Petraeus may have willingly shared access to his email account with Broadwell - and more

It is widly known that terrorists and other bad guys frequently use an email account to share information, terror plans, etc.  They will access the account, write a message as a "draft" and leave it in the draft folder.  Other members of the cell also have access to the account and will read the draft.  The information is shared, replied to, without ever actually sending or receiving an email from that account. 

It seems that Central Intelligence Agency Director Gen. David Petraeus may have had a similar arrangement with his mistress Paula Broadwell.  This would have given her access to other correspondence sent/received through that same account.

The FBI and prosecutors in Florida and North Carolina began investigating the possibility of email hacking, because at least some of the emails sent by Ms. Broadwell to the other woman included contents of messages that appeared to come from Mr. Petraeus’s own account, these people said. The Justice Department and high-level officials, including Attorney General Eric Holder, were aware of the investigation for months, having to approve certain parts of the investigation.

Over the course of the probe, prosecutors realized there wasn’t a cyber-breach. Instead, Mr. Petraeus had shared some access to the account with Ms. Broadwell, possibly to exchange messages, these people said.

After examining Ms. Broadwell’s emails, they instead began investigating the possibility that Mr. Petraeus had shared classified information with Ms. Broadwell, which proved not to be the case, these people said.

The second woman in the Petraeus drama, Jill Kelley, was sent threatening emails by Paula Broadwell through several different email accounts.

But email access may not be all Petraeus shared with Broadwell. She seemed to have information on Benghazi that only an insider, or access to an insider, would have, as we have previously mentioned here at Right Truth.  Spook86 explains:

...   Israel National News reporter Gil Ronen was (apparently) the first journalist to discover a lecture Ms. Broadwell delivered at her alma mater, the University of Denver, on October 26th.

Broadwell's address, part of an annual alumni seminar, have been posted at YouTube.  Beginning at 34:52 into her remarks, Broadwell answers a question concerning General Petraeus and the Benghazi incident.  She affirms the CIA Director was aware of requests for assistance from American personnel on the ground, then adds a couple of tantalizing details: first, the CIA was holding two Libyan prisoners at the Benghazi annex, which was attacked after the consulate fell.  That certainly provides another rationale for the assault on the annex.

To our knowledge, no one has previously acknowledged the presence of Libyan prisoners at that facility.  That sort of information would come from someone in a position to know--say, the CIA Director.  It also suggests that the affair between Broadwell and Petraeus did not end (as originally reported) when the retired general took over the agency in 2011.  Divulging that type of "insider" information indicates that Petraeus and Broadwell were in regular contact through the attack in Benghazi and discussed events that transpired on the night of September 11th.  Yet, the FBI claims that national security wasn't jeopardized by their relationship.  Based on the prisoners claim, it sounds like Congressional Republicans should add one more name to their witness list--Paula Broadwell.

In her Denver speech, Ms. Broadwell also revealed that besieged CIA operatives in Benghazi made a specific request for a "command in-extremis force."  These elite units, assigned to every regional command, consist of Delta Force operators and other special forces personnel.  One of their specialties is providing quick reaction assistance to American facilities under attack.

Why is that nugget so important?  According to the official Pentagon timeline, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta (and other senior officials) discussed the deployment of SF assets from Croatia and the United States to Benghazi, if violence flared anew.  The discussions took part between midnight and 2 am (Benghazi time) on September 12th.  The in-extremis force is never mentioned, assuming it is not the unit that was training in Croatia at that time.

And that, in turn, leads to another report that has been making the rounds since the Benghazi incident occurred.  Some in military circles claim there was a sharp disagreement between officials in Washington and General Carter Ham, the commander of U.S. Africa Command.  Libya is part of AFRICOM's geographic region, and the "in-extremis" force that would have been dispatched belonged to General Ham.  The CINC reportedly wanted to send forces to Benghazi, but was told to stand down by his superiors in Washington.  We should note that these claims have been sharply denied by the Pentagon.  It was also announced late last month that General Ham will be leaving his post in March 2013, well ahead of schedule. DoD spokesmen told the Washington Times the leadership change was in the works well before Benghazi, though Ham's tenure will be shorter than other MAJCOM leaders.

 

No doubt more to come on all of this.  I believe not only should David Petraeus be subpoenaed to testify on Benghazi, but Paula Broadwell should also be subpoenaed.

... does this revelation mean that the Obama Administration was operating one of those dreadful secret foreign CIA prisons?

Related:

Benghazi Timelines from the State Department, CIA and Pentagon Do Not Match

Lawmakers raise questions on how Petraeus affair was handled.

 

Comments

[Donald Douglas]

This whole story gets more mind-boggling by the day. And Obama was reelected!

[Miva Valle]

allegedly the emails were send from the Gen.'s email, found more info about Jill Kelley and pics here http://fandaily.info/?p=37981 and even more here http://showbizdaily.net/?p=2947

[dw]

That Obama was reelected is no surprise. We have become The Land Of The Feebs.