CIA Director David Petraeus resigns

**Churchill** · 2012-11-09 20:55

I'll agree with McCrystal. That guy is pure genius and I hope that someday his story and what he proposed and accomplished in Iraq gets told.

**Kryssan** · 2012-11-09 22:31

Originally Posted by Mazmaz

I don't understand. How does having an affair affect being the director of the CIA?
What I mean is, why does he have to resign exactly?

Originally Posted by Lucavi

You're in a position of trust and you can't be trusted to not cheat on your wife. Its a compromise of interest and it leads to issues with susceptibility to blackmail or coercion. Most any federal position adopts a similar stance - I know mine does.

Originally Posted by Mazmaz

If it's an issue of blackmail, he can just announce he did it and then say "but that's my personal life". I don't understand why personal life has to affect professional life. Is it a US thing because US is mostly religious?

Originally Posted by Lucavi

Doesn't work that way. You've lost the ability to be trusted in the eyes of your employer, essentially. Trust is trust and a liar is a liar; it probably stems from religion but its also about employees being able to trust a person who is a proven liar. Can we trust them to act in our best interests? Can we trust that they aren't giving secrets out to any hot chick that hits on them?

There's a lot to it, but its pretty simple: you've shown that you cannot be trusted. If you can't protect the sanctity of your marriage on your end, it opens up a lot of other issues. I know that in my job, there's a shit ton of questions I have to ask whenever someone is divorced, including obtaining up-to-date address information, just in case the ex-spouse needs to be interviewed.

^ Pretty much that. There are certain jobs / positions that if you hold, integrity can be the only principle that really matters. And if you ever wind up with an empty integrity bucket, you're done - there is an old, crude, and somewhat odd ( I don't know exactly how it started, but it seems to me to be missing a word or two ) adage to describe this, actually. Integrity is like virginity - first time you use it you lose it, and by the way you're getting fucked.

In my experience it has nothing to do with personal / professional separations or religion or 'murica. It has something to do with blackmail and other items ( which is why for example if you have a high debt / income ratio you can't be in certain positions either ). It has much more to do simply with whether or not you can be trusted. If you can't be trusted with a, b, or c, then how can we trust you to take care of x, y, and z? A good reference is an old Cold War example - how do you pick the captain of a ship armed with nuclear ballistic missiles? On one hand, you have to trust that he / she won't attempt to use them or sell to them or etc. But on the other hand, he / she also has to be willing to push the button when the boss says, knowing full well what will happen when they do.

His position is high enough to be noticed publicly, but I've seen plenty others who've met with similar fates.

**Rhinox** · 2012-11-09 22:49

Originally Posted by Churchill

I'll agree with McCrystal. That guy is pure genius and I hope that someday his story and what he proposed and accomplished in Iraq gets told.

Pat Tillman coverup?

It was quite the accomplishment. You're right.

**Rhinox** · 2012-11-09 22:51

Someone on twitter dug this up. Tell me when you see it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/ma...om-beyond.html

Coincidence? Holy shit if its not.

**Dimmauk** · 2012-11-09 22:54

Originally Posted by venikk

So that makes 3 high-profile military resignations in the past month or so.

Originally Posted by venikk

There's a rumor that he's not going to testify on benghazi incident, like he was supposed to.

LOL.

http://ts3.mm.bing.net/th?id=I.46173...63246&pid=15.1

**Rhinox** · 2012-11-09 22:59

Dimmy you on twitter?

**hey** · 2012-11-09 23:02

Originally Posted by Rhinox

Someone on twitter dug this up. Tell me when you see it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/ma...om-beyond.html

Coincidence? Holy shit if its not.

Amazing.

**Rhinox** · 2012-11-09 23:44

lettuce b real

I'd go all in as well.

**Rhinox** · 2012-11-09 23:47

Originally Posted by Zealot

Someone in a high-ranking government position not only comes out and admits to an affair without any investigation being done into it beforehand, but then steps down from that position over it? That doesn't smell right.

srs?

http://www.accessnorthga.com/detail.php?n=255036

**Rhinox** · 2012-11-09 23:57

Originally Posted by Zealot

Let me quote from that article:

Lets use some common sense here.

Officials say revelations about the affair that led to Friday's resignation of CIA Director David Petraeus were discovered in the course of an FBI investigation.

According to a statement he sent to CIA employees, Petraeus asked President Barack Obama on Thursday to allow him to resign and on Friday the president accepted. Petraeus said he had shown "extremely poor judgment" in having the affair.

What might have spured the investigation you might ask?

I'm glad you asked Zealot.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012...-officials-say

**Churchill** · 2012-11-10 00:35

Sure, they could include the Tillman portion. There's other stuff too.

**Rhinox** · 2012-11-10 00:47

Originally Posted by Churchill

Sure, they could include the Tillman portion. There's other stuff too.

yeah well you see unfortunately I can't get passed the coverup part.

oh well

**Abandon** · 2012-11-10 01:30

some of you are stupid, and should feel bad for being so.

**tyven** · 2012-11-10 02:14

Originally Posted by Rhinox

Someone on twitter dug this up. Tell me when you see it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/ma...om-beyond.html

Coincidence? Holy shit if its not.

yo i seriously fucking LOVE chuck klosterman.

**venikk** · 2012-11-10 04:04

Originally Posted by Dimmauk

LOL.

http://ts3.mm.bing.net/th?id=I.46173...63246&pid=15.1

I never watch fox news...

Here's more sources of that rumor:

http://blog.al.com/live/2012/11/post_274.html

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/...us_657896.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ty-threat.html

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2...zi-It-Wasnt-Me

http://basicsmedia.com/wp-content/up...nderARock1.png

Looks like you can add CNN and Reuters to the rumor list. Such irreputable sources!

**Churchill** · 2012-11-10 04:10

pretty much the same as drudge as far as im concernde

**SwampdonkeyPLD** · 2012-11-10 09:36

Originally Posted by Zealot

Let me quote from that article:

Other articles have explained the FBI was watching his emails and discovered the affair.

Edit: http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/petr...1/09/id/463573

**Lucavi** · 2012-11-10 11:23

Originally Posted by Zealot

Still goes completely against the grain for someone to just own up to an affair and resign over it.

This article should help explain a bit:

http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/....Resigns/?cid=

Two major points involved:

1) The FBI was aware of the affair prior to his resignation through scanning his emails.

2) And I quote: "For the director of the CIA, being engaged in an extramarital affair is considered a serious breach of security and a counterintelligence threat. If a foreign government had learned of the affair, the reasoning goes, Petraeus or Broadwell could have been blackmailed or otherwise compromised. Military justice considers conduct such as an extramarital affair to be possible grounds for court-martial." That should put the final nail in the coffin of why an affair = resignation.

Jobs like his, and like mine (though mine doesn't typically have access to the same level of intel, thank God - I don't wanna know that stuff) are all about acceptability to blackmail or coercion. If you can be seduced, you can't be trusted with sensitive or secret (or top secret or nuclear top secret, ect.) information. Period.

**Dimmauk** · 2012-11-10 11:33

Originally Posted by venikk

I never watch fox news...

Here's more sources of that rumor:

http://blog.al.com/live/2012/11/post_274.html

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/...us_657896.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ty-threat.html

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2...zi-It-Wasnt-Me

http://basicsmedia.com/wp-content/up...nderARock1.png

Looks like you can add CNN and Reuters to the rumor list. Such irreputable sources!

Originally Posted by Abandon

some of you are stupid, and should feel bad for being so.

I'm sure Obama ordered the Code Red and gave him the Ivan Drago "if he dies, he dies".

**hey** · 2012-11-10 11:43

Originally Posted by Lucavi

2) And I quote: "For the director of the CIA, being engaged in an extramarital affair is considered a serious breach of security and a counterintelligence threat. If a foreign government had learned of the affair, the reasoning goes, Petraeus or Broadwell could have been blackmailed or otherwise compromised. Military justice considers conduct such as an extramarital affair to be possible grounds for court-martial." That should put the final nail in the coffin of why an affair = resignation.

That makes no sense at all. If the world doesn't know about it, he doesn't need to resign. If they do, no one can blackmail him, since the whole world already knows.

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