WASHINGTON: Former CIA Director David Petraeus was sneaked into the Capitol yesterday, away from photographers and television cameras, to face lawmakers’ questions for the first time about the deadly attack on the US Consulate in Libya — just one week after he resigned over an extramarital affair.
The retired four-star Army general, formerly one of the country’s most respected military leaders, entered through a network of underground hallways leading to a secure room. CIA directors typically walk through the building’s front door.
Petraeus is under investigation by the CIA for possible wrongdoing in his extramarital affair, though that wasn’t the subject of yesterday’s closed-door hearings.
Petraeus made no comment on the affair to lawmakers, but he was asked if it would have any impact on his testimony and he said no, Peter King, the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, later told reporters. King said Petraeus didn’t seem affected by the week’s developments.
As for the attack, “He was definitely fully aware of what was going on,” King said of Petraeus.
The Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi, which killed the US ambassador and three other Americans, created a political firestorm, with Republicans claiming that the White House misled the public on what led to the violence.
Five days after the attack, the administration sent UN Ambassador Susan Rice on the Sunday news shows to describe it as a spontaneous protest over an anti-Muslim video produced in the US Rice relied on initial intelligence that proved incorrect, and she’s now under attack by some Republican senators who vow to block her if she’s nominated as secretary of state when Hillary Rodham Clinton steps down.
Lawmakers have been interviewing top intelligence and national security officials in trying to determine what the intelligence community knew before, during and after the attack. They viewed security video from the consulate and surveillance footage by an unarmed CIA Predator drone that showed events in real time.
Petraeus has acknowledged an affair with a woman later identified as his biographer, the married Paula Broadwell. The resignation of the former US commander in both Iraq and Afghanistan stunned Washington, which once had buzzed with talk about a possible run for president in his future.
In the course of investigating the Petraeus affair, the FBI uncovered suggestive emails between Afghanistan war chief Gen. John Allen and Florida socialite Jill Kelley, both of them married. President Barack Obama has put Allen’s promotion nomination on hold.
Top national security officials were on Capitol Hill on Thursday to grapple with fallout from the sex scandal as Defense Secretary Leon Panetta asked service chiefs to review ethics training for military officers.
Lawmakers went forward with a hearing on the nomination of Gen. Joseph Dunford to replace Allen in Afghanistan. But with Allen’s own future uncertain, they put off consideration of his promotion to US European Command chief and NATO supreme allied commander. Allen had initially been scheduled to testify.
Leading administration officials, meanwhile, met privately with lawmakers for a third straight day to explain how the Petraeus investigation was handled and explore its national security implications. Among those appearing before the House Intelligence Committee were Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Acting CIA Director Michael Morell.