
 @brewzbrothers It was never there in the first place, in all honesty. Our country's citizens was just too young, naive, and eager to realize it.
"Petraeus began affair after taking CIA job"
This maybe a true statement with his affair with Paula, but I have a hard time believing after 37 years that this is Petraeus' s first affair and he got caught. It''s like the odds of getting pregnant the very first time, it happens but the odds are against it by a long shot.I'm sure this will become quite the drama in the weeks to come along with a Lifetime Movie.
Looking at those foreheads, I would have guessed they both were from Easter Island.
About about all we can be sure of so far about this is the following:
(1.) The media are going to be plastered with images of Broadwell and Kelley for some time, more because they're attractive women than anything else.
(2.) All the people involved in this appear to be rich and accustomed to circulating in the halls of power--something the rest of us know very little about but which most of us would like to.
(3.) No matter what the investigation leads, the House Republicans will put forth a great deal of effort (and spend a lot of the taxpayers' money) trying to spin this into a justification to impeach Obama.
(4.) The casting and script are already in the works for an HBO movie about the whole thing.
@Arthur Marriott
"About about all we can be sure of so far about this is the following:"
 (1.) Obama announces spectacular plan to lead the US out of debt with China by legalizing Marijuana at the federal level (thereby refocusing the media off of his current mistake(s))
 (2.) All the people involved are known drug king pins that Obama made economic ties to so that the drug king pins would allow this to happen (the same as what Obama did with the health care plan)
 (3.) No matter the number of people killed the democrats will freely spend billions of tax payer money to support the drug king pins and lie about it to the American people
 (4.) Can't improve on your (4.)Â
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@Beam_Me_Up Nor (1.), (2.), or (3.).
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the affair ended 4 months ago, so what were these harassing emails ? Were they written before the brake up or after?Â
Its funny how the same people looking for Bush's head on any number of instances that seemed so trivial can be so incredibly indignant and accusatory when one raises a question of timing of this news story as it relates  to quite possibly the most important piece of testimony  regarding a major international incident and a possible cover up thereof by the the actual white house...we aren't dealing with possible illicit campaign contributions here people. Real people were left for dead, and then the reason and facts of the matter have been intentionally misrepresented...Double standard much?
and by instances that seemed trvial, you mean, waging a war that killed thousands of american soldiers and over 100,000 innocent iraqi civillians because hee intentionally cherry picked intel to suppport going to war.
Oh, an din the process, took a projection of having the debt paid off by the end of the decade to 10 trillion in dbt an da 1.4 trillion dollar deficit?
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Is this what you mean by trivial?
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yeah, it is EXACTLY like Petraeus resigning over having an affair.Â
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just like it.
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Hey komo, you know how some websites make you read the scribbly characters before you log in. How about you make people just do a few simple math questions before they can post here.Â
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 @T H I S I was not for going into Iraq as Bush did but Bush did not do this alone, he had the support of democrats and republicans alike at the time because it was the popular thing to do. And, he had a great amount of support from the rest of the free world. The US did not go in alone. You seem to forget this.
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But what is worse is your belief system that seems to say Obama should get a free pass to whatever he wants to do as president because the president before him did things you did not like. You are like my pre teen kid that cries out 'unfair' just because she got caught doing something wrong that her sibling did not get caught doing.
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Please grow up. Please understand that Bush is no longer in charge and no matter how bad your feelings are hurt from Bush, Obama is now in charge. Please understand that in order for this nation to improve we need adults both in charge and adults that take their responsibilities seriously. Are you ready to join the adult world? You can still keep your Clinton doll and your Gore wobbie if it makes you feel better.
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Now to put things in perspective that you will understand Obama should be put in a timeout now for failing to take his responsibilities seriously. Obama likes to wear the big boy pants but he still need them little boy pants for all of his accidents. Obama has been very good at fooling the adults really in charge but he is running out of places to hide all of his mistakes.
@Beam_Me_Up (even more cont from above) Since when were Obamaâs world travels supposed to fix any of the fiscal problems? Many other issues are better than they were. Even a lot of the fiscal issues. Really compare what was happening and close to happening through the latter part of â08 and even into the early part, and more, of â09 versus latter and especially now. I am not sure if you have noticed but major combat operations in Iraq are over and Afghanistan is winding down over the next couple of years. I.e. the violence has decreased dramatically since Obama has been in office. Maybe numbers matter but who also matters. Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld seemed to be very indiscriminate at times. Trying to target Al Qaeda and the Taliban might not be a bad thing. Bush and Cheney took their eyes off that for way too long. Thus the mess that we wound up in. But now you want to forget all of that so that some reps can just do it all over again. Wow. And then you make even more assumptions and we already know what that makes only you. Plus you continue to misrepresent the consulate as an embassy. There has been some info coming out about why the ambassador was even up there (from Tripoli where he was posted at the embassy there) and there is even more speculation based on a lot of that.
@Beam_Me_Up (cont from above) But in spite of what you say and how much the reps, tbaggers, and etc. do try to drag their feet, things are getting better and are getting fixed. However slower than otherwise might occur without the obstructionism of the aforementioned. Also âThose who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat itâ. Much as Romney and many of the aforementioned want to do. That is at least part of why many of the aforementioned supported Romney. They appear to have forgotten the past. So we need to keep to reminding them. Bush and Cheney will go down in history much as Hoover did. So when and where did you buy your house? If you can not see any relief in sight you are not really looking, bought at a really bad time, are in a really bad area, or, much like the aforementioned, you donât want to see. The mullet beer can crushing crowd does seem to be way more representative of the aforementioned also. Especially the tbaggers. Check out who voted for Romney/Ryan. (even more cont below)
@Beam_Me_Up We do get it. It is the reps, tbaggers, neo cons, etc. that do not get it. I.e. they want to double and triple down on Bush, Cheney, and Paulson policies of even more tax cuts for the uber wealthy, even less regulations in general, and even more wars across the globe. Just look at what Romney campaigned on. Bush, Cheney, and Paulson on steroids. Then the reps etc. try to drag their feet and obstruct as much as possible if they canât get exactly their way. (cont below)
 @flyskiwindsurf @T H I S You guys just don't get it, Bush is over and done with. We can not fix the problems of this country by remembering Bush all over again. I bet on the fact that Obama was making progress with the economy during his first term and I own a home that I can not sell today and there is no relief in sight. I have no savings left. I am in the middle class and falling fast. I see the auto industry getting bailed out, Wall Street got bailed out but what about us? All you can do is bring up Bush and all I can do is try to put food on the table for my family and maybe save enough for a few presents for Christmas while trying not to be another person that walks away from my house payment. I think the rich should be taxed more then me but Obama missed the chance to make this happen when he used his political majority to pass a health care bill. Now he is fighting the House tooth and nail all the while the reality of his health care plan is hitting Americans directly in their budget. Companies have figured out that if they hire more part time workers and cut the hours of their full time workers to part time they don't have to pay their part into the health plans leaving their employees to pay 100% of their coverage.
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But you keep yourself tied to the past. I can see you guys with mullets crushing beer cans on your heads. You probably even replay coverage of the 2000 election in Florida over and over again just so that you can retain your rage.
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All Obama has proven he is good at is getting elected. Has his world travels fixed the European fiscal crisis? Has his world travels fixed the US fiscal crisis? Has his world travels fixed anything? Our world image is fixed by actions not visits. We are still killing people in Afghanistan and Pakistan and other countries where just our drones can reach. Does it only matter to you the number of people we kill? How high does the body count have to go before you think killing is the wrong part of negotiations? Obama can pull all troops out of these countries and leave them to their own political means. If all we are doing is increasing the violence then by your standards we should leave correct? Try to answer this without living in the past. I don't think either of you are capable of this. And also ask yourself if Obama's inaction has lead to people being killed like the Americans in Libya. More and more evidence is coming public that Obama's government if not Obama himself knew there were credible threats to the Americans in our embassy but Obama's government or Obama himself failed to act on these. Are these American lives worth less then the lives lost under Bush? I already know that if you answer this it will be rhetoric from the past since this is where you live or you will have some anecdotal remark trying to change the subject back to Bush or someone else. Â
@Beam_Me_Up âPopular thing to doâ or sold with cherry picked and even false intel? Great amount of support? Name the countries that went in full bore with us. Bush and Cheney were exposed big time. Heard of either of them doing much traveling outside of the U.S.? There might be a reason for that. Compared to the long dark night and the stench of the darth_shrub admin, the Obama admin has been a nice, glowing, sweetness of light amongst the worldâs horrors. Many of which the previous admin committed and the current admin is at least trying to straighten out. And you mention big boy pants in the same post that you mention Bush. How ironic and laughable. Obama earned his man pants while Bush should still be running around in shorts and huggies. Bush did very few things right in his entire life. There is a reason that his dad was crying after his presidency was finally over.
 @Beam_Me_Up "I was not for going into Iraq as Bush did but Bush did not do this alone, he had the support of democrats"
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vote republicans, because you can not trust democrats to keep republicans in check, right?
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"But what is worse is your belief system that seems to say Obama should get a free pass"
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No, what I am saying is that you guys look stupid for trying to make a scandal where there is none, and refussed to actually deal with the travisty that was.
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 @T H I S Cherrypicked?...Like how MI6 and the CIA as well as every other major Intelligence organization said Saddam did, and oh yeah, math, how about all those hundreds of thousands of Kurds in northern Iraq wiped out in the 80's by those non-existent WMDs (i.e. chemical and biological.) You must have missed those pesky photos in National Geographic... Don't be a buffoon. Keep drinking the kool-aid...
 @Cheetoh734Â
We went to war in 2003 on intel that Sadam had weapons of mass destruction in 2003. We did not go to war in 2003 becuse of what happened in nineteen eighty something.Â
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So I've been reading about this, and I have a question that doesn't seem to be answered in any of the new reports. Â I've read that the FBI began investigating after Paula Broadwell began sending harassing e-mails to a second woman who did not have an affair with Petraeus. Â My question is - what were the harassing e-mails about? Â If she didn't have an affair with Petraeus, why would she be harassed? Â And, by the way, isn't it interesting that this became "known" on election day?
Unfortunate, but sure has more integrity in his demise than the grease-ball Bill Clinton ever had.
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Patraeus stepped down. Clinton acted like some kind of spoiled brat victim, which he was not.
Is the guy doing his job??? Then why should we care if he is having an affair??? I think we make too much of this... it's not our business as long as he does his job..
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 @me So the head of the CIA who can't control his zipper, sits at the same table with the heads of Homeland Security, NSA, DoD, FBI, FEMA, Treasury and Secret Service to name a few while briefing Obama, who is to say he can control his mouth either? There are many US and foreign companies/countries that would love to get their hands on what is spoken at this table and these companies and countries would not think twice employing the likes of Broadwell to do their bidding either with her knowledge or without as they gather their intelligence through her. More and more is coming out of the length that Petraeus and Broadwell took to keep this secret. And you are willing to let this go because it is just an 'affair'? There are many reasons for a security clearance but two of them are to verify your background and to ensure you are trustworthy. Those with events like an affair are not deemed trustworthy for the higher security clearances, especially ongoing affairs while working in the job that required the security clearance in the first place. What level security clearance do you think Petraeus had as being the head of the CIA?
@me So your OK with the top guy at the CIA having something "on him" that could be used against him in a blackmail attempt? How do we know what her motrives are/were in this. Other governments using his "secrets" against him.Â
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I have no issue with "most' people having affairs... it's their issue with their significant others, not mine. But when it is the head of the CIA, I have an issue.
 @JCCBlvu  Two words: Monica Lewinsky.
@Gino and the issue with "that woman, Ms. Lewinsky" was addressed by Congress if you remember.
If this was an isolated incident in Obama's administration I would just pass it off as a an oversight that Obama was trying to protect a friend. But when you add up the events like the bin Laden killing made public, the executive order Obama used to protect Holder/border patrol, the Benghazi cover up there is a trend that Obama is not creating an open government not just for America but for the world, but he is creating a laughing stock of America. All of these events seem to be carefully scripted to ensure Obama got a second term. My concern is now that he is a lame duck what other events will happen just because Obama has nothing to fear in his next four years?
Wow. The libs sure have a hair up their rear ends about this guy huh?
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"They questioned when the retired general popped up in the FBI inquiry, whether national security was compromised and why they weren't told sooner."
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Too bad they didn't have the same concern when former president Clinton was having one huh? Oh wait, he was a democrat so the same rules and concerns don't apply...
These women seem to have well to do husbands.  Broadwell's husband was well to do but  didn't have the power she was looking for.  It's called greed folks.  Power corrupts as far reaching consequences.  As you can see,  this women was so obsessed,  she wouldn't let anything stop her.   Some women just want guys with power and influence.  This is the same thing we see in many rapists.  The sad thing here is this could have jeapordized national security.   Patraeus  should have had the common sense after hundreds of emails he would be caught and should have resigned. Â
I just laugh at all the conspiracy theories: Let's add another one! The Ancient Aliens guy thinks that she is actually an alien from another planet sent down here to read his mind!Â
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Seriously though, he is an lowlife with zero integrity who screwed around on his wife and put the future of his family at risk. He is an adult and, especially being in the position he was in, should have known better. I question the integrity of people like him . . . . if he can't stay loyal to his wife and kids, how can you trust him with the most critical secrets of our government.
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As far as the "other woman".... she is no victim. She is a ho-bag who knowingly screwed around with someone else's husband.
How about focusing on the budget, war(s) and quit with the soap opera drama? Friggin" losers.
 @Funky-Munky Yea,  but this is serious as it has to do with the integrity of this country and national security.  You can't get an honest budget without honest people.  Â
 @HullenbeckCowl Many officials have done the exact same thing.... Take a look at all the hookers Clinton fooled around with.... this is nothing new!
She just wanted to advance herself.......yeah....that's the way....! Shame !!!
Its called "dipping the wick" because I can... AND it does NOT matter who I CRUSH along the way.........
I bet if we look real hard (which we won't) this woman most likely was an agent for Israel.
@Telman@ And if we look even harder, we'll that you spend the majority of your time on websites of ill repute which promote baseless and irrational extremist theories for your sponge of a mind to suck up and spit back out.
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Good grief - the man had an affair and got caught, and is paying the price. It really IS that simple.
Hard to believe she is four years younger than me...she looks old!
Not to mention Pataeus as some kin of individual who cannot exercise common sense judgement, these women he was with seem to have been more interested in power and prestige than serving the military and the country under the Civil Service system. Â The high ranks of Civil Service seem to hire anyone they feel like. Â That is why anyone in these high positions as liason, etc. get these jobs. Â Yes, Â you can go to the high priced schools but that doesn't mean you have any more morals. Â Today, Â it just means you have more money and connections.Â
Let me remind you what this is really about....BENGHAZI!!!!
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Petraeus said in his statement to the press that "No one within HIS organization at any level told anyone to stand down" a defacto condemnation of those above him. And all of the sudden......He had an affair, he has to resign and of course he can't testify on Benghazi! But this isn't about that, he had an affair! Don't worry about Benghazi...Your fearless leader is taking care of it, one dissenting general at a time....Welcome to Stalinist Russia Sheeple...
 @Cheetoh734 yes, he had an affair months for benhgazi so he could cover up what happened at benghazi. Â
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And so you know, congress can still call Petraeus to testify.
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Seriously, the fact that you are the same people who somehow thought Obama forged his birth announcment in a Hawiian newpaper in 1961 Â so he could lie about his citizenship when he ran for president is not lost on me.Â
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The fact that @Gaikokujin and @al_wa "liked" you comment is hardley shocking.
The dolting conspiracy theorist tend to stick together.
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@Cheetoh734 Hey, I think I know you. Werent you at Westlake Park this morning screaming and ranting about random nothingness? It was a bit entertaining. Oh btw, "sheeple" is not a proper noun, therefore it should not be capitalized.
 @northwestsurfer  @Cheetoh734 So, I see conspiracies? I never said that. To anyone with a shred of deductive reasoning it would appear suspicious that literally a week before he was to testify before congress about an international debacle that cost the lives of 4 Americans he "suddenly resigns" and can no longer testify. After his previous statement it becomes even more suspicious. I am no 9/11 truther, but if you actually look at this Benghazi thing its pretty serious.  Someone screwed up big time, the defacto media black out stinks to high heaven.  And most people, including apparently you have no idea because of where you get your news from. The BBC, Reuters, and a few other people, yes including Fox news, are the only ones reporting on it. Its pretty sad. But hey, its me, I am totally crazy. If that makes you feel better.
 @Cheetoh734  @northwestsurfer agreed... you are totally crazy
 @Cheetoh734 Yes, people have "affairs" because of Benghazi you conspiracy nitwit. Dear heavens... you people will find a conspiracy in a box of cornflakes!
 @TruthinAdverts Don't you think âthe most open and transparent in history.â administration has contributed to this atmosphere?
 @al_wa  @flyskiwindsurf I am a little vexed... if fly made your "ignore list quite some time ago", why did you just respond to them... oops
@al_wa Well thank you very much for that waaaaahhh. I do appreciate you ignoring me while I continue to point out how truly i****** you and your ilk really really are. Such as now. So when did you actually start ignoring me? I would like to have it officially recorded so that I can look back on it with fond memories from time to time. I might even have a yearly celebration or at least a yearly remembrance on that fantastic day. Thank you thank you thank you.
 @flyskiwindsurf  @al_wa You made my " ignore list" quite some time ago
@al_wa Of course you were. Of course you do. Just put your feet up there by the fire and rest for a while. How about some warm cocoa? Would you like your slippers and robe now? How about a warm towel on your forehead?
 @T H I S I was thinking more along the lines of fast and furious and Benghize. I agree with the other items on your list.
 @al_wa no, the right wing conspiracy theory group is responsible.
The same poeople farking the Benghazi chicken are the same people who:
-ran up the price on ammunition on themselves in 2009 becuase they were afraid Obama was going to take their guns
-believed in death panels
-were birthers
-thought (still do) that Obama is a secret muslim
-predicted Romney was going win... in a landslide
-blamed the media for covering for Obama, even though the pew institute has said clearly otherwise.
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how many times are you idiots going to be proven wrong before you start to realized that your critical thinking skills suck.Â
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take some personal responsibilty for your stupidty and stop blaming the president for everything wrong in your life.... including the fact that you are just wrong about everything alll the time..Â
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echo chambers.... how do they work?
 @Cheetoh734 I believe he will be subpenaed and testify. Remember he also went on the record supporting the "Movie" explanation.
 @Cheetoh734 Dosage needs to be doubled, or possibly quadrupled LOL