CIA Director Petraeus Resigns

By on November 9, 2012 in News 39

Petraeus cites an extramarital affair as the reason for his resignation. Wonder what the real reason was? Via MSN:

The CIA director said he was resigning because he had exercised “extremely poor judgment’ in conducting an extra-marital affair.

In a statement to the CIA workforce, Petraeus wrote, “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.”

“Dave’s decision to step down represents the loss of one of our nation’s most respected public servants,” Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said in a statement, according to Reuters. “From his long, illustrious Army career to his leadership at the helm of CIA, Dave has redefined what it means to serve and sacrifice for one’s country.”.

Obama accepted the resignation and said the general has “made our country safer and stronger,” according to the Associated Press.

Keep reading.

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  • alizardx

    I agree with Obama that the general has “made our country safer and stronger,” he just did that by resigning. I wonder if there actually was an “extramarital affair”.

  • Hadrian999

    probably wants to take a private sector job for much more cash

    • Anarchy Pony

      Haters gonna hate, revolving doors gonna rotate.

    • http://www.facebook.com/eric.fischer.73 Eric Fischer

      He’s always been quite the adept social climber.

    • Liam_McGonagle

      Probably.

      But still, I imagine it could make the interview a little awkward:

      Q: ‘You have a very impressive resume there, Mr. Petraeus. But tell me, why did you leave your last job?’

      A: ‘Well, I lied to the FBI when they were doing my background check. I was having an extramarital affair with one of the agency’s vendors. Could mean 20 years in prison for lying under oath to a government investigator.’

      Q: ‘Thank you very much for your interest in our company, Mr. Petraeus. We wish you every success in your future endeavours.’

      • Liam_McGonagle

        But then again he was CIA director. Interviewing him would be like interviewing a guy named Yvgeny with a tattoo scrawled across his face. You might not like the looks of it, but it might a mistake to challenge him too much.

      • Hadrian999

        unless the interviewer is a former buddy from the military or a westpoint pal who is working in a pmc or for an arms dealer and sees willingness to lie to the feds as a plus.

  • Ted Heistman

    The CIA: Public servants, slaving away in secret and unaccountable to the electorate.

    • Hadrian999

      welcome to every bureaucracy

      • http://twitter.com/TedHeistman Ted Heistman

        Except that the other bureaucracies don’t have drones(yet).

        • Hadrian999

          drones are probably the least scary thing the CIA does

    • Liam_McGonagle

      Well thank God they waited until after the election to do the reveal.

  • Matt Staggs

    Buzz Coastin in 5…4…3…2…

    • BuzzCoastin

      nah, not much I could say here
      but it is interesting that just like ancient Rome
      sex scandals were more likely to get you bounced out of office
      than if you had committed a real crime

  • Raz

    I find strange just after Obama’s reelection the director of the CIA resigning over sush stupid motive. Probably the powers that be whant to put in charge someone with much less scruples.

    • Carl_Brutanananadilewski

      Once an affair comes to light Petraeus temporarily loses his security clearance until the CIA can prove there wasn’t any undue duress (read: blackmail attempts) placed on him because of the affair. Without security clearance it’s pretty difficult to run the CIA. So, instead, he reisgned.

      • Raz

        Or maybe Obama is more of the vindictive type and decided to screw him once more for that Rollin Stone fiasco.

        • Calypso_1

          …that was McChrystal.

          • Raz

            They all look the same to me. Must be the uniform.

      • Hadrian999

        i don’t think most people understand all the things that will cause someone to lose a security clearance

        • http://www.facebook.com/eric.fischer.73 Eric Fischer

          I’m usually more amazed at the things that don’t cause someone to lose a security clearance.

  • InfvoCuernos

    I wonder how long he’s got before he develops some kind of brain tumor or has an “unfortunate accident”?

  • “Big” Richard Johnson

    Looks like Hans Landa.

    Bingo!

  • Carl_Brutanananadilewski

    FYI folks once a member of the CIA has an affair come to light they lose their security clearance while the CIA investigates to see if said affair was used in any way to blackmail the person. It’s pretty difficult to run the CIA without top level security clearance hence the resignation. It could’ve been months before Petraeus was given his clearance back not to mention with the cat of out of the bag his credibly has been publicly ruined (we all know it was ruined ages ago, but that isn’t publicly consumed info) and then add in his inability to do his job and it makes no sense for him to keep working when he couldn’t work and people around him would be questioning his integrity. (Yeah, yeah I know, like he had any left.)

    • alizardx

      A top spook, especially one who’s been touted as a genius in the mass media is supposed to know something about tradecraft, i.e. he’s supposed to be competent enough to manage the problematic aspect of his personal affairs so that nobody who doesn’t need to know from his POV ever finds out. He was running his personal correspondence with the woman he had an affair with VIA GMAIL?

      If the story is really what we are being told, his professional competence as well as his integrity should be questioned. But there are other reasons to do this.

      • Hadrian999

        the top spook isn’t really the top spook, he is generally a non-spook who runs the spooks, in theory similar to the idea of a civilian commander in chief. someone without ties of loyalty or bonds of friendship with those he is supposed to be overseeing. a career spy is the last thing a government would want as it’s go between with spies.

        • alizardx

          Petraeus wasn’t always CIA Director… he spent a lot of time running counterinsurgency ops that use a lot of the same kind of tradecraft. In any case, people who don’t understand the nuts and bolts of covert operations should not be running them. The concept that a person who understands modern management techniques need not have any detailed understanding of what they are managing always has struck me as batshit.

          • Hadrian999

            the CEO of ford does not need to know how to run a production line, he just needs to set policy and priorities. a general does not need to know every MOS to command troops. He needs to set policy, Doctrine, and overall goals then allow the specialists to figure out how they will achieve those goals.

          • alizardx

            While judging from his Wikipedia bio, he’s the perfect military example of the management philosophy sold to us by the media, the concept that a person need not be expert in any aspect of whatever it is he’s supposed to be managing to judge the performance of his subordinates is still absurd. Next time we get a CIA Director, better to hire a spook.

    • chinagreenelvis

      Thanks, that explains a lot, honestly.

    • Calypso_1

      Absolutely, same with military. Among commissioned officers, Court marshals for marital affairs are quite common. Its seen as a big black mark on integrity & a liability for both security & trust in command.

  • Guest

    Who gives a fuck who he fucks? Having an affair is not a reason to leave your job. Doing a shitty job at your job is a good reason. Not wanting to do the job anymore is a good reason. Being unable to do your job at all is also a good reason, but is being unfaithful to your wife still such a valid reason to be targeted to the point where staying in your position undermines your ability to continue performing?

  • Apathesis

    What a dope. Don’t fuck crazy chicks or correspond with them through e-mail. Of course they are going to try and hack into your account.

  • InfvoCuernos

    ok, now I’ve seen pics of the mistress-Paula Broadwell- and if I was stuck in the Sand for a year, and she was sitting at my knee writing my biography and hanging on my every word, I might have done something too.

    • Calypso_1

      yeah…he’s never going to live down the title of that bio now.

  • Andrew