Allen, Kelley, Broadwell, Petraeus.
The political hot potato Petraeus scandal outlined in detail below that is besetting the Obama White House (Getting Your Head Around the Petraeus Scandal) has now drawn in more Top Brass. It is now emerging that Gen. John Allen, who took over as Commander in Afghanistan when Gen. Petraeus was made Head of the CIA, has received many emails from Jill Kelley, the woman threatened online by Paula Broadwell (Petraeus’ 2011 mistress).
Jill Kelley is of Lebanese heritage. Her husband is a surgeon and they live in a Tampa mansion in Florida. She is a 37-year-old mother and unpaid social liaison to the military’s Joint Special Operations Command in Florida where they live. Their mansion is a hub for the social entertainment of America’s top military brass. This is why Kelley knows the Petraeus family and why Kelley regularly goes shopping with Holly Petraeus. Gen. Allen was deputy commander of Central Command in Tampa, and this is why Kelley would have known the Allens. Nothing unusual there, but it is this level of access and social contact that clearly threatened Paula Broadwell’s agenda and prompted her inappropriate email campaign that blew this scandal wide open and cost Petraeus his job.
What is unusual, is that 20,000-30,000 documents and emails are reputed to have transacted between Kelley and Allen since 2010. They are defined only as “potentially inappropriate” emails and other communications. In fairness, Kelley’s close friends outline that there are only a few emails, that the communication is largely documents running to many pages, and that the most “inappropriate” mention may be to a generic “sweetie” or “sweetheart” not meant intimately.
It should also be noted that Kelley was the one who went to the FBI in the first place, and has since secured celebrity legal representation, and that there appears to be no division between Mrs Petraeus and Kelley who are female friends.
The only real concern is why is there such a voluminous correspondence with the top commander in Afghanistan, and is there anything inappropriate, as with Petraeus? If so, this would evidence a pattern amongst America’s top brass with attractive women not their wives, and especially by the last two commanders of Afghanistan. That undermines America’s social and moral credibility in a sensitive foreign policy field. Adultery is illegal in the military, and offices are immediately sacked (it compromises security); it is also unacceptable to Muslims with whom America is seeking to win “hearts and minds.”
Randy Bish’s view at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
