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Probe Widens: Petraeus Scandal Leads to Investigation of Commander in Afghanistan

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KABUL—U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta Tuesday asked the Senate to put on hold the confirmation of the top commander in Afghanistan, Marine Gen. John Allen, as the new NATO supreme allied commander for Europe following the discovery of allegedly inappropriate communications between the general and a Tampa social planner.

The planner, Jill Kelley, is at the center of a scandal involving Gen. Allen’s predecessor as the top coalition commander in Kabul, Gen. David Petreaus, who resigned as CIA director last week after acknowledging an extramarital affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation began probing the matter earlier this year, after Ms. Kelley complained about harassing emails that, according to officials, were eventually traced to Ms. Broadwell. Both women are married, as are Gens. Petreaus and Allen. As part of this inquiry, the FBI also uncovered some 30,000 pages of emails between Ms. Kelley and Gen. Allen, a senior defense official told reporters traveling with Mr. Panetta.

Mr. Panetta said in a statement that the Pentagon received the information concerning Gen. Allen from the FBI on Sunday, and has opened its own investigation. Adultery is a crime under the military code of justice. Gen. Allen’s spokesman declined to comment on the matter and referred all queries to the Pentagon.

Read more from this story HERE.

Husband of Wife That Had Affair With CIA Chief May Have Written the New York Times About It

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Did the cuckolded husband of Paula Broadwell send a letter to a New York Times advice column back in July that revealed he knew of her affair with David Petraeus?

That intriguing possibility has been raised after canny observers dug out the July 13th edition of Chuck Klosterman’s ‘The Ethicist’ and pointed to extraordinary coincidences between one readers letter and the now scandalous love tryst.

Writing about a deepening relationship he knew his wife was having with a ‘government executive’ whose job ‘is seen worldwide as a demonstration of American leadership’ the anonymous man offers up what could be considered in hindsight as striking information.

The letter writer explains that ‘exposing the affair will create a major distraction that would adversely impact the success of an important effort,’ and asks ‘The Ethicist’ whether it is OK for him to ‘suffer in silence for the next year or two for a project’. Indeed, he seems pained to make it clear he believes the mission ‘must succeed’ and wants to know if he should confront his wife in some way and ‘finally force closure’ or if he should ‘suffer in silence for the next year or two.’

The reader tells ‘The Ethicist’ that has ‘watched the affair intensify over the last year’ – which matches the timeline of the affair from August 2011 until around several months ago.

Read more from this story HERE.

Benghazi Bombing Requests Denied, CIA Security Officers Ordered Twice Not to Defend Consulate (+video)

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By the Associated Press. Fox News reported that security officers working for the CIA in Benghazi heard the attack on the consulate but were twice told to wait before rushing to the compound. Fox also reported that U.S. officials refused when the security team asked for U.S. warplanes to bomb their attackers, which would have meant violating Libyan airspace.

In response to the report, CIA spokeswoman Jennifer Youngblood said the CIA “reacted quickly to aid our colleagues during that terrible evening in Benghazi.”

She added: “Moreover, no one at any level in the CIA told anybody not to help those in need; claims to the contrary are simply inaccurate.”

President Barack Obama said repeatedly Friday that his administration would “find out what happened” and punish those responsible, but he twice ducked questions about whether U.S. officials denied requests for help.

“We’re going to gather all the facts, find out exactly what happened, and make sure that it doesn’t happen again, but we’re also going to make sure we bring to justice those who carried out these attacks,” Obama said in an interview with Denver television station KUSA. Read more from this story HERE.

The father of the one of the consulate’s defenders is outraged over the lack of Obama’s response:

CIA “Manages” Drug Trade, Mexican Official Says

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Photo credit: DonkeyHotey

The Central Intelligence Agency’s involvement in drug trafficking is back in the media spotlight after a spokesman for the violence-plagued Mexican state of Chihuahua became the latest high-profile individual to accuse the CIA, which has been linked to narcotics trafficking for decades, of ongoing efforts to “manage the drug trade.” The infamous American spy agency refused to comment.

In a recent interview, Chihuahua state spokesman Guillermo Terrazas Villanueva told Al Jazeera that the CIA and other international “security” outfits “don’t fight drug traffickers.” Instead, Villanueva argued, they try to control and manage the illegal drug market for their own benefit.

“It’s like pest control companies, they only control,” Villanueva told the Qatar-based media outlet last month at his office in Juarez. “If you finish off the pests, you are out of a job. If they finish the drug business, they finish their jobs.”

Another Mexican official, apparently a mid-level officer with Mexico’s equivalent of the U.S. Department of “Homeland Security,” echoed those remarks, saying he knew that the allegations against the CIA were correct based on talks with American agents in Mexico. “It’s true, they want to control it,” the official told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity.

Credibility issues with employees of the notoriously corrupt Mexican government aside, the latest accusations were hardly earth shattering — the American espionage agency has been implicated in drug trafficking from Afghanistan to Vietnam to Latin America and everywhere in between. Similar allegations of drug running have been made against the CIA for decades by former agents, American officials, lawmakers, investigators, and even drug traffickers themselves.

Read more from this story HERE.

Turkey playing “Obama for a fool”: trades gold for oil to circumvent Iran sanctions

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Turkey has exchanged nearly 60 tons of gold for several million tons of Iranian crude oil, despite its promises to uphold Western sanctions on Iran’s energy sector, according to recent Turkish reports.

By using gold instead of money, Turkey is able to skirt Western sanctions on Iran’s oil trade, particularly those pertaining to SWIFT, the global money transfer service that until recently assisted the Central Bank of Iran and other Iranian financial institutions.

Over the past several months, Turkey has given Iran 60 tons of gold, or more than $3 billion, according to a July 8 report on the Turkish news site Vatan Online. The report was translated by the Open Source Center, a translation service used by the CIA.

The exchanges raise questions about the Obama administration’s decision to grant Turkey a temporary waiver exempting it from U.S. sanctions to Iran, according to foreign policy experts and those on Capitol Hill who speculated that the revelation could spur Congress to pass a new round of Iran sanctions to prevent such trades.

“The idea that Turkey needs a waiver for more time to disconnect itself from the Iran oil trade is ludicrous,” said Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon adviser on Iran and Iraq. “Turkey is playing Obama for a fool.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: BullionVault

Say good bye to privacy forever: new DHS laser will instantly know everything about you – from 164 feet away!

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Within the next year or two, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will instantly know everything about your body, clothes, and luggage with a new laser-based molecular scanner fired from 164 feet (50 meters) away. From traces of drugs or gun powder on your clothes to what you had for breakfast to the adrenaline level in your body—agents will be able to get any information they want without even touching you.

And without you knowing it.

The technology is so incredibly effective that, in November 2011, its inventors were subcontracted by In-Q-Tel to work with the US Department of Homeland Security. In-Q-Tel is a company founded “in February 1999 by a group of private citizens at the request of the Director of the CIA and with the support of the U.S. Congress.” According to In-Q-Tel, they are the bridge between the Agency and new technology companies.

Their plan is to install this molecular-level scanning in airports and border crossings all across the United States. The official, stated goal of this arrangement is to be able to quickly identify explosives, dangerous chemicals, or bioweapons at a distance.

The machine is ten million times faster—and one million times more sensitive—than any currently available system. That means that it can be used systematically on everyone passing through airport security, not just suspect or randomly sampled people.

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: andrea.pacelli