CIA director resigns

[kirstenb1]

I can't imagine being in this situation and even thinking there was a choice other than to resign. How humiliating for anyone close to him.

 

[DebbieB]

Yes. I don't believe for one second that this was because of an affair, whether he actually had one or not. I'm shocked that anyone would believe that. He was supposed to testify about Benghazi. Now he isn't. How convenient.

I don't understand how resigning would get him out of testifying about an incident while he was in office. He can still be called to testify.

 

[penn19]

If everyone in D.C. resigned due to having an affair there would be few left . There is so much more to this story then any of us will ever know . He'll be a scapegoat for whatever is coming down the pipe.

Yep!

 

[Scurvy]

I don't understand how resigning would get him out of testifying about an incident while he was in office. He can still be called to testify.

He can, and he ought to be, but what I heard this afternoon was that he was no longer going to be. I hope that turns out not to be true.

 

[momof1princess]

He can, and he ought to be, but what I heard this afternoon was that he was no longer going to be. I hope that turns out not to be true.

i read that someone else (can't remember his name) was going to testify in petraeus' place.

 

[Scurvy]

i read that someone else (can't remember his name) was going to testify in petraeus' place.

Mike Morell, the Deputy CIA director, is supposed to testify instead.

 

[A_Princess'_Daddy]

No, it doesn't. Not if he admits it, which he has. He could have admitted the affair to the people who oversee his clearance and that would be that.

The issue is that even if he admits it to his superiors, or even if he admits it to his wife, or even if he came clean to the nation, an enemy agent could still attempt to use it against him, such as threatening to tell the graphic details to his children, threatening to sell the salacious details to a tabloid, etc. It doesn't mean that the enemy agent would be successful, but given the power of innuendo in this country, it could have put him in an untenable position. This is why extramarital affairs are terminable offenses with the CIA and one of the reasons they are outlawed by the Uniform Code of Military Conduct; they open the offender up to risk that is unacceptable in that community because it is a community wholly dependent on being able to trust your network while penetrating the enemy's.

By resigning, it goes away and while I'm sure the media will try to dig up details, it doesn't matter to national security anymore.

 

[Zachsmom4]

If everyone in D.C. resigned due to having an affair there would be few left . There is so much more to this story then any of us will ever know . He'll be a scapegoat for whatever is coming down the pipe.

This.

 

[momto2girls]

There is so much more to this story then any of us will ever know . He'll be a scapegoat for whatever is coming down the pipe.

Yep!

 

[LisaR]

Agreed that there is something more going on.

But this certainly is a lesson to be learned. If the head of the CIA can't manage to cover up an affair, others should take note!

 

[allison443]

No surprise he resigned after the election. Either party would have done the same.

That being said his position is compromised by having an affair. I am glad he resigned if he felt that he could no longer do his job as expected.

Now WHO he is with is another matter. I can't wait for that to leak. Anyone heard anything?

It is supposedly the woman who recently wrote a biography of him. They spent a lot of time together in Afghanistan and there were a few rumors but people didn't believe it because he is a straight shooter and considered "square" according to the article. Anyway I heard on the news that there is also a question of whether the woman had access to his emails etc. that she shouldn't have been allowed access to.

 

[A_Princess'_Daddy]

It is supposedly the woman who recently wrote a biography of him. They spent a lot of time together in Afghanistan and there were a few rumors but people didn't believe it because he is a straight shooter and considered "square" according to the article. Anyway I heard on the news that there is also a question of whether the woman had access to his emails etc. that she shouldn't have been allowed access to.

It is also being reported that the affair was discovered while the FBI was investigating an unrelated case (no allegations of illegality connected to his affair, it was just somehow linked), and so it wasn't so much that he confessed and came clean as that he was caught by the FBI breaking the rules of his employer, and when your employer is the CIA and the President of the United States is your boss, the outcome of getting caught by the FBI breaking the rules is pretty much cast in stone.

 

[trip]

The biographer (Broadwell) for resigning CIA Director David Petraeus is under FBI investigation for improperly trying to access his email and possibly gaining access to classified information, law enforcement officials told NBC News on Friday.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/201...-his-email-law-enforcement-officials-say?lite

 

[MickeySP]

Exactly. It puts him in a position to be blackmailed and/or extorted. Spies must be above reproach, and the top spy must be completely above reproach.

Exactly, it is not who but what he did. He left the CIA open to possible compromise.

Never mind it shows such a lack of judgement in an organization that is based on just that.

 

[Robbi]

I don't see why he thought he should resign for this reason. An affair is between him and his wife. Even if someone else was about to break this news publicly, if I were him I'd keep repeating 'no comment, it's between me and my wife'.

I'll bet as head of the CIA, his wife would be the one person who can scare him out of his wits. From everything I've read, she's a warm, charming woman however, a woman scorned and all that.
I feel really bad for her and his family.

 

[ellone]

I'm betting this 'affair' is a fabrication. He probably was going to be called to testify about Libya and they knew he wouldn't lie about what really happened. So to get him out of that, this 'affair' was a way they could get him to resign and not have him testify.

 

[holycow]

bingo. The director of the cia resigns, just a few days before the benghazigate hearing? Gee, that's not the least bit suspicious.

that!

 

[A_Princess'_Daddy]

I'm betting this 'affair' is a fabrication. He probably was going to be called to testify about Libya and they knew he wouldn't lie about what really happened. So to get him out of that, this 'affair' was a way they could get him to resign and not have him testify.

The Congress can easily subpoena him, regardless of whether he has resigned, so this makes so sense at all.

Like others have posted, it appears that the woman with whom he was having an affair tried to hack into his CIA email and that the FBI was investigating her for it, and for his indiscretion he paid with his job.

 

[LisaR]

I'm betting this 'affair' is a fabrication. He probably was going to be called to testify about Libya and they knew he wouldn't lie about what really happened. So to get him out of that, this 'affair' was a way they could get him to resign and not have him testify.

Your theory is that if someone does something wrong, they can just claim they had an affair, resign, and never have to testify?

Why would you think something like a resignation would get anyone out of testifying?

 

[allison443]

I'm betting this 'affair' is a fabrication. He probably was going to be called to testify about Libya and they knew he wouldn't lie about what really happened. So to get him out of that, this 'affair' was a way they could get him to resign and not have him testify.