Three women intertwine in downfall of David Petraeus

[TomCADem]

Source: Reuters

Jill Kelley is a fixture on the Tampa, Florida, military scene, volunteering for community relations work with foreign military officers and their families stationed at MacDill Air Force base.

She is also a friend of David Petraeus, and yet, she appears to have contributed to his stunning downfall and departure as director of the CIA.

It was Kelley's complaints about harassing emails from the woman with whom Petraeus had an extramarital affair, Paula Broadwell, that prompted an FBI investigation that later exposed the liaison and led to his resignation last week.

People close to Petraeus have said Kelley is a family friend and that there was no romantic relationship. It's unclear why Broadwell would have sent threatening emails to her, but she may have seen her as a rival for Petraeus' affections, the same people said, speaking on condition of anonymity.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/13/us-usa-petraeus-women-idUSBRE8AC04Y20121113

---

I have to say that this is looking more like an episode from Real Housewives.

[grasswire]

1. She tried to push her sister down a flight of steps??

From the Reuters link

Kelley, 37, also has an identical twin sister, Natalie Khawam, with whom she appears with Holly and David Petraeus and her husband in a 2010 photo published in newspapers on Monday.

Court records show Kelley played a role in a bitter child custody trial that preceded the divorce case between Khawam, and Khawam's then-husband, Grayson Wolfe of Washington, who once worked for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.

In a scathing decision in November, 2011 against Khawam that granted sole primary and legal custody of their then 3-year-old son to Wolfe, District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Neal Kravitz refused to believe Kelley's claims that Wolfe had tried to push her sister down a flight of steps in Kelley's Tampa home.

"The court does not credit this testimony," Kravitz wrote, calling Kelley "a patently biased and unbelievable witness."

[aletier_v]

2. That's quite interesting

The twins are liars?

"granted sole primary and legal custody of their then 3-year-old son"

Unusual.

[grasswire]

3. oh lordy

The Freepers are doing a lot of digging. Here's the profile of Natalie's first husband (the bitter custody thing):
His name is Grayson Paul Wolfe.

Founding Partner
Akkadian Private Ventures, LLC

January 2005 – Present (7 years 11 months)

Grayson is a founding partner of Akkadian Private Ventues, LLC and its affiliate companies. He has designed and executed developmental projects & transactions principally in the power, oil & gas and water sectors. In addition, he has been involved with project finance, private sector development, privitizations, infrastructure security, and capital markets projects.

Before starting Akkadian, he previously served as Director of Broader Middle East Initiatives and Iraqi Reconstruction and Special Assistant to the Chief Operating Officer at the Export-Import Bank of the United States. He was appointed to the bank by President Bush in June 2002.

Between January and August 2004, Grayson served as Manager of the Private Sector Development Office of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, Iraq. In this capacity he was directly responsible for implementing a wide range of initiatives to attract foreign direct investment and provide financing to Iraqi companies. During this time, Grayson worked extensively on the ground with senior Iraqi and Kurdish officials, and with the Ministries of Finance, Trade and Oil.

From 2001 to 2002 Wolfe worked for the law firm of Fleischman and Walsh, LLP, where he represented clients engaged in Homeland Security, Telecommunications & Intellectual Property matters. He served as a member of a seven-person team that worked with the North American Railroads and Chlorine Chemical Industries to develop a National Homeland Security Risk Analysis & Management Plan. This plan was adopted by the Class I Freight Railroad CEOs on Dec 6, 2001.

Wolfe served as Legislative Director & Counsel for members of Congress from 1999-2002. He has also served in numerous positions in presidential, federal & state political campaigns. Before this, he worked for Citicorp in Poland focusing on emerging markets & franchise development opportunities in Central and Eastern European countries

[niyad]

4. this just keeps getting better and better

[sabrina 1]

6. Looks like they are all Bush people. The Freepers are probably digging hoping to find some dirt on

Democrats. They must be disappointed so far. From Petraeus to this guy, to his mistress, looks like all of them are Republicans. And war profiteers.

[aletier_v]

21. many freepers hate patraeus too.

you'd be surprised by how many hatings you have in common.

[sabrina 1]

25. Never saw a Freeper who hated Petraius, other than being angry he continued to work for Obama.

Petraeus was never popular with Democrats, 'betrayus' was the word most often used by Democrats who opposed his continued service after we threw out Republicans in 2008.

Petraeus was a hero to Freepers, a loyal Bush guy who made his distaste for Obama pretty obvious in the beginning.

I have zero in common with Freepers, don't know about you, so maybe you could explain that part of your comment. I would be interested to know what you mean and more than happy to respond.

[aletier_v]

29. I guess you havent read there lately

half of them think he's an obama stooge.
likewise they hate Boehner, Rove, heck even Romney to a large degree.

[sabrina 1]

54. Lol, you are ignoring the stupidity of Freepers. Some of the more stupid of them

assume that because he was appointed by Obama he is a Democrat. I love informing right wingers of his history which sends them into complete shock and sometimes accusations of being a liar. But once they learn the facts, they suddenly become silent.

Most of the original Freepers always loved Petreaus. And yes, I read FR occasionally with great amusement at the total ignorance and knee-jerk reactions until one of the more intelligent members there informs them of the facts.

Petreaus was a Right Wing hero. He was never a favorite of Democrats who questioned his nomination in any position from the beginning.

However, the more we are learning now, the more it appears that we have all been punked, not just the Freepers. It appears that partisanship is only for the little people. Top Dems and Repubs appear to mingle with no apparent problems. This scandal may change the way we all think from now on. Now that it appears that both top Dems and Repubs were backing the women in Florida and the question is 'why'. And we do deserve answers.

[dixiegrrrrl]

26. It is even more interesting than that.

Petreus, a Republican, having an affair with Broadwell,
who is sending threatening emails to Jill Kelley,
who is having "inappropriate" emails with Petreus' successor, General Allen,
whose confirmation hearing to replace Petreus is now "on hold" while a "fast track" hearing is held to have someone replace Allen.
And Jill Kelley's sister is married to a guy involved in making lots of money from Bush's Iraq invasion.
While Jill Kelley has a VERY fast track rise of becoming the social maven of high ranking military social circles.
Fast track enough that she and her husband are being sued by creditors.

Looking at that pattern....there appears to be LOTS of connections yet to be discovered.

[sabrina 1]

27. Interesting, I wasn't aware of Kelley's connection to General Allen. And don't forget

their go-to in Congress, another Republican, Cantor. Both Cantor and Issa are the go-to guys for Freepers trying to bring down Dems. Issa eg, was in contact with the Breitbart thugs who were stalking Weiner who was trying to bring down SC Justice Thomas for his conflicts of interest.

Another odd thing, Broadwell had been going around publicly stating that the CIA was holding prisoners in the Annex attached to the Embassy in Libya and that this was why it was attacked.

It's amazing she, first of all, had that information, and second felt it was okay to reveal it, if true. I do not recall reading any news reports making that claim.

But it would explain Romney's failed attempt to accuse Obama of not calling the attack a 'terrorist' attack and pretending it had to do with the anti-Muslim video. Seems he too had that information. And I would think that this was not something the US wanted known. We are not supposed to be involved in Libya, so publicly I would imagine the State Dept definitely did not want that information out there, assuming it's true.

I think Broadwell was probably already under surveillance before May considering her many public appearances which in restrospect show she had extraordinary access to Petraeus which I would think would not be desirable since she had no official position in Intelligence.

[dixiegrrrrl]

31. today I am finding that all these questions are being "explained" away.

FBI examined Broadwell's computer, found "classified documents" and accepted Petreus and Broadwell's claim that the documents. in HER computer, had not come from Petreus.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324439804578115410189757452.html

Ok..so where DID she get them?
same link, above, suggests she got her information about Benghazi from Fox news.

'Course, the link IS WSJ, so lots of salt with reading that.

Still waiting to hear a good explanation of 20,000 emails between Allen, Petreus' successor and the society woman,
Jill Kelly.
How the hell does a high ranking general end up sending/receiving 20,000 pages of email
( some of them described as "documents&quot to a "social hostess"?

I smell a a deep plot, if not a spy ring, then a conduit for some other purpose.

[sabrina 1]

36. 20,000 emails?? In such a short time also, about 12 months I think since he replaced Petraeus.

Is it possible she's just a cover for something else and she was not the author of all the emails but her account was set up for that purpose?

I don't think I've sent that many emails to all my friends and family in over ten years. Maybe, but that is an extraordinary amount of emails between just two people.

And the 'explanation' re where Broadwell got documents? From Fox?? What were THEY doing in possession of documents like that? Is Fox also a cover for something else? Lol. It would not surprise me at all.

This gets more and more curious, the more they try to explain it all away, the more questions are raised.

Also, the Freepers might not like what turns up as a result of the investigation they've been waiting with baited breath for. Some of their heroes seem to have been exposing state secrets which may land a few of them in jail.

[dixiegrrrrl]

39. If jail and shame is gonna be the result

I am making a list of who else should be included..
Cantor, for one.
Jail, he is above shame.

[dixiegrrrrl]

32. Found it!!!!!

"A military officer who is a former member of Petraeus’s staff said
Kelley was a “self-appointed” go-between for Central Command officers with Lebanese and other Middle Eastern government officials. She was a fixture at social and charity events involving Central Command officials in Tampa."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/tampa-woman-was-hostess-to-the-military-but-had-deep-financial-troubles/2012/11/13/45cea33c-2d19-11e2-9ac2-1c61452669c3_story_1.html

which would explain why Kelly was inter-acting with Petreus (which made Broadwell nervous)

AND
all those emails between her and Allen.

[sabrina 1]

40. And the web becomes more tangled. I doubt she was 'self-appointed'. But is someone can self appoint

themselves into the top levels or our intelligence world, then something is really badly in need of fixing.

I wonder was this a group formed to bring down the Obama administration using Fox (during the election), as these right wing groups always do, (remember Dan Rather) to get out their info?

And I wonder if the Obama admins became aware of their little plot back in May or even before that and had them under surveillance all along?

It gets more and more interesting with each new revelation.

[wordpix]

49. just heard on NPR tonight, Allen sent Kelley 30,000 emails FBI is wading through

all allegedly not of classified nature but 30,000? I don't know over how long a period this was but if over 4 yrs., it comes to 7500/year or 20.5/day.

[2naSalit]

59. In a handful of articles

that I have been reading claim that they are referring to pages of emails and that could be explained by photo-coding, since they are likely using DOS or some ascii text to analyze all this stuff, it could quickly add up. Code can get pretty long. Not sure if that's how it is but it's something to consider.

[sabrina 1]

53. And now all of our initial impressions have been blown by reports that these sisters

also had relationships with some top Democrats. And that the sister received a personal loan of over $300,000 from a top Democratic Fundraiser, AND that she took her son to Democratic events and boasted to her ex that he, the child, had a great time meeting Sen. Kerry and Sen. Whitehouse. So my theory that the sisters were Republicans, has been completely blown.

This is a definite bi-partisan story and I'm now wondering if partisanship exists only for the little people. Unbelievable and we are only on what, day three of this story?

[dixiegrrrrl]

55. "a personal loan of over $300,000 from a top Democratic Fundraiser, "

My curiosity about that is reacing cat killing level.

WHO was that "top fundraiser"
and was it his/her money or donations that made up the 300K loan?

[sabrina 1]

57. His name is Gerry Harrington and it's unclear from the news reports whether she was dating

him or not. Apparently his name and the loan showed up in her bankruptcy papers. According the Murdoch's rag, the NY Post, they contacted Sen. Whitehouse who was mentioned in a letter she wrote claiming to her ex husband that her son had a great time when they were at his home for some event and she wanted to take him again.

A spokesperson for Sen. Whitehouse apparently said that they thought she might be dating Harrington. If all this is true, and so far not much else has been reported other than the Post article although they do refer to documents and those bankruptcy documents should be easily found, then she was introduced to Dems by Harrington. I could see that happening, having worked for a top Dem Fundraiser and if someone respected brought a date or guest to a function, naturally people were polite to the guest.

What is puzzling is how they, these sisters, managed to insert themselves into high levels of political and military society with virtually no background as far as we know, in politics, intelligence or any other government connections. Just having a million dollar mansion in Tampa, which they bought about ten years ago, should not automatically gain someone entry into those circles. So something is missing imo.

[Octafish]

18. Gee. A member of the ''Money Trumps Peace'' crowd.

They'd still be making a killing Iraq if we hadn't been kicked out.

[flamingdem]

45. The Polish connection

verrry suspicious, kgb must be involved

[2naSalit]

61. Connections

I did a search for Robert Kagan because three Kagans came up when I did an original search for Broadwell in which all the known players show up but not much is known yet so not much except a couple friends of Petraeus' show up. Following the trail of Mr. Keane, a friend of the fmr gen, I came to these guys and stopped there so I could put up the tool for others to follow. The fmr gen is two steps away from PNAC, which shows on this display, and you click on that and follow some interesting web of scary connections. Grayson doesn't show so he's an under-the-radar shadow guy. Happy browsing!

http://www.muckety.com/Robert-Kagan/25331.muckety

[sabrina 1]

5. No, she said her sister's husband tried to push her sister down the stairs. The judge didn't believe

her.

This looks more and more like a soap opera each day. Her FBI friend apparently had to be removed from the case because he sent her a sexy photo of himself:

The Wall Street Journal reported that the FBI agent who started the investigation was a friend of Kelley's. He was later barred from taking part in the case over concerns that he had become personally involved. Officials found that he had sent shirtless pictures to Kelley, the Journal reported.

The agent's identity has not been disclosed.

Next episode, the FBI agent's girlfriend sends her some more threatening emails?

[ronnie624]

7. I started to post a correction, but decided not to.

Ditto on this being a soap opera.

[grasswire]

8. no, next episode shows Kelley involved with NATO-USForces commander in Afghanistan!

20-30 thousand pages of emails. Freepers say that the huge amount means that documents were included in the communications.

[Corgigal]

10. No the FBI's

wife and 2 kids are all standing outside their foreclosed home. Daddy lost his job.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

14. OH MY GOD, AN EVIL TWIN SISTER!!!!!

This is telanovela shit!

[proverbialwisdom]

15. Unusual surname. n/t

[yardwork]

44. The sisters are Lebanese.

[politicaljunkie41910]

22. No. The article says that Kelley testified that her brother-in-law (Wolfe) had

tried to push her sister (Khawam) down a flight of stairs. The judge said that he didn't believe Kelley's testimony. That woman has issues. I don't believe that crap that she is an "ambassador to the troops". Something nafarious is going on with all these people who seem to have have a lot of money and too much time on their hands. We will all know the 'real' story soon enough.

My money's on Kelley running an escort service out of the base.

[grasswire]

23. BIL has quite a resume.

His linked-in profile was posted on DU last night.

[davidpdx]

9. RLS

Real life soap opera

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. Forget 'Real Housewives', this has the potential to develop into 'Soap'

I mean, we've got generals, sisters, their families, affairs ... Confused? You won't be ...

I've got to say it - Pres. Obama is a shoe-in for the 'Benson' part ...

[underpants]

12. I can't think of her name - she is on Fox News now and was on a reality show

she would be PERFECT for the part of Jill Kelly in the TV movie

[KoKo]

16. One of the Kardashian sisters?

That's what I thought from the photos of the twins.

[CTyankee]

34. funny, I had the same Kardashian thought today...well, the sisters are middle Eastern...

[underpants]

41. No I got it - Bethenny Frankel "Real Housewives of NYC" to "The Apprentice"

Several Reality shows

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethenny_Frankel

[SoulSearcher]

17. Enter the High-Priced Lawyers...

You cannot write a better movie script! This promises
to have very long legs:

"A source close to the family said that Kelley is now being advised on how to respond to the Petraeus uproar by one of Washington's most prominent trial lawyers, Abbe Lowell, a family friend who has represented high-profile criminal defendants like former U.S. Senator John Edwards and disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Lowell did not respond to requests for comment."

Wow - that guy must be expensive - even for a Doctor's personal hottie !

[flamingdem]

46. Sadly it looks like Jill Kelley may be after money and exposed everyone

because she is 2 million in debt and her house is about to get foreclosed..

tawdry indeed, and maybe a fake FBI "friend"

[mzteaze]

13. Good Lord...

this is turning into a ReThugs backfire of EPIC proportions. They thought THIS would end up helping Romney? ROFL

[aletier_v]

38. imagine Patraeus as romney's VP

now imagine he won.

[question everything]

19. State dept. Political adviser?

Yesterday, in a long and comprehensive (then) story in the WSJ, Jill Kelly was described as:

A State Dept. political adviser for a U.S. military command in Tampa.

What does that mean??

A groupy? Does the State Dept. have any comment?

[grasswire]

20. they used to call these women "camp followers" nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

37. I posted this above:

A military officer who is a former member of Petraeus’s staff said Kelley was a “self-appointed” go-between for Central Command officers with Lebanese and other Middle Eastern government officials. She was a fixture at social and charity events involving Central Command officials in Tampa.

says WaPo.

My bet is still on a spy ring.

[wordpix]

50. agree with the spy ring theory, and maybe a double agent involvement

[Kingofalldems]

24. Kick this totally Republican scandal

[Little Star]

28. Wow, it really is a totally Republican scandal. k&r

[CTyankee]

35. Can't wait to see Joe Scar's head explode tomorrow on MJ. He's been trying SO HARD to make

this a Dem scandal...

[hamsterjill]

30. Who's on first, and what's on second?

It's hard to keep up. And where does the shirtless FBI agent come in? Seriously...I am lost.

Tidbits keep trickling out, but I sense there is still some "bombshell" that is going to put this all together into a logical (well, maybe logical isn't the right word...) storyline.

[sammytko]

60. can't wait to find out who that turns out to be - you know he will be exposed!

[meow2u3]

33. The comments on Yahoo are priceless

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/twists-petraeus-case-another-general-accused-inappropriate-emails-162656131.html

The shirtless FBI guy wanted to probe her a lot more, what an idiot

Next week on an all new episode of "Desperate Generals" ..........

they didn't take AS THE WORLD TURNS off the air, they just moved it to a new channel

[Heywood J]

42. My first thought on reading the headline was

"So it's that kind of party..."

[aletier_v]

43. Now I wonder if Twins were shaking down Patraeus

And Broadwell was trying to defend him.

The adultress as the good guy, who could have seen it coming?

[flamingdem]

47. Yes I am leaning towards motive = money

I was joking before but how else can the Kelleys repay the 2 million debt they have and their million dollar home is about to foreclose..

Nasty stuff if true, maybe that's why the FBI guy was such a flake, he knew he was being used for something sordid.

I like your angle of Broadwell trying to protect Patraeus -- we need to know more about the psycho emails -- why did she send them from his account?

drama!

[aletier_v]

48. I doubt she sent them direct

I imagine she used a mail anonymizer

Not sure of how FBI connected it all together,
but with such a small circle of people,
they had a set of suspects from the start.

[mzteaze]

51. Sounding like a way to get Benghazi "info" out to set up the President and/or Holder

http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/petraeus-rove-and-paula-broadwell-i-smell-r

[IndyJones]

52. If Jill Kelley is such great buds with David, why didn't she just tell him about the whackadoodle

emails, since they involved her relationship (perceived maybe) with him?

I don't know, this whole thing with her seems like she's a major attention whore. I'm getting bored with all of it and I really just want to know why four Americans died.

[2naSalit]

56. here;s and interesting

read that I found today. It seems to connect some dots and describes the general's tainted relationship with his CO in Chief.

http://consortiumnews.com/2012/11/10/behind-petraeuss-resignation/

It supports some of my ~and those of others here ~ speculations from earlier this week.

[BlueMan Votes]

58. FOUR women...

don't forget- there's also a Mrs. Petraeus.