Many questions remain unanswered after David Petraeus stepped down from his leading roles in the FBI and CIA only a year after he left Afghanistan and the United States military where he had achieved the rank of a four star general. As a high ranking official in the United States military, Patraeus taught many and served as a mentor to many former soldiers trying to succeed back in the United States. This lead a woman he had mentored, Paula Broadwell, to co-author his biographical book, titled “All In: The Education of General David Patraeus” with him. This lead to a friendship, and then an affair. After their separation and the affair being discovered by his family, Patraeus resigned. The affair was publicized, and Broadwell made comments that suggested that Patraeus may have told her confidental information to do with the United States embassy in Benghazi, Libya on september 11, 2012.
The scandal, given the nickname, “Petraeus-gate” in some reports, goes much deeper than an affair. It appears to involve Patraeus telling Broadwell important information.
“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 effort to get these prisoners back,” Broadwell said in a speech at the university of Denver in October.
President Obama has released a statement commenting that there is, “no evidence” of any security breach in the sex scandal that lead to the CIA director’s resignation from his position. The president did say he could have done more, stating “All of us have responsibilities to see if there are things we can improve on,” he said. “I don’t exempt myself from needing to, you know, do some self-reflection.”
Patraeus has been married to his wife, holly, for 38 years and they have two grown children. The retired four-star general formerly oversaw coalition forces in Iraq as well as U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
There is another woman involved deeply in the scandal. This woman, named Jill Kelley, allegedly received “jealous” e-mails from Paula Broadwell, which the FBI investigated. The probe brought the affair between Broadwell and CIA Director David Petraeus to light. Kelley and her husband, Scott, who live in Tampa, say they’ve been friends with the Petraeus family for more than five years. The florida socialite, apparently threatened in the emails she received from Broadwell, exchanged “flirtatious” emails with Petraeus, which seems to explain why Broadwell would threaten her as the affair was going on at the time of the threatening emails.
David Petraeus may have told Paula Broadwell important government secrets during the affair, whether he did is not clear but it appears as if no damage was done.