Whoa! Jill Kelly was also fooling around with Gen. John R. Allen, the commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan
According to a senior U.S. defense official, the FBI has uncovered between 20,000 and 30,000 pages of “potentially inappropriate” e-mails between Allen and Jill Kelley, a 37-year-old Tampa woman whose close friendship with Petraeus ultimately led to his downfall. Allen, a Marine, succeeded Petraeus as the top allied commander in Afghanistan in July 2011.
The FBI first notified the Pentagon of its investigation into Allen’s communications with Kelley on Sunday evening, according to the senior defense official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of the ongoing case.
In response, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta referred the investigation to the Defense Department’s Inspector General for further review, according to a statement released by Panetta early Tuesday as he was traveling to Australia.
The latest development in the unfolding scandal has shaken President Obama’s national-security staff and upended his carefully chosen plans for his military and intelligence team in his second term.
It also further calls into question the personal behavior of two of the U.S. military’s highest-ranking and most respected figures, who apparently ignored concerns about the highly sensitive nature of their jobs as they embraced personal relationships with younger women who were not their wives.