Jill Kelley leaves her home Tuesday, Nov 13, 2012 in Tampa, Fla. Kelley is identified as the woman who allegedly received harassing emails from Gen. David Petraeus' paramour, Paula Broadwell. She serves as an unpaid social liaison to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, where the military's Central Command and Special Operations Command are located. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
Their main question: Was national security threatened?
The extramarital affair was between Petraeus and his biographer Paula Broadwell, who U.S. officials say sent harassing, anonymous emails to a woman she apparently saw as a rival for Petraeus' affections. That woman, Jill Kelley, in turn traded thousands of sometimes flirtatious messages with Gen. John Allen, possible evidence of another inappropriate relationship.
The CIA's acting director, Michael Morell, started answering lawmakers' questions Tuesday on Capitol Hill, meeting with top Senate intelligence officials to explain the CIA's take on events that led to Petraeus' resignation last week after he acknowledged the affair. The lawmakers are especially concerned over reports that Broadwell had classified information on her laptop, though FBI investigators say they concluded there was no security breach.
President Barack Obama is expected to make his first comments on the widening scandal Wednesday, during a postelection news conference at the White House.
Obama had hoped to use the afternoon news conference, his first since his re-election, to build support for his economic proposals heading into negotiations with lawmakers on the so-called fiscal cliff. But the scandal could overshadow his economic agenda this week, derail plans for a smooth transition in his national security team and complicate war planning during a critical time in the Afghanistan war effort.
Allen has been allowed to stay in his job as commander of the Afghan war and provide a leading voice in White House discussions on how many troops will remain in Afghanistan — and for what purposes — after the U.S.-led combat operation ends in 2014. The White House said the investigation would not delay Allen's recommendation to Obama on the next phase of the U.S. troop drawdown from Afghanistan, nor would it delay the president's decision on the matter. Allen's recommendation is expected before the end of the year.
But Obama did put on hold Allen's nomination to become the next commander of U.S. European Command as well as the NATO supreme allied commander in Europe, at the request of Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, until Pentagon investigators are able to sift through the 20,000-plus pages of documents and emails that involve Allen and Kelley.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Wednesday that he had "full confidence" in Allen and looked forward to working with him if he is ultimately confirmed.
The FBI decided to turn over the Allen information to the military once the bureau recognized it contained no evidence of a federal crime, according to a federal law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the matter on the record and demanded anonymity. Adultery, however, is a crime under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Allen, 58, worked to save his imperiled career. He told Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that he is innocent of misconduct, according to Col. David Lapan, Dempsey's spokesman.
At a news conference Wednesday in Perth, Australia, Panetta said, "No one should leap to any conclusions," and said he is fully confident in Allen's ability to continue to lead in Afghanistan. He added that putting a hold on Allen's European Command nomination was the "prudent" thing to do.
Known as a close friend of Petraeus, Kelley, 37, triggered the FBI investigation that led to the retired four-star general's downfall as CIA director when she complained about getting anonymous, harassing emails. They turned out to have been written by Petraeus' mistress, Broadwell, who apparently was jealous of the attention the general paid to Kelley.
In the course of looking into that matter, federal investigators came across what a Pentagon official called "inappropriate communications" between Allen and Kelley, both of them married.
A senior U.S. official told The Associated Press that other senior U.S. officials who read the emails determined that the exchanges between Allen and Kelley were not sexually explicit or seductive but included pet names such as "sweetheart" or "dear." The official said that while much of the communication — including some from Allen to Kelley — is relatively innocuous, some could be construed as unprofessional and would cause a reasonable person to take notice.
That official and others who described the investigation requested anonymity on grounds that they were not authorized to discuss the situation publicly.
Kelley served as a sort of social ambassador for U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., hosting parties for Petraeus when he was commander there from 2008-10. The friendship with the Petraeus began when they arrived in Tampa, and the Kelleys threw a welcome party at their home, a short distance from Central Command headquarters, introducing the new chief and his wife, Holly, to Tampa's elite, according to staffers who served with Petraeus.
Such friendships among senior military commanders and prominent local community leaders are common at any base.
On Capitol Hill, lawmakers complained that they should have been told about the investigation earlier. Morell, who took over Petraeus' duties at the CIA, met with Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and ranking Republican Saxby Chambliss of Georgia on Tuesday. He was expected to meet with the leaders of the House intelligence committee on Wednesday.
Asked by reporters if there was a national security breach with the Petraeus affair, Feinstein said, "I have no evidence that there was at this time." She said she expected Petraeus to testify this week or next.
The Senate Armed Services Committee planned to go ahead with Thursday's scheduled confirmation hearing on the nomination of Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, who is to replace Allen as commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, if Allen is indeed promoted.
Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said Petraeus should still testify about the September attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, "if he has relevant information."
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Associated Press writers Pauline Jelinek, Lolita Baldor, Pete Yost, Adam Goldman, Jack Gillum, Larry Margasak, Julie Pace, Donna Cassata, Robert Burns and Slobodan Lekic contributed to this report.
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Again, Happy Thanksgiving to all and keep the faith. This too shall pass.
Speak to members regarding lights at GOP. Conservation unnecessary as 1% can afford the bill.
Being right is more than a feeling. Maybe you’ll have the opportunity. Cheers!
You or LtoAA shut out the lights, the Grand Old Party is over.
Keep pounding the drunken scenario per Rule # 10. You never know, it might get some traction.
BTW: Capitulate means concede. Just say’n.
Normal men would concede at this point, but not our drunk. He's a trooper
Speaking of breaking ground in China, Obama’s Gub’ment Motors has just begun construction of their newest auto plant. Guess where.
Here comes another wacko Republican, Fox News mashup. Real as the Human Barbie' is fake.
Let's blog fact - Republican caucus yesterday: "Current copyright law does not merely distort some markets - rather it destroys entire markets." Republican caucus today: "So we spoke to the RIAA and it turns out that memo yesterday was released improperly"
Twinkies will survive bankruptcy, nuclear holocaust.
There's the old saying, "figures lie and liars figure." It's been used on this site before by many others, and it holds true. I would recommend that everyone examine statistics, and judge them for themselves.
Several facts dealing with party affiliation and education:
1. Those holding post-graduate degrees...college professors, education higher ups, lawyers, etc., are more likely to vote Democrat. However, this group makes up a tiny fraction of our overall population. Democrat talking heads use this stat to try and bolster their claim about Democrats being bright and Republicans being less intelligent.
2. College graduates vote Republican in higher rates than Democrats.
3. Those who attended college but did not graduate are more likely to vote Republican.
4. High school graduates are more likely to vote Republican.
5. High school dropouts are more likely to vote Democrat.
Democrats cover both of the extremes, the brightest as well as the dumbest. Sadly, high school dropouts are a much larger segment of the regular population than the few post graduates are.
The following is just my own conjecture, and is not fact, just my own speculation.
1. The two lowest economic groups in the USA, blacks and Hispanics, make up a huge segment of the Democratic voting bloc. They are the less educated segments of our society, too. There is absolutely no way that a political party could have that many uneducated and poor people in its overall group and declare that it's brighter than the other guy. That is statistically impossible, when the median average for the Democrats would be tilted downward because of the huge proportion of Hispanics and Blacks making up their vote.
2. Whites, who make up a much larger segment of the voting bloc, vote Republican by nearly a 2 to 1 margin. Use common sense. Figure how that affects the overall average yourself.
Any talk of Democrats being sharper than their Republican counterparts is false and misleading. Follow the statistics, and draw your own conclusions, rather than the "myth" being perpetuated by the liberal media outlets that has not reported a truthful thing yet in years.
BTW: 40-hour workweek is for losers (or those content to never get ahead)
P.S. BTW: Employer based health insurance came about from competition for the best employees in the free marketplace, not a union mandate!
Actually unions gave us a 40-hour work week and healthcare insurance. Party of NO likes the good old days of robber barons and slave wages.
Republican business model - The top 2 percent have had the lowest taxes in decades. Yet, they have not created more jobs. Why would lowering their taxes more change anything?
Correction: Dyed in the wool American (you can throw capitalist-pig in there too)
BTW: Incarceration units can be profitable enterprises.
As the banks found out...It's later cupcake. Now what? Business 102!
And stop with the poor-pity! No matter what socialist utopia you people establish on the ash heap of our Republic there will always be poor people. Yes, people are often born into circumstances beyond their control, but at some point a decision is made, more often than not, to continue the behaviors of being poor. I bet you firmly believe people are a product of their environment. I’m here to inform you; in fact, in this land of opportunity, people are a product of their decisions.
If truly that shallow, you can join Rove in the Billionaire donors woodshed.
That just isn't so. We have lots of highly regulated and restricted enterprise. We’ve organized things so that the marketplace isn’t especially welcoming to some folks and we completely exclude many from participation. I am talking about the ways that the government of the state, the counties, and the cities oppress the poor by making the traditional ways that poor people made a living illegal in many cases, or so highly regulated that you have to have money in order to get started in the first place. The concept of bootstrapping your way into better circumstances is pretty much against the law these days in Georgia.
According to the Office of the Federal Register, in 1998, the Code of Federal Regulations, the official listing of all regulations in effect, contained a total of 134,723 pages in 201 volumes that claimed 19 feet of shelf space. In 1970, the CFR totaled only 54,834 pages.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=tbCiPi69e0A&feature=endscreen
In reality, the average American, Republican or Democrat, leaves something to be desired. But I especially liked the black guy on the video who said, after voting, that he returned to vote several more times for Obama.
Pretty easy to see how in inner cities, again and again, Obama got 140% of the registered voters. In fact, in some areas, there were more ballots cast than there were residents living in the area.
Obama, congratulations for winning in 2012.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bzvm7zd4Z-s
Stupid is nonpartisan
Romney clip you showed was a contrived video made specifically for a gal trying to promote herself and earn some money off of Youtube. She had hundreds of other so-called clips. Anyone could have easily done the same. The video you showed was as artificial as the gal in it.
Here's a supply-side idea to help alleviate poverty in GC/the United States: deregulate the poor.
The huge amount of drug business in low income areas indicates that there is an entrepreneurial streak a hundred miles wide among poor people. Ironically, it is easier and more profitable for poor people to go into the recreational drug business, than it would be for (e.g.) three young people to set up a hot dog stand at a rest stop on I75. That would certainly result in a major local police and food regulatory bureaucracy response the first day they open for business. These hot dog entrepreneurs would be safer selling crack cocaine on the streets of a low income neighborhood than they would be selling hot dogs at an I75 rest stop.
Deregulating only the poor would violate the 14th Amendment of equal protection. Though that hasn’t been a problem in the era of Chicago-style governance.
Bring back Republican ace Karl Rove! It's fun to watch grown men denying reality.