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The war in Ukraine is at a stalemate, but that doesn’t mean it’s not changing. General David Petraeus predicts the war will look different this year with significant offensives likely staged by the two sides. Bergen: Who’s winning the war? Petraeus: It is not Russia. Russia has, after all, lost the Battles of Kyiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, and Kharkiv; failed to take the rest of Ukraine’s southern coast (not even getting through Mykolaiv, much less to the major port at Odesa). It has lost what it had gained in Kharkiv province. And it has had to withdraw its only forces west...

Former CIA Director and retired US Army Gen. David Petraeus said on Sunday the United States betrayed its longstanding ally in its fight against ISIS, the Syrian Kurds, by withdrawing US forces from the northern part of the country. Petraeus, who previously oversaw military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, criticized President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw US forces from northern Syria on CNN's "State of The Union." "Well, I think we have abandoned our Syrian Kurdish partners. They took over 10,000 losses as the defeat of Islamic State was carried out," he told CNN's Jake Tapper. "The elimination of the...

At first the FBI probed the e-mails of Paula Broadwell and CIA Director David Petraeus from a suspicion of cyberstalking and harassment. They then dropped the probe after determining that the biographer of Petraeus had a personal relationship with him, even though they discovered that Broadwell had classified documents on her computer. After the entire probe went public and forced Petraeus to resign, FBI agents suddenly conducted a seizure of materials from Broadwell’s home — which the Washington Post reports comes from a belated curiosity into her possession of those classified documents: The FBI is making a new push to...

Interesting to note that Paula Broadwell "Was Not Charged with a Single Crime" Here's why: Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and FBI Director James B. Comey listened as prosecutors did a mock run-through of the government’s case, a preview of how they would present their evidence to Petraeus’s lawyers in order, they hoped, to force a guilty plea. The presentation included felony charges: lying to the FBI and violating a section of the Espionage Act. A conviction on either carried potentially years in prison. They were also considering bringing the same charges against Petraeus’s biographer and former mistress, Paula...

Marine Gen. John Allen, a 1976 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, served this country admirably for more than 36 years. Now he has announced he wants to retire. The 59 year-old former top officer in Afghanistan cited his wife's "chronic" illness and said he wants to devote more time to helping his beloved Kathy cope with serious health problems, including an undisclosed "auto-immune disorder." We join the vast majority of Americans who pray the general's wife will get better, and thank him for his service to this country. But one would have to be pathetically naive not to realize...

It was 6:30 a.m. at the United States Military Academy, the sun was rising over the Hudson River, and Paula Broadwell was in athletic gear. With a half-dozen women, she rotated between sprints and burpees. Sweating onto the pavement, the group was perched atop an overlook called Trophy Point, in the shadow of a 46-foot battle monument memorializing those killed in the Civil War. There is a female statue in bronze at the top, arms outstretched regally, who is said to represent “fame.” Ms. Broadwell was here in April for a 40th anniversary celebration for the academy’s first class of...

Tossed over the transom by an anonymous (and very reputable) source: Do you know who the woman on the left is? Her name is Jill Kelley. She's from Tampa. Do you remember the Petraeus story and Paula Broadwell emailing the "other woman"? In 2012, Kelley, a Florida socialite with connections to diplomatic and military circles, issued a complaint to the FBI in May 2012 over a series of anonymous stalking e-mails she had received. The threatening emails were traced to Paula Broadwell, the biographer that had an affair with General David Petraeus. Kelley became a focus of media coverage when...

And the Central Command web site says Gottlieb was detailed from the White House for a time to a joint inter-agency task force focusing on detainee operations in Afghanistan. He was in Kabul from January 2010 through March 2011, according to a biography. Gottlieb, as a White House employee, is allowed to bring guests to dine in the White House mess -- basically an employee cafeteria.

Retired Army Gen. David Petraeus apologized to Congress on Tuesday for sharing classified information with his biographer and mistress, Paula Broadwell. It was his first public testimony before lawmakers since resigning as CIA director. Petraeus appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee, offering his recommendations for how the U.S. should address what he called a “revolutionary upheaval that is unparalleled in its modern history.” He said the progress achieved so far in fighting Islamic State militants in Iraq has been “inadequate” and suggested the U.S. increase support to Iraqi security forces and Sunni tribal and Kurdish fighters. In Syria, he...

The New York Times reports federal prosecutors are recommending felony charges against former CIA Director Gen. David Petraeus for allegedly providing classified information to a civilian author and journalist with whom he allegedly had an affair. Meanwhile, another controversy is waiting to boil over within the Obama administration: a sex scandal involving the CIA’s Petraeus. The timing is—intriguing. Only after the Benghazi attacks, as Petraeus’s loyalty to the administration falls into question, does everything turn sour for the spy chief. In the immediate aftermath of the Benghazi attacks, Petraeus first draws ire from some administration colleagues for not reading from...

In testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Eric Holder was pressed about why the case against ex-CIA Director David Petraeus is still under investigation. Indications are that members of Congress are concerned that the case is still hanging in limbo to prevent Petraeus from revealing what he knows about the Benghazi attacks. If, as has been relayed by Shoebat.com, the details of an extensive report published in the London Review are correct, Petraeus was the man in charge of the logistics of an operation in Benghazi that involved shipping weapons from Libya to Syria through Turkey and that...

Former four-star general and CIA chief David Petraeus pleaded guilty to one count of retaining classified information for handing over information in personal notebooks to his biographer girlfriend in 2011. He agreed to pay a $40,000 fine; prosecutors said they would recommend two years' probation instead of prison, although a judge could decide otherwise. It's a sad close to a government career for the man whose counterinsurgency strategy turned around the war in Iraq. He's an American hero who seemed all that much more upright when he resigned in November 2012 after admitting to an affair that compromised his position...

In a humbling chapter of an exemplary career, David Petraeus – a West Point grad who went on to command U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan before becoming the nation’s top spy – pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to sharing classified information. Under a plea agreement, Petraeus was to be sentenced by U.S. Magistrate Judge David Keesler to two years’ probation and a $40,000 fine. As Kessler moved through the methodical proceedings, Petraeus answered questions in strong voice, one accustomed to addressing troops and congressmen. Patraeus was sentenced in Charlotte, the city where the security breach was discovered as...

In a humbling chapter of an exemplary career, David Petraeus – a West Point grad who went on to command U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan before becoming the nation’s top spy – pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to sharing classified information. U.S. Magistrate Judge David Keesler sentenced Petraeus to two years’ probation and a $100,000 fine, throwing out a recommended $40,000 fine because of the seriousness of the charges and to deter others. He called Petraeus’ actions a “serious lapse of judgment” that stood “in stark contrast to 37 years of achievement.” As Keesler moved through the methodical...

Hillary Clinton is in trouble. Really big trouble. According to the Washington Post, the same prosecutor who took down General David Petraeus for improper possession of classified information is now looking into Hillary Clinton's email server. Earlier this week, an intelligence Inspector General revealed Clinton did in fact have at least four pieces of top secret, classified information passed through and stored on her private email server. The investigation is being overseen by two veteran prosecutors in the Justice Department’s National Security Division. One of them helped manage the prosecution of David H. Petraeus. As a reminder, Petraeus plead guilty...

A new batch of Hillary Clinton's emails made public by the State Department Monday night show her expressing interest in the presidential aspirations of Gen. David Petraeus, who ultimately took a job as CIA director in the Obama administration instead of running for president in 2012 and was then driven out of government by scandal. Clinton--who's now the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination next year--sounded intrigued when her longtime friend Sidney Blumenthal reported to her on a Saturday morning in February 2010 that prominent Washington foreign policy blogger Steve Clemons said Petraeus was talking frankly about the possibility of...

  A revelation coming out of Hillary Clinton's emails was her keen interest in the Presidential ambitions of one General David Petraeus: "Clemons had dinner this week with Petraeus, who freely talked about running for president," Blumenthal wrote to Clinton. "Will he write about Petraeus?" Clinton wrote back five minutes later. Moments later, Blumenthal sent Clinton Clemons' post mentioning the off-the-record dinner and discussing the relative political merits of Petraeus, Vice President Joe Biden and Clinton herself. "Clemons... told me more detail about [Petraeus'] attitude and interest," Blumenthal said, adding a couple of nuggets. Within four months someone decided to...

Scandal: Which is worse — keeping classified information in a personal journal at home or doing government business and transmitting classified data on a private email account managed from the Clinton family home? This adds a new level of premeditated secrecy and deceit to the actions of the presumptive 2016 Democratic presidential nominee. It also adds a new level of hypocrisy to the most transparent administration in history's pursuit of former CIA Director and commander of American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus. Petraeus, who had an extramarital affair with biographer Paula Broadwell, pleaded guilty, after a lengthy...

David H. Petraeus, the best-known military commander of his generation, has reached a plea deal with the Justice Department and admitted providing his highly classified journals to a mistress when he was the director of the C.I.A. Mr. Petraeus has agreed to plead guilty to one count of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material, a misdemeanor. He is eligible for up to one year in prison but prosecutors will recommend a sentence of probation for two years and a $40,000 fine. The plea deal completes a spectacular fall for Mr. Petraeus, a retired four-star general who was once discussed...

Several months ago, the Pentagon's network and e-mail system fell victim to computer hacking. After an internal investigation, Pentagon officials declared that the hack was perpetrated by the Chinese military. In particular, officials said the attack "was by China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) and that it led to the shutdown of a computer system serving the office of Defense Secretary Robert Gates." Now, a Chinese company with ties to the country's military, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and the Taliban will gain access to U.S. defense-network technology under a proposed merger.According to a story in the Washington Times, Huawei Technologies...