David Petraeus resigns as CIA chief citing affair

[seemslikeadream]

As intimate goings on in the retired general's life continue to be made public, we learn he reportedly had a standing order for sliced pineapple to be placed by his bedside each night while he ran the CIA, The Washington Post reports.

http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/world/g ... 6516403069

[barracuda]

These fucking flowcharts are getting worse and worse. Did somebody fire all the graphic designers?

[seemslikeadream]

Petraeus Resignation Reveals Divisions Over Iran

[seemslikeadream]

FBI investigating how Petraeus biographer Broadwell obtained classified files

By Sari Horwitz, Greg Miller and Karen DeYoung, Tuesday, November 13, 9:03 PM

The FBI is making a new push to determine how a woman who had an affair with retired Gen. David H. Petraeus when he was CIA director obtained classified files, part of an expanding series of investigations in a scandal that also threatens the career of the United States’ top military commander in Afghanistan.

Senior law enforcement officials said that a late-night seizure on Monday of boxes of material from the North Carolina home of Paula Broadwell, a Petraeus biographer whose affair with him led to his resignation last week, marks a renewed focus by investigators on sensitive material found in her possession.

“The issue of national security is still on the table,” one U.S. law enforcement official said. Both Petraeus and Broadwell have denied to investigators that he was the source of any classified information, officials said.

The surprise move by the FBI follows previous assertions by U.S. officials that the investigation had turned up no evidence of a security breach — a factor that was cited as a reason the Justice Department did not notify the White House before last week that the CIA director had been ensnared in an e-mail inquiry.

The disclosure about the FBI’s renewed focus comes as investigations of the matter expanded on other fronts.

The Defense Department announced Tuesday that its inspector general is examining hundreds of e-mails between Marine Gen. John Allen, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, and a Florida woman also linked to the Petraeus investigation.

At the same time, key lawmakers signaled Tuesday their intent to scrutinize the Justice Department’s handling of an inquiry that focused initially on a potential conflict between two private people but quickly morphed into an exhaustive examination of the e-mail of two top national security officers.

“My immediate gut is like this is the National Enquirer,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, said in an interview on CNN. “I mean, every day there is something new.”

Feinstein added that she has “many questions about the nature of the FBI investigation, how it was instituted, and we’ll be asking those.”

White House spokesman Jay Carney said that President Obama maintains confidence in Allen, and that the four-star Marine Corps general will continue to lead the war in Afghanistan even as he faces the inspector general’s inquiry.

“I can tell you that the president thinks very highly of General Allen and his service to his country, as well as the job he has done in Afghanistan,” Carney said, adding that Obama “has faith in General Allen, believes he’s doing and has done an excellent job.”

At the same time, however, Carney said that Obama put on hold Allen’s nomination to serve as supreme allied commander for NATO forces in Europe, canceling Allen’s appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee this week.

The Allen investigation focuses on his extensive correspondence with Jill Kelley, a Tampa resident who had carved out a role as an ad-hoc social ambassador to military personnel at MacDill Air Force Base.

[8bitagent]

But Broadwell’s father said Sunday his daughter is the victim of character assassination and implied the bombshell story is just a smoke screen for something bigger.

“This is about something else entirely, and the truth will come out,” Broadwell’s dad, Paul Krantz, told the Daily News outside his home in Bismarck, N.D.

“There is a lot more that is going to come out,” said Krantz, claiming he was not allowed to elaborate. “You wait and see. There’s a lot more here than meets the eye.”

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politic ... z2CAagdPO8

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politic ... -1.1200299

[Wombaticus Rex]

So Jill and Scott Kelly were running a Craig Spence operation, no? Piece in the NYT this morning makes it just about impossible to connect the dots in any other way.

TAMPA, Fla. - Jill and Scott Kelley moved here nearly a decade ago, taking up residence in a huge redbrick home with a spectacular view of the water on Bayshore Boulevard, the city's most fashionable street. They quickly established themselves as social hosts to the powerful four-star officers who run two of the nation's most important military commands.

The Kelleys were known for their lavish parties, with extravagant buffets, flowing Champagne, valet parking and cigars for guests from nearby MacDill Air Force Base, including former Gen. David Petraeus and Gen. John Allen, who now commands troops in Afghanistan.

"Tampa is the kind of community where, if you're new to the community, you can carve out your own niche," said Pam Iorio, the city's former mayor, who recalls mingling with Petraeus and his wife, Holly, at the Kelleys' home. "They decided to carve out a niche with the military."

Well done, guys, execute the plan.

[lupercal]

^ Florida branch of the VRWC (vast rw con-piracy). Clintonistas are taking out the trash and they're not done yet IMHO:



http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/bre ... ing17.html

[seemslikeadream]

Mission:Incomprehensible AUDIO

[JackRiddler]

This is getting very heavy. Petraeus is the closest thing to Eisenhower since Powell. Not only is he a top general, he is deeply connected with the military ruling elite. His father in law was superintendent of the Military Academy when Petraeus was a cadet. As I see things, the military has been a stabilizing force in US governance since WWII. They ensured the interregnum after the collapse of the Roosevelt Hegemony, they most likely moderated the effect of the attempted coup of 1963, and through Al Haig, prevented the completion of the 1981 attempted coup. In fact, Seven Days in May is exactly the reverse of what I have been worried about. In the story, the civilians defend against a military coup. In reality, I think the military has been the only defense against a civilian dictatorship for more than half a century. If the dynasts and their intel-industrial complex servants, following their realization that cheating is no longer enough, have decided to take the gloves off, they would start by taking out the military leadership. The semi-pathetic remnant republican opposition and their rump Kennedy clan allies of desperation would be next.

The military establishment are the opposite of the dynasts. Their primary allegiance is to the institution, not to their blood. Their individual rewards are modest and measured in prestige, not power. For all its flaws and mistakes, the military is still a form of meritocracy, not a birthright oligarchy. The John McCains are cared for, minimally, but not advanced to leadership. The prominent men owe their positions to relationships formed after they joined the brotherhood, not before. Prestige, unlike wealth and the power it generates, is not inherited. This could be the start of a concerted campaign to finally consolidate the gains of 63, 81, 01, and 08, and wash away the last traces of the old republic.

It's fascinating what conflicting pictures we can draw from roughly the same set of facts. I view much of this in opposite fashion, and consider it disastrous that what meritocracy operates in governance has formed around the power to destroy and project death around the world, which has been the most destabilizing factor in the postwar age, and (to take one of your examples) drove rather than moderated the aftermath of the 1963 coup, to the point of genocidal murder of millions. There is a lot more to be said on the general outlines; but moving past these to the man, Petraeus is one of the primary criminals, in fact the commandant, of a war of aggression. I don't see an Eisenhower, I see a Keitel. At home, he was a potential Ludendorf, and we should welcome his neutralization; though of course he was only one of many such possible enablers. There may be a very nasty group behind his demise -- which merely ends his career rather than putting him at the well-deserved end of a rope -- but no mourning is due either to the man or to the values and institutions he represents (which of course endure beyond him).

.

[barracuda]

So Jill and Scott Kelly were running a Craig Spence operation, no?

I think so. They hung out the bait and used the attendant social connections to pursue social power and maybe as references for some of the bad financial deals they embroiled themselves in. It seems as if no one ever heard about the foreclosures and phony charities they apparently used to bankroll more parties and keep the lifestyle rolling and the connections and social accolades coming.

[JackRiddler]

So Jill and Scott Kelly were running a Craig Spence operation, no?

I think so. They hung out the bait and used the attendant social connections to pursue social power and maybe as references for some of the bad financial deals they embroiled themselves in. It seems as if no one ever heard about the foreclosures and phony charities they apparently used to bankroll more parties and keep the lifestyle rolling and the connections and social accolades coming.

Agreed, but more like an Ozzie and Harriet than a Taxi Driver version (and maybe we'll learn differently).

[JackRiddler]

There's always a way to bring someone down.

Petraeus and his love-dick made it easy, but there would have been another way.

He was the rat sent into the snake's pit. Or if you prefer, the snake in the rat's pit, all the same to me when we're talking rats and snakes. Either way -- let's stick with the first metaphor -- you don't wonder for long which of the snakes bit the rat. You just know it was inevitable.

CIA and Pentagon are organs of empire. They exist to commit crime. One is literally defined by its criminality - the reason for a secret service is to violate the laws of given jurisdictions. Whereas the other exists to flatten far-away places and murder people wholesale, and have a bunch of statesmen invent reasons why this is just and legal. In combination, they've caused the deaths of many millions around the world, and the classes of architects and commanders -- the snakes and the rats we're trained to call "mister" and "sir" -- have never paid the price. (With the exception of a few individuals; never as a class.)

CIA is a hotbed of bureaucratic in-fighting. A place of many secretive compartments run by capos and intrigants, closed and often hostile to each other in the competition for resources and privileges. A place where there are many ways to be exposed, and where exposure means your end. Where in recent years several directors - Deutch, Goss, now Petraeus - have met with sudden careericides. (And never mind what likely happened to Colby and Casey.)

CIA and JSOC have been struggling for years over which gets the lead in the drone wars. CIA has been winning, more or less. And then Petraeus is sent to run CIA? A suicide mission, surely.

I'm not saying Obama knew what would happen when he appointed Petraeus to the job. He just knew what was likely when he took this showboating little dictator (and potential Republican candidate for president) out of his prominent, "heroic" position in Afghanistan, and sent him to the bowels of Langley.

Bye, bye. Too bad it wasn't The Hague, alongside Rumsfeld and Cheney and Bush and Wolfowitz and Powell and Rice and Blair and Straw and Brown and Aznar and Howard. Never forget.

[seemslikeadream]

Possible New CIA Director Already Politically Compromised
Jane Harman and Israeli Spying
by ALISON WEIR
It is astounding to find that one of the handful of prospects being floated to become CIA director following the fall of General David Petraeus is a person reportedly implicated in a 2005 Israeli spy scandal.

CNN, Politico, and others have all listed former Congresswoman Jane Harman as a potential new CIA head. Oddly, however, none have mentioned reports in 2006 and again in 2009 that an NSA wiretap in 2005 had picked up Harman promising a suspected Israeli agent that she would aid people indicted for espionage on behalf of Israel.

According to reports, Harman allegedly told the Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department to reduce espionage-related charges against two top officials for the powerful Israel lobby organization, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

In return, the suspected Israeli agent (who may have been a dual-citizen American) reportedly pledged to help lobby for Harman to become chair of the House Intelligence Committee. Harman was already the ranking Democrat on the committee.

At the end of the conversation, Harman reportedly said: “This conversation doesn’t exist.”

The two AIPAC officials had been indicted for illegally obtaining classified documents about Iran and passing these on to Israel. They also gave them to prominent Washington Post journalist Glenn Kessler, whose speaker bio lists three topics: “Global Affairs, Jewish Interest, Middle East Issues.”

One of the indicted AIPAC officials has since defended himself by stating that his actions were routine for AIPAC – that AIPAC staffers regularly obtain and hand on classified U.S. information to Israel and others.

AIPAC, worried at public exposure caused by the indictments, fired the two men. Subsequent lawsuits over their firing provided considerable information, from sleazy details about AIPAC high officials to the fact that dozens of AIPAC donors had provided monetary assistance to the two men, despite evidence that they had leaked classified U.S. documents to a foreign country.

Among these donors were Slim-Fast billionaire Daniel Abraham, philanthropist Lynn Schusterman, and Haim Saban, an Israeli-American who is one of the major donors to Democratic candidates. Saban, who is close to Harman, says his “greatest concern is to protect Israel.” (His wife was recently nominated to be US ambassador to the UN.)

Harman, who frequently speaks at AIPAC events, is widely known for her strong advocacy for Israel and of Middle East wars on behalf of it.

She backed the attack on Iraq and now similarly maintains that Iran is a threat to Americans, despite the fact that Iraqquickly turned into a tragic, unnecessary, and disastrously costly debacle; that Iraq had none of the weapons of mass destruction that had been claimed; and that current claims against Iran are similarly tenuous.

The Jewish Forward calls her a “pro-Israel stalwart,” and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) reports, “Harman is beloved by the pro-Israel lobby and is a sure-bet appearance at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s annual policy conference.”

According to Open Secrets, Harman was one of the top recipients of pro-Israel campaign donations.

JTA reported that her departure from Congress in 20011, “earned her an unusually effusive statement of regret from AIPAC director Howard Kohr.”

Like AIPAC, Harman currently pushes the alleged need, often promoted by flawed media reports, for the U.S. to address what she claims is Iran’s development of nuclear weapons, despite the fact that U.S. intelligence agencies continue to find that Iran is actually not developing them. (She also neglects to mention that Israel has a stockpile of nuclear weapons and has refused to sign the nonproliferation treaty).

In her nine terms in Congress, Harman focused on military and security affairs and served on all the major security committees: six years on Armed Services, eight years on Intelligence, and four on Homeland Security.

Harman, who was married to billionaire Sidney Harman, owner of Newsweek, until his death last year, was listed as the second-richest member in congress.

Harman resigned from Congress in 20011 to head up the Washington DC Woodrow Wilson Center, part of theSmithsonian. The Wilson Center is listed as the 16th most powerful think tank in the world.

Like Harman, the longtime chair of the Wilson Center, Joseph B. Gildenhorn, is extremely close to Israel. He endowed theInstitute for Israel Studies at the University of Maryland and may at one point have been an AIPAC board member. Wilson Co-chair Sander R. Gerber has been an AIPAC board member for many years.

In explaining her decision to leave Congress in order to direct the Wilson Center, Harman said: “Serving at its helm provides unique opportunities to involve the House and Senate, top experts and world leaders in ‘great debates’ about the most pressing foreign and domestic policy matters.”

While Congressional Quarterly’s Roll Call contains an article in which Harman denies the espionage-related reports, the publication seems to have taken down the report to which Harman was responding and to which numerous other articleslink: “Sources: Wiretap Recorded Rep. Harman Promising to Intervene for AIPAC,” by Jeff Stein, Congressional Quarterly, April 19, 2009. (It’s unclear whether the removal of Stein’s article is related to the fact that three months after the story broke, Congressional Quarterly was bought by the Economist Group.)

In the report, investigative journalist Jeff Stein provided additional details about the incident and explained that whether or not Harman delivered on her promise (she did not attain her desired chairmanship), the making of the promise was sufficient to constitute, in legal terms, a “completed crime.”

Despite considerable outcry and calls for a Justice Department investigation, Harman eluded prosecution, the expected full investigation of the powerful southern California Democrat never happened, and Harman’s allegedly subversive actions seem to have dropped from sight.

While former Petraeus deputy (and currently acting director) Michael J. Morell seems to be the current frontrunner for CIA head, Harman and others are reported to still be in the running. Also, Morell could prove to be a temporary choice to prevent a lapse in leadership while the long-term director is chosen.

If Harman does becomes CIA director, her appointment would no doubt be greeted with glee by the Israeli government. Whether or not Harman made treasonous promises to an Israeli agent, there is no doubt that she is a committed advocate for the Israeli regime.

Americans, on the other hand, might have less reason for joy.

[IanEye]

*



showin' pictures on the wall

whisperin' in the hall

pointin' a finger at me

*

[hava007]

if indeed the "socialite" sought sort of asylum in Korea that would be another case of people getting help in "third world" from the bastions of democracy. after y experience with canada, its a good choice to step out of the not so civilized world...
already some commentators i sometimes read point the fingers at the women involved.