General indiscretions
by digby
Wait, what?
The FBI agent who started the case was a friend of Jill Kelley, the Tampa woman who received harassing, anonymous emails that led to the probe, according to officials. Ms. Kelley, a volunteer who organizes social events for military personnel in the Tampa area, complained in May about the emails to a friend who is an FBI agent. That agent referred it to a cyber crimes unit, which opened an investigation.
However, supervisors soon became concerned that the initial agent might have grown obsessed with the matter, and prohibited him from any role in the investigation, according to the officials.
The FBI officials found that he had sent shirtless pictures of himself to Ms. Kelley, according to the people familiar with the probe.
What in the hell is it with all these men sending "sexy" pictures of themselves to strange women? Has this exhibitionist streak always been a lot more prevalent than I knew and they just didn't have an outlet? WTH?
Anyway, the shirtless stud also turns out to be a wingnut, or rather a man who has a "worldview" that made him suspect "a politically motivated cover-up to protect
President Obama. The agent alerted Eric Cantor, the House majority
leader, who called the F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, on Oct.
31 to tell him of the agent’s concerns."
And how about this, from everybody's favorite general--- a man considered so above reproach that the congress actually voted to condemn an outside political group for using the word "betray - us" in the same breath as the great man:
According to the Wall Street Journal, Petraeus and Broadwell used pseudonyms to set up separate Gmail accounts which they used to communicate in secret. Their trove of "sexually explicit emails" were discovered only by accident after Jill Kelley, an acquaintance of Petraeus, complained that she was receiving threatening emails, which led FBI investigators to Broadwell's account and, in turn, to her X-rated messages detailing the affair.
The Journal explains:
FBI agents and federal prosecutors used the information as probable cause to seek a warrant to monitor Ms. Broadwell's email accounts.
They learned that Ms. Broadwell and Mr. Petraeus had set up private Gmail accounts to use for their communications, which included explicit details of a sexual nature, according to U.S. officials. But because Mr. Petraeus used a pseudonym, agents doing the monitoring didn't immediately uncover that he was the one communicating with Ms. Broadwell.
Oh yeah, this was the guy who was head of the most powerful spy agency in the world.
Am I the only one who feels as if the world is getting a little bit too surreal these days?
Update: Wow. I remember a conversation with Chris Hayes about the fact that the military is the last elite institution that seems to be unaffected by the failure of the meritocracy. Ooops:
In a new twist to the Gen. David Petraeus sex scandal, the Pentagon said Tuesday that the top American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen, is under investigation for alleged “inappropriate communications” with a woman who is said to have received threatening emails from Paula Broadwell, the woman with whom Petraeus had an extramarital affair.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in a written statement issued to reporters aboard his aircraft, en route from Honolulu to Perth, Australia, that the FBI referred the matter to the Pentagon on Sunday.
I should probably make clear that I could not care less who these Generals are sleeping with. It's a bit odd that the head of the CIA would be dumb enough to leave a paper trail, but whatever. What I am finding interesting is the sudden acknowledgement of a zone of privacy among conservatives who love to control women's reproduction and sexuality and had a field day back in the 90s with a certain president's indiscretions. I'd like to think they are evolving ...
(And yes, I understand that the military has a rule against "adultery" but I think it's stupid.)
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