Here are some quick facts that you need to know in order to make real conversation this week:
One: Gen. David Petraeus, (yes, that Petraeus) stepped down from his position as director of the CIA on Friday.
Two: He resigned, rather abruptly, due to an extramarital affair that was discovered by an FBI probe.
Three: His affair was with one of the people writing his biography, Paula Broadwell.
Four: His resignation came about a week or so before a trial before Congress about the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya.
Five: The title of his biography is “All In.”
There’s probably more to the story than “military man has affair.” Quite frankly, the fact that anybody has an affair is not an example of necessary news.
The root of the problem comes from why the FBI was investigating Petraeus and Broadwell in the first place. They were trying to trace back anonymous emails sent to Jill Kelley.
Kelley is a “long-time friend of the Petraeus family and a Tampa, Florida volunteer social liaison with military families at MacDill Air Force Base,” according to Reuters.
She received multiple threatening emails from Broadwell; these emails essentially amounted to: “stay away from my man.” Even that isn’t exactly a hard-hitting or necessary fact.
The FBI also discovered that Broadwell “seemed to offer some salient tidbits about the circumstances of the attack by Islamist extremists” in Benghazi during a speech she gave at the University of Denver in late October with details that she shouldn’t have been aware of, according to the Christian Science Monitor.
She also gave details in the speech that appeared to contradict testimony Petraeus gave about the attacks in front of Congress.
“After being married for over 37 years, I showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair,” Petraeus, 60, wrote in his resignation letter to fellow CIA employees. “Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours.”
It’s not exactly clear at this moment if the FBI closed its investigation into a possible intelligence leak, and there doesn’t appear to be any “criminal or national security matters involved.”
What does this mean for Petraeus’ Benghazi testimony next week? Does his resignation from CIA director mean that he doesn’t have to testify?
Not to mention, this abrupt resignation occurred during Veterans Day weekend, a time when America remembers the brave men and women who fought to secure our country and its freedoms. This kind of places a foul covering over what should be a time of honor.
“General Petraeus is one of America’s most outstanding and distinguished military leaders and a true American patriot,” said Rep. Peter King, a New York Republican who heads the House Committee on Homeland Security.
This shouldn’t detract from the service Petraeus provided to our country, but it could be detrimental to the information we learn about the attack in Benghazi.
