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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBill Maher on Gen. Petraeus...
On FB... Thoughts? I have doubts also...
Bill Maher
Unless he was fucking Mata Hari as well, I still don't see why General David Patraeus had to go.
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)babylonsister
(171,102 posts)we're talking 'affairs', not nat'l security.
Anyway, he's toast, but are we too concerned with other people's sex lives? This is blowing up; too bad people weren't equally disturbed by various wars.
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)the Wars do disturb me. Let us get our priorities straight here.
amborin
(16,631 posts)and if the top guy gets away with a breach, all the underlings would have grounds for.....
plus, the main thing: P is BAD NEWS..wrong on Iran, wrong on Afghanistan, etc....
msongs
(67,459 posts)Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)notadmblnd
(23,720 posts)snip
So who would have an interest in getting rid of Petraeus? Heres where the Cantor connection comes in. The tip by an anonymous FBI employee that wound up in Cantors office two weeks ago came through Rep. David Reichert, Republican of Washington state, who has a friend who knows the whistleblower. Cantor then spoke to the whistleblower directly, who put him in touch with FBI Director Mueller.
Cantor is a great friend of Israel, and Petraeus not so much. The General was attacked, as youll recall, by partisans of the Lobby, including Abe Foxman, when he delivered testimony before Congress citing Israel as a strategic liability in the Middle East. As the executor of the new Obamaite policy of sidling up to Islamists, not only in Libya but also in Syria and Egypt, Petraeus was no doubt seen by the Israelis as an enemy to be neutralized.
snip
Will we ever know the full story? At this point, the story is so hot that it may burn the cover story its all about sex right off the wrapper. Because theres more a lot more here than meets the eye. When Cantor pledged to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he and his fellow Republicans will serve as a check on the administration in regard to the Presidents policy toward Israel, he was clearly aligning himself with a foreign leader against American interests as perceived by the White House. But would he really go this far deliberately taking down a key figure, one beloved by Republicans, in order to keep his promise to Netanyahu?
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2012/11/11/a-covert-affair-petraeus-caught-in-the-honeypot/
GiaGiovanni
(1,247 posts)notadmblnd
(23,720 posts)GiaGiovanni
(1,247 posts)The only thing that seems very clear is that a CIA director doesn't get fired for an average extra-marital affair.
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)things like that.
Having a short affair or fling is one thing. But to have a drawn out affair with someone so VISIBLE (she was on the Daily Show, gave speeches and interviews, etc.) and obviously screwy (pardon the pun) is bizarre. Broadwell was sending threatening (sort of) emails to another woman who apparently wasn't even having an affair with Petraeus.
Messy, distracting. Could he really focus on his high level security job with all that nutso stuff going on?
Still, if he had stayed, I'd have been okay with that. I don't know the ins and outs (pardon the second pun) of the CIA. As I heard on TV, he certainly couldn't be blackmailed at this point.
marions ghost
(19,841 posts)That's more my take on it.
The security risk of affairs is something the military has zero tolerance for. I understand why they do that. It's all about discipline and duty to protect the country. OK.
But I find myself more thinking, OMG--they really can NOT be performing on the job very well. Incompetence.
libdem4life
(13,877 posts)notadmblnd
(23,720 posts)it could explain why Kelly (who is no angel and had no intimate relationship with Petraeus) got harassed by Broadwell.
unblock
(52,352 posts)i may be slightly overstating the case as i'm not sure *all* cia employees have clearances and i'm not sure *everyone*who gets a clearance gets asked that question.
i do know that *i* once had a secret clearance and i *was* asked that question.
had the polygraph reader felt i was lying, i would have been denied my clearance and i would have immediately lost my job because i was working on a secret project and was of no use to my employer without a secret clearance.
you can't credibly run the show at a place like that if you fail the test that you insist every low-level employee take and pass.
just to note, the correct answer is to tell the truth, whatever it is. they're not there to particularly judge your morality, they're only there to determine your vulnerability to blackmail. so an answer such as "yes i did and i immediately posted it on facebook and i'd do it again" is fine as long as it's the truth. in any event it appears patreus failed on all accounts as he not only had an affair but also tried to keep it secret, which made him officially vulnerable to blackmail.
GiaGiovanni
(1,247 posts)They apparently don't get fired as they would in the military.
Thrill
(19,178 posts)I think those emails tell the story of a shady General