Scandal widens in probe of top US general's emails
By PETE YOST and ROBERT BURNS |
Associated Press
13/11/2012
WASHINGTON (AP) - The sex scandal that led to CIA Director David Petraeus'
downfall widened Tuesday with word the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan is
under investigation for thousands of alleged "inappropriate communications"
with another woman involved in the case.
Even as the FBI prepared a timeline for Congress about the investigation
that brought to light Petraeus' extramarital affair with his biographer,
Paula Broadwell, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta revealed that the Pentagon
had begun an internal investigation into emails from Gen. John Allen to a
Florida woman involved in the case.
Allen succeeded Petraeus as the top American commander in Afghanistan in
July 2011, and his nomination to become the next commander of U.S. European
Command and the commander of NATO forces in Europe has now been put on hold,
as the scandal seemed certain to ensnare another acclaimed military figure.
In a White House statement early Tuesday, National Security spokesman Tommy
Vietor said President Barack Obama has held Allen's nomination at Panetta's
request. Obama, the statement said, "remains focused on fully supporting our
extraordinary troops and coalition partners in Afghanistan, who Gen. Allen
continues to lead as he has so ably done for over a year."
It was Broadwell's threatening emails to Jill Kelley, a Florida woman who is
a Petraeus family friend, that led to the FBI's discovery of communications
between Broadwell and Petraeus indicating they were having an affair.
Petraeus acknowledged the affair when he resigned from the CIA post on
Friday.
In the latest revelations, a Pentagon official traveling with Panetta to
Australia said "inappropriate communications" - 20,000 to 30,000 pages of
emails and other documents from Allen's communications with Kelley between
2010 and 2012 - are under review. He would not say whether they involved
sexual matters or whether they are thought to include unauthorized
disclosures of classified information. He said he did not know whether
Petraeus is mentioned in the emails.
Allen has denied wrongdoing. If Allen was found to have had an affair with
Kelley, he could face charges of adultery, which is a crime under the
Uniform Code of Military Justice.
The decision by the FBI to hand off the Allen information to the military
seems to indicate the issue is not one involving the handling of classified
information, but rather some other issue.
The Petraeus case has sparked an uproar in Congress, with lawmakers
complaining they should have been told earlier about the probe that has
roiled the intelligence and military establishment.
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee,
called the latest revelations in the case "a Greek tragedy."
"It's just tragic," King said Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show. "This has the
elements in some ways of a Hollywood movie or a trashy novel."
The issue of what the FBI knew, when it notified top Obama administration
officials, and when Congress was told, has brought criticism from lawmakers,
who say they should have been told earlier.
The White House wasn't informed of the FBI investigation that involved
Petraeus until Nov. 6, Election Day, although agents began looking at
Petraeus' actions months earlier, sometime during the summer. Senate
Intelligence Committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., complained
that she first learned of the matter from the media late last week, and
confirmed it in a phone call to the then-CIA director on Friday.
That was the same day Obama accepted Petraeus' resignation, and the
60-year-old retired Army general, who headed U.S. military operations in
Iraq and Afghanistan before taking charge of the CIA, acknowledged an affair
with Broadwell, and expressed regret.
Defending the notification timing, a senior federal law enforcement official
pointed Monday to longstanding policies and practices, adopted following
abuses and mistakes that were uncovered during the Nixon administration's
Watergate scandal of the early 1970s. The Justice Department - of which the
FBI is part - is supposed to refrain from sharing detailed information about
its criminal investigations with the White House.
The FBI also looked into whether a separate set of emails between Petraeus
and Broadwell might involve any security breach. That will be a key question
Wednesday in meetings involving congressional intelligence committee
leaders, FBI deputy director Sean Joyce and CIA deputy director Michael
Morell.
A federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity to
discuss details of the investigation, said the FBI had concluded relatively
quickly - and certainly by late summer at the latest - that there was no
security breach. Absent a security breach, it was appropriate not to notify
Congress or the White House earlier, this official said.
Extramarital affairs are viewed as particularly risky for intelligence
officers because they might be blackmailed to keep the affair quiet. For
military personnel, adultery is a crime under the Uniform Code of Military
Justice.
According to two federal law enforcement officials, the FBI initially began
a criminal investigation of unsigned, harassing emails that were sent,
beginning last May, to Kelley, a Tampa socialite. She and her husband,
Scott, were longtime friends of Petraeus and his wife, Holly. FBI agents
traced the alleged cyber harassment to Broadwell and during that process
discovered she was exchanging intimate messages with a private Gmail
account. Further investigation revealed that 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 for outsiders to intercept or trace.
Agents later told Petraeus that Broadwell sent emails warning Kelley to stay
away from the general and carrying a threatening tone.
Friends and former staff members of Petraeus told The Associated Press that
he has assured them his relationship with Kelley was platonic, although
Broadwell apparently saw her as a romantic rival. They said Petraeus was
shocked to learn last summer of Broadwell's emails to Kelley.
Petraeus also denied to these associates that he had given Broadwell any
sensitive military information.
FBI agents who contacted Petraeus told him that sensitive, possibly
classified documents related to Afghanistan were found on her computer, the
general's associates said. 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.
One associate also said Petraeus believes the documents described past
operations and had already been declassified, although they might have still
been marked "secret."
Broadwell had high security clearances as part of her former job as a
reserve Army major in 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.
The FBI concluded there was no security breach.
Nevertheless, FBI agents conducted a search of Broadwell's Charlotte, N.C.,
home on Monday. And the criminal investigation continued into the emails to
Kelley, including whether Petraeus had any hand in them. At that point in
late summer, 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.
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.
In another twist, an FBI agent who was a friend of Kelley and who passed
along information from her to the agents who conducted the investigation,
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, a federal law enforcement official said. Before the case
involving Petraeus got under way, the agent had sent Kelley shirtless photos
of himself, according to this official, who spoke on condition of anonymity
to discuss the investigation.
Broadwell co-authored a biography titled "All In: The Education of General
David Petraeus," published in January. She wrote that 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.
Petraeus, 60, told one former associate he began an affair with Broadwell,
40, a couple of months after he became CIA director in September 2011. 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.
Petraeus told former staffers and friends that he had regularly visited the
Kelleys' home overlooking Tampa Bay. 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 2008-10.
Jill Kelley regularly kept in touch with Petraeus when he became commander
of the Afghanistan war effort, the two exchanging near-daily emails and
instant messages, two of his former staffers said. 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.
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.
Broadwell, married with two young sons, has not returned phone calls or
emails seeking comment.
___
National Security writer Robert Burns reported from Perth, Australia.
Associated Press writers Nedra Pickler, Larry Margasak and Adam Goldman
contributed to this report.
Photos: CIA Petraeus scandal
<
http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ymedia-alias:cavideo=panetta-petraeus-integrit
y-comes-first-105721659.html> Next
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http://news.yahoo.com/photos/petraeus-photo--422675872.html> Prev
1. Jill Kelley and Paula Broadwell combination photo
<
http://www.reuters.com/> ReutersPhoto By HANDOUT/REUTERS 22 hrs ago
A combination photo shows Jill Kelley (L), a friend of former U.S. General
David Petraeus' family, in Tampa, Florida on November 12, 2012 and Petraeus'
biographer Paula Broadwell, in an ISAF handout ... more
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Received on Tue Nov 13 2012 - 11:34:56 EST
