Petraeus Quits; Evidence of Affair Was Found by F.B.I.
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR
Published: November 9, 2012 1211
WASHINGTON — David H. Petraeus, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency
and one of America’s most decorated four-star generals, resigned on
Friday after an F.B.I. investigation uncovered evidence that he had been
involved in an extramarital affair.
Command Sgt. Maj. Marvin L. Hill
David H. Petraeus is said to have had an affair with
Paula Broadwell, right, who wrote a biography of him.
Related
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David H. Petraeus Resignation Letter (November 10, 2012)
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At War Blog: Petraeus: General, Spymaster, Comfortable in Casual Wear (February 1, 2012)
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Woman Linked to Petraeus Is a West Point Graduate and Lifelong High Achiever (November 10, 2012)
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Mr. Petraeus in 2007. He was credited with turning around the failing war effort in Iraq.
Mr. Petraeus issued a statement acknowledging the affair after President
Obama accepted his resignation and it was announced by the C.I.A. The
disclosure ended a triumphant re-election week for the president with an
unfolding scandal.
Government officials said that the F.B.I. began an investigation into a
“potential criminal matter” several months ago that was not focused on
Mr. Petraeus. In the course of their inquiry into whether a computer
used by Mr. Petraeus had been compromised, agents discovered evidence of
the relationship as well as other security concerns. About two weeks
ago, F.B.I. agents met with Mr. Petraeus to discuss the investigation.
Administration and Congressional officials identified the woman as Paula
Broadwell, the co-author of a biography of Mr. Petraeus. Her book, “All
In: The Education of General David Petraeus,” was published this year.
Ms. Broadwell could not be reached for comment.
Ms. Broadwell, a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West
Point, spent 15 years in the military, according to a biography that had
appeared on her Web site. She spent extended periods of time with Mr.
Petraeus in Afghanistan, interviewing him for her book, which grew out
of a two-year research project for her doctoral dissertation and which
she promoted on a high-profile tour that included an appearance on “The
Daily Show With Jon Stewart.”
Married with two children, she has described Mr. Petraeus as her mentor.
Senior members of Congress were alerted to Mr. Petraeus’s impending
resignation by intelligence officials about six hours before the C.I.A.
announced it. One Congressional official who was briefed on the matter
said that Mr. Petraeus had been encouraged “to get out in front of the
issue” and resign, and that he agreed.
As for how the affair came to light, the Congressional official said
that “it was portrayed to us that the F.B.I. was investigating something
else and came upon him. My impression is that the F.B.I. stumbled
across this.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation did not inform the Senate and House
Intelligence Committees about the inquiry until this week, according to
Congressional officials, who noted that by law the panels — and
especially their chairmen and ranking members — are supposed to be told
about significant developments in the intelligence arena. The Senate
committee plans to pursue the question of why it was not told, one
official said.
The revelation of a secret inquiry into the head of the nation’s premier
spy agency raised urgent questions about Mr. Petraeus’s 14-month tenure
at the C.I.A. and the decision by Mr. Obama to elevate him to head the
agency after leading the country’s war effort in Afghanistan. White
House officials said they did not know about the affair until this week,
when Mr. Petraeus informed them.
“After being married for over 37 years, I showed extremely poor judgment
by engaging in an extramarital affair,” Mr. Petraeus said in his
statement, expressing regret for his abrupt departure. “Such behavior is
unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization
such as ours. This afternoon, the president graciously accepted my
resignation.”
Mr. Petraeus’s admission and resignation represent a remarkable fall
from grace for one of the most prominent figures in America’s modern
military and intelligence community, a commander who helped lead the
nation’s wartime activities in the decade after the Sept. 11 attacks and
was credited with turning around the failing war effort in Iraq.
Mr. Petraeus almost single-handedly forced a profound evolution in the
country’s military thinking and doctrine with his philosophy of
counterinsurgency, focused more on protecting the civilian population
than on killing enemies. More than most of his flag officer peers, he
understood how to navigate Washington politics and news media, helping
him rise through the ranks and obtain resources he needed, although
fellow Army leaders often resented what they saw as a grasping
careerism.
Woman Linked to Petraeus Is a West Point Graduate and Lifelong High Achiever
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR
Published: November 9, 2012
WASHINGTON — Paula Broadwell, whose affair with the nation’s C.I.A.
director led to his resignation on Friday, was the valedictorian of her
high school class and homecoming queen, a fitness champion at West Point
with a graduate degree from Harvard, and a model for a machine gun
manufacturer.
T. Ortega Gaines/The Charlotte Observer, via Associated Press
Paula Broadwell, who wrote a biography of David H.
Petraeus, moved into public view on Friday after an affair with Mr.
Petraeus was uncovered.
Related
-
Petraeus Quits; Evidence of Affair Was Found by F.B.I. (November 10, 2012)
-
At War Blog: Petraeus: General, Spymaster, Comfortable in Casual Wear (February 1, 2012)
It may have been those qualities — and a string of achievements that
began in her native North Dakota, where she was state student council
president, an all-state basketball player and orchestra concertmistress —
that drew the attention of David H. Petraeus,
the nation’s top spy and a four-star general, as the two spent hours
together for a biography of Mr. Petraeus that Ms. Broadwell co-wrote.
Ms. Broadwell’s name burst into public view on Friday evening after Mr.
Petraeus resigned abruptly amid an F.B.I. investigation that uncovered
evidence of their relationship.
But Ms. Broadwell was hardly shy about her interactions with Mr. Petraeus as she promoted her book,
“All In: The Education of General David Petraeus,” in media appearances
earlier this year. She had unusual access, she noted in promotional
appearances, taping many of her interviews for her book while running
six-minute miles with Mr. Petraeus in the thin mountain air of the
Afghan capital.
Ms. Broadwell said in an interview in February that Mr. Petraeus was
enjoying his new civilian life at the C.I.A., where he became director
in September 2011. “It was a huge growth period for him, because he
realized he didn’t have to hide behind the shield of all those medals
and stripes on his arm,” she said. Ms. Broadwell was 39 at the time.
Her biography
on the Penguin Speakers Bureau Web site says that she is a research
associate at Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership and a Ph.D.
candidate in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. She
received a master’s in public administration from Harvard’s Kennedy
School of Government.
A self-described “soccer mom” and an ironman triathlete, Ms. Broadwell
became a fixture on the Washington media scene after the publication of
her book about Mr. Petraeus, who is 60. In a Twitter message this
summer, she bragged about appearing on a panel at the Aspen Institute, a policy group for deep thinkers.
“Heading 2 @AspenInstitute 4 the Security Forum tomorrow! Panel (media
& terrorism) followed by a 1v1 run with Lance Armstrong,” she wrote.
“Fired up!”
On her Twitter account,
she often commented on the qualities of leadership. “Reason and calm
judgment, the qualities specially belonging to a leader. Tacitus,” she
wrote. In another message, she said: “A leader is a man who has the
ability to get other people to do what they don’t want to do and like
it. Truman.”
She also used her Twitter account to denounce speculation in the Drudge
Report that Mr. Petraeus would be picked as a running mate by Mitt
Romney, the Republican candidate for president.
Married with two children, she was described in a biography on the Web
site of Inspired Women Magazine as a high achiever since high school.
The biography says that Ms. Broadwell received a degree in political
geography and systems engineering from West Point, where she was ranked
No. 1 over all in fitness in her class. She benefited from a different
ranking scale for women, she told a reporter this year. But “I was still
in the top 5 percent if I’d been ranked as a male,” she said.
The official Web site for Ms. Broadwell’s book was taken down Friday, but comments from her echoed across the Internet.
“I was driven when I was younger,” she was quoted as saying on the Web
site, noting her induction into her high school’s hall of fame. “Driven
at West Point where it was much more competitive in that women were
competing with men on many levels, and I was driven in the military and
at Harvard, both competitive environments.”
“But now,” she is quoted as saying, “as a working mother of two, I
realize it is more difficult to compete in certain areas. I think it is
important for working moms to recognize that family is the most
important.”
On “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart summed up Ms. Broadwell’s book by
saying: “I would say the real controversy here is, is he awesome or
incredibly awesome?”A short time later, Ms. Broadwell challenged Mr.
Stewart to a push-up contest,
which she won handily. Mr. Stewart had to pay $1,000 to a veterans’
support group for each push-up she did beyond his total. Ms. Broadwell
said that he wrote a check for $20,000 on the spot.
On Friday evening, her house in the Dilworth neighborhood of Charlotte,
N.C., was dark when a reporter rang the doorbell. Two cars were in the
home’s carport and an American flag was flying out front.