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David Petraeus

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2006

Paula Broadwell meets Petraeus

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Broadwell first met Petraeus when she was a soldier-turned-graduate student at Harvard University. The U.S. Army general gave her his card and offered to help her with her studies. Broadwell soon began trading emails with the general, and four years later she was in Afghanistan turning a dissertation about his leadership into a book. Interviews for the book often took place on endurance-testing runs together, she would later say.

CIA officers long had expressed concern about Broadwell’s unprecedented access to the director. She frequently visited the spy agency’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia, to meet Petraeus in his office, accompanied him on morning runs around the CIA grounds and often attended public functions as his guest, according to two ex-intelligence officials.

Jan 2012

Broadwell interviewed

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Prosecutors and agents began a legal analysis to determine whether there were any charges that could be brought. Among the discussions: whether to interview Broadwell, who was the focus of the criminal probe, and Petraeus. Top officials signed off on the interviews.

During Broadwell’s first interview in September, she admitted to the affair and turned over her computer, the officials said. On her computer, investigators found classified documents, the U.S. officials said, a discovery that raised new concerns.

May 2012

Jill Kelley receives anonymous threatening mails

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In early May Jill Kelley, an unpaid social liaison to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, receives five to 10 threatening emails. Kelley did not know who sent the emails but fearing for her safety complained to Frederick Humphries, an F.B.I. agent who is also a personal friend.

The first email sent anonymously to referred to Kelley socializing with other generals in the Tampa area and suggested it was inappropriate and should stop, according to the source close to Kelley. More anonymous emails were sent from multiple alias accounts — and some later ones in the sequence contained references to Petraeus, though not by name.

Kelley asked Humphries ‘What do you make of this?’ Humphries replied: ‘This is serious. They seem to know the comings and goings of a couple of generals.’

Some commentators have questioned whether the bureau would ordinarily investigate a citizen complaint about unwanted e-mails, suggesting that there must have been a hidden motive, possibly political, to take action. But law enforcement officials insisted on Monday that the case was handled “on the merits.”

According top a source who talked to NBC News, what most alarmed Kelley and the FBI, the source said, were references to “the comings and goings” of high-level generals from the U.S. Central Command, which is based at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, and the U.S. Southern Command, as well as Petraeus — including events that were not on any public schedule. This raised the question as to whether somebody had access to sensitive — and classified — information. Moreover, the sender of the emails had “covered her tracks pretty well,” the source said.

One e-mail accused Kelley of “touching” Petraeus inappropriately under a dinner table.

The New York Post reported that the emails contained such language as: ‘I know what you did,’ ‘back off’ and ‘stay away from my guy.’ The official added: ‘[Broadwell] clearly thought something was going on’ and thought she was in a ‘lovers triangle.’ Some emails appeared to be accusing her of an inappropriate relationship but didn’t name Petraeus.

FBI agents link mails to Broadwell

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Federal officials who spoke with NBC News said it took agents a while to figure out the source. They did that by finding out where the messages were sent from — which cities, which wi-fi locations in hotels. That gave them names, which they then checked against guest list from other cities and hotels, looking for common names. That led them to Broadwell, they said, noting that the pattern coincided with her travel to promote her book.

FBI agents and federal prosecutors used the information as probable cause to seek a warrant to monitor Broadwell’s email accounts. They learned that Broadwell and Petraeus had set up private Gmail accounts to use for their communications, which included explicit details of a sexual nature. But because Mr. Petraeus used a pseudonym, agents doing the monitoring didn’t immediately uncover that he was the one communicating with Broadwell.

Rather than transmitting emails to the other’s inbox, Petraeus and Broadwell composed at least some messages and instead of transmitting them, left them in a draft folder or in an electronic “dropbox,” the official said. Then the other person could log onto the same account and read the draft emails there. This avoids creating an email trail that is easier to trace.

Mails also sent to senior Military

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Besides the emails sent directly to Kelley, Broadwell also sent emails denigrating Kelley from a pseudonymous account to senior military officials. In the email received by General John R. Allen, Broadwell — writing under the pseudonym KelleyPatrol — described Kelley as a “seductress” and warned the general about being entangled in a relationship with her. Gen. Allen was concerned by that email and forwarded it to Kelley.3

Aug 2012

Link to Petraeus uncovered

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By late summer, after the monitoring of Broadwell’s emails uncovered the link to Petraeus, prosecutors and agents alerted senior officials at FBI and the Justice Department, including Eric Holder. The investigators never monitored Petraeus’s email accounts.

When Petraeus’s name surfaced, FBI investigators were concerned that the CIA director’s personal e-mail account had been hacked and that national security had been threatened.

11 Sep, 2014

‘Obama strategy is credible’

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Gen. Petraeus says that Obama’s strategy to counter ISIS will likely be successful, although the battle against ISIS in Iraq and Syria take years. ISIS is not as great a threat as Al Qaeda was during the height of the Iraq War:

This is not the kind of Iraq on fire, complete desperation we had during the surge. [ISIS] has nowhere the roots and the structure of al-Qaida in Iraq.

The formation of a more inclusive government will address sectarian tensions:

It’s a new Iraqi government now. There’s new hope, there’s outreach.

This could be vital in ensuring the strategy is a success, as ISIS capitalized on sectarian divisions and chain-of-command vulnerabilities when routing the Iraqi military in the group’s initial offensives:

The third failing was the population was not happy with sectarian and loyalist leaders.

In Syria, opposition to ISIS is less cohesive and the Assad regime may have to be removed before a credible force can be assembled against ISIS:

This is going to be years, not months.

3 Mar, 2015

Pleads guilty

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In a plea deal with the Justice Department, Petraeus agrees to plead guilty to one count of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material. He could have spent up to one year in prison, but prosecutors will recommend a sentence of two years probation and a $40,000 fine.

23 Apr, 2015

Given probation and fine

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A federal judge sentences Petraeus to two years’ probation and a $100,000 fine for giving classified information to Broadwell. Petraeus:

I want to take this opportunity to apologize to those closest to me and others, including this court, for the pain my actions have caused.

29 Nov, 2016

Trump, Petraeus discuss Secretary of State position

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After an hour-long meeting with Petraeus regarding the Secretary of State position, Trump tweets:

Petraeus:

[President-elect Trump] basically walked us around the world [in our  discussion.] He showed a great grasp of the variety of challenges that are out there and some of the opportunities as well.