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WASHINGTON — Four-star general-turned-CIA director David Petraeus almost resigned as Afghanistan war commander over President Barack Obama's decision to quickly draw down surge forces, according to a new insider's look at Petraeus' 37-year Army career. Petraeus decided that resigning would be a "selfish, grandstanding move with huge political ramifications" and that now was "time to salute and carry on," according to a forthcoming biography. Author and Petraeus confidante Paula Broadwell had extensive access to the general in Afghanistan and Washington

When the newly-appointed chief of the CIA offers to marry you in exchange to help him cash a few pay cheques he earned from the recent campaign that toppled the Gaddafi regime, who wouldn't jump at the chance? One Taiwanese engineer grasped the opportunity with both hands and as well as wiring her 'fiancé' $30,000, she also managed to get herself arrested. Liu Hsu-jen claims she was contacted by a man claiming to be the newly sworn-in Director of the Central Intelligence Agency David Petraeus on the Internet four months ago.

David Petraeus pledged to confront the many threats facing America as he took the reins of the CIA, a decade after the 9/11 attacks that led to two wars where the former general made his name. Petraeus was sworn in to lead the civilian covert war against Al-Qaeda having hung up his army uniform less than a week ago after a 37-year career that ended with years of difficult command roles in Iraq and Afghanistan. Wearing a business suit and burgundy tie, Petraeus took the oath of office on a Bible at a ceremony led by Vice President Joe Biden...

<p>Despite their accolades, few senior Obama administration officials found the time to attend General David Petraeus's retirement ceremony. John Barry explains how Petraeus will see their absence.</p> <p>The Obama administration has hailed Gen. David Petraeus as one of history’s greatest military strategists, whose stewardship of two difficult, prolonged wars won bipartisan praise. But when it came to his military retirement ceremony last week, few of the political brass could find the time to attend.</p>

When David Petraeus takes over as CIA director next week, he'll confront a tricky problem: CIA analysts who will be working for him concluded in a recent assessment that the war in Afghanistan is heading toward a "stalemate" — a view with which Petraeus disagrees. The analysts made their judgment in "District Assessment on Afghanistan," completed in July, the same month Petraeus quit his post as U.S. commander there. He disagreed with the analysts' pessimistic reading, as does Gen. John Allen, the new commander in Kabul; Gen. James Mattis, the Centcom commander; and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the...

Obama is outclassed and outsmarted by retiring Gen. PetraeusGen. David H. Petraeus closed his phenomenal 37-year Army career this week with a joint review at Fort Myer in Arlington. Service members from every branch were present, and flags of all 50 states fluttered in the breeze. A substantial crowd had come to hear the general’s farewell address. Many were classmates from the West Point Class of 1974, smartly attired but enthusiastic and occasionally whooping like they were cadets. Others were people with whom he had served over his storied career, whom he recognized from the dais during his speech. The...

U.S. officials say that Osama Bin Laden wanted to assemble a team to attack America on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, and had a hit list that included President Obama, General David Petraeus and a major U.S. sporting event. The hit list was discovered in the "treasure trove" of information seized from Osama bin Laden's Pakistan compound after the Navy SEAL raid that killed him in May. Officials say he was intent on an attack on the upcoming 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, though the plot was only in the "discussion phase." He also remained obsessed with...

Nothing else just thought I'd post the breaking news.

President Obama’s troop withdrawal plan was not among the options presented to him by General David Petraeus, according to testimony given under oath by Marine Lt. General John Allen, seemingly contradicting statements made previously by a White House official. When asked by South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham during a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday whether the president’s withdrawal plan was “one of the options presented to the president by General Petraeus,” Allen responded, “It was not.” But The Weekly Standard points out that in a background conference call with senior administration officials on the president’s withdrawal...

Terrific catch by Stephen Hayes from this afternoon’s Afghanistan testimony by Lt. Gen. John Allen. I can’t help but wonder: Why would the White House lie and claim that Obama’s withdrawal plan was within the range of options presented to him by Petraeus? I thought the next 18 months were going to be all about Obama going with his gut. Wingin’ it, if you will. His gut told him that he needs to get reelected, and the easiest way to do that was to yank as many troops as possible out of the country no matter what it might mean...

Reporting from Washington— The Obama administration's top national security officials were gathered around the polished wooden table of the White House Situation Room to hear Army Gen. David H. Petraeus argue for a slow drawdown of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. A normal "how great Obama is" article. The people writing comments, however, disagree.

The Pentagon wants Gen. David Petraeus out of Afghanistan by mid-July, much sooner than the original September target date for his change of command, giving the general time for a break before he takes over as CIA director. Defense Department and military officials confirm there are plans for Petraeus to leave immediately after his deputy and operational commander Lt. Gen. David Rodriguez ends his term in country. Rodriguez’s last day is expected to be July 11, with Petraeus tentatively scheduled to leave July 18. Petraeus’ exit, however, depends on the Senate confirming his replacement, Central Command deputy Marine Lt. Gen....

Wednesday night, President Obama addressed the nation and explained his plans for bringing home American troops from Afghanistan after a successful surge operation. Obama referred to himself over a dozen times but never mentioned General Petreaus, the architect of the troop surge. Obama called the surge one of the most difficult decisions he's had to make as President, in a speech directed towards electoral politics.

Truly that’s no surprise, Obama is a failure all across the board. What Obama fails to realize, is that he needs to listen to the commanders on the ground. He cannot make a decision from Washington and expect it to go well over seas. Petraeus has experience, Obama doesn’t. The NY Times reported: The president is scheduled to speak about the Afghanistan war from the White House at 8 p.m. Eastern time. Mr. Obama’s decision is a victory for Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who has long argued for curtailing the American military engagement in Afghanistan. But it is...

President Obama plans to announce his long awaited plan to draw down troops in Afghanistan this week, according to an article by the Washington Post. Rumors of the size of the withdrawal are flying, but many are suspecting a larger than expected withdrawal of 30,000 troops by the end of 2012, with 10,000 troops returning this year. The troop withdrawal has slowly become one of the under the surface issues for the 2012 campaign. It has been simmering for some time now. The leftist wing of the Democrat Party have been angry about the Afghan front from the moment Mr....

Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan, would endorse a presidential announcement that the 30,000 troops committed as part of a 2009 surge to the country would be back home by end of 2012, military and administration officials tell National Journal. Formally, Petraeus wants to withdraw one brigade combat team of about 5,000 troops by the end of the year, and another 5,000 by the spring of next year. But mindful that the political environment in the U.S. and in Congress has turned sharply against the war, Petraeus is aware that the extra brigades he inherited cannot...

Bob Dole didn’t hesitate this weekend out in Russell when asked who the Republican Party should nominate for president next year. Gen. David Petraeus, Dole said, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan who’s about to become CIA director. “We need another Eisenhower,” Dole said. He also fretted that President Obama will build a huge warchest, and the GOP nominee will be essentially starting from scratch after the primaries are over next year. That will give Obama a huge — but not necessarily an insurmountable edge, Dole said. As to the Tea Party? Dole said he thought he was conservative until this...

Imagine David Petraeus taking the stage at the Tampa Convention Center. It is late August 2012 and imagine he has just won the Republican nomination for president. Now imagine him giving a rousing speech on how the Grand Old Party can recapture the White House. Given that Petraeus, who has accepted a nomination to run the CIA, has repeatedly said he has no intention of seeking public office, this may be far-fetched at best. But that isn't stopping Steve Mains from letting his imagination run wild. "I talk to folks all the time who would love to have a guy...

San Francisco, May 2: The reward came before its reason. When President Barack Obama announced five days ago that his replacement for defence secretary Robert Gates, a high-profile Republican, would be the current director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon Panetta, there were raised eyebrows in Washington over his surprise choice. More than ever before, Obama needed Republican support to keep his administration functioning in the face of recent Opposition control of the House of Representatives and a loss of “filibuster-proof” majority for Democrats in the Senate. Obama’s opponents had continued to lambast him in early preparations for his re-election...

In a major national security reshuffle, President Barack Obama is sending CIA Director Leon Panetta to the Pentagon to replace Robert Gates, a widely praised Bush holdover, and replacing Panetta at the spy agency with Gen. David Petraeus, the high-profile commander of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Obama's changes, expected to be announced at the White House on Thursday, also will include a new ambassador and war commander in Afghanistan. However, they don't signal any major adjustment in the president's Afghan strategy or the fight against violent extremism. The moves cement a planned drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan in...

Just a headline for now.

So let me get this straight. Florida preacher Terry Jones burns the Koran as part of a religious protest and is promptly condemned by General David Petraeus? Jones’ act, the general says, “was hateful, it was intolerant and it was extremely disrespectful and again, we condemn it in the strongest manner possible.” Meanwhile, the United States military condones and participates in the burning of the Christian Bible. As CNN reported in May of 2009: Military personnel threw away, and ultimately burned, confiscated Bibles that were printed in the two most common Afghan languages amid concern they would be used to...

General David Petraeus on quran burning: "Ambassador Sedwill and I have just released a statement on behalf of NATO and ISAF forces in Afganistan. In that statement we condemn the action of an individual in the United States who burned a holy quran. That action was hateful, it was intolerant and it was extremely disrespectful. And again, we condemn it in the strongest manner possible."

Leon Panetta is happy as CIA director and has not been asked by President Barack Obama to consider changing jobs, the agency said on Thursday, as speculation swirled over changes in top U.S. security posts. Robert Gates has made clear he plans to step down as defense secretary this year and the military's top officer is expected to retire, prompting speculation about who will move where in Mr Obama's impending reshuffle of military and intelligence chiefs. One scenario being speculated has Mr Panetta – who turns 73 in June – replacing Mr Gates and the director's office on the seventh...

Citizen control of the military is one of the most important foundations of political freedom. Rather than an instrument of a powerful autocrat or king, the army in a republic serves the collective interests, security, and policies of the state as determined by the citizens through the constitutional processes of deliberation and election. Generals are limited to one task: managing conflict so that those political aims are achieved. Thus they should keep quiet about politics, which frequently requires knowledge that professional soldiers do not necessarily possess. This circumscribed role for generals has a long tradition, one famously reinforced by President...

BAGHDAD, Iraq –  "I am honored to be nominated for this position and to have an opportunity to continue to serve with America's Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, Coastguardsmen, and Civilians," said General David Petraeus. - 30 -

Report: Petraeus 'seriously considered' for CIA director By Jordan Fabian - 04/05/11 09:34 AM ET Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of allied forces in Afghanistan, is under consideration to become the next CIA director, according to a report. NPR reported Monday evening that several insiders say that Petraeus is being "seriously" considered for the key intelligence post. Under the proposed plan, CIA Director Leon Panetta could also move over to the Pentagon to serve as the next Defense secretary. He would replace Robert Gates, who wants to step down at the end of the year after serving in the Bush...

SNIP "This was a surprise," Gen. Petraeus said. The Quran burning in Florida, he added, was "hateful, extremely disrespectful and enormously intolerant." Gen. Petraeus, U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry and other Western envoys Sunday met President Hamid Karzai to discuss the security crisis caused by the Florida incident. While Gen. Petraeus said he had no doubt that Mr. Karzai is taking the situation seriously, some Western officials have complained that the Afghan president himself has exacerbated the tensions with his pronouncements on the issue. Most Afghans learned about the Quran burning in Florida only when Mr. Karzai on March 24 condemned...

WASHINGTON -- Challenged by a congressman to "be honest" about how long American troops might have to fight in Afghanistan, Army Gen. David Petraeus revealed that he has a personal stake in ensuring that the U.S. war objectives are met -- his son, Stephen, whose recent combat tour was kept "very quiet."

General David Petraeus will likely step down later this year as commander of Allied forces in Afghanistan, Foreign Policy magazine reports. Lt. Gen. John Allen, an experienced Marine commander, will likely replace him. Petraeus, who is widely credited with saving the US mission in Iraq, took over control of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan after General Stanley McChrystal’s resignation last year. After a decade of high profile commands over the last decade, the magazine reports Petraeus is “worn out.” He is scheduled to testify before congress next week. General Allen, the first Marine officer to join the Council...

The Pentagon is denying reports that Gen. David Petraeus will leave his post as commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan at the end of the year. Contrary to the "sensational speculation by one of the London papers" Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said that though Petraeus will not stay in his post "forever," a date for his departure has not been determined, and the general has not quit. "Obviously he will rotate out at some point, but that point has not yet been determined and it will not occur anytime soon," Morrell said. "Until then, he will continue to...

General David Petraeus, the most celebrated American soldier of his generation, is to leave his post as commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan. The Times can reveal that the Pentagon aims to replace General Petraeus, who was appointed less than eight months ago, by the end of the year Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/petraeus-out-2011-2#ixzz1E4UKvDdB

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25, 2011 – Continued hard work will lead to sustained progress in Afghanistan this year, the commander of the International Security Assistance Force there told his troops in a letter dated today. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus addressed his comments to ISAF’s soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, Coast Guardsmen and civilians. They and their Afghan counterparts “did tremendous work in 2010,” Petraeus wrote, terming their progress “impressive.” ISAF’s core objective in Afghanistan is to ensure that country never again becomes a sanctuary for al-Qaida or other transnational extremists, Petraeus wrote. Achieving that objective requires “a comprehensive civil-military campaign” aimed...

KABUL, Afghanistan — Just hours before President Obama was to give his State of the Union address, his commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David H. Petraeus, offered what amounted to his own “state of the war” address, one noticeably more upbeat than a White House assessment issued late last year. The general’s assessment, which in the form of a letter to troops posted on the NATO Web site, outlined a fight in which troops and the military machine here had gained the edge or was on the cusp of doing so on every front. He described victory as attainable only through...

WASHINGTON—The U.S. military command in Afghanistan has revised secret guidelines for nighttime raids, placing additional safeguards on kill-or-capture missions that are cited in a new White House strategic review as an effective tool in countering the Taliban.

Bob Woodward's searing critique of the Democrats' war strategy comes as key advisers are leaving and voters lose patience with Barack Obama's promise to deliver 'hope and change'. Alex Spillius reports on an increasingly isolated President. When Barack Obama took office 20 months ago – and what a long 20 months it seems – there was a lot of talk about the great "Team of Rivals" he was appointing around him. Parallels were drawn with the cabinet of substantial talents and big personalities assembled by Abraham Lincoln to rebuild the nation after the civil war. Now, in a new book,...

Afghan and coalition forces are continuing to make and solidify gains while pushing out the enemy and retaining control of key districts in hotly contested provinces... Significant gains have taken place in former Taliban strongholds over the last several months, including in Kandahar, Afghanistan's second-largest city and the spiritual home of the Taliban, as well as other areas of Kandahar province... Afghan forces, he noted, now outnumber coalition forces in those districts. The area essentially is the hometown of supreme Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar... Hard work also has gone into solidifying gains in central Helmand province and continuing to...

Gen David Petraeus, the commander of Nato troops in Afghanistan, has hailed a Parachute Regiment operation involving a precision attack that killed 15 Taliban but left two civilans unharmed. Two Afghan civilians survived unscathed as bombs and bullets rained down on Taliban during a "precision strike" campaign being run by the 3rd Bn The Parachute Regiment. Gen Petraeus undertook an urgent fact-finding visit to the Paras and praised the attacks as "the most impressive way to do business". The American commander has adopted the mantra "ruthless prosecution of targets" since arriving in Afghanistan but has faced obstacles from subordinates worried...

... Petraeus attributed this turning point [in stabilizing Iraq] to the increased numbers of coalition and Iraqi forces, part of the surge declared by President George W. Bush in January 2007, but he gave equal credit to the predominantly Sunni popular movement known as the Sons of Iraq (SOI). ... What motivated these Sunni tribesmen to sign loyalty oaths to fight for an Iraqi government with whom they had only recently battled viciously? What were U.S. officers thinking when they provided military training and money for arms and equipment to men who, more often than not, had been their enemies...

Not long after I left Afghanistan in September 2010, a young Lieutenant and a graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point wrote to me concerned that the Army has yet to grasp all of the elements of leadership needed for the challenges of the 21st century. She wrote: "I think that there are serious problems with the culture of Army leadership: close-mindedness, careerism, an aversion to innovation or creativity born of the fallacy that everything can fit into a step-by-step procedure, and a task-oriented mindset that creates an atmosphere of anti-intellectualism...and not only those who can think, but...

President: Sarah Palin-- She has the guts, the speaking abilities, and the American values necessary to unite the nation. She could tie togethor Conservatives and Libertarians, creating a tea party charged candidacy and, eventually, presidency. VP: Jim DeMint-- Senator tea party. He is the guy to bring the tea party and southern America solidly behind this Conservative administration. Sec. of State: John McCain--Although Conservatives and Libertarians generally are not big fans of McCain, he has good foreign policy experience, and I believe would be a good representative of America abroad (however, many of his domestic and economic policy positions are...

U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, the head of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, would defeat President Barack Obama in a head-to-head race for the presidency, according to a new Newsmax/SurveyUSA poll. Newsmax conducted the survey to find out how several well-known political and "dark-horse" celebrity figures, ranging from Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and Bill Gates to Warren Buffett, Donald Trump, and Glenn Beck, would fare if they ran against Obama for the White House. The survey of 1,000 registered voters was conducted Nov. 3-4, after Republicans won the House and gained six seats in the Senate in the midterm...

"May his name be blotted out!" declares the most terrible Hebrew curse. History has devised a curse more terrible still, that is, to have one's memory blotted out, all except for a name that popular usage links to disaster. Schoolchildren no longer learn about King Pyrrhus of Epirus, who won battles against Rome at such heavy cost that he lost the war, but everyone knows that a "Pyrrhic victory" is to be avoided. Few remember Grigory Potyomkin (1739-1791), Catherine the Great's statesman and lover, but everyone knows the idiom "Potemkin Village", a facade constructed to deceive passing inspection. Why not...

... At one point ... Petraeus awoke to a newspaper column critical of the counterinsurgency strategy. To counter the criticism, he phoned another columnist to make the case for it. "Obama and several of his staffers were furious,...It angered Obama that Petraeus was publicly lobbying and prejudging a presidential decision." Obama and Petraeus have dealt with one another warily since the president was a candidate... Their first meeting came July 2008 ...Both were smiling, but their meeting was a standoff. ... They are now comrades in arms in Afghanistan, looking toward a July 2011 deadline to begin the drawdown of...

NOTE The following text is a quote: Petraeus Discusses Future of Afghan Detainees By U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Maria Yager American Forces Press Service PARWAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan, Sept. 28, 2010 – The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan toured the U.S. Detention Facility here yesterday, and discussed his vision for detention operations in Afghanistan. “When I took command of Multinational Force-Iraq in February 2007, we still had Camp Bucca with 17,000 detainees at that time and it grew larger,” said Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander, International Security Assistance Force and commander, U.S. Forces Afghanistan. ”We still had all of...

Asymmetrical warfare was supposed to benefit the insurgents. For the price of a few flying lessons a gang of jihadis brought down the World Trade Center,a terrorist with a bottle of hydrogen peroxide and powdered Tang can blow up an airplane,and a few pounds of plutonium can cripple a major city. Meet the Reverend Terry Jones, asymmetrical warrior. It appears that pinpricks can produce chain reactions in the Islamic world. The threat may be termed asymmetrical because Islam is more vulnerable to theological war than Christianity (or for that matter Judaism). As the youngest of the major religions (apart from...

OPEN LETTER TO GEN. PETRAEUS (Please re-post to anti-jihad sites) “Were the actual burning to take place, the safety of our soldiers and civilians would be put in jeopardy and accomplishment of the mission would be made more difficult.” – Gen. David Petraeus General, I ask you this: what in hell is your “mission” if We The People jeopardize it by exercising our First Amendment rights in our own homeland? Is your “mission” to defend our rights against foreign enemies, or to defend foreign enemies against our rights? You made your choice, and you justified it by claiming that you...

*** Gen. George S. Patton, Jr. After reading the Koran and observing North Africans, he wrote to his wife, "Just finished reading the Koran—a good book and interesting." Patton had a keen eye for native customs and methods, wrote knowingly of local architecture, even rated the progress of word-of-mouth rumor in Arab country at 40–60 miles a day. In spite of his regard for the Koran, he concluded, "To me it seems certain that the fatalistic teachings of Mohammad and the utter degradation of women is the outstanding cause for the arrested development of the Arab. . . . Here, I...

Dear General Petraeus, Most of the guys I served with a couple of generations ago would call rioting mobs of wild-eyed enemy, in town squares, in their own country, a "target-rich environment". That tiny religious congregation in Florida has presented you with a priceless tactical opportunity. A old war general, the likes of Patton or Sherman, would probably set a squad or two just at the 'safe' fringes of any mob, to lure the rioters towards their positions. (I'll bet some of your special-ops heroes would not shrink from being 'the rabbits'). As soon as he senses an impending threat...

The disastrous, unintended consequences of almost everything that liberals try to do when they occasionally gain hold of the levers of government never cease to amaze me. Maybe Obama is a Muslim as some people say, but I’m not convinced of that. I think what is really going on is a crazy notion that if we are especially nice to Muslims, and bend over backwards for them, they will stop trying to kill Americans. The effect of all this is that radical Muslims abroad now think we are spineless weaklings, while non-Muslim Americans (like me) have become furious with all...