David Petraeus resigns as CIA chief citing affair

[seemslikeadream]

Matt Taibbi

Which means: it's impossible to tell the difference between the tone of a reporter who we now know was literally sucking the dick of her subject and the tone of just about any other modern American reporter who is given access to a powerful person for a biography or feature-length profile.

FBI probes Petraeus staff in secret papers

WASHINGTON, Nov. 22 (UPI) -- A federal probe is focusing on whether David Petraeus told his staff to give biographer Paula Broadwell secret U.S. records, officials told The Washington Post.

Petraeus aides and other high-ranking military officials were often told by Petraeus when he was chief of U.S. Central Command to provide military records and other documents to Paula Broadwell for her work on Petraeus' 352-page biography "All In," former staff members and other officials told the Post.

Petraeus and Broadwell, who are both married and had an affair at the time, have told the FBI Petraeus did not provide her with classified information, law enforcement officials have said.

But investigators are looking into a possible distinction between providing the classified information and tasking others to do so.

Some former Petraeus staff members told the newspaper they were irritated and alarmed by Broadwell's persistent requests for information, which sometimes involved sensitive material.

One former Defense Department official said that when staff at the Kabul headquarters of the NATO-led coalition forces in Afghanistan questioned Broadwell's access to certain classified material, she assured them Petraeus had OKd her seeing it.

"Even if he did not directly give her classified information, he was allowing his name to be used," the unidentified former official told the Post. "I would be surprised if anyone would raise a question for anything below 'top secret.'"

Broadwell maintained a "top secret" security clearance as an officer in the Army reserves.

FBI agents discovered low-level classified material on her computer in late summer and found additional classified documents after searching her Charlotte, N.C., home Nov. 12, officials have said.

The documents are described as sensitive but relatively harmless, the Post said, citing officials who said they were mostly schedules and PowerPoint presentations classified as "secret."

But even low-level classified records are generally not permitted to be kept on someone's personal computer or in their home.

Two days after the FBI search of Broadwell's home, the Army suspended her security clearance.

Petraeus and Broadwell lawyers declined to comment on the Post story, as did Broadwell spokeswoman Dee Dee Myers and the FBI.

Petraeus, a retired four-star general, resigned as CIA director Nov. 9 because of the affair.

[Nordic]

My wife went to USC and we get the alumni magazine. I was leafing through the latest one the other day and saw this, and about gagged. I got so pissed off I immediately walked outside and threw the damn rag into the recycling bin. I didn't want it in my house.

http://news.usc.edu/#!/article/50160/ge ... or-at-usc/

General Petraeus named Judge Widney Professor at USC
By Merrill Balassone

May 2, 2013
Retired Gen. David Petraeus, architect and namesake of the counterinsurgency doctrine that stabilized Iraq under U.S. and allied forces and former director of the CIA, will join the USC faculty this fall.

Petraeus, whose appointment becomes effective on July 1, will be a Judge Widney Professor, a title reserved for eminent individuals from the arts, sciences, professions, business, and community and national leadership. Judge Robert Maclay Widney was USC’s founder.

“USC is thrilled to have General Petraeus join our faculty as a Judge Widney Professor,” said President C. L. Max Nikias. “He embodies all the noble qualities of our founder along with a fearless commitment to excellence. His presence will have a profound impact on our students across many disciplines.”

Petraeus will spend time at USC each academic semester teaching classes, participating in seminars and panels, engaging in working sessions with students and faculty, and mentoring student veterans and ROTC members.

His varied research interests include the leadership of the United States in revolutionizing energy, information technology, life sciences and manufacturing. He is also interested in exploring whether such leadership heralds the start of what he calls the “North American Decades.”

If I were a USC student paying $50,000 a year, I would be FUCKING PISSED off about this.

[seemslikeadream]

Revealed: Gen. David Petraeus' Course Syllabus Features "Frackademia" Readings
Sunday, 21 July 2013 11:37
By Steve Horn, DeSmogBlog

Records obtained by DeSmogBlog pertaining to City University of New York (CUNY) Macaulay Honors College's hiring of former head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) David Petraeus to teach a seminar this coming fall reveal that his syllabus features two of the most well-known "frackademia" studies.
"Frackademia" is shorthand for oil and gas industry-funded research costumed as independent economics or science covering the topic of hydraulic fracturing ("fracking"), the controversial horizontal drilling process via which oil and gas is obtained deep within shale rock basins.
According to the syllabus, Petraeus will devote two weeks to energy alone, naming those weeks "The Energy Revolution I" and "The Energy Revolution II." The two "frackademia" studies Petraeus will have his students read for his course titled "The Coming North American Decade(s)?are both seminal industry-funded works.
One of them is a study written by industry-funded National Economic Research Associates (NERA) concluding liquified natural gas (LNG) exports are beneficial to the U.S. economy, despite the fact that exporting fracked gas will raise domestic home-heating and manufacturing prices. NERA was founded by "father of deregulation" Alfred E. Kahn. The study Petraeus will have his students read was contracted out by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to NERA.
The other, a study written by then-Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) research professor Ernest Moniz - now the head of the DOE - is titled "The Future of Natural Gas" and also covers LNG exports. DOE oversees the permitting process for LNG exports. That study was funded by the Clean Skies Foundation, a front group for Chesapeake Energy and covered in-depth in the Public Accountability Initiative's report titled, "Industry Partner or Industry Puppet?"
Noticeably absent from the reading list: studies tackling the climate impacts, air quality impacts, over-arching ecological impacts such as water contamination, wastewater impacts and supply issues (aka diminishing supply).
Together, the two crucial studies on the syllabus reading list - and the lack of critical readings on the topic of fracking - offers a gimpse into the stamp of legitimacy industry-funded studies get when they have the logo of elite research universities on them. It's also another portrayal of the ascendancy of the corporate university.
From "Petraeusgate" to "Frackademia"-gate
In the case of Petraeus, the original "Petraeusgate" scandal centered around the $200,000 fee the Honors College planned on paying him for his role as an adjunct professor set to teach one course. A normal CUNY Honors College adjunct receives $3,000 per course.
Recently, Petraeus - who the late Rolling Stone investigative journalist Michael Hastings pejoratively referred to as "King David" in reference to the role he played in implementing counterinsurgency doctrine in U.S.-occupied Iraq - took a pay cut down to $1 to teach the course. That doesn't include the money he'll still get from an unidentified "private donor" referred to in other documents.
That scandal sat on top of the scandal that led to his resignation from the CIA in the first place: an extramarital affair with Paula Broadwell, who at the time of the affair was writing a biography about him titled, "All In: The Education of General David Petraeus."
Petraeus Teaches Frackers Counterinsurgency, Psychological Warfare
Petraeus has also taught the shale gas industry some important things, as well.
Namely, Petraeus was one of the co-authors of the "Counterinsurgency (COIN) Field Manual" that Anadarko Petroleum PR hand Matt Carmichael said he has employees read at the “Media & Stakeholder Relations: Hydraulic Fracturing Initiative 2011” conference in Houston, TX in 2011.
"Download the U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Manual because we are dealing with an insurgency," said Carmichael at the conference. "There’s a lot of good lessons in there, and coming from a military background, I found the insight in that extremely remarkable."
One of the key COIN tactics covered in the Field Manual is psychological operations (PSYOPs), also discussed at the Houston conference by Range Resources spokesman Matt Pitzarella.
"We have several former PSYOPs folks that work for us at Range because they’re very comfortable in dealing with localized issues and local governments," Pitzarella said to the audience in Houston.
"Really all they do is spend most of their time helping folks develop local ordinances and things like that. But very much having that understanding of PSYOPs in the Army and in the Middle East has applied very helpfully here for us in Pennsylvania."
As Hastings covered in another Rolling Stone investigation, the U.S. military employed PSYOPs tactics on members of Congress. That's illegal within U.S. borders under the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948, though it seems rather unlikely the co-author of the COIN Manual - "King David" himself - will cover these details in his course.
Petraeus' Wall Street Job Description Mirrors His Course Description
Petraus also has a teaching gig at University of Southern California (USC) and a day job working at the Wall Street firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR).
"He is expected to advise on economic trends, issues with foreign governments and other matters that could affect transactions," The Wall Street Journal explained of his hiring at KKR. "He will advise firms owned by KKR in an effort to improve management and leadership and help them confront economic and geopolitical forces that affect them."
"King David's" job description mirrors the course description he will teach, lending insight into what type of jobs the students taking his course may obtain in the future if Petraeus' class is a pedagogical success.
"Petraeus and others at the firm [will have] discussions over macroeconomic and geopolitical forces that could influence KKR's investment decisions. These issues include the heightened role of central banks following the financial crisis, and what KKR views as 'revolutions' in energy, manufacturing and technology, among other areas," The Wall Street Journal further spelled out.
The course description, as seen below, sings a similar tune:

Students taking Petraeus' course will go above and beyond passive stoic discussion of the burning public policy issues of the day. Indeed, they will dive into the sphere of role-playing the positions of high-ranking U.S. officialdom, all in the context of the readings - such as the "frackademia" ones - they must complete and discuss in seminar on a weekly basis that will inform the role-play.
An example below:


Re-Conceptualizing the "Revolving Door"
The government-industry revolving door commonly refers to governmental officials leaving taxpayer-funded government gigs for jobs as corporate lobbyists, public relations spin-doctors and other related iterations. The evolution and corporatization of research unversities - in many ways research factories on behalf of multinational corporations - has seen the revolving door extend into higher education.
Petraeus is one example and Moniz is another, but so too is former CIA-head Robert Gates. After leaving the CIA, Gates became the Chancellor of University of Texas A&M and then became Secretary of Defense.
Another example is Janet Napolitano, former head of the Department of Homeland Security who recently secured a job to head the University of California System. And yet another example is John Deutch, former head of the CIA who is now on the Board of Directors of Cheniere, served on President Obama's DOE Fracking Subcommittee and is a professor at MIT, where he co-wrote the "The Future of Natural Gas" with Moniz that Petraeus will have his students read.
"Petraeusgate," then, is just the tip of the iceberg of a problem with much deeper roots.

[coffin_dodger]

[JackRiddler]

That was lovely, that video.

I posted it on FB with this comment:

The war criminal David Petraeus is being paid $200,000 by New York taxpayers to pretend to teach a seminar at CUNY. This is definitely pretend, because he's also being paid by taxpayers in California (that would be the place on the other side of the continent) to pretend to teach a seminar at USC in the same semester! You can bet he's getting some kind of rest allowance for all the travel. And at the same time, he's also pretending to be a consultant for a Wall Street hedge fund, no doubt making use of his friends in the military and CIA to make bundles of money.

For months I've been hoping someone would catch the motherfucking murdering war criminal at large on the street and confront him. I was hoping I'd be there too! Maybe next week. Of course Medea Benjamin was among those who succeeded in catching him (that should have been at least a 50-50 bet to begin with). Watch the video of it.

Please spread this video everywhere! We need to see hundreds of such incidents. The primary architects of the war of aggression and the war crimes that murdered hundreds of thousands of people are not only still at large - they are all being rewarded richly for it, just like this bastard. The rewards they get give a green light to the next set of bastards who come in and set up the next U.S. military intervention, as we are seeing right now.

We need not accept that psychopaths and sociopaths and war criminals get to commit such crimes and then play respectable power elite and earn millions in payoffs for their supposed intellectual offerings.

Bravo to the protesters in this case. Hope Petraeus is driven out of CUNY (and to the Hague), and that those at CUNY responsible for hiring this monster are forced to follow him.

A friend then corrected one detail:

I believe that after the initial outcry, they reduced his pay to a symbolic $1. still not ok for a war criminal to teach at CUNY but the pressure by activists worked at least on the salary. that's what I heard, let me find the source.
Petraeus' NYC teaching salary drops to $1 after public outrage
http://rt.com/usa/petraeus-cuny-salary-scandal-190/

Thanks, didn't know, but it's also made clear that some private donor is "supplementing" the dollar salary. The article reports that Petraeus wrote to Ann Kirschner, the dean of CUNY's Macaulay College, saying: 'The truth is that I could have had gotten more money or more prestigious places.' That's the kind of monster we are dealing with here - proud of himself, thinks he's a prize. Story also good for identifying Kirschner as the one who recruited the war criminal and who seriously speaks of him as "someone of extreme stature" and "absolutely worth it."

Another friend wrote:

When Jacques Derrida taught at the New School, he would only teach in French, the classes were just one hour and I think the classes were short - like six weeks. He also had a TA teaching most of the time.

Well if that's true, Derrida was also more or less pretending, though I expect having him would have meant a boost in prestige and possibly other benefits for the New School at the time. In addition, Derrida was not the recently retired commander of an illegal occupying army in a war of aggression. Inviting Petraeus is a blow to CUNY's credibility internationally. Like Yoo at Berkeley. One wonders what hidden donors may be won over by it, of course.

[RocketMan]

Ah, good for the soul, clips such as that...

[bks]

One should also mention, though: if Derrida taught entirely in French, it couldn't have made his arguments any less comprehensible to English speakers.

[Joao]

One should also mention, though: if Derrida taught entirely in French, it couldn't have made his arguments any less comprehensible to English speakers.

Tempted to write a longer reply but it's off topic and I'm hardly prepared to start a thread on Derrida, et al. Anyway, I enjoyed the following piece although my spouse basically told me I was a fucking idiot for buying into it, and we went to bed annoyed at each other:

John Searle on Foucault and the Obscurantism in French Philosophy
[Per Searle:] Foucault said that Derrida practiced the method of obscurantisme terroriste (terrorism of obscurantism). We were speaking in French. And I said, “What the hell do you mean by that?” And he said, “He writes so obscurely you can’t tell what he’s saying. That’s the obscurantism part. And then when you criticize him, he can always say, ‘You didn’t understand me; you’re an idiot.’ That’s the terrorism part.”

Protests of David Petraeus's lectures to continue, say CUNY students
Adam Gabbatt, 13 September 2013

Students at the City University of New York have said they will continue protesting against David Petraeus and pledged to "make his time in New York a living hell" after a video emerged showing the former general being hounded as he left the university on Monday.

Erick Moreno, a 28-year-old linguistics major at CUNY's Queen's College, said students would protest every one of Petraeus's weekly lectures. "This will be a recurring thing," Moreno said. "Whatever it will take to push him off our campus we will do. We know he teaches every Monday."

Good for them. I wish the response had been as strong for John Yoo at Berkeley, although maybe it just didn't get the media attention and I believe CodePink had a billboard up near the campus for a while. The University of California's new president, of course, is Janet Napolitano (sorry for the foxnews link, but the sensationalism made for fun reading).

[Edited to insert some missing words]

[Luther Blissett]

The president of my university is giving the welcoming address to a fracking conference which I helped organize a protest of last year. My place of employment loves fracking.

[parel]

Statement of Support to CUNY Students Attacked and Arrested in Peaceful Protests Against Ex-General David Petraeus

Sep 19 2013
by Jadaliyya Reports



[A group of students at the Graduate Center of The City University of New York wrote the attached statement in response to Tuesday’s arrest of CUNY students protesting the appointment of David Petraeus at the Macaulay Honors College. It has been signed by over 250 graduate students and professors at CUNY and from universities across the country. The statement has been lightly edited for stylistic purposes. For more information, click here.]

On 18 September 2013, a press release issued by the Ad Hoc Committee Against the Militarization of CUNY stated: “Six students were arrested in a brutal, unprovoked police attack during a peaceful protest by The City University of New York’s students and faculty against CUNY's appointment of former CIA chief ex-General David Petraeus. Students were punched, slammed against vehicles and against the pavement by police captains and officers, after the NYPD forced them off the pavement and onto the street.”

As graduate students and educators of CUNY, we express our outrage at the violent and unprovoked actions by the NYPD against CUNY students peacefully protesting the appointment of war criminal David Petraeus as a lecturer at the Macaulay Honors College. We deplore the use of violence and brutal tactics against CUNY students and faculty who were protesting outside the college. It is unacceptable for the university to allow the police to violently arrest students.

We emphatically support the efforts of these CUNY students to resist the attempts by the US government and the CUNY administration to turn the university into an infamous "war college" with the appointment of Petraeus. Petraeus is responsible for countless deaths and innumerable destruction in Iraq and Afghanistan as a war commander and chief of the CIA. Although he resigned from his position as CIA director in November, Petraeus has continued his involvement in US foreign policy. Most recently, Petraeus has called on Congress to back a military strike on Syria, stating that the “failure of Congress to approve the president’s request would have serious ramifications not just in the Mideast but around the world.” His current roles as “adjunct” lecturer at CUNY and professor at the University of Southern California speak to the increasing US military and state security involvement within higher education.

We call on CUNY to terminate Petraeus’ appointment and to ask for the charges against these students to be dropped immediately."

[Nordic]

Just for the record USC is a private school.

[parel]

[JackRiddler]

Does USC receive any public funding, like pretty much every university?

But thanks for pointing this out. I didn't know and was saying "the California taxpayers..."

[Nordic]

Does USC receive any public funding, like pretty much every university?

But thanks for pointing this out. I didn't know and was saying "the California taxpayers..."

I didn't know either, until fairly recently. Always assumed it was public. I think I found out while on a job at a super exclusive beverly hills hair salon, where I overheard some patrons talking about how much it cost. I had no idea.

[seemslikeadream]

Petraeus Scared: Veterans Drive The General Out Of LA

By Mike Prysner, http://www.answercoalition.org


September 27th, 2013

Above photo: CUNY students escort Petraeus to first day of class.
University cancels event day after protest announced


The University of Southern California Veterans’ Association recently announced in an internal email that General David Petraeus, former commander of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and CIA director, would be holding a private luncheon with student veterans on October 10—coincidentally marking the 12th anniversary of the U.S. war on Afghanistan.

Iraq war veterans in March Forward!, who are also members of the USC Veterans Association and received the internal email, quickly called for a picket outside the event. Momentum grew rapidly, as dozens of individuals and organizations—including ANSWER LA, the Worker Student Alliance and more—endorsed and began organizing for the action.

Within one day of the announcement of the picket, the USC Veterans Association cancelled the event with Petraeus.

Petraeus was recently hired by the City University of New York as a lecturer, and by USC as a veterans’ advisor.

Petraeus is a war criminal according to international law—from ordering and facilitating illegal torture, to intentionally creating civil war in Afghan villages, to covering up the murder of Iraqis by U.S. defense contractors, to utilizing the “double-tap” method where drones conduct second strikes on rescue workers and victims’ funerals. Petraeus’s “leadership” (i.e., trying to advance his own career off the backs of enlisted personnel) also yielded the highest casualty rates for U.S. troops under his command in both Iraq and Afghansitan while he lived a rock star lifestyle.

Despite his known war crimes, Petraeus is raking in the cash from his post-retirement jobs.

In protest of his hiring by CUNY, students and activists held a rally outside one of his classes. Six students who confronted him were violently and unconstitutionally arrested. Now known as the CUNY 6, they were outrageously hit with several charges, including “rioting.”

That protest put Petraeus and CUNY in the public spotlight, highlighting the role of militarism in our schools and the lavish lifestyles of known war criminals. The protest against Petraeus at USC was announced amidst public outcry at his appointment at CUNY and the unconstitutional arrests of peaceful protesters. The second protest at USC, initiated and led by Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, was not the type of publicity USC and Petraeus were looking for. So the brave General ran away scared.

The event’s cancellation is an acknowledgment of the public pressure on Petraeus, and on universities who see fit to have a war criminal teach their students. It is essential to always confront the generals and politicians who sent us to wars based on lies wherever they show their faces.

Despite the event’s cancellation, March Forward! will still be taking action against USC for the outrageous appointment of Petraeus as a “veterans’ advisor.” (Details will be announced soon)