Post #366,047
11/9/12 3:18:13 PM
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Petraeus resigns says he had an affair
http://usnews.nbcnew...rital-affair?lite
Yesterday afternoon, I went to the White House and asked the President to be allowed, for personal reasons, to resign from my position as D/CIA. After being married for over 37 years, I showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair. I wonder how long he has been sitting on that and how long ago the White House actually knew about it? Not that I'm actually complaining here, breaking something like that right before the election would both be stupid and it is really insignificant overall.
Jay
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Post #366,049
11/9/12 3:36:56 PM
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Jiminy Crap.
How can you be married for 37 years and screw around? I never understand this. As painless as some divorces can be, why wouldn't you do that first? Especially if the wife has delivered kids for you. Just seems so dishonorable to me. And stupid.
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Post #366,054
11/9/12 5:16:34 PM
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His teflon shield had also developed holes...
http://www.wired.com...11/petraeus-down/
[...]
Petraeus CIA tenure first appeared to be in jeopardy last week, when the Wall Street Journal published an article alleging that Petraeus has been, in effect, asleep at the switch during the attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya. But Petraeus former aide insists that wasnÂt the reason for his departure.
ÂThis had nothing to do with Benghazi or relationship with the White House  which by the way was excellent  or anything else for that matter, the aide tells Danger Room. ÂJust his flawed behavior.Â
Doug Ollivant, a retired Army officer who worked closely with Petraeus as the National Security CouncilÂs director for Iraq policy under both the Bush and Obama administrations, says Petraeus legacy within the Army was Âfixed when Petraeus shed his uniform to helm the CIA. ÂIÂm kind of appalled to live in a country where you have to resign over an affair that has little to no effect on your job, although I recognize the blackmail implications, Ollivant tells Danger Room, cautioning that if Petraeus was Âsleeping with someone the director of the Agency shouldnÂt be, then thatÂs something different.Â
In a statement released Friday afternoon, the President accepted Petraeus resignation, and offered his Âthoughts and prayers [to] Dave and Holly Petraeus, who has done so much to help military families through her own work. I wish them the very best at this difficult time.Â
Sen. Diane Feinstein, the chairwoman of the Senate intelligence committee, added in a separate statement, ÂI wish President Obama had not accepted this resignation, but I understand and respect the decision.Â
When Petraeus took over command of the Afghan war effort in 2010, he made an appearance before Congress. In his opening statement, he said: ÂMy wife, Holly, is here with me today. She is a symbol of the strength and dedication of families around the globe who wait at home for their loved ones while theyÂre engaged in critical work in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. She has hung tough while I have been deployed for over 5 1/2 years since 9/11.Â
On the heels of the Petraeus resignation came another unexpected announcement with suddenly familiar overtones: defense giant Lockheed Martin fired its interim CEO, Chris Kubasik, for a Âclose personal relationship with a subordinate.
(see the original for embedded links)
Life is full of temptations. People in power have to resist them or accept greater consequences than the rest of us.
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #366,076
11/9/12 11:45:21 PM
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The Never Ending Double Entendres.
http://wonkette.com/...cover-up-probably
It's hard to watch that Daily Show interview with her without doubling over laughing given the rumors now...
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #366,080
11/10/12 1:38:44 AM
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zee jokes, zey write zemselves
"Embedded journalist." And the book title itself: All In.
Of course, in consequence of certain youthful sins and indiscretions the Special Subcommittee on Moral Abuses long ago banned me for life from participation in the Olympic stone-casting event, much as I'd love to play. It's too bad that there's such widespread prurient interest in what public persons do with their sexybits. But I'll bet you a beet that if the censorious crowd now tut-tutting and exclaiming "How could he?" were thinned down to include only individuals who had never behaved foolishly when their frontal lobes were awash in hormones, the conversation would likely lose a lot of volume (although it might be more vituperative).
cordially,
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Post #366,086
11/10/12 12:55:04 PM
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depends whether she had a pipeline to
russia china or israel otherwise he is just another middle aged guy getting his weinie washed with a willing lady
Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free American and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 55 years. meep
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Post #366,117
11/10/12 11:51:14 PM
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It's already turning into quite a soap opera.
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Post #366,137
11/11/12 2:01:07 PM
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Attackerman: How I was drawn into the Petraeus Cult.
http://www.wired.com.../petraeus-cult-2/
When it came out that CIA Director David Petraeus had an affair with his hagiographer, I got punked. ÂIt seems so obvious in retrospect. How could you @attackerman? tweeted @bitteranagram, complete with a link to a florid piece I wrote for this blog when Petraeus retired from the Army last year. (ÂThe gold standard for wartime command is one of the harsher judgments in the piece.) I was so blind to Petraeus, and my role in the mythmaking that surrounded his career, that I initially missed @bitteranagramÂs joke.
But itÂs a good burn. Like many in the press, nearly every national politician, and lots of members of Petraeus brain trust over the years, I played a role in the creation of the legend around David Petraeus. Yes, Paula Broadwell wrote the ultimate Petraeus hagiography, the now-unfortunately titled All In. But she was hardly alone. (Except maybe for the sleeping-with-Petraeus part.) The biggest irony surrounding Petraeus unexpected downfall is that he became a casualty of the very publicity machine he cultivated to portray him as superhuman. I have some insight into how that machine worked.
[...]
A good read.
He doesn't mention Petraeus attempting to undercut Obama early in his administration with things like this, from February 2009 - http://www.atimes.co...ast/KB11Ak01.html
WASHINGTON - The political maneuvering between United States President Barack Obama and his top field commanders over withdrawal from Iraq has taken a sudden new turn with the leak by Central Command chief General David Petraeus - and a firm denial by a White House official - of an account of the January 21 White House meeting suggesting that Obama had requested three different combat troop withdrawal plans with their respective associated risks, including one of 23 months.
The Petraeus account, reported by McClatchy newspapers on February 5 and then by the Associated Press the following day, appears to indicate that Obama is moving away from the 16-month plan he had vowed during the campaign to implement if elected. But on closer examination, it doesn't necessarily refer to any action by Obama or to anything that happened at the January 21 meeting.
The real story of the leak by Petraeus is that the most powerful figure in the US military has tried to shape the media coverage of Obama and combat troop withdrawal from Iraq to advance his policy agenda - and, very likely, his personal political interests as well.
[...]
Petraeus was brilliant but he was a dangerous man because he thought too highly of himself.
Hubris, fortunately, claimed him before he could do more damage.
Expect efforts to rehabilitate him in the public eye, though.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #366,140
11/11/12 2:25:42 PM
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didn't trust him when he took over way back when
Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free American and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 55 years. meep
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Post #366,166
11/12/12 8:51:38 AM
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Michael Hastings's take.
http://www.buzzfeed....al-david-petraeus
Hastings is the reporter who got McChrystal cashiered. He doesn't pull any punches in this piece either. Dunno how accurate it is, of course.
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #366,222
11/13/12 2:06:23 PM
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Re: Petraeus resigns says he had an affair
The woman who married former House Speaker Newt Gingrich after cheating wuth him while he was married to his second wife says that former CIA Director David Petraeus' extramarital affair is "sad" and "painful" for his family.
"I think it's personally very sad for he and his family," Callista Gingrich told ABC's Barbara Walters on Monday. "I think he did the right thing by resigning. But this is painful and they'll have to work together through this as a family. And that will take some time."
http://videocafe.cro...affairs-are-painf
She oughta know ...
"Chicago to my mind was the only place to be. ... I above all liked the city because it was filled with people all a-bustle, and the clatter of hooves and carriages, and with delivery wagons and drays and peddlers and the boom and clank of freight trains. And when those black clouds came sailing in from the west, pouring thunderstorms upon us so that you couldn't hear the cries or curses of humankind, I liked that best of all. Chicago could stand up to the worst God had to offer. I understood why it was built--a place for trade, of course, with railroads and ships and so on, but mostly to give all of us a magnitude of defiance that is not provided by one house on the plains. And the plains is where those storms come from."
-- E.L. Doctorow
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Post #366,229
11/13/12 7:52:06 PM
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Violet asks a good question or two.
http://www.balloon-j.../#comment-3969137
17 Violet Says:
So one of the women has a twin sister. Could this get anymore like a soap opera? Will someone come back from the dead as the next plot point?
Generals getting involved in some female friendÂs twin sisterÂs custody suit is utterly ridiculous. Do either of those guys have a brain?
November 13th, 2012 at 7:23 pm
Aye yi yi.
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #366,256
11/14/12 4:12:46 PM
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Putative topic is, of course an obfuscation--
'sall about the Security-Snoop-State. Ours. Who Gives-a-Shit about peoples' sex arrangements--except mindless pre-verts?
(with nothing to do.. except vicariously--most of their lives.)
Salon has (for the non-geek majority) a perhaps useful guide for the just-now-Aware of where personal Rights have devolved,
a simple list for ordinary non-orthogonal-speaking folk to look into, (so that You don't have to go to Square One:)
http://www.salon.com...emium%29_7_30_110
DonÂt be the next Broadwell
Posted as a Public Service®
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Post #399,687
3/4/15 7:49:46 AM
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Will plea to misdemeanor, may avoid jail
Military.com: Petraeus' lawyers David Kendall and Robert Barnett in Washington declined to comment on the case when asked by the Associated Press. An official at the clerk's office said the judge hasn't yet scheduled a sentencing date.
The plea deal will allow Petraeus to avoid an embarrassing public trial. He and his attorneys also chose to file the plea the same day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress on the controversial nuclear deal the U.S. is negotiating with Iran -- a matter that has dominated national headlines.
While the charge carries a maximum sentence of one year in prison, both the prosecution and the defense recommended that Petraeus pay a $40,000 fine and serve two years of probation. In return for the plea, Petraeus will be immune from future prosecution. If that's the way it ends up, it will be a very light sentence. Leaders in high office need to be held to a higher standard. Cheers, Scott.
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Post #399,690
3/4/15 8:28:49 AM
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The investment in a high-priced lawyer paid off.
Money buys leniency.
And DoJ decided "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush". Alex
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
-- Isaac Asimov
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Post #399,702
3/4/15 4:14:04 PM
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Re: The investment in a high-priced lawyer paid off.
There are a couple of other mind-blowing facts in that Daily Beast article.
First, he still has the power to wreck careers.
Neither the news that Petraeus’s name appears as the defendant on a charging sheet or that he lied to federal investigators from his Langley office shook his standing in the military community—or so it seemed.
Even those who are outraged would never publicly say so. The lingering fear that confronting Petraeus could end one’s careers remains within the ranks.
Yeah, that philandering idiot who thought turning over black books with national security information in them to his mistress was a good idea still has the clout to destroy careers. Let that one sink in, before I get to the next disturbing bit of news.
It’s unclear if Petraeus would be stripped of his security clearance, which he kept after resigning from the CIA.
Seriously? This is unclear? The man handed off black books with the deepest secrets about our national security and they think he might not lose his security clearance?
Will Chaffetz open an investigation into this? Will Congress have the balls to do the proper oversight?
If the Beltway press wants to actually work, they could start looking at all the national security leaks over the past few years and see just how many of them point back to BetrayUs Petraeus.
http://crooksandliars.com/2015/03/wait-till-you-hear-what-petraeus-handed
Satan (impatiently) to Newcomer: The trouble with you Chicago people is, that you think you are the best people down here; whereas you are merely the most numerous.
- - - Mark Twain, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar" 1897
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