Some Evidence Petraeus Had Promoted the Idea of Conflict w/ Iran

[amborin]

Behind Petraeus’s Resignation

".....One person familiar with the Obama administration’s thinking said President Obama was never close to Petraeus, who was viewed as a favorite of the neoconservatives and someone who had undercut a possible solution to Iran’s nuclear program in 2011 by pushing a bizarre claim that Iranian intelligence was behind an assassination plot aimed at the Saudi ambassador to Washington.

As that case initially evolved, the White House and Justice Department were skeptical that the plot traced back to the Iranian government, but Petraeus pushed the alleged connection which was then made public in a high-profile indictment. The charges further strained relations with Iran, making a possible military confrontation more likely.

Petraeus’s Input

At the time, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, a favored recipient of official CIA leaks, reported that “one big reason [top U.S. officials became convinced the plot was real] is that CIA and other intelligence agencies gathered information corroborating the informant’s juicy allegations and showing that the plot had support from the top leadership of the elite Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, the covert action arm of the Iranian government.”

Ignatius added that, “it was this intelligence collected in Iran” that swung the balance. But Ignatius offered no examples of what that intelligence was. Nor did Ignatius show any skepticism regarding Petraeus’s well-known hostility toward Iran and how that might have influenced the CIA’s judgment.

As it turned out, the case was based primarily on statements from an Iranian-American car dealer Mansour Arbabsiar, who clumsily tried to hire drug dealers to murder Saudi Ambassador Adel Al-Jubeir, though Arbabsiar was actually talking to a Drug Enforcement Agency informant. Arbabsiar pled guilty last month as his lawyers argued that their client suffers from a bipolar disorder. In other words, Petraeus and his CIA escalated an international crisis largely on the word of a person diagnosed by doctors of his own defense team as having a severe psychiatric disorder.

Despite the implausibility of the assassination story and the unreliability of the key source, the Washington press corps quickly accepted the Iranian assassination plot as real. That assessment reflected the continued influence of neoconservatives in Official Washington and Petraeus’s out-sized reputation among journalists.

The neocons, who directed much of President George W. Bush’s disastrous foreign policy and filled the ranks of Mitt Romney’s national security team, have favored a heightened confrontation with Iran in line with the hardline position of Israel’s Likud Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In the post-election period, it is a top neocon goal to derail Obama’s efforts to work out a peaceful settlement of the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program. The neocons favor “regime change....."

snip

http://consortiumnews.com/2012/11/10/behind-petraeuss-resignation/

[bongbong]

1. If this is true

We all deserve to give Broadwell a big round of applause for helping to stop a run-up to WWIII.

What insanity and destruction the power-hungry repigs cause.

[amborin]

3. more on her here, including her questionable skills:

"Broadwell has garnered criticism for her sunny portrayal of the military's operations in Afghanistan while working there with Petraeus. Most notably, in 2011 she praised the actions of a Petraeus subordinate who ordered the complete leveling of a village called Tarok Kolache, offering chilling before-and-after photos as evidence of the operation's success.

Joshua Foust, an expert on Afghan counterinsurgency with the American Security Project, wrote months before the affair was revealed that Broadwell's take on Tarok Kolache invalidated her bio of Petraeus. "[W]hen the one tiny bit of Broadwell's story that I'm aware of is riddled with such half-truths, spin, and outright deception about what really happened, how can I possibly trust her and her co-author to tell the rest of David Petraeus' career (and his vaunted leadership skills) honestly?" he stated last February.

Nevertheless, in their zeal to sympathize with Petraeus, the media and military officers are now pushing a negative portrayal of Broadwell as an unbalanced femme fatale. One unnamed officer close to Petraeus said the biographer "got her claws into him," conservative blogger Robert Stacy McCain has called her "The Slut Paula Broadwell," and even the Washington Post made hay of Broadwell's supposed "tight shirts and pants," concluding that Petraeus "let his guard down" around the younger woman."

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/11/david-petraeus-scandal-explained

[leveymg]

2. Petraeus was also an architect of the "The Road to Iran goes Through Syria" Strategy.

Here's something interesting I found from 2008 on that subject.

Petreaus and others in the the present Administration pretty much see eye-to-eye in terms of strategy in the Mideast region. In fact, the General may have been an author of much of the tactics in Syria. Now that things have gone south, he may be falling on his sword.

When Obama came in, one of the earliest initiatives was to try to pry Assad away from Iran. That didn't work out, as planned. So, simultaneously, Benghazi, Libya and Daraa, Syria exploded in exactly the same way within a few days of each other in February last year. The rest is history.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=6148650&page=1#.UJ6tw2d5iEd

Exclusive: Petraeus Wants to Go to Syria; Bush Administration Says No

By JONATHAN KARL (@jonkarl)
Oct. 30, 2008

Apparently Gen. David Petraeus does not agree with the Bush administration that the road to Damascus is a dead end.

ABC News has learned, Petraeus proposed visiting Syria shortly after taking over as the top U.S. commander for the Middle East.

The idea was swiftly rejected by Bush administration officials at the White House, State Department and the Pentagon.

Petraeus, who becomes the commander of U.S. Central Command (Centcom) Friday, had hoped to meet in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Petraeus proposed the trip, and senior officials objected, before the covert U.S. strike earlier this week on a target inside Syria's border with Iraq.

Officials familiar with Petraeus' thinking on the subject say he wants to engage Syria in part because he believes that U.S. diplomacy can be used to drive a wedge between Syria and Iran. He plans to continue pushing the idea.

"When the timing is right, we ought to go in there and have a good discussion with the Syrians," said a Defense Department official close to Petraeus. "It's a meaningful dialogue to have."

Petraeus would likely find a more receptive audience for his approach in an Obama administration, given Barack Obama's views on the need to engage America's enemies.

[amborin]

4. what do you think of that Petraeus proposal?

would engagement with Assad have been a better strategy?

[leveymg]

5. Kerry was the point man on early diplomatic efforts. The object was also to entice Assad away from

Iran. So, in its broad outlines, if not in specific tactics, the Obama Administration's goals haven't changed.

At this point, the violent overthrow option has gone far longer than was planned, I think, and is becoming infinitely complicated by the massive arming of Jihadis who are now recognized to be a growing terrorist and insurrectionary threat elsewhere in MENA.

This has reached a point where further US involvement in arming the opposition is counter-productive and destabilizing the regionand endangering our own security. Time to try something else. I think there needs to be settlement, even if that means Assad stays and the Saudis have to withdraw their support from the Takfiri holy war on the Shi'ia apostates in Damascus.

[amborin]

6. once again, Republican malfeasance undid Obama's attempts....

the appointment of Ambassador Ford, who tried to reach out to Syrians, was never confirmed by them, apparently...

[leveymg]

7. I think they don't deserve credit for this one.

It's Obama's war or his triumph of diplomacy, whatever way he decides to go.