Obama, Part II: Remodeling the cabinetry

[CountDeMoney]

One would think that Obama would want to keep one of the more influential Senators on the Hill during these difficult legislative times.   He's no Ted Kennedy, but he has longstanding working relationships with a lot of GOPers.

[Viking]

Would be so cool if she turned out to be a Russian spy.

But I just came out of a James Bond marathon.

"Broadwell" does have a appropriate Bondgirlish ring to it.

Blowell?

[CountDeMoney]

Why did Paula Broadwell think the CIA had taken prisoners in Benghazi?
Posted by Max Fisher on November 12, 2012 at 11:28 am

Paula Broadwell, the former military intelligence officer whose alleged affair with CIA Director David Petraeus culminated in the end of his career, had earlier made some startling, now-revealed claims about the agency's role in the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi.

In an Oct. 26 speech at the University of Denver, she said that Libyan militants had attacked the post to retrieve some fellow fighters who'd been taken prisoner at the nearby CIA annex. She also seems to suggest that Petraeus himself knew about it, implying that he may have been her source. Here's the relevant passage from the speech, transcribed in full here by Foreign Policy's Blake Hounshell.

    Now, I don't know if a lot of you heard this, but the CIA annex had actually, um, had taken a couple of Libyan militia members prisoner and they think that the attack on the consulate was an effort to try to get these prisoners back. So that's still being vetted.

    The challenging thing for General Petraeus is that in his new position, he's not allowed to communicate with the press. So he's known all of this — they had correspondence with the CIA station chief in, in Libya. Within 24 hours they kind of knew what was happening.

The CIA is flatly denying this. "CIA adamant that Broadwell claims about agency holding prisoners at Benghazi are not true," The Post's Greg Miller tweeted. Fox News cites a single anonymous source saying that the CIA annex had prisoners at the time, and "multiple intelligence sources" as saying that the annex had at different times held prisoners. So why did she say it? I can only imagine three possible explanations, all of which should be taken with many grains of salt:

1. Intelligence from faraway conflict areas can be hazy, and the story got honestly confused. Who knows how long or convoluted the chain of information was from Benghazi to Broadwell, whether or not it went through Petraeus, and it's not hard to imagine a misstatement or mistake getting amplified.

2. She made it up or exaggerated some other piece of information, possibly including the name-dropping implication of Petraeus's knowledge, either deliberately or mistakenly.

3. The story is true, and she let slip what had otherwise remained a remarkably well-kept secret from the Benghazi incident, which has been characterized by weeks of leaks. If true, it would raise further questions about the CIA's efforts to maintain necessary levels of security.

I could be missing other possible scenarios, but all of these further raise the concern that, even if Petraeus did not allow classified intelligence to be compromised, his relationship with Broadwell may have heightened that very serious risk.

The full story of Broadwell's access to Petraeus's world at the CIA is still not clear, but it appears to have been intimate, perhaps problematically so. The Wall Street Journal now reports that FBI investigators found classified documents on her computer. That Petraeus's relationship may have jeopardized sensitive intelligence would seem to remain the strongest case for his resignation.

[CountDeMoney]

Oooh, FBI is at the Broadwell residence tonight, executing a consented search.  Watching the footage, stuff is being taken out.

[Capetan Mihali]

She lives in one of the hip yuppie "city" neighborhoods in Charlotte.  Thought she'd be in the suburbs for some reason, the kids I guess.  Husband probably runs to work at the hospital when he's not sending ambiguity-laden letters to advice columnists.

[MadImmortalMan]

Great, long face in charge.

Gives Scott Brown a chance to run again. 

[CountDeMoney]

Super.  More generals!

Top U.S. Commander in Afghanistan Is Linked to Petraeus Scandal
By ELISABETH BUMILLER

PERTH, Australia — Gen. John Allen, the top American and NATO commander in Afghanistan, is under investigation for what a senior defense official said early Tuesday was "inappropriate communication" with Jill Kelley, the woman in Tampa, Florida who was seen as a rival for David H. Petraeus's attentions by Paula Broadwell, who had an extramarital affair with Mr. Petraeus.

In a statement released to reporters on his plane en route to Australia early Tuesday, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said that the F.B.I. on Sunday had referred "a matter involving" General Allen to the Pentagon.

Mr. Panetta turned the matter over to the Pentagon's inspector general to conduct an investigation into what the defense official said were 20,000 to 30,000 pages of documents, many of them e-mails between General Allen and Ms. Kelley, who is married with children and lives in Tampa, Fla.

Asked if the F.B.I. had determined that there was criminal action involved, the defense official replied, "That is for the F.B.I. to discuss." The official, who briefed reporters on Mr. Panetta's plane, said that "there is the distinct possibility'' that the e-mails were connected to an ongoing F.B.I. investigation into Mr. Petraeus and Ms. Broadwell.

The defense official said that General Allen, who is also married, told Pentagon officials he had done nothing wrong. Neither he nor Ms. Kelley could be reached for comment early Tuesday. Mr. Panetta's statement praised General Allen for his leadership in Afghanistan and said that "he is entitled to due process in this matter.''

But the Pentagon inspector general's investigation opens up what could be a widening scandal into two of the most prominent generals of their generation — Mr. Petraeus, who was the top commander in Iraq and Afghanistan before he retired from the military and became director of the C.I.A., only to resign on Friday because of the affair, and General Allen, who also served in Iraq and now commands 68,000 American troops in Afghanistan.

Although General Allen will remain the commander in Afghanistan, Mr. Panetta said that he had asked President Obama to put on hold General Allen's nomination to be the commander of American forces in Europe and the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, two positions he was to move into after what was expected to be easy confirmation by the Senate. Mr. Panetta said in his statement that Mr. Obama agreed with his decision.

Gen. Joseph A. Dunford, the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps who was nominated last month by Mr. Obama to succeed General Allen in Afghanistan, will proceed as planned with his confirmation hearing. In his statement, Mr. Panetta urged the Senate to act promptly on his nomination.

The defense official said that the e-mails between Ms. Kelley and General Allen spanned the years 2010 to 2012. The official could not explain why there were so many pages of e-mails and did not specify their content. The official said he could not explain how the e-mails between Ms. Kelley and General Allen were related to the e-mails between Mr. Petraeus and Ms. Broadwell and e-mails between Ms. Broadwell and Ms. Kelley.

In what is known so far, Ms. Kelley went to the F.B.I. last summer after she was disturbed by harassing e-mails. The F.B.I. began an investigation and learned that the e-mails were from Ms. Broadwell. In the course of looking into Ms. Broadwell's e-mails, the F.B.I. discovered e-mails between Ms. Broadwell and Mr. Petraeus that indicated they were having an extramarital affair. Ms. Broadwell, officials say, saw Ms. Kelley as a rival for her affections with Mr. Petraeus.

The defense official said he did not know how General Allen and Ms. Kelley knew each other. General Allen has been in Afghanistan as the top American commander since July 2011, although before that he lived in Tampa as the deputy commander for Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East.

The defense official said that the Pentagon had received the 20,000 to 30,000 pages of documents from the F.B.I. and was currently reviewing them.

The defense official said that at 5 p.m. Washington time on Sunday Mr. Panetta was informed by the Pentagon's general counsel that the F. B. I. had the thousands of pages of e-mails between General Allen and Ms. Kelley. Mr. Panetta was at the time on his plane en route from San Francisco to Honolulu, his first stop on a weeklong trip to the Pacific and Asia. Mr. Panetta notified the White House and then the leaders of the Senate and House Armed Services Committee.

General Allen is now in Washington for what was to be his confirmation hearing as commander in Europe. That hearing, the official said, will now be delayed.

Mr. Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met later with Prime Minister Julia Gillard of Australia in Perth, where they had traveled for a United States-Australian security and diplomatic conference. Asked by a reporter while pausing for photos with Mrs. Clinton and Ms. Gillard if General Allen could remain an effective commander while under investigation, Mr. Panetta said nothing.

[mongers]

Assuming the average Taliban leader has some degree of introspection, I know a long one, but if so, I wonder what his take is on the situation is ?

The enemy they vilify as ungodly and corrupt has seen its top commander and perhaps others, removed because of an issue of personal morality.

Might he not know some Taliban commanders who act worse in their personal life ?

[garbon]

I'd think the focus would hop to how long people in our country knew about it and did nothing.

[Count]

Great, long face in charge.

Gives Scott Brown a chance to run again. 

The irony is that Dems in MA changed the law to create special elections in these situations because they were worried Romney would have a chance to appoint Kerry's replacement if he won in 2004. 

[sbr]

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/abc-affiliate-ran-phony-cover-broadwell-book_663264.html

"All Up In My Snatch"   

[11B4V]

Shirtless FBI agent....

[garbon]

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/abc-affiliate-ran-phony-cover-broadwell-book_663264.html

"All Up In My Snatch"   

[Barrister]

Okay, so I get and appreciate that a secret extramarital affair may well be used as blackmail material, and is thus relevant to one's ability to lead the CIA.

But surely all Petraeus would have to do is hold a press conference where he discloses the affair, and he can no longer be blackmailed by anyone?

[sbr]

The rumor is she had possession of classified documents and allegedly got them from patreaus

That should cost him his job, if true.