Watch Live: Congressional Hearing on IRS Scandal

Live Now on TheBlaze Radio: ‘The Buck Sexton Show’

Government

Debunked? Reports Speculate Husband of Petraeus’ Mistress Wrote to NYTimes About the Affair

Nov. 10, 2012 7:30pm Erica Ritz

After CIA Director Gen. David Petraeus resigned from his post on Friday over an extramarital affair, a number of media sources reminded that back in July, an unnamed man wrote to the New York Times Magazine’s “ethicist” over a similar dilemma.

According to the unnamed man, his wife was having an affair with a “government executive” whose “progress is seen worldwide as a demonstration of American leadership.”

Everyone was quick to note that the links to Gen. Petraeus were far from tangible, but it certainly presented an interesting case.

The Weekly Standard relates the man’s letter to “ethicist” Chuck Klosterman:

My wife is having an affair with a government executive. His role is to manage a project whose progress is seen worldwide as a demonstration of American leadership. (This might seem hyperbolic, but it is not an exaggeration.) I have met with him on several occasions, and he has been gracious. (I doubt if he is aware of my knowledge.) I have watched the affair intensify over the last year, and I have also benefited from his generosity. He is engaged in work that I am passionate about and is absolutely the right person for the job. I strongly feel that exposing the affair will create a major distraction that would adversely impact the success of an important effort. My issue: Should I acknowledge this affair and finally force closure? Should I suffer in silence for the next year or two for a project I feel must succeed? Should I be “true to my heart” and walk away from the entire miserable situation and put the episode behind me? NAME WITHHELD [Emphasis added]

Now, however, the magazine’s editor Hugo Lindgren is saying on Twitter that the letter is not related to Petraeus’ admitted infidelity.

At first he wrote that they would explore the matter, but concluded: “This @theethicist column http://nyti.ms/Scgf8j (2nd Q) is NOT about the Petraeus affair, based on our factchecking. Strange, I know.”

The true identity of the “government executive” having an affair remains unknown.

New York Times Says Husband of Petraeus Mistress Paula Broadwell Did Not Write Letter to Ethicist

(Photo: Twitter/@HugoLindgren)

–

In CONTROL, Glenn Beck presents a passionate, fact-based case for guns that reveals why gun control isn’t really about controlling guns at all; it’s about controlling us. Find out more HERE.

Back to The Blaze »

Comments (44)

Joel Knows
Posted on November 11, 2012 at 8:37pm
This is an alternative view, not sure how correct it is, but certainly given the recent past it is plausable: http://theobamahustle.wordpress.com/ the headline with this is: “Obama Topples Top Coup Leader General Petraeus After Washington Gunbattle ??”
I can believe or not believe just about anything anymore. Nothing makes any sense any more.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Totally Domestic
Posted on November 11, 2012 at 3:31pm
Don’t forget…they are trying to sell a book.
Money Money Money

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
UnkaB
Posted on November 11, 2012 at 10:48am
This sounds like something only a PIG like V. Jarret could cook up.
Petraeus had a sudden attack of conscience??? My God are we really this stupid???

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
barber2
Posted on November 11, 2012 at 10:13am
According to The Hill ” a woman who claimed to have received harassing emails from Petraeus’ mistress” is the one who started this FBI witch hunt ! ? Sounds like a typical Democrat Character Assassination Squad “hit.” Maybe Gloria Allred ‘s ” surprise” was put on hold ?! Was this her October bomb-shell ?? Who knows. Surely not the American public with Obama in the White House and the MSM his fawning Lap Dogs !

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
AJAYW
Posted on November 11, 2012 at 9:11am
really

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
AJAYW
Posted on November 11, 2012 at 8:29am
any story to make a dime

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
AJAYW
Posted on November 11, 2012 at 7:37am
the title of the book may say a lot

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
AJAYW
Posted on November 11, 2012 at 4:09am
what a story

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Derus
Posted on November 10, 2012 at 11:07pm
CONGRESSIONAL SELECT COMMITTEE QUESTIONS TO HILLARY CLINTON ET AL:

Hilliary Clinton: Questions:

1. Is an USA Ambassador’s job assignment include USA GUN RUNNING TO KNOWN USA ENEMIES INCLUDING AL QAEDA AND RADICALS WITHIN THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD?

2. Was the decision to let Stevens die to coverup his GUN RUNNING activities not a failure of leadership, but a conscious act of OBAMA/BIDEN/PETRAEUS/CLINTON?

3. Dead people don’t talk?

4. Does your “FOG OF WAR” imply to watching the burning fires and smoke from drone live feed as Americans were needlessly slaughtered?

5. Does Perjury/Lying/Coverup by Hilliary Clinton, Susan Rice and Leon Panetta felonies upon conviction punishable by 10 to 25 years in Federal Prison?

6. ARE OBAMA/BIDEN NOT ONLY IMPEACHABLE BUT SHOULD BE PUT ON TRIAL FOR TREASON?

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- sillyfreshness
  Posted on November 11, 2012 at 1:42am
  New York Times=Jew York Times
  
  Report this comment
- Bill Rowland
  Posted on November 11, 2012 at 5:37am
  Hilrod, Rice and Panetta are counting on Presidential Pardons to save them. Sweet Old Barack will throw them under the bus and then pardon them for any crimes they commited while in office.
  Remeber with Sweet Old Barack there is always a scapegoat – He never takes responsibility for mistakes (failures) but never misses the chance to be there for a photo op when there is a success (I killed Osama).
  
  Watch the Other Hand
  
  Report this comment
Detroit paperboy
Posted on November 10, 2012 at 10:22pm
So Petraus’s wife is also a federal employee leech……..she works for Obama s consumer protection division, ,,,,,,,,how much do just these 2 bloodsuckers alone cost us ? Salary ? Benefits ? Retirement ? Lifetime health care ??????????????? Get a job in the private sector, oh yah Odumbass says the pricate sector is doin GREAT ………right.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
dealer@678
Posted on November 10, 2012 at 10:09pm
This morally bankrupt tramp would sacrifice her own children for worldly gain. Oh yea , she went to Harvard

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
ellietoo
Posted on November 10, 2012 at 10:01pm
No wonder nothing gets done in Washington DC.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
HappyHarriet
Posted on November 10, 2012 at 9:40pm
So you mean, New York Times Ethicist (what is an Ethicist – a Godless creature who moralizes?) is telling us that there is ANOTHER head of some OTHER organization heading up YET ANOTHER IMPORTANT MISSION is having an affair that is intensifying? And we have yet ANOTHER shoe that’s gonna drop here whenever someone gets around to it or something seeps out?

I’m no prude, but I’m tired of all this.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
KangarooJack
Posted on November 10, 2012 at 9:03pm
Hey-Zeus H. CHristo….WATCH THE OTHER HAND!!!! Wean yourselves off of Dancing with the Stars and American Idol….

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
SilentReader
Posted on November 10, 2012 at 8:43pm
Trusting the New York Crimes er Times about anything, let alone this letter, is like a wife who trusts that her cheating husband won’t cheat again.

How many times has the Times been in cahuts with this Obama-Clinton White House before? They probably made the whole thing up.

We all know why General Petraeus resigned. Now he doesn’t have to testify about Benghazigate because there’s not one coward in Congress who will do anything about it. They should be charging Obama-Clinton et al with treason and putting them behind bars where they belong for aiding and abetting the vile Islamist enemy in Libya, Egypt, Syria (via Turkey and Obama’s buddy Erdogan) and now Jordan where the Muslim Brotherhood has forced King Abdullah to disband his government or they’ll do to him what they did to Mubarak in Egypt. And before this in Bosnia and Kosovo where Clinton-Albright-NATO et al were aiding and abetting by arming the al Qaeda and the Mujahedeen in Bosnia and where they built a monument to the terrorists with one million of our taxpayer monies to boot. NATO planes flew the terrorist into Bosnia to massacre the Christian Serbs.

Hey these guys have been at their treacherous game for a long time. They’ve been arming the terrorists with impunity and their co-conspirators in the MSM have been giving them a pass time and time again because their Leftist comrades are in the White House and they never scrutinize them. They can do no wrong.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
grayling646
Posted on November 10, 2012 at 8:29pm
Dear Name Withheld,
As a long time adviser to the lost and lovelorn, I highly recommend you grow a set.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Mark Meed
Posted on November 10, 2012 at 8:16pm
The term “New York Times Ethicist” has to rate right up there with “jumbo shrimp.”

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- aliswell
  Posted on November 10, 2012 at 8:43pm
  Lol! True!
  
  Report this comment
- taxpro4u03
  Posted on November 10, 2012 at 8:54pm
  ….and ‘common sense’
  
  Report this comment
- helmuit_7
  Posted on November 10, 2012 at 9:17pm
  Ahhhh, but Mark, you misunderstand….
  The NYt’s must have an ‘ethicist’. This is a ‘new’ word, with a ‘new’ meaning for a ‘new’ world.
  This word pronounced et-He’-sist; Now has been defined as one who ‘cuts and pastes’ till it looks good or they call for another “party/break time/ spin meeting”…
  Not many folks know of this, or very many other ‘new’ words and their meanings. I however am very fortunate as being overlooked on the S**t List so far as they eliminate folks that are presumed to be “whistle blowers”.
  (I have a horn so I am hoping they won’t notice. If they do, I’m gonna jump.)
  hope this was some help… yours truly, helmuit_7 [aka dirtballhardy]
  
  Report this comment
aliswell
Posted on November 10, 2012 at 8:10pm
Oh, well based on the NYTimes’ history of well-rounded, honest, and bias-free reporting, I’m now convinced Hugo Lindgren’s “fact-checking” and subsequent claim are competely true.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- Gregb
  Posted on November 10, 2012 at 9:17pm
  Chuck Klosterman is an idiot… now it is not cya but coa… cover obama’s a$$
  the blaze and Glenn Beck are great, but the regular media that people watch – sucks!
  
  Report this comment
- barber2
  Posted on November 11, 2012 at 10:17am
  The NYT is the Leakiest ship in the journalist Lefty Navy. All the ” news” / propaganda the Left wants out on their front page; all the “news” the Left does not want printed : no where to be seen on the NYT pages .
  
  Report this comment
watashbuddyfriend
Posted on November 10, 2012 at 7:58pm
A good revenge report! Yo sins will find you out!

It is hard to keep the zipper ziped! But, it always takes two to tango!

On a positive note: Go Aggies!

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
lessoneleg
Posted on November 10, 2012 at 7:53pm
Question, what’s the point in making any public accountability concerning marital affairs with the modern liberal public. Progressive liberals have defined “marriage” as some sort of association with no boundaries or expectations. It’s a pointless piece of paper from a bygone age of expectations between a man and a woman. It’s now been redefined as bunk. Pure bunk by liberals. Oh they want that wording though. The liberals needed to revise it to forever make marriage and it’s vows just worthless words and phrases.
So, what if the liberal Press withheld the news? What news, its pointless marriage vows, it’s not newsworthy.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
KangarooJack
Posted on November 10, 2012 at 7:49pm
I’m sorry, but WHAT husband would write to a newspaper about his wife’s affair???????????

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- Mark Meed
  Posted on November 10, 2012 at 8:18pm
  I’m thinking ….liberal.
  
  Report this comment
- jonnyc
  Posted on November 10, 2012 at 8:22pm
  No husband would. This whole thing is bogus. Where did it originate from? Who found it all these months later?
  
  Report this comment
- GBTVFan_Non_American_Overseas
  Posted on November 10, 2012 at 10:33pm
  A husband without balls, character, pride, manhood and confidence. It seems the one who wrote that mail is full of estrogens and keeps his balls in his wife’s purse!
  
  Report this comment
Tri-ox
Posted on November 10, 2012 at 7:48pm
( taking a quick break from news about traitor-Petraeus and his bimbo …)

Happy 237th Birthday to the U.S. Marine Corps! Semper Fi!

http://blog.heritage.org/2012/11/10/happy-237th-birthday-to-the-u-s-marine-corps/

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
chips1
Posted on November 10, 2012 at 7:40pm
Women are testing their ability to snag any guy that comes along. She went right up the chain of command.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Militiaofone
Posted on November 10, 2012 at 7:40pm
My wife said , “let all the other morons type first”…go ahead, make our day.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- FreeUsAll
  Posted on November 10, 2012 at 8:01pm
  Wait. I’m curious as to you and your wife’s position on this… Could you expand on your reasons for that?
  
  Report this comment
justangry
Posted on November 10, 2012 at 7:38pm
Oh good lord, I’m already sick of this. Infidelity isn’t really news.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- MatrixRedPill
  Posted on November 10, 2012 at 8:15pm
  This is not about the affair.
  
  Report this comment
- aliswell
  Posted on November 10, 2012 at 8:22pm
  I think you’re missing the bigger picture on this one, JA. Why did the Obama administration hire Petraeus for Director of the CIA in the first place? The left HATES the man.
  
  Why did Petraeus publically lie about the motivation and people behind the Bengahzi attack, especially when the truth was already becoming public knowledge?
  
  And why resign over an affair when having affairs is so commonplace amongst people in high places, and the affair was one big open secret anyway?
  
  And NOW he states he won’t be testifying about the Bengahzi attack when his testimony is so crucial in getting to the bottom of its horrific handling and the subsequent cover up?
  
  Report this comment
- justangry
  Posted on November 10, 2012 at 8:58pm
  Oh sure, all those questions are valid, but we’re not going to get straight answers and we already know someone is lying. That’s a whole different story.
  
  Report this comment
- resme
  Posted on November 10, 2012 at 9:02pm
  “I think you’re missing the bigger picture on this one, JA. Why did the Obama administration hire Petraeus for Director of the CIA in the first place? The left HATES the man. ”
  
  Because Obama is actually a Neo-Consevative. He’s as “conservative” as you can get, tbh. Well the ever changing definition of “conservatism”
  
  Report this comment
- barber2
  Posted on November 11, 2012 at 10:14am
  RESME: Yes. Obama is just as ” conservative ” as his historical mentor, Karl Marx ! Give it a rest, dude.
  
  Report this comment
- resme
  Posted on November 11, 2012 at 3:10pm
  “RESME: Yes. Obama is just as ” conservative ” as his historical mentor, Karl Marx ! Give it a rest, dude.”
  
  You wouldn’t know communism if it jumped up and bit you in the ass, Forest Gump.
  
  Report this comment
- resme
  Posted on November 11, 2012 at 3:13pm
  on*, In is kind of weird, Would suit you perfectly.
  
  Report this comment

It appears that you have Javascript Disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser preferences for a better user experience on TheBlaze. You can not comment without Javascript enabled.