More Than You Want to Know: The Petraeus Affair and Our Sex Scandal Obsession

Update, 19 November 2012: Well, this is good news: "Pew: More Americans Following 'Fiscal Cliff' than David Petraeus Investigation"

Yes, it was asking too much that we "be spared the salacious details of General David Petraeus's extramarital affair", as the narrative continues to dominate the headlines and the plot line thickens. So, here I am providing, for anyone interested in all the developing details, a list of news articles that have followed all the minutiae of the tangled tale. Maybe there is something huge here, hidden in the volumes of e-mails that have come to light, but so far the situation seems to be a sad tale of infatuation, obsession, adultery, and jealousy, with a little bit of a petty political paranoia and too-ready access to the privacy-prying power of the FBI. 

Nothing reported so far seems to be a national security issue....but, then, who knows. Before it's over, maybe the FBI will be poking through all our e-mails and discovering all our petty little secrets.

ALL THE DETAILS, updated as discovered, or until I tire of the updates, which was yesterday, 18 November 2012:

"CIA Director David Petraeus resigns, cites extra-marital affair," Andrea Mitchell and Robert Windrem, on nbcnews.com, 9 November 2012.

"Petraeus Resigns over Affair with Biographer," Fred Kaplan, in Slate, 9 November 2012.

"Woman Linked to Petraeus is a West Point Graduate and Lifelong High Achiever," Michael D. Shear, The New York Times, 9 November 2012.

"A Brilliant Career with a Meteoric Rise and an Abrupt Fall," Scott Shane and Sheryl Gay Stolberg, The New York Times, 10 November 2012.

"CIA Chief Resigns over Affair," Devlin Barrett, Siobhan Gorman, and Julian E. Barnes, in The Wall Street Journal, 11 November 2012.

"Veteran: Paula Broadwell 'Not the Type' to Have Affair," Reena Ninan and Alyssa Newcomb, ABC news, 11 November 2012.

"Motives Questioned in FBI Inquiry of Petraeus E-mails," Scott Shane and Charlie Savage, The New York Times, 12 November 2012.

"Here's the e-mail trick Petraeus and Broadwell used to communicate," Max Fisher, The Washington Post, 12 November 2012.

"Petraeus 'ghostwriter' clueless to affair," Vernon Loeb, The Washington Post," 12 November 2012.

"Exclusive: Paula Broadwell's Emails Revealed," Michael Daly, The Daily Beast, 12 November 2012.

 "FBI Agent In Petraeus Case Under Scrutiny," Devlin Barrett, Evan Perez, and Siobhan Gorman, in The Wall Street Journal, 13 November 2012.

"Patraeus investigation ensnares commander of U.S., NATO troops in Afghanistan," Craig Whitlock and Rajiv Chandrasekaran, The Washington Post, updated 13 November 2012.

"Scandal Widens; US General's E-mails 'Flirtatious,'" Peter Yost and Robert Burns, Associated Press, 13 November 2012.

"Who is Jill Kelley and Why is Everyone Obsessed with Her?," Henry Blodget and Grace Wyler, Business Insider, 13 November 2012.

"There's Something About Jill Kelley," Elspeth Reeve, The Atlantic Wire, 13 November 2012.

"Petraeus friend Jill Kelley found place hosting military parties," Tampa Bay Times staff and wires, Tampa Bay Times, 13 November 2012.

"Jill Kelley requested 'diplomatic protection' in 911 call," myfoxmobile, 13 November 2012. (h/t, Josh Marshall, "Just Gets Better and Better," TPM, 13 November 2012.)

"Jill Kelley is an 'honorary consul' of South Korea,"Josh Rogin, on the Foreign Policy blog, "The Cable," 13 November 2012.

"General Confusion," David Weigel, Slate, 13 November 2012. 

 "FBI investigating how Petraeus biographer Broadwell obtained classified files," Sari Horwitz, Greg Miller, and Karen DeYoung, The Washington Post,"
13 November 2012.

"Tampa is Seen as Social Link for Unfolding Scandal," Michael S. Schmidt and Sheryl Gay Stolbert, The New York Times, 13 November 2012.

"Jill Kelley Loses VIP Privileges at Military Base," Luis Martinez, The Blotter at ABC News online, 14 November 2012.

"Veteran F.B.I. Agent Helped Start Petraeus E-mail Inquiry," Michael S. Schmidt, Scott Shane, and Alain Delaquérière, The New York Times, 14 November 2012.

"Meet the Shirtless FBI Agent from the Petraeus Love Pentagon," Adam Clarke Estes, The Atlantic Wire, 14 November 2012.

"What Was in Paula Broadwell's 'KelleyPatrol' E-mails?," Elspeth Reeve, The Atlantic Wire, 15 November 2012. 

"Jill Kelley outraged other military liaisons with her flirty ways," Jessica Vander Velde and William R. Levesque, Tampa Bay Times, 15 November 2012.

" In Petraeus' fall, a familiar tale of power and its dangerous allure," Michael Doyle, Frances Robles, and Greg Gordon, McClatchy Newspapers, 16 November 2012.

"The Wonderful World of Jill and Scott Kelley," Elspeth Reeve, The Atlantic Wire, 16 November 2012.

"Petraeus scandal: Jill Kelley and the Tampa society set," Emma Brockes, The Guardian, 16 November 2012. [These last few articles are just precious in their descriptions of social snobbery.]

OPINIONS

"A General Lesson," Fred Kaplan, in Slate, 10 November 2012.

"When a C.I.A. Agent had Scores of Affairs," Stephen Kinzer, The New York Times, 10 November 2012.

"How I was Drawn into the Cult of David Petraeus," Spencer Ackerman, on the blog Danger Room: What's Next in National Security, on the website of Wired, 11 November 2012.

"The David Petraeus-Paula Broadwell Affair: The Danger of Male Mentors?," Jenna Goudreau, Forbes 12 November 2012.

"The Siren and the Spook," Frank Bruni, The New York Times, 12 November 2012.

Petraeus the paper tiger," Joshua Foust, Need to Know Opinion, PBS online, 12 November 2012.

"How Paula Broadwell Wronged Her Readers," Laura Miller, Salon, 13 November 2012.

"The Real Petraeus Scandal," Joan Walsh, Salon, 13 November 2012.

"Petraeus situation: You asked, I answer," Thomas E. Ricks, on his blog The Best Defense, on the Foreign Policy website, 13 November 2012.

"Stop Judging, You Prudes," Katie Roiphe, Slate, 13 November 2012.

 "What the Heck, FBI?," Marc Ambinder, on his blog The Compass, in The Week, 13 November 2012.

"Paula Broadwell, A Hanger-On in King Petraeus's Court," Noam Scheiber, in The New Republic's blog The Plank, 14 November 2012. 

"When did Socialite Become an Insult?," Libby Copeland, Slate, 16 November 2012.

"The media's woman blaming," Jennifer Vanasco, Columbia Journalism Review, 16 November 2012.

FALLOUT

"FBI investigation into Petraeus's love life may damage ties to other agencies," Tom McCarthy, The Guardian, 13 November 2012.

"Panetta Orders Review of Ethics Training for Military Officers," Elisabeth Bumiller, The New York Times, 15 November 2012.

ADVICE

 "My Secret Strategy for Avoiding Petraeus-Style Email Pitfalls," James Fallows, on his blog on The Atlantic's website, 12 November 2012.

"A Cheater's Checklist," Emily Yoffe ("Dear Prudie"), Slate, 13 November 2012.

BIGGER ISSUES?

 "Questioning the Brass," Thomas E. Ricks, The New York Times, 11 November 2012.

"The Real David Petraeus Scandal," Robert Wright, The Atlantic, 12 November 2012.

"Petraeus Case Raises Fears About Privacy in Digital Era," Scott Shane, The New York Times, 13 November 2012.

"FBI's abuse of the surveillance state is the real scandal needing investigation," Glenn Greenwald, The Guardian 13 November 2012.

"The Petraeus Legacy: A Paramilitary CIA?," Jeremy Scahill, The Nation, 14 November 2012.

"Forget Petraeus: The Real Scandal Is Generals' Corrupt Weapons Procurement," Dina Rasor, Truthout, 14 November 2012.

 "Collateral damage of our surveillance state," Julian Sanchez, Reuters, 15 November 2012.

"Paula Broadwell's Big Mistake," Andrew Leonard, Salon, 16 November 2012.

Anthrax in the News Again

Update below

"Whatever happened to the anthrax investigation?" I asked some of my co-workers recently during conversation between tutoring sessions at the community college where I now tutor part-time.

Well, that investigation is once again in the news, as the most recent suspect committed suicide this week. Considering the FBI's bumbling in the case (Steven Hatfill, the previous suspect, was exonerated and recently settled with the Dept. of Justice and the FBI for $5.2 million), I wouldn't want to jump to conclusions about this final suspect. Maybe he was pushed to the edge by the focus of the investigation. However, these details about the man are rather interesting:

• Dr. Bruce Ivins worked in the Army lab at Fort Detrick where intensive studies on live anthrax spores were performed. He even swabbed contaminated areas in the lab and in his office in 2001 and 2002, without telling anyone until questioned later in an Army investigation.
• He had been acting erratically lately, suffering from depression and making homicidal threats against his co-workers and a social worker.
• According to letters he had written to his local newspaper, as a conservative Christian, he supported the Bush administration and believed that the U. S. should be governed according to the Gospel. (I would hesitate to call him a Christian "fanatic," as one blogger has, based just on these letters, however.)
• According to the Los Angeles Times, Ivins was "a co-inventor of a new anthrax vaccine", and he stood to benefit monetarily if the product came to market.
• Ivins conducted research on squalene, a component of the anthrax vaccines given to U. S. soldiers to supposedly protect them against bio-terrorism. These vaccinations have caused a lot of controversy. Journalist Gary Matsumoto has written a book on this controversy, titled Vaccine-A: The Covert Government Experiment that's Killing Our Soldiers and Why GIs are Only the First Victims.

When the anthrax letters were mailed, the fear and terror created by the attacks on 9/11 racheted up. Hoax letters were sent, and suspicious packages were found around the country, most turning out to be non-threatening. For instance, some white powder on the floor of a woman's restroom at a university where I was teaching caused a stir; local police were called to investigate. The substance was bath powder, if I remember correctly. Although I'm not susceptible to hysteria, I remember casually looking at websites advertising bio-terrorism wear for civilians--gas masks in child sizes and such!

More seriously, however, the anthrax letters were used to gender support for war against Iraq. Glenn Greenwald has extensively documented the role of ABC News in linking anthrax with Iraq.

This whole story is begging for a Congressional investigation. Congress should look into what government sources fed information to ABC, linking the anthrax with Iraq, and into why the FBI has been so ineffective in its search for the source of the anthrax. Is there a conspiracy? (My tendency is to think not conspiracy but opportunism as being the Bush administration's MO in manipulating facts to advance its desire to begin a war with Iraq.) Has there been a cover-up? Was Dr. Ivins the anthrax terrorist or is he a fall-guy? Inquiring minds want to know.

Update. Monday, 4 August
A New York Times article paints a disturbing picture of the FBI's errors and sloppiness in investigating the origins of the anthrax-laden letters. Here is the link: "Anthrax Evidence is Said to Be Circumstantial," Scott Shane, New York Times, 4 Aug. 2008.

2nd Update
Glenn Greenwald has posted information about the credibility of the social worker upon whose public record hangs a great deal of the negative perception of Dr. Ivins' personality. Greenwald points out that while Dr. Ivins may well be the person who sent the anthrax letters, those charges have not been proven yet. And plenty of people who knew Dr. Ivins well remain skeptical of the charges. We should be cautious about jumping to conclusions in a case in which the FBI's investigation has been so poorly led.

I recall how an investigation in the 1990s, by the Dayton and Liberty County police in Texas, led to the arrest of an aunt of mine. My aunt had been robbed and raped, yet before the investigation was over, the police had taken my emotionally shaken aunt alone in a room, hooked her up to a polygraph, and interrogated her to such an extent that she ended up confessing having stolen the money and lying about the rape. Prior to this harassment, the police had lost the rape kit, and they had tried to get my aunt to finger a man who had just been released from prison. In the later interrogation, the police browbeat my aunt, telling her the polygraph indicated that she was lying, that it would be better for her and her family if she confessed to the crime. My aunt was so emotionally unstable by this time that she copped to the crime even though she didn't do it. Then she tried to commit suicide.

Circumstantial evidence can seem to be damning when it's just an unhappy example of how connecting-the-dots can result in any number of conflicting scenarios, depending upon who is holding the pen.