http://hotair.com/archives/2012/11/12/fox-news-source-yes-the-cia-was-holding-prisoners-at-the-benghazi-annex/

( May be one reason Hillary , Gen Petraeus and Sof D Panetta are ducking for cover and traveling abroad this week... Was the info relating to a possible secret CIA prison at the CIA Annex and holding militiamen to boot a reason for the FBI raid on Broadwell's house last night ? )

Fox News source: Yes, the CIA was holding prisoners at the Benghazi annex

POSTED AT 5:11 PM ON NOVEMBER 12, 2012 BY ALLAHPUNDIT

Just a single source, but this does jibe with what Broadwell said in her Denver speech.

In the original Oct. 26 Fox News report, sources at the annex said that the CIA’s Global Response Staff had handed over three Libyan militia members to the Libyan authorities who came to rescue the 30 Americans in the early hours of Sept. 12.

A well-placed Washington source confirms to Fox News that there were Libyan militiamen being held at the CIA annex in Benghazi and that their presence was being looked at as a possible motive for the staged attack on the consulate and annex that night.

According to multiple intelligence sources who have served in Benghazi, there weremore than just Libyan militia members who were held and interrogated by CIA contractors at the CIA annex in the days prior to the attack. Other prisoners from additional countries in Africa and the Middle East were brought to this location.

The Libya annex was the largest CIA station in North Africa, and two weeks prior to the attack, the CIA was preparing to shut it down. Most prisoners, according to British and American intelligence sources, had been moved two weeks earlier.

Two separate questions here. One: Is the CIA still operating secret prisons and, if so, how are they questioning their prisoners? Enhanced interrogation is the only part of the Bush counterterror playbook that O hasn’t adopted, or so we’ve assumed. We’ll see. Two: Did Ansar al-Sharia and its partners in jihad find out about the prisoners and attack the annex on 9/11 to try to free them? I’m thinking … probably not, for the reasons Ed gave this morning. If they thought there were prisoners at the annex, why’d they attack the consulate first and give up the advantage of surprise? The attack on the consulate wasn’t a diversion, either: According to the CIA’s timeline, the first attack at the annex didn’t happen until 11:56 p.m., more than two hours after the consulate attack had begun and after the CIA security team had already returned from the consulate to the annex. That makes it sound like the jihadis tailed the CIA’s people back to the annex; if they were planning an ambush to free prisoners, they should have had people pre-positioned there to move in as soon as they saw the CIA security team leave for the consulate earlier in the evening. And again, per Ed, if you were going to hold prisoners somewhere in the Middle East, why on earth would you choose a city as unstable as Benghazi?

Besides, the timeline of the Petraeus/Broadwell affair is hard to square with the idea of her being privy to secret info about Benghazi. Quote:

The affair between Gen. Petraeus and Broadwell, both of whom are married, began several months after his retirement from the army in August 2011 and ended four months ago, retired U.S. Army Col. Steve Boylan, who is a former Petraeus spokesperson, told ABC News…

Petraeus is said to have been the one to have broken off the extramarital affair.

If — if — all of that is accurate, then it sounds like Petraeus dumped Broadwell sometime in July and, given what we now know about those threatening e-mails that she sent to another woman, she probably didn’t take the news all that well. In which case, why would he still be sharing secrets with her two months later, after the Benghazi attack? Was Broadwell really revealing classified info in her Denver speech or was she just misremembering a report from earlier that day on Fox News? She did, reportedly, have classified documents on her computer, but both she and Petraeus claimed they didn’t come from him. And in fact, because of her background in the military, Broadwell allegedly had “a top secret/SCI clearance and then some.” She might have had access to info about Benghazi, and classified documents about whatever, from her contacts in the national security bureaucracy, entirely independent of Petraeus.

But maybe that timeline isn’t accurate. Petraeus’s allies might be keen to claim that the affair didn’t start until after he’d left the military because adultery is an infraction of the UCMJ. If the affair began while he was still in uniform, it’s not only a moral failing but potentially a legal issue.

Now, help me answer three questions. First, why did the FBI pursue its investigation of the cyber-harassment of Jill Kelley all the way back to Petraeus? My understanding from reading a bunch of stories this morning is that Kelley reported the harassment, the FBI quickly launched an investigation (no one’s sure why it was such a priority for them but maybe it has to do with Kelley’s JSOC connection), and they traced the harassing e-mails back to Broadwell. But they didn’t stop there; evidently they started digging around to see who was e-mailing Broadwell too, and they traced that back to a pseudonymous Gmail account operated by Petraeus. Er … why did they do that? Once they knew who the cyber-harasser was, why was it necessary to keep digging and piece out the entire love triangle? They’d found their suspect.

Second, why is Jill Kelley suddenly hiring some very expensive attorneys? Not only hasn’t she been accused of anything — not even an affair with Petraeus — but Petraeus and Broadwell aren’t being charged with any crimes either. Second look at what Broadwell’s father told the Daily News this morning?

Third, I have a post up in the Greenroom noting that Petraeus and Broadwell seemed conspicuously “together” as early as 2010, with even Mrs. Petraeus likely becoming aware of it before last Friday. John Brennan, Obama’s White House counterterror czar, allegedly learned of the affair in summer 2011 — before Petraeus was named the new CIA chief. That being so, how were Obama and James Clapper supposedly kept in the dark until last week? The One should be spitting mad that he wasn’t kept fully informed about potential liabilities of one of the most sensitive hires he’ll make as president. In theory, Petraeus could have been blackmailed or hacked or otherwise compromised, with catastrophic consequences for national security and O’s presidential legacy — and yet the FBI kept things hush-hush, even from their boss, until just a few days ago. Why? Here’s Scarborough and Peter King wondering. Key bit at 4:00.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/exclusive-us-secretary-of-state-hillary-clinton-poised-to-visit-friends-in-adelaide-next-week/story-fndo471r-1226512913666

US Secretary of State Hillary

Clinton poised to visit friends in

Adelaide next week

Exclusive - Nigel Hunt
adelaidenow
November 09, 20122:42PM

Hillary Clinton is planning to visit Adelaide next week. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

ONE of the Adelaide's largest joint security operations will protect US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her planned visit next week.

Sections of the CBD, including North Tce and King William St, are likely to be locked down for the visit, which was revealed on adelaidenow yesterday.

Planning for the massive operation to protect the second most powerful woman in the world has been under way for the past week.

US embassy officials and security specialists have been working with Australian Federal Police, senior SA Police and STAR Group officers to plan the operation.

The visit is expected to be confirmed by White House officials as early as today.

Sources said the initial planning indicated the operation would be similar to when US Defence Minister Donald Rumsfeld and other defence officials were in Adelaide for the Australia-US Ministerial Meeting (AUSMIN) in 2005.

In that operation, sections of North Tce and King William St were locked down to protect delegates.

Few details of Ms Clinton's visit on Wednesday and Thursday have been revealed, but it is understood she will visit close friends, one whom is connected to the Carnegie Mellon University. It also believed that:

THE 150-strong entourage is likely to visit Penfolds' Magill Estate for either a wine tasting session or private function.
THE entourage has booked more than 100 rooms over several floors at the Intercontinental Hotel on North Tce.
HEAVY traffic restrictions are likely from late Wednesday ahead of her anticipated arrival that night.
HER entourage will leave Adelaide on Friday morning.

While Ms Clinton will be protected at close quarters by her own US Secret Service detail, dozens of AFP protection officers and STAR Group officers will be involved in protecting her motorcade and any venues she visits.

Police are also likely to use helicopter surveillance to monitor her every move.

The operation will be larger than that mounted to protect Prince Charles and his wife Camilla for their five-hour flying visit to Adelaide on Wednesday.

Many of the SA police officers involved in that security operation will be involved in next week's, having regarded Wednesday's royal visit as a rehearsal for the Clinton visit. The sources said the Clinton entourage which uses its own US Air Force jet was considerable and comprised her personal staff, defence advisers and large security detail.

Ms Clinton, one of the most heavily guarded public officials in the world, will arrive in Perth on Tuesday before attending AUSMIN talks on Wednesday with US Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta and Australian officials, including Defence Minister Stephen Smith and Foreign Minister Bob Carr.

and General Petraeus too busy to do his duty......

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/disgraced-petraeus-too-busy-with-affair-fallout-to-give-evidence-in-benghazi-inquiry-8307345.html

David Petraeus has devoted the days since his resignation to a so-far-futile effort to placate his wife, a close friend said yesterday, hinting the disgraced General will be unwilling to face lawmakers until he has got his family affairs in order.

The former CIA director, who resigned on Friday, spent the weekend with Holly, his wife of 38 years. She is outraged by revelations that General Petraeus had a fling with his official biographer.

"She's not exactly pleased right now," said Steve Boylan, a retired US Army Colonel and former spokesman for General Petraeus. "In my conversation with David this weekend, he said that furious would be an understatement. He deeply hurt the family, and he knows that, and right now his whole focus is going to be either towards taking care of the family or getting through this."

Mr Boylan, pictured below, who was speaking with ABC television, has apparently been authorised to address the media on behalf of General Petraeus. He said the 60-year-old General hopes to now be given "time and space" to "heal" and rebuild trust with his wife and their grown-up sons.

That may put him on a collision course with Republicans in Washington, who stressed yesterday that there will be little let-up in their efforts to force him to appear before a Senate committee investigating the murder of Christopher Stevens, the US Ambassador to Libya.

General Petraeus was due to speak at a closed-door session of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday. But his departure means members must instead cross-examine his successor, Michael Morell, over the agency's failure to prevent the 11 September tragedy.

Speaking to Fox News yesterday, several Republican lawmakers underlined their intention to force General Petraeus to give evidence about the incident, which saw Mr Stevens and three others killed during what appears to be a long-planned terrorist attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi.

"He's going to have to [testify]," said Trey Gowdy, of South Carolina. "There's no way we can get to the bottom of Benghazi without David Petraeus. So while he may not be around next week because he's got personal matters, the week after that and the week after that and the week after that, this excuse will run stale."

Jason Chaffetz of Utah added that there is "no reason" why General Petraeus shouldn't still testify.

Details are still emerging about the circumstances that led to the resignation. General Petraeus decided to quit on Friday after learning that the FBI was investigating threatening emails that his mistress, Paula Broadwell, had sent to a second woman, Jill Kelley.

Ms Broadwell, who is 40, had apparently become jealous of the General's relationship with Ms Kelley, a social liaison officer for the US military who lives in Florida. The New York Post reports that she emailed her saying: "I know what you did", "back off!" and "stay away from my guy!"

In a statement, Ms Kelley, who is married, said that she is "friends" with General Petraeus, but vigorously denied any romantic relationship. "We and our family have been friends with General Petraeus and his family for over five years," she said. "We respect his and his family's privacy and want the same for us and our three children."

When the FBI looked at Ms Broadwell's emails as part of a cyber-bullying investigation, they discovered thousands of messages General Petraeus had sent her from a private account. Among the email trains that revealed the existence of an affair was one in which the couple allegedly discussed performing a sex act under the desk in his office.

Ms Broadwell, who is married with two small children, was also in possession of classified information, although the FBI does not believe it came from General Petraeus. Their affair appears to have turned physical after the General left the army last year, and continued until around the time he joined the CIA.

Although the snowballing scandal has been ugly for all involved, there is at least one crumb of comfort for Ms Broadwell. Her biography, All In, has leapt up the bestseller lists. Having been 76,792 on the Amazon charts before the resignation, it was last night flirting with the top 100.

and Panetta out of town too.............

http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=118510

Panetta’s Asia-Pacific Trip Seeks to Broaden Rebalance

By Cheryl Pellerin
American Forces Press Service

HONOLULU, Nov. 12, 2012 – Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta has begun a weeklong visit to three nations in the Asia-Pacific region, his fourth official trip to area that is the focus of a rebalance of time, attention and resources for the Defense Department.

Army Maj. Gen. Anthony G. Cruchfield, chief of staff of U.S. Pacific Command, right, salutes as Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta steps off the plane in Honolulu, Nov. 11, 2012. Panetta participated in Veterans Day ceremonies in Hawaii, the first stop on a six-day trip en route to Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. DOD photo by Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo
(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.

The trip includes visits to Australia, Thailand and Cambodia, but for the secretary it began here yesterday on Veterans Day at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also called the Punchbowl.

The cemetery rises above Honolulu on land that 75,000 years ago was a crater formed when hot lava gushed through cracks in ancient coral reefs.

Today it is the final resting place of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines from the Boxer Rebellion, the Korean War, World War II and Vietnam, as well as two astronauts and World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle, a Navy Reserve seaman third class killed by a Japanese sniper near Okinawa in 1945.

At the cemetery, veterans and their families formed a long line, waiting to shake hands and chat with the secretary of defense. Panetta laid a wreath at a monument, and then greeted the veterans and members of the color guard one by one and took a photograph with the crew of cemetery caretakers, all of them veterans.

When Panetta leaves Honolulu today, he will head to Perth, Australia, to attend the annual bilateral consultations between Australia and the United States.

There, he will join with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Navy Adm. Samuel J. Locklear III, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, in meetings with Prime Minister Julia Gillard and sessions of the conference.

Panetta also will meet with Defense Minister Stephen Smith and Western Australia Premier Colin Barnett.

During this first official trip to Australia, Panetta will express to the Australians his gratitude for their contribution to U.S. and coalition efforts in Afghanistan, officials said.

Earlier yesterday, aboard a military aircraft en route to Hawaii, a senior defense official told reporters traveling with the secretary that the United States “very much appreciates the Australians’ commitment to Afghanistan, … and we look forward to bringing that spirit of cooperation and interoperability to the Pacific as well in a greater capacity.”

A key accomplishment this year for the U.S.-Australia partnership has been the start of Marine Corps and Air Force rotational deployments to northern Australia, the official said.

At the ministerial consultations, he said, “I think our primary objective is to make more progress on the Marine Corps and Air Force [deployments].”

Senior-level meetings will help to “move the ball forward and deepen the implementation,” he added, “so we’re going to try to keep this on track, as well as broaden our cooperation with the Australians.”

Later this week in Bangkok, Panetta will meet with his Thai counterpart, Defense Minister Sukampol Suwannathat, and Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

This is the first visit of a secretary of defense to Thailand since 2008, the senior defense official said. “We enjoy great operational cooperation and access with the Thais, [and] we’re trying to do is bring back this important strategic piece of the defense relationship,” the official added. “That’s our primary objective in Thailand.”

After his meetings in Thailand, the secretary will travel to Siem Reap, Cambodia, where he will meet with Cambodian Defense Minister Gen. Tea Banh and with defense ministers from member countries of ASEAN, the Association for Southeast Asian Defense.

“It’s a change to talk about how we would like to work with these countries on key nontraditional security threats, such as humanitarian assistance, disaster response, nonproliferation, counterpiracy and others, … and how we can cooperatively tackle some of these transnational threats,” the defense official said.

Panetta also could discuss regional cooperation, ASEAN unity, his recent trips to China and India, and U.S. fiscal pressures on the Defense Department, the official added.

The U.S. rebalance toward the Asia-Pacific region is building on relationships that have been going on for decades, the official said. “We’ve been in the Asia-Pacific for 60 or 70 years, and we have worked with friends, partners and allies to promote and maintain a system that has brought economic prosperity, security and in parts democracy to this region,” he added.

The United States is inextricably tied to the region, he said, “and the whole point of the rebalance is to keep doing what we have been doing.”

The rebalance is part of a process, the official noted. “We are playing the long game here,” he said. “This is something that’s going to take years to do, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that … we’re off to a fast start.

“The resources are moving,” he added, “the engagement of senior-level officials is there, and the bureaucratic weight and the time, attention and resources of the United States government are moving toward the Pacific theater.”

Catharsis Ours

Tuesday, November 13, 2012