David Petraeus, the former CIA director and retired four-star general who once commanded military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, was sentenced to two years’ probation and fined $100,000 by a federal judge in Charlotte, North Carolina, on April 23 after pleading guilty to mishandling classified materials.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, filed on March 3 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, Petraeus pled guilty to unauthorized removal and retention of classified material, a misdemeanor for which the maximum possible penalty was a fine of $100,000 and a one-year prison sentence. Prosecutors recommended that Petraeus should serve two years’ probation and pay a fine of $40,000, but Judge David Kessler said he increased the fine to “reflect the seriousness of the offense.”
“This constitutes a serious lapse of judgment,” Keesler said of the actions of Petraeus.
Reuters reported that Keesler mentioned receiving letters from heads of state, senators, and high-ranking U.S. military officials submitted by defense attorneys in support of Petraeus, in which the writers conceded that the retired general had “committed a grave but very uncharacteristic error in judgment.”
That “error in judgment” occurred while Petraeus was working on his biography, All In: The Education of David Petraeus, published in 2012, with Paula Broadwell, a writer and Army reservist with whom he was having an extramarital affair. While working on the biography, which Broadwell co-authored with journalist Vernon Loeb, Petraeus had given Broadwell eight binders (known as “black books”) that contained classified information including identities of covert operatives, code-word information, coalition war strategy, and even notes about discussions Petraeus had with President Obama and the National Security Council. It was illegal for the retired general to have retained the binders after retiring from the military, to say nothing of providing them to Broadwell.
Reuters reported that Petraeus was also accused of making false statements to the FBI in October 2012, telling agents that he had not shared the classified information with Broadwell.
A report from WCNC-TV in Charlotte stated that after Petraeus took back the binders from Broadwell in April 2013, the FBI found them during a search of his home in Arlington, Virginia, finding them in an unlocked drawer of a desk in his ground-floor study.
The WCNC reporter noted that Broadwell, who lives with her husband and children in Dilworth, North Carolina, could also face charges in the case. The Charlotte Observer reported that when asked specifically if Broadwell remains a target of the government’s probe, acting U.S. Attorney Jill Westmoreland Rose replied, “This is an ongoing investigation. This case is not over.”
Petraeus resigned from his position as CIA director in November 2012 as it became apparent to him that the FBI investigation would soon become public. He is now chairman of the KKR Global Institute, reports Politico, and has recently provided the Obama administration with advice on how to deal with the threat presented by ISIS.
Following the sentencing, Petraeus said, “I have sought to move forward since November 2012. I now look forward to moving on with the next phase of my life and to continuing to serve our great nation as a private citizen.”
Politico noted that one of the early supporters of Petraeus, when the investigation into his activities began, was Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), who wrote a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder in December 2014 asking for resolution of the Justice Department’s investigation.
“At this critical moment in our nation’s security, Congress and the American people cannot afford to have [Petraeus’] voice silenced or curtailed by the shadow of a long-running, unresolved investigation marked by leaks from anonymous sources,” McCain wrote.
Both McCain and Petraeus are members of the internationalist Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the New York-based policy organization whose members were instrumental in formulating our nation’s aggressively interventionist Middle East policies. Other CFR members who aggressively urged the U.S. invasion of Iraq were former Bush administration Vice President Dick Cheney and former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.
However, the CFR presence in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan did not end there. General John Allen, the former commander of international forces in Afghanistan; Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the predecessor of Petraeus as commander of the Afghanistan war theater; Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel; former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates (whose career spanned the Bush and Obama administrations); U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan James Cunningham; and previous Ambassadors Ryan Crocker and Karl Eikenberry are all CFR members.
Amazingly, even Paula Broadwell is a CFR member!
It seems that the 4,900 members of the policy group are involved with every facet of our military operations in the Middle East, even writing about them.
Related articles:
Obama Admin. Seeks “Severe Sentence” for Ex-CIA Officer Convicted of Leaking
“After America Comes North America,” Gen. Petraeus Boasts
Globalist Cabal Meets for Secretive Bilderberg Summit
Petraeus Fell for the Wrong Reason
Petraeus-Broadwell Scandal Expands to Top NATO Commander General Allen
The Other Petraeus Scandal: Accelerated Militarization of the CIA
