Worst. Spy. Ever.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Mormon author. But yeah pretty much that. Nothing says love like a dude watching you intently while you sleep.

Twid
goes to villagers living room when insomnia strikes

[Cain]

Can you please keep this insipid crap out of what actually is otherwise an interesting thread?  I mean, it's not like there are no other places on the entire forum to discuss shitty fiction.  kthanxbai

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Sure.

[Telarus]

Sounds about right, Tel.

Petraues has a lot of supporters on the Hill...getting rid of him without due cause was always going to be pretty hard, and he is known to have Republican sympathies and Presidential aspirations.  Giving work experience to a potential future rival obviously wasn't going to go down well among the Democrats (lets be honest, Petraues is no Robert Gates), so a way to quietly retire him was needed. 

It does make me wonder who will succeed him though.  I don't see a lot of contenders...maybe an internal promotion?  It's unusual, but not unheard of, and getting a Company man in charge may mitigate the militarization and Pentagon influence on the Agency.

Going back to my previous comment, and as more information unfolds...

Cain, do you think this was a genuine leak that got out of the intelligence agencies' control (the "I'm scared of these anon emails, so I'll run to my shirtless FBI friend" story), or something spilled to get P. to resign?

Also, do you think the Florida socialite who did the email forwarding to the FBI dude was a paid asset (of whoever)? If so, and she's an FBI asset, why did her agent have to eventually go to the Senate committee to get action on this? If so, but not an FBI asset, why'd she run to the FBI?

Just some things I've been mulling.

[Cain]

Hmm.  I can't say for sure whether there was malice in mind with this whole thing.  It does seem suspicious, but generals and pretty women and bad decision-making are pretty much a historical constant.  Which of course means nothing, since if it's a historical constant, it either happened naturally or was helped along, and it's impossible to tell either way without more information.

And Paula Broadwell is a sociopath.  I mean that, literally, if you look at the earlier links I posted about her "reporting" in Afghanistan.  Even Joshua Foust, a dweeb who wants to be considered an "evil genius" can recognize it.  I am fairly certain the kind of emails she wrote would be on a par with the more unhinged people who PM Roger.

As for Mrs Kelley...well, that's a somewhat different story.  She does have a lifestyle which is far beyond her means, and is practically bankrupt.  Which means someone is keeping her afloat, though between marriage and constant "parties" for CentCom officers, who that might be is anyone's guess.  Also, such bankruptcy could certainly be used....if someone were to say, help her with her money problems in return for reporting some threatening emails sent via Broadwell's computer...well, that's certainly a potential scenario.

It would require someone who had knowledge of Petraues' affair, and no real love for him, but I can name a dozen likely suspects.  I don't think this would be intelligence agency orientated though...domestic US intelligence anyway.  It could be a foreign conspiracy, but it's rather baroque for that kind of thing, and besides Petraues is a known quantity.  I suspect a political angle, and that angle could certainly come from the White House or its supporters.

Assuming that is what happened.  It's a possible scenario, and worth keeping in mind, but the evidence for it is fairly slim, and right now I fall on the side of "hilarious love quadrangle with implications of death squads" as being what went down.