FBI probe of Petraeus triggered by e-mail threats from biographer, officials say

[octoberlib]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/fbi-probe-of-petraeus-triggered-by-e-mail-threats-from-biographer-officials-say/2012/11/10/d2fc52de-2b68-11e2-bab2-eda299503684_story.html?tid=sm_twitter_washingtonpost

The collapse of the dazzling career of CIA Director David H. Petraeus was triggered when a woman whom he was having an affair with sent threatening e-mails to another woman close to him, according to three senior law enforcement officials with knowledge of the episode.

The recipient of the e-mails was so frightened that she went to the FBI for protection and help tracking down the sender, according to the officials. The FBI investigation traced the threats to Paula Broadwell, a former military officer and a Petraeus biographer, and uncovered explicit e-mails between Broadwell and Petraeus, the officials said.



When Petraeus’s name first surfaced, FBI investigators were concerned that the CIA director’s personal e-mail account had been hacked and security had been breached. But the sexual nature of the e-mails led them to conclude that Petraeus and Broadwell were engaged in an affair, the officials said.The identity of the woman who received the e-mails was not disclosed, and the nature of her relationship with Petraeus is unknown. The law enforcement officials said the e-mails indicated that Broadwell perceived the other woman as a threat to her relationship with Petraeus.

[geek tragedy]

1. OMG was she threatening Holly Petraeus? nt

[sammytko]

8. No, another woman

[geek tragedy]

13. Read very carefully. nt

[Coyotl]

2. Here we go again, public figures and their private lives becoming public.

Add one more person whose privacy just was lost

[vlyons]

15. My mother frequently told me

Foolish names and foolish faces often show up in public places.

[smorkingapple]

3. Obama personally sent the email and spoofed her email address

Just heard on fox news. He will be impeached.

Sad shit is they're already trying to figure out how to blame him for this

[progressivebydesign]

14. I already saw a Yahoo News story trying to tie it to Bengazi...

The headline was something like "Was affair to blame for slow response on Libya attack???"

[Caroline-Vivienne]

4. Holy shit...

stalker material right there...

And poor Holly Petraeus. This asshole must have an entire harem out there.

[jberryhill]

6. Unless the "other woman" is Mrs. Petraeus

You can read that "other woman" as an "other woman besides his wife," but that would be an assumption.

The way it is written does not rule out that the target of the threats was Mrs. Petraeus.

[Connie_Corleone]

9. NYTimes says its not a family member.

[aletier_v]

16. right. So there's one confirmed affair and another one incoming

Is my guess.

[architect359]

19. or being perceived by the biographer.

There may not be another incoming.

[CTyankee]

5. Aha! The thick plottens...

[russspeakeasy]

7. My god. That is one huge fall. I can't even imagine.

[Ian David]

10. I bet the woman sending the threatening emails was Linda Tripp. n/t

[mzteaze]

11. But this begs the question

Why was dumdum using his work computer and/or email account to sent EXPLICIT emails in the first place? Don't people follow the news?

I broke myself out of the habit of using my personal email or surfing on my favorite websites on work computers quite a while back. I use my own WiFi connection and everything for good reason.

[Texin]

12. Sounds as if it might have been someone within Petraeus's inner circle at CIA.

The person may have been one of Broadwell's sources in her biography of the general. Until I read this piece, I wasn't aware that Broadwell was also ex-military.

The CIA is so into internecine warfare and Petraeus wasn't an insider of that agency. It makes me wonder if someone used Broadwell (or she was part of the plot) to "get" the general in order to bring about his ouster. There were hints that insiders weren't happy about his appointment and this isn't anything out of the ordinary for that group of ghouls. The wingnuts can yammer on about this being connected to Bengazi, but I cry foul on that. This is beginning to have the whiff of an insider setup to me. Wonder who it is within that organization that stands to gain the most from his departure?

[alcibiades_mystery]

17. The Right Wing is going to dig into this in some weirdo effort to implicate Obama

And all they're going to find is that their idol David Petraeus has feet of clay. One suspects that this isn't the first or only time he engaged in this sort of behavior. If the second woman is not Petraeus' wife either, well, it's going to get seedy quick, if it's not already.

Beware the "morally" perfect. They're usually just halfway decent at hiding their behaviors.

[amborin]

18. slight echoes of the nasa incident eom

[Sunlei]

20. He shouldn't be allowed to just resign his command. A ridiculous security breach!

Both of them need to face charges.