PrairiePundit

Fox News: Roughly 1,000 emails between Hillary Clinton and Gen. David Petraeus were thought to be missing from the 30,000 emails provided by Clinton’s team to the State Department in December 2014, according to the newly released FBI investigative files. Additional documents obtained through a federal lawsuit by Judicial Watch show Clinton had directed Petraeus to send her emails at her personal address, which was used for all government work during her tenure as secretary of state. In a heavily redacted FBI interview summary from Aug. 17, 2015, a State Department employee from the Office of Information and Programs and Services (IPS), which handles Freedom of Information Act requests, discussed how Petraeus’ records apparently were not among the work-related emails provided by the former secretary's team. "CENTCOM records shows approximately 1,000 work-related emails between Clinton's personal email and General David PETRAEUS, former Commander of CENTCOM and forme...

Washington Post: How Clinton’s case is different from David Petraeus’s Donald Trump again compared the matter to the criminal case against the former CIA director, but there are key differences in the eyes of prosecutors and the FBI. Petraeus shared his calendar with someone who also had a top secret clearance, just not for that information.  Clinton shared her secrets with the world by using an unsecured server.  She then deliberately lied about it in numerous ways.   To say that his was worse ignores common sense. Trump should not waste his time on the comparison, though,  He should focus on Clinton's lies about what she did that are on the public record.  She already ahs a trust deficit and this only adds to it.

Petraeus calls Syria a 'geopoliical Chernobyl.'

Washington Times: David Petraeus in Justice Department crosshairs for criminal charges An administration that thought it was OK to turn classified information about the bin Laden raid over to Hollywood movie makers is looking to indict someone whose indiscretions did not result in making classified information public or broadcasting it to the enemy. This is an administration that likes to talk about prosecutorial discretion, but would rather use iot to advance liberalism than seek justice.

Politico: Retired Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, former CIA director under President Barack Obama, called strongly Saturday for Congress to back the White House on Syria , declaring that military action against the regime is “necessary” to deter “Iran, North Korea and other would-be aggressors.” “Failure of Congress to approve the president’s request would have serious ramifications not just in the Mideast but around the world,” Petraeus said in a four-sentence statement provided to POLITICO. With Congress set to return from summer break on Monday, Obama’s request is in trouble in the Senate and on a path to an embarrassing loss in the House . He will sit for interviews Monday with six TV networks as he makes his case for military intervention in Syria ahead of an  address to the nation on Tuesday. In his years as U.S. commander in Iraq and Afghanistan, Petraeus was regarded by many Republican lawmakers as a god on military matters. So the imprimatur of the former four-star general...

Kyle Smith: Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the attack on the US consulate because of a secret low-level war in which American hit squads took out leaders of al Qaeda militias, which retaliated in Benghazi. There was never a protest at the consulate over the infamous anti-Islamist YouTube video. So says the new 80-page e-book, “Benghazi: The Definitive Report” (William Morrow) by Jack Murphy and Brandon Webb, two military veterans who specialize in reporting about clandestine operations at the website SOFREP.com. Their book, which they say is based on interviews with well-placed security types but contains virtually no checkable sourcing, is loaded with explosive allegations. The fall of Moammar Khadafy presented a tricky situation for us: Khadafy, though a despot to his own people, had nevertheless been cooperating with the US, which among other favors was granted the right to use Libyan territory for CIA black sites. Moreover, the opposition to Kh...

Washington Post: Frederick and Kimberly Kagan, a husband-and-wife team of hawkish military analysts, put their jobs at influential Washington think tanks on hold for almost a year to work for Gen. David H. Petraeus when he was the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan. Provided desks, e-mail accounts and top-level security clearances in Kabul, they pored through classified intelligence reports, participated in senior-level strategy sessions and probed the assessments of field officers in order to advise Petraeus about how to fight the war differently. Their compensation from the U.S. government for their efforts, which often involved 18-hour workdays, seven days a week and dangerous battlefield visits? Zero dollars. Although Fred Kagan said he and his wife wanted no pay in part to remain “completely independent,” the extraordinary arrangement raises new questions about the access and influence Petraeus accorded to civilian friends while he was running the Afghan war. ...  This is ...

It looks like an interesting weapon with several potential applications.  Paula Broadwell has both a  speaking roll in the video and is shown firing it.  Since the revelations about her affair with Petraeus, the company has attempted to distance itself from her role, but at this point both she and the weapons manufacturer could benefit.  They should bring her back for another shot.   There is more about Paula and the weapon here .

This is pretty funny in a quirky sort of way.  Wolf Blitzer looks a little stiff,  Kelley not so much.

Michael Goodwin: Until Friday, there were two possible explanations for why the White House failed to immediately call the Benghazi attack an act of terrorism. One was incompetence, the other was worse. Now there is only one, and it is the worse one. Based on the persuasive testimony of ex-CIA boss David Petraeus, it is clear the Obama administration made a deliberate decision to mislead Congress and the American people. The repeated claim that the attack was spontaneous and grew out of a demonstration against an anti-Islam video — a claim made by the president and secretary of State as they stood next to the bodies of four dead Americans — was a monstrous lie. It was vile and done for the basest of reasons. Because we now know the truth of what happened — CIA reports were edited to remove the names of al Qaeda groups involved in the attack, Petraeus said under oath — we also know the motive. It was political self-preservation, meaning the president and his team put politics first. ...

Politico: W.H.: Benghazi intel report barely edited This has to be one of the weaker excuses I have ever seen, made even weaker by Politico giving it prominence.  The media is still trying to carry water for Obama even after his reelection.  They show no interest in finding the facts or getting to the bottom of the Libya debacle. Leaving out the part about the attacks being affiliated with al Qaeda was not just an editing error.  It was an attempt to mislead voters about the failure of Obama's foreign policy a week after he had bragged about having the terrorist group on the run.

Amir Taheri: Gen. David Petraeus’ fall from grace should not overshadow his achievements both as military strategist and commander. Petraeus first caught the attention of those following the Middle Eastern crises in 2003, when he commanded a division within the US expeditionary force that liberated Iraq. The force accomplished its mission of toppling Saddam Hussein in just three weeks. Then started the tougher task of helping Iraqis rebuild their nation on new foundations — a mission that quickly ran into trouble as various armed groups backed by rival regional powers tried to sabotage nation-building efforts through low-intensity warfare. Appointed commander in Mosul, one of the most dangerous parts of post-Saddam Iraq, Petraeus realized that America’s superior war machine, irresistible in wholesale classical warfare, would not be effective in this different type of conflict. Already a student of the Vietnam War, Petraeus now turned his attention to the conflicts like the one his co...

David Ignatius: ... The day Petraeus resigned, I received an e-mail from an Arab intelligence contact who expressed what surely has been going through the minds of many people around the world. I will quote it precisely, punctuation and all: “He needs to resign cause he has an affair? What da hell??? He is brilliant!!!! Why like this????” ... Once the affair was acknowledged it lost its potency as a potential blackmail event.  What is interesting about it from the point of view of the Libya debacle is that his resignation also freed him from having to be a team player pushing a flawed narrative.  Congress evidently saw that today in a closed hearing.  It will now be looking for who did the editing on the talking points. My on view is that Clapper is less than brilliant DNI.  Donnelly is widely believed to have been responsible for leaks meant to make Obama look good.  Either or both could have been responsible for the bogus spin given t...

The Washington Post reports that in his testimony on the Benghazi debacle Gen. Petraeus does not support the Obama story line. ... “He now clearly believes that it [the Sept. 11 attacks] did not arise out of a demonstration, that it was not spontaneous and it was clear terrorist involvement,” King said. ... Because the hears were classified, we still don't know what led the administration to blame the attacks on a video no one had seen.  That leaves opponent to speculate on their motives which appear to be political. Fox News reports that Petraeus said the terrorist connection to the attack was edited out of the talking points after they left the CIA.  This directly calls into question Obama's assertion that the talking points reflected the best available intelligence.  It is quite clear that the best and most accurate intelligence was in fact excluded from the remarks she used.

The Onion: Nation Horrified To Learn About War In Afghanistan While Reading Up On Petraeus Sex Scandal The satirical site finds an element of truth in its humor.

Michael Graham: I’m not annoyed that the Obama administration is lying to us about Benghazi, David Petraeus and the rest of this messy, farcical story. I’m annoyed that they expect us to believe them. When a woman discovers her husband in bed undressed, she can accept his claim to be feeling under the weather. But when he asks her to believe the unfamiliar earrings on his pillow were from his mother . . . This is the position President Obama has put us in. I’d like to believe that our president would never lie to us about a terrorist attack that killed four Americans, including an ambassador. I’d like to believe that our president is above politically manipulating the resignation of a CIA chief and successful general. I’d like — no, I’d love — to believe it all. Unfortunately I can’t. Can you? You know the outline of this already unbelievable story. Petraeus has an affair with the unfortunately named Mrs. Broadwell (apparently “Felicity Shagwell” is copyrighted by Austin Powers) in 2...

Washington Post: Former CIA director David H. Petraeus has agreed to testify to Congress about the Sept. 11 attack in Libya, keeping appointments made before he resigned in disgrace over an extramarital affair. The appearance will reportedly take place Thursday behind closed doors. But his visit to Capitol Hill will mark Petraeus’s first time in the public view since he resigned Friday. He is likely to be asked — both by reporters on his way in and by lawmakers — about any possible intelligence breaches involving his biographer, Paula Broadwell. Law enforcement officials said Broadwell is the woman with whom the retired general has acknowledged having an affair. The FBI searched Broadwell’s home this week, seeking copies of classified documents that investigators have said she possessed. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) told reporters Wednesday that Petraeus has agreed to testify. After his sudden resignation, acting CIA Director Michael Morell had...

Washington Post: The FBI is making a new push to determine how a woman who had an affair with retired Gen. David H. Petraeus when he was CIA director obtained classified files, part of an expanding series of investigations in a scandal that also threatens the career of the United States’ top military commander in Afghanistan . Senior law enforcement officials said that a late-night seizure on Monday of boxes of material from the North Carolina home of Paula Broadwell , a Petraeus biographer whose affair with him led to his resignation last week, marks a renewed focus by investigators on sensitive material found in her possession. “The issue of national security is still on the table,” one U.S. law enforcement official said. Both Petraeus and Broadwell have denied to investigators that he was the source of any classified information, officials said. The surprise move by the FBI follows assertions by U.S. officials that the investigation had turned up no evidence of a security breach —...

Wesley Pruden: ... History warns presidents that second terms are never Sunday picnics, and the unfolding — exploding is more accurate — of the story of what really happened on a violent night in Benghazi, Libya , and the days that followed is Barack Obama ’s introduction to his next four years. We probably ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Nearly everyone suspects that Mr. Obama , trying to avoid questions about the mishandling of Benghazi, was running out the clock, hoping to stumble past the election before being overtaken by facts and hard reality. Some of the congressional Republicans are talking bravely now about getting to the bottom of the sordid story, and the Democrats give every sign of attempting to squelch and evade: let’s move on, nothing to see here. But maybe there is something to see. The press had no interest in the Benghazi story when it could have been the campaign show-stopper, but now some of stars of print and screen are slowly coming out of their self-induced coma. Se...

Eli Lake: The woman at the center of the alleged adultery scandal that led CIA Director David Petraeus to resign on Friday gave a speech last month asserting otherwise unreported information about the Benghazi attack that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. Speaking on Oct. 26 at the University of Denver, Paula Broadwell—the married author of the highly favorable biography of Petraeus All In —was asked about the 9/11 anniversary attack. “Now I don’t know if a lot of you heard this,” she replied, “but the CIA annex had actually—had taken a couple of Libyan militia members prisoner and they think that the attack on the consulate was an effort to try to get these prisoners back. So that’s still being vetted.” (It’s possible Broadwell was confusing details broadcast ealier that day by Fox News correspondent Jennifer Griffen, who’d reported that three of the Libyan attackers were briefly held at the annex—not the consulate—before being turned over to...