How e-mail trail snared CIA boss

Legalbrief reports that the scandal has sent shockwaves through the corridors of power and has seen the FBI and the CIA squaring off. Petraeus, an American hero credited with turning the tide of the Iraq war, resigned on Friday after admitting an extramarital affair, sending shockwaves around Washington just days after President Barack Obama's re-election. A report on the News24 site notes that it has emerged that his paramour was Paula Broadwell, a 40-year-old former Army major granted unprecedented access to the general as she co-authored a best-selling biography: All In: The education of General David Petraeus. Newspaper reports on Sunday revealed that the affair came to light as part of a criminal investigation launched when Jill Kelley of Tampa, Florida complained that she had received vicious e-mails from Broadwell. The 'threatening and harassing' e-mails from Broadwell appeared to indicate that she thought the other woman was a potential rival for the 60-year-old general's affections. The recipient of the e-mails was so frightened that she went to the FBI for protection and to help track down the sender. The FBI soon uncovered Broadwell's sexually explicit correspondence with Petraeus, leading to initial fears there may have been a national security breach with someone breaking into the CIA chief's private e-mail account. Full report on the News24 site

The new accounts of the events that led to Petraeus' sudden resignation shed light on the competing pressures facing FBI agents who recognised the high stakes of any investigation involving the CIA director but who were wary of exposing a private affair with no criminal or security implications. The New York Times reports that the involvement of the FBI, according to government officials, began when Kelley, alarmed by about half a dozen anonymous e-mails accusing her of inappropriate flirtatious behaviour with Petraeus, complained to an FBI agent who is also a personal friend. That agent, who has not been identified, helped get a preliminary inquiry started. Agents working with federal prosecutors in a local US attorney's office began trying to figure out whether the e-mails constituted criminal cyber-stalking. Because the sender's account had been registered anonymously, investigators had to use forensic techniques -including a check of what other e-mail accounts had been accessed from the same computer address - to identify who was writing the e-mails. Eventually they identified Broadwell as a prime suspect and obtained access to her regular e-mail account. In its in-box, they discovered intimate and sexually explicit e-mails from another account that also was not immediately identifiable. Investigators eventually ascertained that it belonged to Petraeus and studied the possibility that someone had hacked into Petraeus' account or was posing as him to send the explicit messages. Eventually they determined that Petraeus had indeed sent the messages to Broadwell and concluded that the two had had an affair. Then they turned their scrutiny on him, examining whether he knew about or was involved in sending the harassing e-mails to Kelley. The report notes that it was at that point that lower-level Justice Department officials notified supervisors that the case had become more complicated, and the Criminal Division's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section began working on the investigation as well. Full report in The New York Times

And in another new development, Pentagon officials say the FBI investigation that led to the resignation of Petraeus also turned up evidence that General John Allen, the top US commander in Afghanistan, was exchanging potentially inappropriate emails with Kelley. The Los Angeles Times reports that Defence Secretary Leon Panetta yesterday (Tuesday) said he had ordered an investigation of Allen after the FBI informed the Pentagon it had uncovered thousands of pages of e-mails between Allen and Kelley. Full Los Angeles Times report

Meanwhile, US lawmakers have demanded to know why Obama was not informed for several months that his CIA chief was under investigation in an explosive sex scandal. The Times reports that key members of Congress demanded a fuller explanation of a liaison that could have involved a national security breach, arguing that hiding the investigation showed poor judgment by the FBI and senior Obama administration officials at the Justice Department. 'This is certainly an operationally sensitive matter,' Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democratic chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee is quoted in the report as saying. 'But we weren't briefed. I don't know who made that decision.' According to the report, Peter King, the Republican chair of the Homeland Security Committee, said it was a major crisis: 'It's not the usual political thing. We're not talking about the secretary of commerce or some undersecretary somewhere.' Full report in The Times

Is a string of angry e-mails really enough, in an age of boisterous online exchanges, to persuade the FBI to open a cyberstalking investigation? The New York Times reports that law enforcement officials and legal experts believe the answer is yes - especially if the e-mails in question reflect an inside knowledge of the director of the CIA. Some commentators have questioned whether the bureau would ordinarily investigate a citizen complaint about unwanted e-mails, suggesting that there must have been a hidden motive, possibly political, to take action. But law enforcement officials insisted on Monday that the case was handled 'on the merits'. David Laufman, who served as a federal prosecutor in national security cases from 2003 to 2007, said, 'there's a lot of chatter and noise about cybercrimes', and most of it does not lead to an investigation. But he added, 'It's plausible to me that if Ms Kelley indicated that the stalking was related to her friendship with the CIA director,that would have elevated it as a priority for the bureau.' Orin Kerr, a George Washington University law professor who specialises in computer crime issues, said it was 'surprising that they would devote the resources' to investigating who was behind half a dozen harassing e-mails. Full report in The New York Times