The curious affair of the general and the biographer has allof the elements of a blockbuster movie. There’s sex, lies, national security,and a possible cover-up ” just the sort of thing to bring down governments andkeep the media salivating for weeks, even months, to come. So far the buck hasstopped well short of newly re-elected President Barack Obama. But, theprospect of a major political scandal must be weighing heavily on his mind.
White House officials say the president learned of Petraeus’extramarital relationship with Paula Broadwell only two days after Obama won ahotly contested race by a comfortable, although hardly generous, margin.Petraeus stepped down as head of the Central Intelligence Agency a day later,after only 15 months in the post.
The timing of the revelations was fortuitous; given thebitter and divisive campaign that preceded the Nov. 6 ballot, the Petraeusscandal could have substantially altered the dynamics of the race. But evennow, with the president engaged in delicate negotiations with Congress on thebudget deadline ” the so-called “fiscal cliff” ” the Petraeus morass is anunwelcome distraction, and could soon prove to be a full-blown disaster for anadministration struggling to heal the wounds of the long election battle.
The most troubling accusations involve the attack on the USConsulate and a nearby annex in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11. Four Americanswere killed in the mayhem, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. The Republicanshad made Benghazi, and the administration response to the violence, acenterpiece of their campaign. At issue is whether Broadwell, who wrote afawning biography of Petraeus called “All In,” was given access to classifiedinformation in the course of her research. In a speech she gave at theUniversity of Denver in late October, Broadwell said the reason for the attackwas the presence of detained Libyan fighters in the annex. What’s more, shesaid that Petraeus knew all about it.
“The challengingthing for General Petraeus is that in his new position, he’s not allowed tocommunicate with the press. So he’s known all of this ” they had correspondencewith the CIA station chief in, in Libya. Within 24 hours they kind of knew whatwas happening,” said Broadwell. The CIA is flatly denying Broadwell’s versionof events, but the damage has been done. The FBI searched Broadwell’sCharlotte, NC home, taking boxes of documents and computers away in anoperation recorded at every step by the press. Sources say that classifiedinformation has been found among the material. Now questions are surfacingabout who knew what, when.
The players are by now infamous. Tampa socialite JillKelley, who has a history of exploiting her friendships with the powerful,reported a string of what she said were harassing emails to an acquaintance inthe FBI. He, in turn, began an investigation that led to Broadwell andeventually to Petraeus. Their email communications revealed the affair, and therest, as they say, is history. But the ripples have engulfed another four-stargeneral, John Allen, who succeeded Petraeus as NATO commander in Afghanistan.He is now accused of an inappropriate relationship with Kelley, based on tensof thousands of pages of emails that are still being combed through. In themeantime, Allen’s nomination to become supreme allied commander of NATO forcesin Europe is on hold.
