Revelation explosive by Paula Broadwell.
Broadwell and Benghazi
A sex scandal raises intriguing new foreign-policy questions.
By JAMES TARANTO
If you're a conspiracy theorist, the timing of David Petraeus's resignation was perfect. He stepped down as CIA director Friday, six days before he was to have testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee on the 9/11 attacks in Benghazi and three days after Barack Obama's re-election, thereby shielding Obama from both pre-election embarrassment and postelection revelations of failure or worse. The proximate cause only adds to the suspicion: What better distraction than a sex scandal?
The trouble with conspiracy theories, and with conspiracies, is that they assume conspirators can control events. As it turns out, Petraeus's resignation has raised new questions about Benghazi. That is thanks to a report by Israel's Arutz Sheva, which found a speech that Paula Broadwell, author of "All In: The Education of General David Petraeus," delivered Oct. 26. Broadwell, who "was allegedly improperly involved with" Petraeus, spoke at her alma mater, the University of Denver.
Here's the pertinent quote from the Broadwell speech:
"The fact that came out today [in a report by Fox News Channel] is that the ground forces there at the CIA annex, which is different from the consulate, were requesting reinforcements.
"They were requesting the--it's called the C-in-C's [Commander in Chief's] In Extremis Force--a group of Delta Force operators, our very, most talented guys we have in the military. They could have come and reinforced the consulate and the CIA annex. Now, I don't know if a lot of you have heard this but the CIA annex had actually taken a couple of Libyan militia members prisoner, and they think that the attack on the consulate was an attempt to get these prisoners back. It's still being vetted.
"The challenging thing for Gen. Petraeus is that in his new position, he's not allowed to communicate with the press. So he's known all of this--they had correspondence with the CIA station chief in Libya, within 24 hours they kind of knew what was happening."
[
online.wsj.com]