CIA initiates internal probe in Petraeus affair
17 Nov 2012 2:23 AM GMT
The CIA has initiated an internal probe following the resignation of director David Petraeus, who confessed to an extramarital affair, a spokesman for the US intelligence agency said on Thursday.
‘If there are lessons to be learned from this case, we'll use them to improve,’ said the spokesman, Preston Golson.
‘But we're not getting ahead of ourselves. An investigation is exploratory and doesn't presuppose any particular outcome,’ he added.
Petraeus, who was already the most celebrated US general of his generation before he took the helm at the CIA last year, resigned last week to pre-empt the revelation that he had had an affair with his biographer.
The scandal sent shockwaves through the Washington security establishment and entangled the US commander of allied forces in Afghanistan, General John Allen, whose career is on hold pending a Pentagon investigation.
Petraeus has kept a low profile since his resignation, but he will be in the limelight once again on Friday when he heads to Capitol Hill to testify before two congressional committees over a deadly attack on a US mission in Libya.
The 60-year-old retired general is not expected to face charges, but FBI agents seized a trove of documents from the home of his mistress, 40-year-old Paula Broadwell, and may act if she improperly received classified material.
US Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday that the FBI had not found any ‘national security threat’ in the course of its investigation.
Petraeus's resignation also triggered speculation that its timing -- three days after President Barack Obama's re-election -- was political or was linked to the probe into the killing of four Americans at the Benghazi consulate.
Petraeus has yet to speak publicly, but he told a friend, CNN Headline News anchor Kyra Phillips, that the scandal had nothing to do with Benghazi and that he had never passed secret documents to his lover.
‘If there are lessons to be learned from this case, we'll use them to improve,’ said the spokesman, Preston Golson.
‘But we're not getting ahead of ourselves. An investigation is exploratory and doesn't presuppose any particular outcome,’ he added.
Petraeus, who was already the most celebrated US general of his generation before he took the helm at the CIA last year, resigned last week to pre-empt the revelation that he had had an affair with his biographer.
The scandal sent shockwaves through the Washington security establishment and entangled the US commander of allied forces in Afghanistan, General John Allen, whose career is on hold pending a Pentagon investigation.
Petraeus has kept a low profile since his resignation, but he will be in the limelight once again on Friday when he heads to Capitol Hill to testify before two congressional committees over a deadly attack on a US mission in Libya.
The 60-year-old retired general is not expected to face charges, but FBI agents seized a trove of documents from the home of his mistress, 40-year-old Paula Broadwell, and may act if she improperly received classified material.
US Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday that the FBI had not found any ‘national security threat’ in the course of its investigation.
Petraeus's resignation also triggered speculation that its timing -- three days after President Barack Obama's re-election -- was political or was linked to the probe into the killing of four Americans at the Benghazi consulate.
Petraeus has yet to speak publicly, but he told a friend, CNN Headline News anchor Kyra Phillips, that the scandal had nothing to do with Benghazi and that he had never passed secret documents to his lover.
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