Congress wants answers on Petraeus affair

This photo from July 13, 2011 shows the for­mer Com­man­der of Inter­na­tional Secu­rity Assis­tance Force and U.S. Forces-Afghanistan Gen. Davis Petraeus, left, shak­ing hands with Paula Broad­well, co-author of All In: The Edu­ca­tion of Gen­eral David Petraeus. As details emerge about Petraeus’ extra­mar­i­tal affair with his biog­ra­pher, Broad­well, includ­ing a sec­ond woman who allegedly received threat­en­ing emails from the author, mem­bers of Con­gress say they want to know exactly when the now ex-CIA direc­tor and retired gen­eral popped up in the FBI inquiry, whether national secu­rity was com­pro­mised and why they weren’t told sooner. (Cour­tesy | ISAF)

ADAM GOLDMAN

ANNE FLAHERTY

KIMBERLY DOZIER

Asso­ci­ated Press

WASHINGTON — Mem­bers of Con­gress said Sun­day they want to know more details about the FBI inves­ti­ga­tion that revealed an extra­mar­i­tal affair between ex-CIA Direc­tor David Petraeus and his biog­ra­pher, ques­tion­ing when the retired gen­eral popped up in the FBI inquiry, whether national secu­rity was com­pro­mised and why they weren’t told sooner.

“We received no advanced notice. It was like a light­ning bolt,” said Demo­c­ra­tic Sen. Dianne Fein­stein of Cal­i­for­nia, who heads the Sen­ate Intel­li­gence Committee.

The FBI was inves­ti­gat­ing harass­ing emails sent by Petraeus biog­ra­pher and girl­friend Paula Broad­well to a sec­ond woman. That probe of Broadwell’s emails revealed the affair between Broad­well and Petraeus. The FBI con­tacted Petraeus and other intel­li­gence offi­cials, and Direc­tor of National Intel­li­gence James Clap­per asked Petraeus to resign.

A senior U.S. mil­i­tary offi­cial iden­ti­fied the sec­ond woman as Jill Kel­ley, 37, who lives in Tampa, Fla., and 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.

Staffers for Petraeus said Kel­ley and her hus­band were reg­u­lar guests at events he held at Cen­tral Com­mand headquarters.

In a state­ment Sun­day evening, Kel­ley and her hus­band, Scott, said: “We and our fam­ily have been friends with Gen. Petraeus and his fam­ily for over five years. We respect his and his family’s pri­vacy and want the same for us and our three children.”

A U.S. offi­cial said the coali­tion coun­tries rep­re­sented at Cen­tral Com­mand gave Kel­ley an appre­ci­a­tion cer­tifi­cate on which she was referred to as an “hon­orary ambas­sador” to the coali­tion, but she has no offi­cial sta­tus and is not employed by the U.S. government.

The offi­cial, speak­ing on con­di­tion of anonymity because he wasn’t autho­rized to dis­cuss the case pub­licly, said Kel­ley is known to drop the “hon­orary” part and refer to her­self as an ambassador.

The mil­i­tary offi­cial, who spoke on con­di­tion of anonymity because he was not autho­rized to pub­licly dis­cuss the inves­ti­ga­tion, said Kel­ley had received harass­ing emails from Broad­well, which led the FBI to exam­ine her email account and even­tu­ally dis­cover her rela­tion­ship with Petraeus.

A for­mer asso­ciate of Petraeus con­firmed the tar­get of the emails was Kel­ley, but said there was no affair between the two, speak­ing on con­di­tion of anonymity to dis­cuss the retired general’s pri­vate life. The asso­ciate, who has been in touch with Petraeus since his res­ig­na­tion, says Kel­ley and her hus­band were long­time friends of Petraeus and wife, Holly.

Attempts to reach Kel­ley were not imme­di­ately suc­cess­ful. Broad­well did not return phone calls or emails.

Petraeus resigned while law­mak­ers still had ques­tions about the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Con­sulate and CIA base in Beng­hazi, Libya, that killed four Amer­i­cans, includ­ing U.S. Ambas­sador Chris Stevens. Law­mak­ers said it’s pos­si­ble that Petraeus will still be asked to appear on Capi­tol Hill to tes­tify about what he knew about the U.S. response to that incident.

Rep. Peter King, chair­man of the House Home­land Secu­rity Com­mit­tee, said the cir­cum­stances of the FBI probe smacked of a cover-up by the White House.

“It seems this (the inves­ti­ga­tion) has been going on for sev­eral months and, yet, now it appears that they’re say­ing that the FBI didn’t real­ize until Elec­tion Day that Gen­eral Petraeus was involved. It just doesn’t add up,” said King, R-N.Y.

Petraeus, 60, quit Fri­day after acknowl­edg­ing an extra­mar­i­tal rela­tion­ship. He has been mar­ried 38 years to Holly Petraeus, with whom he has two adult chil­dren, includ­ing a son who led an infantry pla­toon in Afghanistan as an Army lieutenant.

Broad­well, a 40-year-old grad­u­ate of the U.S. Mil­i­tary Acad­emy and an Army Reserve offi­cer, is mar­ried with two young sons.

Broad­well has not responded to mul­ti­ple emails and phone mes­sages. Attempts to reach Kel­ley were not imme­di­ately successful.

Petraeus’ affair with Broad­well will be the sub­ject of meet­ings Wednes­day involv­ing con­gres­sional intel­li­gence com­mit­tee lead­ers, FBI deputy direc­tor Sean Joyce and CIA deputy direc­tor Michael Morell.

Petraeus had been sched­uled to appear before the com­mit­tees on Thurs­day to tes­tify on what the CIA knew and what the agency told the White House before, dur­ing and after the attack in Beng­hazi. Repub­li­cans and some Democ­rats have ques­tioned the U.S. response and pro­tec­tion of diplo­mats sta­tioned overseas.

Morell was expected to tes­tify in place of Petraeus, and law­mak­ers said he should have the answers to their ques­tions. But Fein­stein and oth­ers didn’t rule out the pos­si­bil­ity that Con­gress will com­pel Petraeus to tes­tify about Beng­hazi at a later date, even though he’s relin­quished his job.

“I don’t see how in the world you can find out what hap­pened in Beng­hazi before, dur­ing and after the attack if Gen­eral Petraeus doesn’t tes­tify,” said Sen. Lind­sey Gra­ham, R-S.C.

Gra­ham, a mem­ber of the Sen­ate Armed Ser­vices Com­mit­tee, wants to cre­ate a joint con­gres­sional com­mit­tee to inves­ti­gate the U.S. response to that attack.

Fein­stein said she first learned of Petraeus’ affair from the media late last week, and con­firmed it in a phone call Fri­day with Petraeus. She even­tu­ally was briefed by the FBI and said so far there was no indi­ca­tion that national secu­rity was breached.

Still, Fein­stein called the news “a heart­break” for her per­son­ally and U.S. intel­li­gence oper­a­tions, and said she didn’t under­stand why the FBI didn’t give her a heads up as soon as Petraeus’ name emerged in the investigation.

“We are very much able to keep things in a clas­si­fied set­ting,” she said. “At least if you know, you can begin to think and then to plan. And, of course, we have not had that opportunity.”

Clap­per was told by the Jus­tice Depart­ment of the Petraeus inves­ti­ga­tion at about 5 p.m. on Elec­tion Day, and then called Petraeus and urged him to resign, accord­ing to a senior U.S. intel­li­gence offi­cial who spoke on con­di­tion of anonymity because he was not autho­rized to dis­cuss the inves­ti­ga­tion publicly.

FBI offi­cials say the com­mit­tees weren’t informed until Fri­day, one offi­cial said, because the mat­ter started as a crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tion into harass­ing emails sent by Broad­well to another woman.

Con­cerned that the emails he exchanged with Broad­well raised the pos­si­bil­ity of a secu­rity breach, the FBI brought the mat­ter up with Petraeus directly, accord­ing to the offi­cial, who spoke on con­di­tion of anonymity because he was not autho­rized to pub­licly dis­cuss the investigation.

Petraeus decided to quit, though he was break­ing no laws by hav­ing an affair, offi­cials said.

Fein­stein said she has not been told the pre­cise rela­tion­ship between Petraeus and the woman who reported the harass­ing emails to the FBI.

Geor­gia Sen. Saxby Cham­b­liss, the top Repub­li­can on the Sen­ate intel­li­gence com­mit­tee, called Petraeus “a great leader” who did right by step­ping down and still deserves the nation’s grat­i­tude. He also didn’t rule out call­ing Petraeus to tes­tify on Beng­hazi at some point.

“He’s try­ing to put his life back together right now and that’s what he needs to focus on,” Cham­b­liss said.

King appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Fein­stein was on “Fox News Sun­day,” Gra­ham spoke on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” and Cham­b­liss was inter­viewed on ABC’s “This Week.”

Posted by AP News on Nov 11 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.