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“It was basically a palace coup to get Petraeus out of there”

‘It was well known to Petraeus’s Personal Security Detachment (bodyguards) that he and Broadwell were having an affair. He wasn’t the only high-ranking Agency head or general engaged in extramarital relations, but when the 7th floor wanted Petraeus out, they cashed in their chips,’ Webb and Murphy write.

The book continues: ‘The reality of the situation is that high-ranking CIA officers had already discovered the affair by consulting with Petraeus’s PSD and then found a way to initiate an FBI investigation in order to create a string of evidence and an investigative trail that led to the information they already had—in other words, an official investigation that could be used to force Petraeus to resign.’

Webb and Murphy said the CIA bureaucracy wanted Petraeus out of the CIA. Senior officials were furious over the way he had been running the agency since he was appointed in September 2011.

He was turning the agency’s focus from intelligence gathering and analysis to paramilitary operations, including drone strikes.

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Webb and Murphy said the CIA bureaucracy wanted Petraeus out of the CIA.

BS. The Indonesian Dog-eater and his junta wanted Petraeus out, to cover for their Benghazi criminality. And Petraeus deserved what he got because he was part of that junta, until they turned on him when they needed a minor distraction.

Petraeus was a total idiot and immoral POS for taking the CIA job with this hanging over him, to start. What sort of a total moron does something stupid like that? It must be because of global warming.

ThePrimordialOrderedPair on February 10, 2013 at 12:17 PM

The book continues: ‘The reality of the situation is that high-ranking CIA officers had already discovered the affair by consulting with Petraeus’s PSD and then found a way to initiate an FBI investigation in order to create a string of evidence and an investigative trail that led to the information they already had—in other words, an official investigation that could be used to force Petraeus to resign.’

The affair left Petraeus in a vulnerable position to those who wanted to exert pressure on him, influence him, or in this case remove him. As director of the CIA he knew better and didn’t care.

sharrukin on February 10, 2013 at 12:20 PM

I’m with sharrukin on this. I am sure that there are always power struggles going on inter-agency but Petraeus left himself wide open with his own lack of self restraint. Also, not very spyey getting caught like that.

Cindy Munford on February 10, 2013 at 12:23 PM

I’m not discounting the possibility that the WH also had something to do with this, wanting to neutralize Petraeus while pushing him out of the way. Also, they’ll need someone to blame when it becomes obvious Dear Leader’s Afghanistan policy was a complete failure that wasted thousands of US lives.

The whole thing has the odor of Chicago Way stink all over it.

farsighted on February 10, 2013 at 12:25 PM

It was basically a palace coup to get Petraeus out of there”

no sh*t sherlock

unseen on February 10, 2013 at 12:26 PM

BS. The Indonesian Dog-eater and his junta wanted Petraeus out, to cover for their Benghazi criminality. And Petraeus deserved what he got because he was part of that junta, until they turned on him when they needed a minor distraction.

Petraeus was a total idiot and immoral POS for taking the CIA job with this hanging over him, to start. What sort of a total moron does something stupid like that? It must be because of global warming.

ThePrimordialOrderedPair on February 10, 2013 at 12:17 PM

All that, too.

farsighted on February 10, 2013 at 12:26 PM

farsighted on February 10, 2013 at 12:25 PM

The Won probably picked the ghost writer, still no excuses.

Cindy Munford on February 10, 2013 at 12:27 PM

Another interpretation: “I’m going to kill off all this POTUS talk by getting caught in an extramarital affair with a woman who is 1,000 times hotter than my wife and I’ll never have to deal with political questions again. So, blow me!” – Gen. David Petraeus, US Army (Ret.)

ExpressoBold on February 10, 2013 at 12:31 PM

More evidence that the media is a joke. This book is written by former military. Journos missed the n Africa escalation, petraeus affair, his ousting, and the Benghazi coverup. Good grief.

Steven McGregor on February 10, 2013 at 12:31 PM

It wasn’t Ogabe that coup’d him – it was his own people.

HondaV65 on February 10, 2013 at 12:35 PM

I’m with sharrukin on this. I am sure that there are always power struggles going on inter-agency but Petraeus left himself wide open with his own lack of self restraint. Also, not very spyey getting caught like that.

Cindy Munford on February 10, 2013 at 12:23 PM

Not just inter-agency power struggles. A false flag operation could be mounted where he is pressured to provide information to another agency, an ally, or a news reporter who is in fact an agent of a foreign government. Paula Broadwell or one of her friends could have been one.

Someone approaches him having heard about the affair and is ‘concerned’ at the harm this could do to his career, and BTW could you give me some information that isn’t security related? It could be put very subtly but he would have to ask himself if he wants to annoy someone by refusing, who can damage his career and he isn’t asking for much. If he does it justs gets deeper and deeper until he is looking at what amounts to treason, or what can be made to look like treason.

sharrukin on February 10, 2013 at 12:36 PM

ThePrimordialOrderedPair on February 10, 2013 at 12:17 PM

Dittos. The WH set him up, and the WH took him down. The WH had the good on him from the start. Petraeus was a fool ever to accept the CIA job.

petefrt on February 10, 2013 at 12:43 PM

good goods

petefrt on February 10, 2013 at 12:43 PM

People believe this?

Dusty on February 10, 2013 at 12:47 PM

He was turning the agency’s focus from intelligence gathering and analysis to paramilitary operations, including drone strikes.

If so, the others’ motives make even more sense.

aryeung on February 10, 2013 at 12:59 PM

People believe this?

Dusty on February 10, 2013 at 12:47 PM

Inter-agency bickering is a reality. The Gen. was a political appointee. I think he was put in that position to be thrown under the bus, personally. Just to silence whatever politics he may be involved with in the future.

Gatekeeper on February 10, 2013 at 1:00 PM

(Deputy National Security Advisor) John Brennan also ran a highly compartmentalized program out of the White House in regard to weapons transfers, and Stevens would not have been trusted with that type of information. Stevens likely helped consolidate as many weapons as possible after the war to safeguard them, at which point Brennan exported them overseas to start another conflict.

The affair aside, this book excerpt alone is reminiscent of Iran-Contra that everyone had a fit over. There is so much more here and the so called media ignore everything. Fast and Furious was more than enough but combined with Benghazi should have tanked this admin. This whole thing will fade away just like F&F. It’s not like anyone would be punished in any fair and substantial way anyway. This admin is the most lying bunch of ******* ever.

Russ86 on February 10, 2013 at 1:08 PM

Inter-agency bickering is a reality. The Gen. was a political appointee. I think he was put in that position to be thrown under the bus, personally. Just to silence whatever politics he may be involved with in the future.

[Gatekeeper on February 10, 2013 at 1:00 PM]

Oh I understand that. And I do agree it was to throw him under the bus. I was questioning the purported reason, i.e., ’7th floor’ powers because of overemphasis on drone strikes. And since when do personal security details rat out their boss in such a casual way.

Dusty on February 10, 2013 at 1:12 PM

Also from the article…

‘It’s almost like they wanted him not just to resign but that they wanted him kicked out of the political game for at least a number of years,’ Murphy told MailOnline…

The authors claim that Petraeus was already on his way out when the scandal broke. They learned weeks before that he was interviewing for teaching jobs at Princeton University.

Petraeus was furious, they say, because he was kept in the dark about the raids being conducted without his knowledge by the Pentagon’s Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) across Libya and North Africa…

The central premise of ‘Benghazi: The Definitive Report’ is that the attacks were precipitated by secret raids JSOC had performed in Libya. An attack on the Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia days before September 11 may have been the final straw.

And from the Amazon listing for the book.

Written by the team of former Special Operations warriors who run SOFREP.com, here is the definitive account of what happened before, during, and after the deadly Benghazi attack.

On September 12th, 2012, Brandon Webb learned Glen Doherty, one of his closest friends and his former Navy SEAL teammate, was killed alongside Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and two other Americans when the U.S. State Department and CIA headquarters in Benghazi, Libya, were sieged in a shocking terrorist attack. For the next four months, Webb and his team at SOFREP.com, the world’s premier Special Ops website, embarked on a relentless investigation to understand exactly what happened to their countrymen, as well as the roles played by the Obama administration, State Department, and CIA. Drawing on unmatched sources, they spoke to individuals who would talk to no one else, including fellow Special Operations team members familiar with the African theatre, and well-placed contacts in the Washington intelligence community. This is their report–an unforgettably gripping minute-by-minute narrative of the events and their aftermath as they really unfolded on that terrible day in Libya.

So it is about Benghazi. And at first glance the authors seem to have some credibility.

farsighted on February 10, 2013 at 1:15 PM

Another excuse. A coup? Lol. The fact is that Betrayus couldn’t keep it in his pants. That very minute, he became a liability. Blaming X, Y or Z is convenient now. He became open to blackmail then and there. So if its a coup (which is laughable), so be it. Can we make him more of a victim? Lol

tommy71 on February 10, 2013 at 1:59 PM

Night of the Long Knives.

Obama and his evil regime making every US institution sharia compliant.

tom daschle concerned on February 10, 2013 at 2:18 PM

The CIA is only two things left:

1. A puerile operation, like all others.

2. Lawyered up, to covered their azzes.

Gone are the glorious days of the CIA.

Schadenfreude on February 10, 2013 at 2:39 PM