Breaking: Petraeus Resigns

[bayonetbrant]

In a strange coincidence I ran across an article a couple of days ago that mentioned a general who was fired for sexual harassment. At the time the article didn't mention a name. When the Petraeus story broke I thought it might be him, but looking back I found an article which clarifies it definitely was not.

Weird. Two similar stories (sorta) break withing a couple of days of each other.

U.S. Army prosecutors unveiled a laundry list of charges Monday against a one-star general they say sexually abused women who worked under him.

Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Allen Sinclair, 50, was accused of brazen harassment of four women since 2008, including forcing them to send sexually explicit photos of themselves to him and in one case using his Army rank to compel a sexual relationship be continued, prosecutors said.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2012/11/05/Army-general-charged-with-sex-abuse/UPI-42421352142792/

I'm afraid it's another case of "just because you can doesn't mean you should."

And also probably someone who thinks the rules seem to apply to everyone but them.

The Sinclair case is all over the news here b/c our local channels also cover Fayetteville, and Sinclair is based out of Ft Bragg.  If even 1/2 of what's alleged of Sinclair is true, he's right-and-proper-fooked for life

[LongBlade]

The Sinclair case is all over the news here b/c our local channels also cover Fayetteville, and Sinclair is based out of Ft Bragg.  If even 1/2 of what's alleged of Sinclair is true, he's right-and-proper-fooked for life

Yup. Just ran across a couple of articles alleging he was under investigation for sharing emails with her while in A'stan.

The FBI surveilled him for apparently his entire time at the CIA.

Even worse? Apparently after they had their case they were asked not to bring it until after the election so as not to interfere with the results.

Seriously? How is that allowed to happen? Rumors on the news is that Holder is thinking of leaving Justice. Can you spell f-a-l-l-g-u-y?

Still, the FBI, Justice Department, and the White House held off on asking for Petraeus' resignation until after the election. His resignation occurred three days after the election, avoiding the possibility that Obama's ill-fated appointment of Petraeus could become an issue in the election.

FBI agents on the case were aware that such a decision had been made to hold off on forcing him out until after the election and were outraged.

"The decision was made to delay the resignation apparently to avoid potential embarrassment to the president before the election," an FBI source says. "To leave him in such a sensitive position where he was vulnerable to potential blackmail for months compromised our security and is inexcusable."

Source: http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/petraeus-resigns-cia-affair/2012/11/09/id/463573

[LongBlade]

Also heard a rumor she got preggers while over in the sandbox. Hmmm.

[Toonces]

This story really makes me sad.

When I was at Centcom, I would brief him (or whoever was senior when he was out of town) every morning during the daily commander's brief.  What was cool about that was that afterwards, I would go back to the watch floor and they would stream the commander's brief on one of the big screens on the watch floor.  Very frequently, after some interesting piece of intel he would go on pretty long monologues about fighting the war, and I was always absolutely enthralled listening to him speak.  He was very, very intelligent and I always felt like I was extremely priveleged to get that inside look on how things worked.   I don't know a good analogy...I guess it would be like if you were a super computer nerd and you got to listen to Steve Jobs talk off the cuff about computer design every morning.

Even though I know he wouldn't be able to pick me out of a crowd, I found him extremely charismatic and he really inspired loyalty in me.  This story disappoints me because he is so brilliant, has had an absolutely outstanding career, and this poor judgement must be devastating to him personally.

The whole thing is just a bummer.  I know what he did is wrong, but he's still a hero in my book.

[MikeGER]

Personally, I don't equate an extra-marital affair with job incompetence. 

the fail is not the affair, the fail is to let it slip out

if the director of the CIA is not able to hide 'his' little secret with OPSEC, before other agencies casual checking routine and the press, he is lacking some basic tradecraft in the gumshoe/spook's -biz.
...also he should know looong before, when his cover may getting blown and just move forward: separate from the wife (i bet the marriage was over anyway) and make the girlfriend official.

so i bet its a smoke granate to hide some other political reasons?
Petraeus knew his stuff in my book     

[bayonetbrant]

The issue is not just an OPSEC issue for the leader, it's retaining his ability to enforce the standard on those who work for him where OPSEC does matter.

How can Petraeus sit at the top of an organization, having endured lesser consequences for his affair, when someone below him gets rightly fired for having an affair that might legitimately be an OPSEC issue?

And word coming out now is that the affair was with the women who wrote his biography.  No wonder it was such a positive book! ;)

[GDS_Starfury]

no doubt she got to know they hardness of his character.

[MetalDog]

Character?  Is that what the kids are calling it nowadays?  ;-)

[GDS_Starfury]

the firmness of his manhood?

[Longdan]

Softness of his judgement.

[LongBlade]

Length of his service?

[GDS_Starfury]

we shall leave no thread un-punned!

[LongBlade]

More questions arise. Pat Buchanan is speculating as to why Petraeus testified that there was a protest when clearly none had happened.

"Now, here's Gen. Petraeus's problem, and as you've alluded to — It's September 14. September 11, his own safe house in Benghazi, with a couple of hero SEALs there, who, went over also to the compound — they were killed in a firefight on and off that lasted seven hours. Are you telling me that the head of the CIA did not know three days later that this was a firefight and an al-Qaida attack and he thought it was a protest over a video?"

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/11/10/pat-buchanan-asks-whether-cia-blew-it-with-initial-field-investigation-of-petraeus/

[bayonetbrant]

Premature commentation?

[GDS_Starfury]

obama did ask to vote for revenge.