The Petraeus Soap Opera
And that’s what this is beginning to look like – a soap opera.
Josh Marshall highlights two things. First from the NYT article.
Ms. Kelley, a volunteer with wounded veterans and military families, brought her complaint to a rank-and-file agent she knew from a previous encounter with the F.B.I. office, the official also said. That agent, who had previously pursued a friendship with Ms. Kelley and had earlier sent her shirtless photographs of himself, was “just a conduit” for the complaint, he said. He had no training in cybercrime, was not part of the cyber squad handling the case and was never assigned to the investigation.
But the agent, who was not identified, continued to “nose around” about the case, and eventually his superiors “told him to stay the hell away from it, and he was not invited to briefings,” the official said. The Wall Street Journal first reported on Monday night that the agent had been barred from the case.
Later, the agent became convinced — incorrectly, the official said — that the case had stalled. Because of his “worldview,” as the official put it, he suspected 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.
The official said the agent’s self-described “whistle-blowing” was “a little embarrassing” but had no effect on the investigation.
I have never really cared about sex scandals, only the hypocrisy, but this FBI agent seems a little nuts. Hey, if we’re taking resignations…
Second, Josh Marshall identifies the players:
Just to keep you up to date, the late is Gen. John Allen, the commanding US general in Afghanistan. He’s now being investigated for “inappropriate emails” with Jill Kelley?
As for Kelley that brings us to “inappropriate emails” with Allen, alleged (by Paula Broadwell) advances toward (or from?) Gen. Petraeus, and finally shirtless photos from the freak show FBI agent who was infatuated with Kelley, launched the whole investigation and also seems to have tried to expose it in the final weeks of the election in a desperate attempt to blow up the Benghazi story and make Mitt Romney president.
Is anyone else concerned with the state of our intelligence community? The sheer number of emails exchanged makes me wonder when they had time to eat, let alone do their jobs.
Tags: CIA, FBI, General Patraeus
When I hear grandiose conspiracy theories about the type of secrecy the government is capable of, I laugh to myself – because the “government” is nothing more than people.
People are screwballs.
James Bond would never be this trifling.
But then, this is beginning to look like one of those MI5 or MI6 scandals occasionally coughed up by the Brits to embarrass whatever party is running the show.
And may I point out how our Press is obsessing over this – nonstop. It’s the most important story!
Remember that when they try and return to the fiscal cliff.
Am I the only one who feels a little gross about this?
It seems that Petraeus is totally off the hook in terms of divulging secrets. It’s all just a bunch of extra-marital drama among a bunch of people. So why are we still talking about this?
The only newsworthy thing about this seems to be that our upper level military management are capable of acting like a bunch of high schoolers.
I don’t approve, but without the “I built my career on family values” hypocrisy angle I sort of feel like we should butt out.
I’d rather the press obsess over this than the “fiscal cliff.” Fucking around on their spouses is something the press actually knows something about. When it comes to federal budgeting and tax code, their innumeracy makes them worse than useless.
Scandal sells. When scandal includes sex, it sells even better.
I’ll bet the book “All In” is selling rather well. Broadwell is going to make good money as she hides. It seems that people want to know what ‘All’ was and what it was ‘In’.
The only newsworthy thing about this seems to be that our upper level military management are capable of acting like a bunch of high schoolers.
If you had to work with these people, this would not be a surprise.
On Amazon, the book is currently #129 in book sales ranking. But the reviews are pretty brutal (most of them seem new).
Oh My. Click over to Jim Romenesko’s place for a screen shot of what appeared on a Denver TV station yesterday.
Holy shit…that is hilarious.
Oh no, they didn’t!
I think that in some ways, this:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/11/which-conservative-think-tanks-was-david-petraeus-courting/265138/
is potentially more scandalous than the sex stuff.
Petraeus was giving two right-wing think tanks full access to the Afghanistan military operation? Why? Because he thought it might help him in (what he considered) his upcoming presidential campaign?
BTW, he very likely could have been the odds-on favorite to win that thing.
Rethugs screwed once again.
@cassandra: Oh. My. Indeed. But does this give new meaning to the Obama campaign’s slogan, “Are you in?” Maybe Petraeus will argue that’s what sent him over the edge.
People have affairs, split up, and things get messy. Where is any “breaking news” in this? That this dominates the news and the public attention reveals how we have such a low register for what’s truly important to our lives.
What is striking is what a difference there is between military code and what passes for normal activities.
Apparently is not just Petraeus. I’ll bet that 70% of the upper officers could be brought down this way… In fact, this is spilling over already.
This is the same dichotomy seen with Obama’s security detail.
For the good of the nation, maybe the rules should be changed.
Humans generally like to fuck. That’s pretty much it. 200,000 years ago we were animals on the African Savanna, now we’re animals with motorcars and handheld google machines and popping corn with butter. Perhaps another 200,000 years will allow us to sort this sexual stuff out… until then, if we make it.
Basically it is looking a rogue FBI agent, thinking with his small head, used national emergency snooping powers to bring down the director of the CIA, with the hope of influencing the election.
That doesn’t seem like a good system to me.
This is better than Weiner-gate.. I think the book title innuendo is the deal breaker…
Like many here, I was also going to ignore it, but it just keeps growing like yeastful bread.
it’s gotten so much bigger since even Pandora first “put it out there… “
LOL, Kavips!
Oh, this is gettin’ more crazy…
Jill Kelley waving her honorary consul papers around like she’s the Sheriff of Nuttingham.
Maybe it’s because I’ve been tired, but, I can’t even follow all this nonsense.
@p “I’m an honorary consul general”
I think she mis-quotes. She’s a “horny general’s courtesan”.
My money is on some sort of top military brass swingers group.
AQC, sorry to hear about your job… hope everything turns out ok.
Tired SB, not fired…lol
Gawker has tried to explain the Petraeus business as though it was high school gossip.
They ask that you twirl your hair and snap your gum as you read this.
Here’s another interesting thing — there was a time during the GOP primaries (early, I think) where there was some wishful thinking about Petraeus as a Presidential candidate. If not in 2012, then 2016 and in some circles was thought to be a pretty serious front runner for 2016 for the GOP. Now it looks like he is being well and truly thrown under the bus by the usual GOP suspects, so I guess they are trashing their hopefuls early on, it looks like.
Boy did i read that wrong! haha. no more blogging before coffee for me.
Is there anything Chris Rock hasn’t explained? See 3:10 of this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj0mtxXEGE8