• Obama: 'No evidence' of national security harm in Petraeus scandal

    President Barack Obama answered a range of questions Wednesday at the White House in his first press conference since being re-elected. NBC's Chuck Todd reports.

    Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

    Ex-CIA Director David Petraeus speaks to members of a Senate Intelligence hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on January 31, 2012.

    By Jeff Black, Staff Writer, NBC News

    President Barack Obama said Wednesday that he has seen no evidence that a scandal that led to the resignation of CIA Director David Petraeus  harmed national security.


    “I have no evidence at this point from what I’ve seen that classified information was disclosed that in  any way would have had a negative impact on our national security,” Obama said at a White House briefing.

    Petraeus, a decorated four-star general who received widespread praise for the surge strategy in Iraq, resigned as CIA director on Friday, citing an extramarital affair.

     

    Numerous federal government officials have told NBC News that the married general had a relationship with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, 40, who authored “All In,” a book about Petraeus’ leadership philosophy.

    Obama brushed aside questions about whether he felt he should have been notified sooner of the investigation of Petraeus.

    “Obviously, there’s an ongoing investigation. I don’t want to comment on the specifics of the investigation, Obama said, “The FBI has its own protocols in terms of how they proceed. … I have a lot of confidence in the FBI.”

    The president was not informed of the FBI investigation that revealed Petraeus’ affair until Nov. 8, one day before he accepted his resignation.

    FBI investigators who looked into a series of anonymous threatening emails sent to Tampa, Fla., socialite Jill Kelley later determined they were authored by Broadwell, multiple government and law enforcement officials have told NBC News.

    Investigators have looked into whether Broadwell violated cyber-harassment laws or improperly possessed classified information, and Obama indicated that the investigation was “ongoing.” Law enforcement officials say they have developed no evidence indicating that Petraeus improperly provided classified information to Broadwell.

    Earlier on Wednesday, NBC News confirmed from a veteran senator that Petraeus will testify Thursday about the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi before the Senate Intelligence Committee. 

    The Thursday hearing will be the first formal congressional inquiry into the September attack that killed U.S. Ambassador in Libya Chris Stevens, information management officer Sean Smith and security personnel Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. Petraeus is also scheduled to appear at a closed hearing of the House Intelligence Committee on Friday. 

     As FBI investigated Petraeus, he and Allen intervened in nasty custody battle

    Republican lawmakers have criticized the administration’s evolving explanation of what triggered the Benghazi attack. Officials early on said it was a spontaneous reaction during a protest about an anti-Islamic film. Later, it was termed a planned terrorist attack.

    Commenting on the scandal involving General Petraues, President Obama says he's not aware of any breaches of national security resulting from the scandal.

    Questions have also been raised about whether the consulate had adequate security and whether the State Department responded appropriately to requests for more protection.

    Military analyst Col. Jack Jacobs (Ret.) said the sex scandal will affect the way Petraeus is questioned by Congress, because members were kept in the dark about the FBI inquiry that led to his resignation. 

    Defense official fires back, denies Afghanistan commander exchanged 'inappropriate' emails

    “It will be interesting to see what tenor it takes and what the senators and congressmen, assuming he gets before both houses, have to say before talking to him. As you know, these hearings have a tendency to be less a question and answer period than it is an opportunity for the members to vent their spleen or talk about what they want to, so that part will be very, very interesting,” Jacobs said.   

    “In terms of extracting real information about what actually took place and what role the CIA had in what took place in Benghazi, I believe that investigation will determine that they had no role, that by the time the CIA could do anything, it was all over.” 

    NBC's Michael Brunker contributed to this report.

    President Obama says he will "cooperate in any way that Congress wants" in an investigation around the attack on the U.S. consulate in  Benghazi while saying his administration did "everything we could to makes sure we protected our people."

    NBC's Chuck Todd discusses the political fallout from Petraeus-Allen scandal, noting that the White House national security team is probably more worried about wobbly leadership at the CIA and in Afghanistan than political damage.

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  • Defense official fires back, denies Afghanistan commander exchanged 'inappropriate' emails

    Officials say that thousands of emails between General John Allen and Florida socialite Jill Kelley are flirtatious, but the general denies a relationship. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.


    By NBC News staff

    Updated 4 p.m. ET: Allegedly “inappropriate” emails between U.S. Gen. John Allen and the woman who sparked the investigation into CIA Director David Petraeus do not signify the two had an affair, a defense official told NBC News on Tuesday.

    “There was no affair,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.  The emails in question could be misconstrued, the official said, predicting that the investigation will prove Allen’s innocence.

    Allen, the commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, is under investigation over allegations that he exchanged “inappropriate” emails with Jill Kelley, a senior defense official told reporters earlier Tuesday.

    A difference of opinion appeared to be brewing at the Pentagon about how to characterize the emails, with another official calling them flirtatious.

    Kelley, a Tampa, Fla., woman who has acted as a volunteer “social liaison” with military officials at MacDill Air Force Base,  inadvertently launched the investigation that led to Petraeus’ resignation by complaining to the FBI about anonymous emails she received.  FBI agents traced the allegedly threatening emails to Paula Broadwell, Petraeus' biographer. 

    Emails on 'coming and goings' of Petraeus, other military officials escalated FBI concerns

    During the investigation, agents discovered emails between Petraeus and Broadwell that were indicative of an extramarital affair between them, according to government and law enforcement officials.

    Petraeus, who was appointed 14 months ago to head the Central Intelligence Agency, announced his resignation on Friday, citing an extramarital affair.

    Word of the investigation into Gen. Allen’s involvement came early Tuesday, when U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta issued a statement during a flight to Australia for a meeting with defense officials there, saying that  the FBI had referred “a matter involving" Allen to the Department of Defense's Inspector General.

    Those who know the two women at the center of General David Petraeus' affair scandal are speaking out. Jill Kelley's brother says she is "dedicated" to her husband, while Paula Broadwell's friend calls her "a pretty great person." NBC's Kristen Welker reports.

    “Today, the secretary directed that the matter be referred to the Inspector General of the Department of Defense for investigation, and it is now in the hands of the Inspector General,” Panetta said.

    Panetta’s statement did not include specifics, but a senior defense official traveling with him told reporters that Allen “was under investigation for “inappropriate communications” with Kelley.

    The official also said the investigation involved some 20,000 to 30,000 pages of material, mostly emails, which were sent from 2010 to 2012, adding that Allen “disputes that he has engaged in any wrongdoing in this matter.”

    Later in the day, however, a defense official at the Pentagon told NBC News that the number of emails between Allen and Kelley was inflated.

     

    The FBI eventually discovered that the emails received by Jill Kelley, a close friend of the Petraeus family, were sent by Paula Broadwell. And as they dug deeper, the affair between Broadwell and Petraeus came to light. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

    "That is a mischaracterization," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "The communications with General Allen were lumped in with a lot of other email traffic."

    The official said that the Allens and Kelleys were "family friends," and the emails were written in that manner. Many of the emails were not personal communications between the general and Jill Kelley, the official added, but included Allen's wife. And many were between Allen's wife and Jill Kelley, with General Allen just copied, the official said.

    "What we're dealing with is the possible perception of inappropriateness," the official said, but it will become clear that there was no wrongdoing. "This is not at the level of the director of the CIA."

    According to a senior U.S. military official, Pentagon General Counsel Jeh Johnson read "a number" of the emails between Allen and Kelley before he advised Panetta to refer the matter to the Inspector General.

    "Leon Panetta didn't make this decision lightly," the official said late Tuesday. The emails were more than just calling one another "sweetheart," characterizing them as flirtatious, the official said.

    While the emails may not prove an affair or even be inappropriate, they were unprofessional, the official said.

    Allen will meet with investigators over the next few days, but then he is expected to head back to Afghanistan to continue in his role as Commander of ISAF, according to the official.

    Panetta’s statement said that Allen would remain commander of ISAF during the investigation and that he was “entitled to due process in this matter.”

    But Allen’s nomination to take over as head of U.S. forces in Europe and NATO's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, was put on hold “until the relevant facts are determined,” Panetta said.

    Slideshow: Petraeus case: Cast of characters

    ISAF via Reuters file

    Meet the people who have been pulled into the scandal that caused Gen. David Petraeus to resign.

    Launch slideshow

    Allen was in Washington, D.C., preparing for his Senate confirmation hearings which were originally scheduled for Thursday, NBC News reported.

    Allen had no advance warning about the investigation, a close aide of Allen’s told NBC News. He was alerted to the probe by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey Monday night ET. Allen had a number of meetings scheduled for Tuesday on Capitol Hill, although the aide was unsure if they would take place.

    Allen’s connection to the Petraeus investigation also seems to have caught the Defense Department off guard.

    “This came as very surprising news, to say the least. No one in the Pentagon is leaping to conclusions just yet,” a senior defense official traveling with Panetta told NBC News.  “It's important to review the materials to determine the facts, and it's too early speculate about where this will lead.  In the meantime, Gen. Allen needs to focus on the war effort, which he's successfully led since last year.”

    The ISAF was also unaware of the investigation until late Monday or early Tuesday, and it declined to comment, in a written statement, referring all questions to the Defense Department.

    Allen, a highly decorated officer, took over as ISAF commander in July 2011, and was nominated on Oct. 10 to take over as NATO commander, the same time that his successor at the ISAF was named as Gen. Joseph Dunford.

    The confirmation of Dunford, currently assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, is now expected to be fast tracked.

    “The secretary has respectfully requested that the Senate act promptly on that nomination," Panetta’s statement said.

    NBC News' Courtney Kube, Jeff Black, Ian Johnston and Rachel Elbaum contributed to this report.

     

    Some members of Congress are saying that they or, at the least President Obama, should have been told about the investigation into the director of the CIA while it was going on. NBC's Pete Williams reports.

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  • Report: Bin Laden told followers to kill Obama, Petraeus

    Letters from Osama bin Laden to his aides show the terrorist was plotting to kill President Obama and US General David Petraeus. David Ignatius of the Washington Post was given exclusive access to the documents and shares what he learned.

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    Osama bin Laden told his followers to work on a plan to kill Barack Obama and Gen. David Petraeus by attacking their aircraft, according to documents found in the slain terror leader’s compound, The Washington Post reported Friday.

    The Post said that it had been given an exclusive look at “some of these remarkable documents,” which it said had been declassified and would be made public soon.

    AP Photo/Department of Defense, File

    This undated image from video seized from the walled compound of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan and released by the U.S. Department of Defense shows a man identified by the U.S. government as Osama Bin Laden in front of a television.

    Administration officials told the Post that the plot to kill Obama and Petraeus had not reached the stage where it was a serious threat. The Post said it was “probably bluster,” but was a "chilling reminder" of the scale of bin Laden's ambition.

    “The reason for concentrating on them,” bin Laden told an al-Qaida officer, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, according to the Post report, “is that Obama is the head of infidelity and killing him automatically will make (Vice President Joe) Biden take over the presidency. … Biden is totally unprepared for that post, which will lead the U.S. into a crisis. As for Petraeus, he is the man of the hour… and killing him would alter the (Afghan) war’s path.”

    Bin Laden: Al-Qaida has image problem
    Bin Laden also told Atiyah to concentrate “every effort that could be spent on attacks in America,” and to “ask the brothers in all regions if they have a brother … who can operate in the U.S. [He should be able to] live there, or it should be easy for him to travel there,” the Post report said.

    Slideshow: World reacts to death of Osama bin Laden

    Arshad Butt / AP

    The world reacts after Osama bin Laden is killed in a U.S. military operation in Pakistan.

    Launch slideshow

    The documents also show bin Laden was worried about al-Qaida’s image – to the point that he thought it should change its name.

    The Post said bin Laden believed his terror network had a brand problem because U.S. officials “have largely stopped using the phrase ‘the war on terror’ in the context of not wanting to provoke Muslims,” instead talking about the war against al-Qaida.

    He suggested 10 alternatives, the paper reported, with one being “Taifat al-tawhid wal-jihad,” or Monotheism and Jihad Group.

    Bin Laden also described the killing of Muslims by al-Qaida as “mistakes” and “miscalculations” and said ever local leader should be told to avoid “unnecessary civilian casualties.”

    NBC's Andrea Mitchell profiles Osama bin Laden who commanded a business empire dedicated to terrorism.

    The 54-year-old terror leader was killed by a U.S. raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2 last year.

    He had lived there since mid-2005 with his three wives, eight children, five grandchildren and others, making a total of 28 people. His 24-year-old son Khaled was also killed in the raid.

    Pakistan intelligence officials and an al-Qaida member said there were concerns about his mental health before his death, according to Brig. Shaukat Qadir, a retired Pakistani army officer who spent months researching the events surrounding bin Laden's death.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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