General Petraeus '28-car Party motorcade

[Ichingcarpenter]

snip

Mrs Kelley, whose role as "social liaison" is unpaid, was a frequent guest at Central Command functions. After being presented at one event with a certificate naming her an "honorary ambassador" for allied nations, she began using the title minus the "honorary", according to The Associated Press.



She and her husband hosted Mr Petraeus at a party on their lawn for Tampa's annual Gasparilla parade in 2010. He arrived with a 28-car motorcade. Other guests included Pam Bondi, Florida's Attorney General and a close ally of Mitt Romney, the former presidential candidate.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/9673429/David-Petraeus-ordered-lover-Paula-Broadwell-to-stop-emailing-Jill-Kelley.html


The story gets even juicer.

[malaise]

1. Sweet as...!

No wonder Joe Scum is so visibly distraught this morning! This is a gathering of ReTHUGs who were trying to sabotage Obama. Oh Dear!!

[Kingofalldems]

2. I am hoping someone will panic and start talking

Something is up here.

[malaise]

3. Rest assured Joe Scum is very scared because he knows

that this will take down the cabal of neo-cons permanently.

[Ichingcarpenter]

5. Something involving Republicans

this story ties Romney's Florida connections.

[Ganja Ninja]

4. I smell GOP group sex scandal.

[malaise]

6. That's the side show

which will keep the story going

[Kablooie]

7. What the hey is a 'social liaison'?

[Javaman]

8. a 1928 car?

headlines reads as such.

[Ichingcarpenter]

10. twenty eight cars showed up

that what I read

[Javaman]

12. The apostrophe prior to a number is usually considered an abbreviation for year..

as in '01 or '41.

[Brother Buzz]

28. '28 Duzy, perhaps?

[elehhhhna]

9. other accounts say 28 motorcycles

ego ego ego, either way

[jdadd]

11. 28 Motorcycles?

That's not a motorcade....It's a Bike Gang....

[Barack_America]

13. The Toy KKK fundraiser scene.

That's how I imagine this party.

[barnabas63]

14. Does "social liaison" come with health benefits??

[flamingdem]

20. Just free condoms

[Poll_Blind]

15. What the hell is next, vampire-themed pee parties?!?

PB

[Oilwellian]

16. The Mistress and The Ambassador

Sounds like a B-Rated movie. I'm not so sure the Ambassador saw Petraeus as a grandfather to her daughters. Was General Allen a grandfather figure in her life as well? LOL

[starroute]

17. How close is Pam Bondi to the Petraeus family? And does it matter?

From Bondi's website. (Titshaw is the head of Florida's National Guard and senior military advisor to the governor.)

http://www.myfloridalegal.com/NewsBrie.nsf/OnlineBriefs/5F9B13C809A9028785257A4F007125CB

Aug. 3, 2012

Attorney General Bondi's Weekly Briefing

Major General Titshaw and Attorney General Pam Bondi joined Holly Petraeus at the National Guard at Patrick Air Force Base as Holly Petraeus was presented with an award for her efforts to protect members of our armed forces from fraud.

[Coyotl]

25. Oh, the irony in that tale, Holly protecting the military from frauds.

Holly protecting the military from frauds, wow, and a Romney associate joins her with yet another General.

[robinlynne]

18. Obama, would you mind appointing Democrats please?

[TwilightGardener]

19. How does someone with ZERO

connection to the military whatsoever have so much access to the top brass, and CENTCOM gatherings? Did she undergo some sort of clearance process? Who got her the position? How did she get a military ID card to access the base with an "unofficial unpaid" position?

[flamingdem]

21. Plus she has been sued 8 times for unpaid real estate and credit card debt

I posted about this on some thread, but she sure smells like trouble

[TwilightGardener]

22. Generally, to be on a military base, you have to be sponsored

by either a member of the military, or by some agency involved with the base. You have to have some clear purpose there, if you aren't a family member or an employee of some company that does business on base. Am I to understand that she just marched up to the MacDill gate and said, "I'd like to be a volunteer party planner!"? Someone created this position for her, someone allowed her to get close to the generals who were running the wars. I find this kind of scary, considering she and her family seem unstable and financially messy.

[flamingdem]

23. Gen. Allen was stationed there

Now his promotion out of Afganistan is on hold, no doubt Jill was looking forward to European castle liasons!

[TwilightGardener]

24. Yep. Something tells me she didn't just fill out an application

and drop it off at the base personnel office for a "volunteer" position.

[jehop61]

26. Lebonese descent

Isn't the fact Mrs. Kelley is of Middle Eastern heritage troubling to anyone?

[flamingdem]

29. If she was a Dem Fox would be all over it n/t

[TwilightGardener]

30. I think she was born in the US. I don't think that's a concern.

I have known quite a few Lebanese folks.

[starroute]

31. The family is Maronite Christians

So the "Middle Eastern heritage" part shouldn't be a security issue.

On the other hand, slightly shady Lebanese businessmen keep coming up in any number of scandals. Back in 2004, for example, I saved a copy of a DU thread about the anti-Kerry documentary "Stolen Honor." The film's producer, Carlton Sherwood, was then "executive vice president of the WVC3 Group, an anti-terrorism, security firm headquartered in Reston, VA." The firm was run by a couple of ex-military guys, and its subsidiaries included one with this description:

"Alghad Trading Corp. is an international joint venture trading company with offices in Reston, Virginia, Beirut, Lebanon, and Baghdad, Iraq. This joint partnership between the wvc3 group, inc. and prominent Lebanese businessmen is poised to expand on its already diverse and broad-ranging operations stretching throughout the African Continent, Middle East, and Eastern Europe. An 'import - export' business by design, Alghad utilizes the latest in modern technology and well established business relationships to foster the development of long-term capital growth in emerging markets."

(http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1020830&mesg_id=1024593)


I see this as relevant because of Jill Kelley's sister's ex-husband, who was involved in a Coalition Provisional Authority office that promoted private investment in Iraq. The impression I have, from this and other sources, is that Middle Eastern -- and particularly Lebanese -- businessmen living in the US have been closely involved with the military-industrial complex and with attempt to profit from the invasion of Iraq and with US attempts to reshape the Middle East.

[ablamj]

33. Maronite?

Does that mean they worship Marc Maron? WTF!

[excringency]

27. I really hope

all of this leads some folks to rethink their mindless worship of the U.S. military. But then again, if I'd have listened to the generals on the ground, I probably would have had a more rollicking time over the past few years.

[HooptieWagon]

32. The 28 car motorcade....

Background - Gasparilla is an annual parade and festival celebrating a pirate invasion by Jose Gaspar (who may or may not be real). Although City of Tampa has tried to tone it down, it remains a huge drunken bash...several hundred thousand people. Parade route is down Bayshore Dr, where Kelley mansion is. My understanding is Kelleys had several of McDill/CentCom top brass at their house to socialize and watch parade. So if each guest travelled in a separate car, plus security teams, 28 cars may not be such a huge stretch. Probably not room to park them all, though...so motorcade probably returned to McDill, its only a couple miles away.