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Title: David Petraeus resigns as head of CIA and apologises for 'unacceptable behaviour' after admitting to extra-marital affair
Source: Daily Mail
URL Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art ... Petraeus-resigns-head-CIA.html
Published: Nov 9, 2012
Author: Hugo Gye and James Nye
Post Date: 2012-11-09 16:28:58 by scrapper2
Keywords: Petraeus, Benghazi
Views: 535
Comments: 48

David Petraeus today resigned as director of the CIA after admitting an extra-marital affair. The former general had been one of the most respected figures in the military and intelligence establishment, but has stepped down to deal with the fallout of confessing to cheating on Holly, his wife of 37 years.

He had been sworn in as head of the CIA in September 2011 after serving as head of the coalition forces first in Iraq and then in Afghanistan.

Barack Obama accepted Petraeus' resignation but described him as 'one of the outstanding General officers of his generation' as he added: 'By any measure, through his lifetime of service David Petraeus has made our country safer and stronger.'

Deputy director Michael Morell will serve as acting head of the agency until a permanent replacement for Petraeus is appointed.

In his resignation letter, Petraeus wrote that 'such behaviour is unacceptable' for a senior administration official.

He is believed to have feared that his infidelity would eventually become public, and therefore took the decision to quit before he was forced out.

Extra-marital affairs are considered particularly damaging for intelligence officials due to the confidential nature of their work and the risk they could leak national security secrets.

Petraeus admitted he had shown 'extremely poor judgement' in the letter he sent to his CIA colleagues confirming that he was stepping down.

He added that it had been 'the greatest of privileges' to work at the agency, saying: 'Teddy Roosevelt once observed that life's greatest gift is the opportunity to work hard at work worth doing.' Petraeus, 60, has been married to Holly, née Knowlton, since 1975, after they meet when he was a military cadet at West Point and she was the daughter of the academy's superintendent. When he was sworn in as director of the CIA by Vice President Joe Biden, Holly held the Bible on which he swore his oath of office.

The official offered his resignation to Obama on Thursday, and the President accepted the offer on Friday. Obama issued a statement thanking Petraeus for his 'extraordinary service', saying he had 'served with characteristic intellectual rigour, dedication, and patriotism'. The President added: 'Going forward, my thoughts and prayers are with Dave and Holly Petraeus, who has done so much to help military families through her own work. I wish them the very best at this difficult time.'

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper had even stronger praise for Petraeus, describing him as 'one of our nation's great patriots' as he added, 'Dave has redefined what it means to serve and sacrifice for one's country.'Clapper continued: 'Whether he was in uniform leading our nation's troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, or at CIA headquarters leading the effort to generate intelligence used to keep our nation safe, Dave inspired people who had the privilege of working with him.'

The resignation comes at an awkward time for the President, who is beginning to put together his team for his second term in the wake of his re-election on Tuesday. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has already declared her plans to step down in January, while Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta is expected to follow some time in 2013.

Petraeus' departure leaves another vacancy for a key position in the national security establishment. Morell, who has served as the agency's deputy director for two and a half years, will be one of the frontrunners to take over on a permanent basis - former CIA director George Tenet was promoted from deputy in the same way after the resignation of John Deutch in 1996. He is a long-serving analyst who has twice been a witness to history, travelling with George W. Bush on the day of the September 11 attacks and sitting in the White House situation room with Barack Obama during the mission to kill Osama Bin Laden in May last year.

David Howell Petraeus is a retired U.S. Army four-star general and the most celebrated American soldier of his time. Known as a scholar and a warrior, the West Point graduate is admired as much for his intellect as his tactical ability and charisma on the battlefield.He oversaw the crafting of the successful 2006 U.S. counterinsurgency measures in Iraq and accepted without hesitation Obama's request to leave Central Command in 2010 and lend his expertise to the failing international effort in Afghanistan. Spending 37 years in the military, Petraeus retired from service and took up his post as director of the CIA on September 6, 2011.

Born in Cornwall-on-Hudson in New York in 1952, Petraeus is the son of small town librarian Miriam and Sixtus, a sea captain who had emigrated from the Netherlands.Immediately upon his graduation from high school in 1970 he enrolled as a cadet at West Point Military Academy where he served with distinction - graduating in the top five of his class in 1974. Just after his graduation he married Holly Knowlton, daughter of West Point superintendent General William A. Knowlton.

Leaving West Point, Petraeus embarked on his military career and was commissioned as a second lieutenant with the Army Rangers. He served in a light infantry airborne battalion combat team in Italy and by 1978 he had attained the rank of captain. His rise though the ranks was rapid. By 2000 he was a brigadier general, and in January 2007 he became a four-star general. Continuing his education at the same time as his active service, Petraeus was recognised for his intellect and won the General George C. Marshall Award as the top graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in 1983. This allowed him to study at the university of his choice and he enrolled at the School of International Affairs at Princeton University - earning a Master's degree in 1985 and a PhD in 1987. Beginning his command career in Haiti in 1995 as NATO's chief operations officer, Petraeus served in Kuwait and Bosnia In 2007 he commanded the Bush administration's successful deployment to Iraq of 20,000 new troops to combat rising insurgents. His counterinsurgency strategy has become known as the 'Petraeus Doctrine'. By 2008, Petraeus was the United States' top soldier and took the reins of the U.S. based Central Command, as USCENTCOM, in October of that year. However, following Afghanistan commander Stanley McChrystal's negative comments regarding the Obama administration in 2010, Petraeus was asked to take control of the international force there. He continued to serve in this capacity until he left the military on August 31, 2011 - where at his retirement, Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff compared him to legendary Civil War general and U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant.

Petraeus was in charge of the CIA at the time of the terror attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi on September 11 of this year, a raid in which ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed and which has become a political disaster for the Obama administration.

The former CIA director was due to address a confressional hearing on the attack next week, which could raise suspicions that the timing of his resignation was politically motivated. Despite his close working relationship with Obama and other Democratic officials, Petraeus was spoken of as a possible running mate for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney this year.

[resignation letter and lots of photos at the url]


Poster Comment:

"Petraeus was in charge of the CIA at the time of the terror attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi on September 11 of this year...The former CIA director was due to address a confressional hearing on the attack next week, which could raise suspicions that the timing of his resignation was politically motivated."

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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 8.

#8. To: scrapper2 (#0)

Oh, yes, it's very much forbidden for a Master Spy to fool around sexually.

By coincidence the new James Bond film opened today!

Shoonra  posted on  2012-11-10   0:04:48 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


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