What If It Were the Real Muslim Housewives of Tampa Bay Scandal?
In all my coverage of the Petraeus scandal, I haven't really touched on the aspect that regular readers of this blog were presumably least surprised about: the virtually unchecked authority the FBI has to snoop. As always, Chris Soghoian and…
Coming To America: Formula One Is In Austin
It has been a very long week. Time to let loose. For a change, we open up with with the Formula One circus. For the first time since the not much loved race in Indianapolis gave up the Brickyard ghosts in 2007, Grand Prix returns to the United…
What Does Dunford's Confirmation Hearing Tell Us About the Path Forward in Afghanistan?
Yesterday, both Marcy and I discussed significant events that could have a tremendous impact on what lies ahead for the role of the US in Afghanistan. Marcy found that for the first time, the Treasury Department has named a Taliban figure…
The Pineapple Patrol IG Investigation
The CIA has announced they're going to investigate David Petraeus to find out whether his demands for perks were designed to facilitate his affair with Paula Broadwell.
Given allegations that he flew to Paris for some sexy time with Broadwell,…
As Obama Prepares to Not Withdraw from Afghanistan, Treasury Declares the War on Drugs There
Jim had a perceptive post this morning talking about how, now that Obama has won re-election promising an Afghan withdrawal plan, his Administration has started negotiating a Status of Forces Agreement that will allow forces to stay past 2014.…
US Looking for a Better SOFA to Leave Behind In Afghanistan After Iraq Failure
Much to the consternation of those who want all war, all the time, Iraq managed to force the US into a complete pullout of troops at the end of 2011, even though there had been efforts to develop a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) that would…
Why Was Petraeus Fact-Finding While CIA Was Spinning "Facts"?
The WSJ has a story that captures a lot of what I've been pointing to in Petraeus Surge-Out. It explains how the investigation played out even as career CIA people objecting to Petraeus' regimented management style. It describes Petraeus' intent…
The Part of the Story "Shirtless FBI Guy" Left Out
The NYT has a nice story about Frederick Humphries, the FBI Agent who started the investigation into Paula Broadwell's emails. It talks about how aggressively he pursued Millenium Plotter Ahmed Ressam and other terrorism cases. It quotes two…
A Curious Time in an Ongoing Investigation to Suspend Base Access
For the record, I'm not terribly surprised by the news that Jill Kelley has lost her special "Friends" access to MacDill Air Force base. She has become downright embarrassing to several Generals and the military more generally. So you can't…
The Sexy-Time Exception to Retaining Classified Information
Last night, WaPo reported that the FBI is still trying to figure out how Paula Broadwell got classified information they found on her computer and--it looks like--in her home.
The FBI is making a new push to determine how a woman who had an…
While Washington Sniffs the Generals' Panties, Afghan Peace Talks Begin to Show Progress
With General John Allen now floating in some sort of purgatory where he has been tainted by figures in the Petraeus scandal, the "orderly" transition planned for Allen to step up to commanding NATO and General John Dunford to move up to replace…
David Petraeus: A Thrice-Failed Trainer?
There's a critical sub-genre of reporting on the Petraeus scandal, noting that Petraeus' sins don't so much pertain to fucking a dissertation advisee under his desk, but sending lots of men and women to die in his pet failed military strategies.
Of…
A "Self-Appointed" Go-Between with Lebanese Officials
Here's the first inkling of something Jim and I have been speculating about: that Jill Kelley may have some tie to intelligence, which led the FBI to take Paula Broadwell's harassing emails to her more seriously.
A military officer who is a…
Investigating National Security Personnel in the Post-Nidal Hasan Era
Three years and one day before FBI briefed DNI Clapper about the questionable email practices of David Petraeus, and less than three years before FBI alerted Leon Panetta to John Allen's perhaps less questionable email practices, an Army officer…
Funny. General Petraeus Didn't USE to Avoid Testifying to Congress...
ABC follows up on the point I made yesterday--that Congress is now getting interested in David Petraeus' October 31 trip to Egypt and, we now find out, Libya--and reveals that he now doesn't want to testify about his trip.
In late October,…
General Dynamics: The Digital Tale of John & Jill and Dave & Paula
Another giant shoe has dropped in L'Affaire Petraeus. Not simply more specifics, but yet another General:
Gen. John Allen, the top American and NATO commander in Afghanistan, is under investigation for what a senior defense official said…
Scandal Surge: The Mid-Summer Adjustment
These NYT, WaPo, and WSJ reports go a long way to clarifying some problems with the early chronology of the David Petraeus scandal
The NYT states the investigation started in June with Jill Kelley's complaints to an FBI agent friend (note,…
A CIA Report on a Trip to Africa, Again
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Holy hell I can't believe I'm back in the business of writing about CIA reports on trips to Africa again, but here I am.
In this post, I noted that David Petraeus…
The February 17 Brigade Liberates the Prisoners
I've got a half-done post backstage talking about the conflicting evidence regarding the February 17 Brigade's behavior the night of the Benghazi attack. Suffice it to say that, while they had been reliable in the past, and while CIA and State…
Petraeus Rules
While the Beltway is slowly coming around to the logic that it's not a good thing if the CIA Director has a pseudonymous Gmail account he uses to conduct an affair, it has yet to consider some other factors that may have forced David Petraeus…