CIA director quits over extramarital affair

Petraeus said in a statement that he had shown “extremely poor judgement” in having an affair.

09/11/12 11,021 Views 43 Comments

Image: Cliff Owen/AP/Press Association Images

DAVID PETRAEUS HAS has resigned as director of the CIA after admitting he had an extramarital affair.

According to his letter of resignation, Petraeus asked President Barack Obama on Thursday to allow him to resign, and on Friday the president accepted.

Petraeus said in a statement that he had shown “extremely poor judgement” in having an affair:

After being married for over 37 years, I showed extremely poor judgement by engaging in an extramarital affair. Such behaviour is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organisation such as ours.

This afternoon, the president graciously accepted my resignation.

Read: Former CIA agent gets 30 months’ jail for naming colleague>

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Brendan Cox 09/11/12 #

26 409

Is he wrong to have an affair…100%… does that genuinely affect his ability to do the job… not so sure.

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- Xadovan 09/11/12 #
  
  7 252
  
  Once it is out in the open no but if you are hiding it you are considered a security risk because it is easier to bribe/blackmail somebody.
  
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- Mark Vieregge 09/11/12 #
  
  17 132
  
  Not to mention that he’s a man who’s in charge of many secrets and he can’t even keep this one secret!
  
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- censored 09/11/12 #
  
  27 57
  
  It shows poor judgement.
  
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- JayK 09/11/12 #
  
  5 64
  
  In order to gain access to classified files, the CIA will investigate your friends and family. I assume Petraeus kept this secret from the CIA too which would have been a pretty major incident, even if no information was compromised.
  
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- Strongbow62 10/11/12 #
  
  8 16
  
  I’m sure he’d hiding a weapon of mass destruction .
  
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Gary Vaughan 09/11/12 #

29 145

why would the head of an intelligence agency have to step down because he had an extramarital affair when bill clinton stayed on as president after the monika sage???!!!?!?? there’s a lot more to this story than they’ll ever admit i bet

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- Marilyn Maroney 09/11/12 #
  
  13 56
  
  I’m sure there is more to it….
  
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- David Conway 09/11/12 #
  
  5 28
  
  I presume he is getting in before it is exposed in the National Enquirer or similar rag. He is preventing a sh1tstorm and all the distractions the head of the CIA shouldn’t be dealing with.
  
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- Richard Keogh 09/11/12 #
  
  8 21
  
  The woman in question is Paula Broad well who had unprecedented access to him in writing his biography. That opens up security issues as well as trust issues. He had to go. Only the nutty teabaggers could find a conspiracy in this one.
  
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- Dom Morgan 10/11/12 #
  
  2 7
  
  Benghazi.
  
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- jrbmc 10/11/12 #
  
  0 1
  
  Chances are he would know a lot more on what’s going on in the country and outside it then the president would
  
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Sean O'Sullivan 10/11/12 #

14 29

I dont know. Alot of people judging him for having an affair. Sure we havent even seen a picture of the wife yet!

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Seán Donnelly 09/11/12 #

7 16

Means he wont’ be testifying at next week’s Senate Inteligence Committee hearing into Benghazi, neither will Sec of State Clinton. Something to hide?

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- Xadovan 09/11/12 #
  
  8 12
  
  Nobody cares about Benghazi outside of conservatives clutching at straws. I love how they want to get to the bottom of an attack that killed 3 Americans but were happy to blow off the real reasons behind 9/11 because they didn’t want to upset the Saudi’s. Petraeus could have stepped down just for personal reasons without ruining his reputation. People stepping down after a President wins a 2nd term is quite common.
  
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- Seán Donnelly 09/11/12 #
  
  8 6
  
  If it they are clutching at straws, attend the hearing and show that they are clutching at straws. Rightly or wrongly, failing to attend the hearing invites suspicion.
  
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Patricia Martin 10/11/12 #

1 6

Obama’s ship seems tobe sailing forward !!! but there will be many storms ahead

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Shirley Boshell 09/11/12 #

11 20

I don’t think an affair is a reason to resign his post. However getting caught might be an indication that he’s not so good at keeping important secrets. It would never happen James Bond.

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- John Phelan 09/11/12 #
  
  6 15
  
  Don’t know ’bout that… Went to “SkyFall” last night… Even aul James is slipping up these days… ;)
  
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Marilyn Maroney 09/11/12 #

18 25

More to it as in Benghazi

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Brian Horton 09/11/12 #

22 27

Allegedly he has been spending a lot of time “interviewing”a certain Mrs Bin Laden!

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Andrew P 09/11/12 #

27 31

Why did he have to resign? Ridiculous. Surely its a very private matter.

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Thomas W Cooke 09/11/12 #

40 36

Perhaps it’s as simple as this. If the head of the agency that has sworn a vow to protect his country couldn’t keep his vow to be faithful to his wife then maybe he couldn’t be trusted???

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- Marilyn Maroney 09/11/12 #
  
  26 21
  
  Precisely
  
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Caroline Locke 10/11/12 #

0 2

This goes to show the oh so holy US republicans can be very human too.

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Sean Murphy 10/11/12 #

5 7

One expensive ride.

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John Byrne 09/11/12 #

22 18

I thought being a lying sleaze bag was a prerequisite for joining the CIA

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- Xadovan 09/11/12 #
  
  24 24
  
  you are thinking of the Guards
  
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- Nicky Power 10/11/12 #
  
  8 16
  
  Na lads, that’s Fine Gael/Labour.
  
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- Dexter Gordon 11/11/12 #
  
  0 0
  
  And the w … sorry bankers.
  
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Oskar Fritsche 09/11/12 #

9 9

Some certain news media stations in the US don’t like him as they see as a Liberal , as do some people in Congress, remember the senator Wilson affair as she[His wife] was outed as been a CIA officer by a right-wing journalist.

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- Xadovan 09/11/12 #
  
  3 25
  
  He is a Republican and has been mentioned as a possible Republican candidate for President or VP for the past 4-5 years.
  
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- Dexter Gordon 11/11/12 #
  
  0 0
  
  Not any more. Good riddance.
  
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Patrick Linehan 10/11/12 #

8 7

head of CIA is a political appointment, plus top man in intelligence agencies are not in the loop regarding ongoing ‘projects’ so blackmailing him would be futile! infidelity shows lack of loyalty, big no no in intelligence community!!

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Michael Skellig 10/11/12 #

0 1

I wonder who ‘got’ to him.

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Peter 10/11/12 #

0 0

Bill Clinton was a discrace

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Conor Conneally 09/11/12 #

24 12

Doesn’t matter had sex

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Alan Cummins 09/11/12 #

75 24

I can imagine how he got found out…..

DP : hey Hun, working late at the office, think we know where Osama is hiding

Wife: he is dead

DP: Hate predictive text! ;(

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Paul Darby 09/11/12 #

108 10

Here we go,no one wants to be on board with Obama when his ship is starting to go down,Going to see alot more top people resign after his relection Im afraid…

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- Des Doris 09/11/12 #
  
  10 90
  
  Why is Obama’s ship going down? Just won another term. Stupid comment
  
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- Michael 10/11/12 #
  
  11 3
  
  Dead on. The EXACT same setup after these elections mean that nothing’s going to change. More debt, more unemployment (U-6), and more drone strikes.
  
  The party is over
  
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Shaun O' Higgins 10/11/12 #

12 2

Was going to write something humorous about him competing with able bodied athletes at the Olympics. then i didn’t.

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bpdeasy 10/11/12 #

11 1

I don’t get it. This is seen as being morally wrong yet gay marriage and gay adoption are seen as normal. The world has been turned on its head!

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CIA director quits over extramarital affair

Petraeus said in a statement that he had shown “extremely poor judgement” in having an affair.

Read: Former CIA agent gets 30 months’ jail for naming colleague>

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