Did Petraeus Mistress Reveal Explosive Benghazi Details?
This story about David Petraeus' affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, has, sadly, been getting even more salacious. I have just as many questions about the other woman in the dispute -- an unpaid, Lebanese-born, wealthy social liaison -- as I do Broadwell.
Every detail of this story strikes me as bizarre -- the emails that led to Petraeus' downfall were sent by an account Broadwell shared with her husband? Really?
But some reporters are digging into public statements made by Broadwell and they are explosive. Such as that the raid in Benghazi was on a CIA secret prison that held Libyan militants. I'm just going to quote Israeli National News' report on a recent speech Broadwell gave in Denver:
Broadwell confirmed the reports on Fox News that the CIA annex asked for a special unit, the Commander in Chief's In Extremis Force, to come and assist it. She also said that the force could indeed have reinforced the consulate, and that Petraeus knew all of this, but was not allowed to talk to the press because of his position in the CIA.
"The challenge has been the fog of war, and the greater challenge is that it's political hunting season, and so this whole thing has been turned into a very political sort of arena, if you will," she said. "The fact that came out today is that the ground forces there at the CIA annex, which is different from the consulate, were requesting reinforcements.
"They were requesting the – it's called the C-in-C's In Extremis Force – a group of Delta Force operators, our very, most talented guys we have in the military. They could have come and reinforced the consulate and the CIA annex. Now, I don't know if a lot of you have heard this but the CIA annex had actually taken a couple of Libyan militia members prisoner, and they think that the attack on the consulate was an attempt to get these prisoners back. It's still being vetted.
"The challenging thing for Gen. Petraeus is that in his new position, he's not allowed to communicate with the press. So he's known all of this – they had correspondence with the CIA station chief in Libya, within 24 hours they kind of knew what was happening."
On the failure of additional help not being supplied:
"As a former intel officer it's frustrating to me because it reveals our sources and methods, I don't think the public necessarily needs to know all of that. It is a tragedy that we lost an ambassador and two other government officials, and [...] there was a failure in the system because there was additional security requested, but it's frustrating to see the sort of political aspect of what's going on with this whole investigation."
Oh dear. One almost hopes she's lying or simply spreading rumors.
- Comment (29)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (6)
- Pages:
- 1
- 2
Comments:
Re: Did Petraeus Mistress Reveal Explosive Benghazi Details?
I'll be the first commenter on my post with this response from reporter Eli Lake:
Of course, I'm not sure we'd expect confirmation of a secret CIA prison ...
Aug '11
Re: Did Petraeus Mistress Reveal Explosive Benghazi Details?
I think someone else said this first, but I'll repeat it: "If it takes a sex scandal for the media to start getting interested in Benghazi, then I'm all for it."
May '10
Re: Did Petraeus Mistress Reveal Explosive Benghazi Details?
Too bad the only part they'll be interested in is the sex scandal.
Maybe if the CIA were operating a brothel in the annex?
Jul '12
Re: Did Petraeus Mistress Reveal Explosive Benghazi Details?
I would kill to see her "explosive Benghazi details". Ga-rowwwwwrrrr
Sep '10
Re: Did Petraeus Mistress Reveal Explosive Benghazi Details?
Oh, my. It looks like the only problem with throwing so many people all at once under the bus is that the bodies might jam up the Axelrod.
I hate when that happens.
Jun '10
Re: Did Petraeus Mistress Reveal Explosive Benghazi Details?
I read somewhere before, that the improvised CIA rescue (Woods) had captured prisoners from the attack on the consulate, from that night. Maybe that's what she was talking about. I think the story also said that for some reason they had to let them go. Probably because they were too busy trying to survive themselves.
Jun '12
Re: Did Petraeus Mistress Reveal Explosive Benghazi Details?
Head of CIA's secret love affair, you know it would be anything but predictable.
May '10
Re: Did Petraeus Mistress Reveal Explosive Benghazi Details?
"It's still being vetted." Of course it is, because she has no idea. The people who know aren't talking, and the people who are talking don't know. You want answers? Let Congress do its job, or ply those who might know something with liquor, which ever is simpler. My money's on liquor. I'm joking. Sorta. The Benghazi issue is probably uglier than we know, but if we're gonna be outraged, let's go out and find some credible resources for heaven's sake. But we'll probably end up adding Benghazi to the long list of scandalous international incidents that we'll never fully know the truth about and that most people obviously don't care about. It didn't impact the election, which is really the big scandal.
Apr '11
Re: Did Petraeus Mistress Reveal Explosive Benghazi Details?
Please. It doesn't make sense.
Re: Did Petraeus Mistress Reveal Explosive Benghazi Details?
What doesn't make sense?
Sep '10
Re: Did Petraeus Mistress Reveal Explosive Benghazi Details?
I have no idea if the accusations are true but as long as the Administration is refusing to answer basic questions like why the Ambassador was still in Benghazi to begin with then you're opening yourself up to this stuff. And the CIA holding Libyans prisoner is more believable than the sex scandal.Hopefully we finally get seom answers.
Nov '11
Re: Did Petraeus Mistress Reveal Explosive Benghazi Details?
The only thing you can safely say about Ms. Broadwell is that she thinks Michelle Obama ought to be jealous of her triceps.
Oct '10
Re: Did Petraeus Mistress Reveal Explosive Benghazi Details?
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.:
Of course, I'm not sure we'd expect confirmation of a secret CIA prison ...
In fact, "we don't comment on intelligence operations" is the normal response to allegations like this, for good reason. If we did, all our adversaries would have to do is get speculation into the press and we'd be confirming/denying what they want to know.
So the fact CIA is denying the story is itself interesting.
BUT ... if it lets that story stand, it suggests CIA had assumed the sovereign responsibilities/prerogatives of a nation state (detaining prisoners), inside its own borders. More likely, if we were detaining prisoners, it was in conjunction with the Libyans. In fact, it was probably the Libyans who were actually 'interfacing' with the prisoners, with CIA monitoring and advising.
See where this is headed? We'd want to protect the Libyan leadership from backlash for working with us. And Obama certainly doesn't want his Administration's complicity/involvement with Libya's "enhanced interrogation techniques" to reach MoveOn.org.
The plot thickens . . .
Edited on November 12, 2012 at 11:34amOct '10
Re: Did Petraeus Mistress Reveal Explosive Benghazi Details?
Hey!?! Her ambition knows few boundaries . . . maybe Paula wasn't satisfied with a mere CIA Director. His younger, more powerful boss? Makes sense she'd make her move after the election. Never know . . .
How about a Paula and Michelle mud wrestling match to settle this once and for all? Put them in bikinis, sell tickets on a global pay-per-view basis ... we could make a dent in the National debt.
Aug '11
Re: Did Petraeus Mistress Reveal Explosive Benghazi Details?
It seems to me Paula Broadwell set up the disaster when she began to stalk Jill Kelley through emails. Broadwell had worked with the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, and is a bit of an expert on security, so would have had to have known that investigations of the emails would expose her own involvement, and would implicate Gen'l Petraeus and also Kelley, who has a Middle Eastern background.
On the face of it, the whole matter, put into motion by Broadwell, is totally destructive. Paula Broadwell is beginning to remind me of the wacko character, Evelyn, in Play Misty For Me (an excellent Clint Eastwood classic film).
Sep '12
Re: Did Petraeus Mistress Reveal Explosive Benghazi Details?
What if we had prisoners in the Annex but they had been moved out of the country? Let's assume this happened in August. Would there be a need in Benghazi for a special operations security unit? Couldn't the special ops unit be pulled out after the prisoners were gone? What if the bad guys didn't have fresh intelligence?I am just speculating
Apr '12
Re: Did Petraeus Mistress Reveal Explosive Benghazi Details?
Too much tax payers' money going to Washington when they have time for social ambassasors. Why would this Lebanese woman take threatening emails to the highest authority when she has hosted Petreaus and his wife at her home? That is just not logical.
Mar '11
Re: Did Petraeus Mistress Reveal Explosive Benghazi Details?
It is difficult to credit that the second phase of a CIA snatch operation would be "lock them in a broom closet at the Benghazi consulate."
At this point, it's difficult to credit anything Paula Broadwell might say.
HVT's speculation seems to be more likely. If the terrorists could capture rather than kill Ambassador Stevens, they would have a bargaining chip. And if they fail, they would still give the Great Satan a black eye.
Sep '10
Re: Did Petraeus Mistress Reveal Explosive Benghazi Details?
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.:
It seems as if the Director felt free to share classified material with his mistress, who in turn felt free to share it with the general public.
I guess the left was correct a few years ago. Good going Gen Betraeus.
If this guy was a good CIA Director, I would hate to see a bad one.
The real tragedy is that this is more or less business as usual in DC.
Re: Did Petraeus Mistress Reveal Explosive Benghazi Details?
The more we learn, the worse this gets.