General David Petraeus
The reason this scandal is so explosive is that the man atthe center of the storm is David Petraeus, the most celebrated US general ofhis generation. Credited with turning around the war in Iraq in 2007, he becamethe commander of US forces in Afghanistan in 2010 and there was even talk of atilt for the presidency before he became CIA chief in September 2011.Hisstellar military and intelligence career came crashing to a halt when PresidentBarack Obama accepted his resignation because of an affair with his biographer,Paula Broadwell.
Paula Broadwell
The femme fatale of the drama is Paula Broadwell, aglamorous major in the Army reserve. The 40-year-old counter-terrorism expertlives in Charlotte, North Carolina with her radiologist husband and their twoyoung sons. Petraeus first met Broadwell when he spoke at Harvard University in2006. Two years later, Broadwell, who had made her dissertation topic a casestudy on Petraeus' leadership, was invited to join the general for a run alongthe Potomac River in Washington.
In 2010 and 2011, Broadwell made multiple trips toAfghanistan, gaining unprecedented access to Petraeus and his command for herglowing biography: "All In: The Education of General David Petraeus."
Jill Kelley
The affair may never have come to light if it wasn't forJill Kelley and Broadwell's apparent fit of jealousy. Kelley, who is married toan oncologist in Tampa, Florida volunteered as a "social liaison"organizing events at nearby MacDill Air Force Base, home to US Central Command(CENTCOM).
From October 2008 until the summer of 2010, Petraeus washead of CENTCOM and the Petraeus and the Kelley families became friends. In Maythis year, Jill Kelley told a local FBI agent in Tampa, who was also a friend ofhers, that she had received threatening emails from an anonymous sender warningher to keep her hands off Petraeus.
The Role Of 'Agent Shirtless'
The unidentified FBI agent who Kelley initially went toplayed a key part in how events unfolded and his actions may even have forcedPetraeus' resignation. He was sidelined as the FBI cybercrime divisionidentified Broadwell as the sender of the threatening emails. Kelley reportedlytold investigators she didn't know Broadwell. The FBI operative has been dubbed "Agent Shirtless" after itemerged that he had sent shirtless photos of himself to Kelley, long before theemail investigation began.
General John Allen
The latest twist to the tale involves General John Allen,who succeeded Petraeus as US commander in Afghanistan and was deputy head ofCENTCOM from July 2008 until June 2011. Allen is being investigated for"inappropriate communication" with Kelley and the FBI is examining20,000 to 30,000 pages of documents, many of them emails between the two. Obamahas put Allen's imminent nomination as NATO's supreme commander on hold untilthe matter is settled.
