Petraeus and Broadwell: The Fall of a CIA Director

When CIA Director David Petraeus stepped down on  Nov 9, assertions and accusations flew wildly, as did questions like why? and how? 

And while justifiable questions remain about what the FBI knew and when they knew it, as well as necessary questions about whether anyone in the administration used the outting of Petraeus to cover up the cover up of Benghazi, one thing is certain — the fall of the CIA Director is as sad as it was shocking.

His affair with biographer Paula Broadwell appears to have been discovered when Broadwell became suspicious that there was another woman.   By getting in Petraeus’ email, she found the email of the woman about whom she had suspicions and “sent threatening emails” that scared the woman enough to force her to seek out FBI protection.

The investigation into the emails led to Broadwell, which in turn led to “explicit emails” between Broadwell and Petraeus. These included emails about “sex under the desk” and other things. 

The storyline shows that Broadwell had broken off the affair with Petraeaus in late 2011, when he accepted the position as CIA Director. And in what seems like nothing less than actions of a desperate heart, Petraeus responded to the breakup by sending “thousands of messages” after Broadwell called the affair off. 

Petraeus and Broadwell first met in 2006 when he spoke at Harvard, where she was a graduate student. Broadwell later took on the task of writing Petraeus’ biography, “All In: The Education of David Petraeus.” 

To do this she was embedded with him in Afghanistan “between July 2010 and 2011.”