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General scandal reverberates through Washington

Date: November 15 2012

Nick O'malley

A simple love affair has turned into an almighty mess, Nick O'Malley reports from the US capital.

IT SHOULD be the simplest story in the world. A powerful man in a sensitive job is forced to resign over an illicit affair.

But the Petraeus scandal has turned into a sprawling political, military, diplomatic and intelligence mess, ending one stellar career, casting a pall over another, causing a distraction to the White House as it begins negotiations over a fiscal crisis, prompting questions over the FBI and its relationship with the CIA, and even complicating the President's cabinet appointments.

To begin to understand it all you have to turn back to Tampa, Florida, in 2008, when then General David Petraeus - one of the US's most highly regarded military leaders - was appointed head of Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base.

His deputy was a marine, General John Allen, a man known as ''the warrior monk''.

The relationship between the local community and any major military base is important, and local socialites help to that end. One of them, Jill Kelley, and her husband hosted a welcome dinner for Petraeus and his wife, Holly.

Kelley was known to foster relationships with many senior officers, and the couple are said to have become friends with the Petraeuses.

By 2010, Petraeus had been appointed commander of the international forces in Afghanistan. Paula Broadwell, his future lover, whom he had met when she was a Harvard postgraduate, made several trips to Afghanistan to research her biography of him.

The year after, Petraeus was appointed CIA director and at some point in 2011 he and Broadwell began an affair, which ended some time around the middle of this year. This is where Jill Kelley pops up again.

In May, Kelley contacted a Tampa FBI agent she knew personally and reported she had received threatening emails. According to one report, one of the emails accused Kelley of touching Petraeus under a dinner table. An investigation began and it was soon revealed they had been sent by Broadwell, who is married and has two young sons.

FBI investigators also discovered that she had been secretly corresponding with Petraeus. At some point, it has been reported, the unnamed FBI agent who Kelley first contacted became obsessed with the investigation.

He was ordered off the job and then came to believe that a cover-up to protect President Barack Obama was under way. In late October he contacted the Republican congressional leader Eric Cantor.

It has since been reported that the FBI agent had once sent a picture of himself topless to Kelley. He now faces an internal investigation. The FBI investigation into Petraeus was aimed not at the affair, but at whether it had led to a crime or a breach of national security. Some time last month, the FBI interviewed Petraeus and investigators appeared to be satisfied there had been no breach.

By now, though, the CIA's director had been under investigation for months without the White House's knowledge. Although the Attorney-General, Eric Holder, had been informed, Petraeus' superior, the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, was not notified until the day of the presidential election, and Mr Obama not until the day after it.

Clapper had recommended to Petraeus that he offer his resignation, which was accepted on November 9. By then, though, the scandal had engulfed Petraeus' former deputy, Allen. Investigators had discovered thousands of ''potentially inappropriate'' emails between Allen, by now the commander of international forces in Afghanistan, and Kelley.

Defence Secretary Leon Panetta, not a man known to make snap judgments, has ordered an internal investigation into Allen.

It is not clear if the focus is on a possible security breach, but Allen is subject to military law, which prohibits extramarital affairs.

Allen has denied any affair with Kelley, but this week Fox News was reporting that sources had likened their exchanges to phone sex.

Either way, the CIA has lost a highly regarded leader, and soldiers in Afghanistan are left wondering about the future of their commander.

Further, Petraeus had been leading the investigation into the killing of four Americans in Benghazi. The investigation is crucial, not only because of the deaths, but because the White House is fighting off allegations of a cover-up over the incident. The head of the Senate intelligence committee, Dianne Feinstein, said she was stunned the FBI could have been investigating the CIA chief for so long without telling the committee.

There are also concerns about the impact on the historically fraught relationship between the CIA and the FBI.

The scandal will also complicate the President's cabinet appointments.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Leon Panetta are both expected to resign when replacements can be found - now a new CIA chief is also on the shopping list.

This could increase the chances of Senator John Kerry being drafted to fill one of the posts, in turn leaving Democrats vulnerable to a Republican contender for his seat.

For all this grief, it appears that once the various investigations are finished, it could be found that no one is guilty of anything more than a personal failing - or as the former congresswoman and security expert Jane Harman told CNN this week, the Petraeus affair could turn out to be less than the sum of its parts.


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