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blm

(113,040 posts)
Thu Oct 22, 2015, 12:13 PM Oct 2015

March/2015: Petraeus' plea deal sheds more REAL light on Benghazi than HRC's emails

Maybe Petraeus’ Plea Deal Is More Interesting to the Benghazi Report than Hillary’s Emails?

Published March 5, 2015 | By emptywheel
There is an exception to every rule, standard operating procedure, and poli­cy; it is up to leaders to determine when exceptions should be made and to ex­plain why they made them.

— David Petraeus’ Rules for Living, as presented by Paula Broadwell as they were being caught in an FBI investigation
Predictably, Trey Gowdy has subpoenaed more information about Hillary Clinton’s email personal email revealed this week.

But it seems he also ought to call David Petraeus in for another chat about Benghazi in light of details in the former CIA Director’s plea deal.

That’s because the Plea Documents show that the investigation into Petraeus and Paula Broadwell intersects with the Benghazi investigation in ways that are even more interesting than was already clear. Consider what those two timelines look like when you add in the fact that Petraeus lied to the FBI about leaking information to his mistress on October 26, 2012, which has been updated from this post (note that contemporaneous reporting dated Petraeus’ FBI interview to October 29).

From the sex and leaking standpoint, the revised timeline is interesting because it shows Petraeus and Broadwell together at — of all places! — the annual celebration for old-style subterfuge, the OSS dinner, between the time Petraeus lied to the FBI and the time Broadwell was interviewed a second time.

But from a Benghazi perspective, it shows that on the same day Petraeus lied to the FBI, Paula Broadwell made the accusation that the attack was really about freeing militia members held at the CIA annex. The next day Petraeus and Broadwell hobnobbed together among the old style spooks. and then days later — even as an FBI whistleblower was forcing the investigation into the public, without which it might have been dropped — Petraeus went on a “fact-finding” mission to Cairo, in part to consult with some of the people involved in the Benghazi response.
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https://www.emptywheel.net/2015/03/05/maybe-petraeus-plea-deal-is-more-interesting-to-the-benghazi-report-than-hillarys-emails/

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TwilightGardener

(46,416 posts)
1. Too many Repubs from Congress/Senate, too many Repub allies like Leon Panetta
Thu Oct 22, 2015, 12:16 PM
Oct 2015

involved, for them to ever get to the bottom of this fiasco. That's why it's all been political, but no real meat.

TwilightGardener

(46,416 posts)
5. That's not true, there are publicly-known CIA ops--the whole Syrian rebel thing, that
Thu Oct 22, 2015, 03:21 PM
Oct 2015

was pretty open--it went on for several years, with everyone knowing about it. I never got how Obama derided the arming-rebels idea while still obviously doing it. The reason we don't know what was going on in Libya is because it will get a lot of very high level people in trouble--end of story.

blm

(113,040 posts)
6. Not this one at the particular time when violent, deadly protests were going on
Thu Oct 22, 2015, 03:28 PM
Oct 2015

for weeks in the aftermath of that video and the main targets were US embassies and consulates. Context is everything.

TwilightGardener

(46,416 posts)
7. Well, it was three years ago, the people involved are all presumably in other
Thu Oct 22, 2015, 03:30 PM
Oct 2015

assignments and the mission ended (such as it was). No reason why we can't explore it now, without giving up any names of CIA personnel or other helpers, of course.

leveymg

(36,418 posts)
2. Benghazi!!! is a convenient, partisan diversion that like Whitewater cut off lines of investigation
Thu Oct 22, 2015, 01:00 PM
Oct 2015

into the role of the Clintons in BCCI and Iran-Contra. Distraction from covert operations is a bipartisan affair, just as the Clintons were a useful part of Bushwing CIA covert operations.

To complete the thought, Benghazi!!! is cover for the Petraeus CIA and Clinton State Dept serial regime change operations that moved guns and Jihadis from Libya to Syria, a clandestine activity with catastrophic results. Now, this well, too, has been poisoned.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
9. I wonder if Lt. Col. Ted Westhusing read Gen. Petraeus' ''Rules for Living''?
Thu Oct 22, 2015, 06:29 PM
Oct 2015
Is David Petraeus Dirty? Ted Westheusing Said So, and Then He Shot Himself

By Melina Hussein Ripcoco, Brilliant at Breakfast
Alternet.org
April 8, 2008

Ted Westhusing, was a champion basketball player at Jenks High School in Tulsa Oklahoma. A driven kid with a strong work ethic, he would show up at the gym at 7AM to throw 100 practice shots before school. He was driven academically too, becoming a National Merritt Scholarship finalist. His career through West Point and straight into overseas service was sterling, and by 2000 he had enrolled in Emory University to earn his doctorate in Philosophy. His dissertation was on honor and the ethics of war, with the opening containing the following passage: "Born to be a warrior, I desire these answers not just for philosophical reasons, but for self-knowledge." Would that all military commanders took such an interest in the study of ethics and morality and what our conduct in times of war says about our development as human beings. Would that any educational system in this country taught ethics, decision making, or even political science that's not part of an advanced degree anymore.

Ted Westhusing, the soldier, philosopher and ethicist, was given a guaranteed lifetime teaching position and West Point by the time he had finished with his service and his education. he felt like he could do more for his country by trying to shape the minds coming out of the academy that were the ones that would be military commanders. He had settled into that life with his wife and kids, when in 2004 he volunteered for active duty in Iraq, feeling like the experience would help his teaching. He had missed combat in his active duty and it seemed like an important piece for someone who not only philosophized about war, but who was also preparing the military's future leaders.

But more than that, he was sure that the Iraq mission was a just one; he supported the cause and he bought the information that was put in front of him. Considering that vials of powder were being tossed around hearings by the highest level of military commanders how could he not? This was a man who was so steeped in the patriotism of idealistic military fervor that he barely could fit in regular society. His whole being was dedicated to this path, and he was proud to serve his country.

Once in Iraq, he found himself straddling the fence between a questioning philosopher and an unquestioning soldier. Westhusing had thought he was freeing a country in bondage, keeping America safe from a horrible threat, and spreading democracy to a grateful people. But the reality of what was happening in this out of control war was too much for him. His mission was to oversee one of the most important tasks left from the war; retraining the Iraqi military by overseeing the private contractors that had been put in charge of it.

As the assignment went on he found that everywhere he looked he was seeing corrupt contractors doing shoddy work, abusing people, and stealing from the government. These contractors were being paid to do many of the jobs that would normally be done by a regulated military, and they bore out the worst fears of those who don't believe in outsourcing such vital work. He responded to the corruption that he saw by reporting the problems up the line, but the response from his commanding officers was disappointing. He had, for much of his career, idolized military commanders, and in that assignment he found himself with some of the military's most famous faces, doing the most important job, but he was terribly disappointed and alarmed to realize that they were greedy and corrupt themselves.

CONTINUED...

http://www.alternet.org/story/81678/is_david_petraeus_dirty_ted_westhusing_said_so,_and_then_he_shot_himself

What kind of people make money off war? Besides the contractors?
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