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CIA director Petraeus quits over extramarital affair
By The Associated Press
This article was originally published November 9, 2012 at 2:10 p.m. Updated November 9, 2012 at 2:31 p.m.
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PHOTO BY AP
FILE: CIA Director Gen. David Petraeus testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, June 23, 2011, before the Senate Intelligence Committee during a hearing on his nomination. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
WASHINGTON — David Petraeus has resigned as director of the CIA after admitting he had an extramarital affair.
According to his letter of resignation, Petraeus asked President Barack Obama on Thursday to allow him to resign and on Friday the president accepted.
Petraeus said in a statement that he had shown "extremely poor judgment" in having the affair.
Petraeus has been married for 37 years to Holly Petraeus, whom he met when he was a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
The retired four-star general led the military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, then took the helm of the CIA in September 2011.
The CIA had no immediate comment.
Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
Comments on: CIA director Petraeus quits over extramarital affair
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ToTheLeft says... November 9, 2012 at 2:23 p.m.
Ruh Roh
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SRBROTHERINLAW says... November 9, 2012 at 2:26 p.m.
General don't resign because of that. Name a gub'rment head who hasn't had one.
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dman says... November 9, 2012 at 2:30 p.m.
Benghazi
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HotSpringsLawyer says... November 9, 2012 at 2:40 p.m.
Director of CIA can't expose himself to pillow talk with possible femme fatale spy, or subject himself to possible blackmail.
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SoonerHawg says... November 9, 2012 at 2:40 p.m.
Somebody had to go for Benghazi....and its not going to be the prez or a Clinton. Maybe thats why Bill was stumping so hard.
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Fdworfe says... November 9, 2012 at 2:53 p.m.
It is as much a shame as it is a fact, and at least to this point in our country's history, no one has a clue what to do about such an injustice.
A military officer earns the utmost respect of his country, has a spotless record, lays his life on the line countless times--then with one human mistake, he's condemned forever by all that he has served so faithfully.
No, I can't excuse a violation of "the code", but I can and do voice a revulsion at the severity of the double and draconian standards we impose upon our finest military officers for making the kind of mistake that we civilians do little more than shrug off when we regularly commit even greater offenses.
The operative word here is hypocrisy, pure and simple. It may exercise our righteous indignation, but somehow it hardly becomes us as a fair and compassionate country.
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picexpert says... November 9, 2012 at 3:41 p.m.
He's so ugly, who would want 2 sleep with that goon face?!?
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GottaMakeIt says... November 9, 2012 at 3:42 p.m.
I tend to believe SoonerHawg has the correct answer. (ToTheLeft...what is Ruh Roh?...does it even have meaning?)
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Reason says... November 9, 2012 at 4:58 p.m.
Yesterday afternoon, I went to the White House and asked the President to be allowed, for personal reasons, to resign from my position as D/CIA. After being married for over 37 years, I showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair. Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours. This afternoon, the President graciously accepted my resignation.
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As I depart Langley, I want you to know that it has been the greatest of privileges to have served with you, the officers of our Nation’s Silent Service, a work force that is truly exceptional in every regard. Indeed, you did extraordinary work on a host of critical missions during my time as director, and I am deeply grateful to you for that.
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Teddy Roosevelt once observed that life’s greatest gift is the opportunity to work hard at work worth doing. I will always treasure my opportunity to have done that with you and I will always regret the circumstances that brought that work with you to an end.
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Thank you for your extraordinary service to our country, and best wishes for continued success in the important endeavors that lie ahead for our country and our Agency.
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With admiration and appreciation,
.
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David H. Petraeus
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Posted: Nov 09, 2012 02:50 PM
CIA website
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T6 says... November 9, 2012 at 5:58 p.m.
Isn't it convenient that this comes up now as Petraeus is scheduled to testify in the next few days on Benghazi. Hmmm! I smell a rat.
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liberte09150851 says... November 9, 2012 at 7:16 p.m.
Three days after Obama is reelected he suddenly discloses his affair...oh sure, what will Hillary and the rest of cabinet's excuse be?
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RBBrittain says... November 9, 2012 at 9:24 p.m.
Normally having an affair is NOT an excuse to resign of your own free will; someone was holding it over his head. I've thought Benghazi was overblown, but even I smell a rat.
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(@ThatGal: "Ruh-roh" is a form of "uh-oh" commonly attributed to Scooby-Doo, though it was actually first used by Astro in "The Jetsons"--both voiced by the same actor, Don Messick. Both Astro & Scooby-Doo often added an "r" to the front of every word, like Elmer Fudd's "w" as in "wascally wabbit".)
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BillSmith says... November 9, 2012 at 10:48 p.m.
T6...................
From someone who's been ther:
Former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice broke with the majority of her party last night on Fox News, as she tried to hit the brakes on the right wing’s politicization of the recent attack in Libya.
Host Greta Van Susteren asked Rice directly and repeatedly about a set of emails uncovered by Reuters. In what has been dubbed “Benghazi-Gate,” the conservative media has jumped on the emails as definitive proof that the Obama administration has been lying about what it knew and when in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attack on a diplomatic mission in Benghazi. Rice’s response was likely not what Van Susteren expected:
RICE: But when things are unfolding very, very quickly, it’s not always easy to know what is really going on on the ground. And to my mind, the really important questions here are about how information was collected. Did the various agencies really coordinate and share intelligence in the way that we had hoped, with the reforms that were made after 9/11?
So there’s a big picture to be examined here. But we don’t have all of the pieces, and I think it’s easy to try and jump to conclusions about what might have happened here. It’s probably better to let the relevant bodies do their work.
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T6 says... November 10, 2012 at 8:38 a.m.
Petraeus needs to be compelled to testify. Rice is a little naive.
BillSmith.... Did you see who's doing the investigating? We will not get all the pieces.
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HotSpringsLawyer says... November 10, 2012 at 9:51 a.m.
Oh come on - someone has to be blamed?? Wouldn't you have to "blame" him then, which the administration has not? Election is over.
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billg3112091102 says... November 10, 2012 at 11:10 a.m.
General seems to be a class guy. He made a big mistake and seems to want to keep the damage to a minimum. He did the right thing.
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Populist says... November 10, 2012 at 11:20 a.m.
If people resigned for having affairs, the halls of congress would be half empty. It's not like he had an affair with a spy. Obama should not have accepted his resignation.
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DontDrinkDatKoolAid says... November 10, 2012 at 1:59 p.m.
RBBrittain your good.
~
Pop ... Ditto.
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BillSmith says... November 10, 2012 at 4:39 p.m.
T6.....Rice has been there and done that, armchair generals as yourself are the ones that are naive.
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T6 says... November 10, 2012 at 5:02 p.m.
My comment about Rice being naive meant that she probably has no concept of the lengths this administration will go to keep any scandal from being connected to Obama.
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RonalFos says... November 10, 2012 at 9:53 p.m.
Security clearances are hard to get and easy to lose. Having a secret affair can cost even low level government employees to lose their all important clearances and without the appropriate clearance it is impossible to do the your job. This is a sad business that will taint the record of a great man.
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