By MICHAEL D. SHEAR
Published: November 9, 2012
WASHINGTON — David H. Petraeus, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency and one of America’s most decorated four-star generals, resigned on Friday after an F.B.I. investigation uncovered evidence that he was carrying on an extramarital affair.
Mr. Petraeus issued a statement acknowledging the affair after President
Obama accepted his resignation and it was announced by the C.I.A. He
had offered to resign on Thursday when he informed Mr. Obama about the
affair, White House officials said.
Government officials said that the F.B.I. had investigated whether a
computer used by Mr. Petraeus had been compromised. In the course of
that inquiry, federal investigators discovered the relationship,
officials said.
Senior members of Congress were alerted to Mr. Petraeus’s impending
resignation by intelligence officials about six hours before the C.I.A.
announced his resignation. One Congressional official who was briefed on
the matter said that Mr. Petraeus had been encouraged “to get out in
front of the issue” and resign, and that he agreed.
As for how the affair came to light, the Congressional official said
that “it was portrayed to us that the F.B.I. was investigating something
else and came upon him. My impression is that the F.B.I. stumbled
across this.”
The official said they were not told the name of the woman or any other details about the F.B.I. investigation.
The F.B.I. did not inform the Senate and House Intelligence Committees
about the investigation before this week, according to Congressional
officials, who noted that by law the panels — and especially their
chairmen and ranking members — are supposed to be told about significant
developments in the intelligence arena. Senator Dianne Feinstein of
California, the Democratic chairman of the committee, plans to pursue
the question of why the committee was not told, one official said.
The revelation of a secret inquiry into the head of the nation’s premier
spy agency raised urgent questions about Mr. Petraeus’s tenure and the
decision by Mr. Obama to elevate him last year to head the C.I.A. after
leading the country’s war effort in Afghanistan. White House officials
said they did not know about the affair until this week, when Mr.
Petraeus informed them.
“After being married for over 37 years, I showed extremely poor judgment
by engaging in an extramarital affair,” Mr. Petraeus said in his
statement, expressing regret for his abrupt departure. “Such behavior is
unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization
such as ours. This afternoon, the president graciously accepted my
resignation.”
Mr. Petraeus’s admission and resignation represent a remarkable fall
from grace for one of the most prominent figures in America’s modern
military and intelligence community, a commander who helped guide the
nation’s wartime activities in the decade after the Sept. 11 attacks and
was credited with turning around the failing war effort in Iraq.
Mr. Petraeus almost single-handedly forced a profound evolution in the
country’s military thinking and doctrine with his philosophy of
counterinsurgency, focused more on protecting the civilian population
than on killing enemies. More than most of his flag officer peers, he
understood how to navigate Washington politics and media, helping him
rise through the ranks and obtain resources he needed, although fellow
Army leaders often resented what they saw as a grasping careerism.
“To an important degree, a generation of officers tried to pattern
themselves after Petraeus,” said Stephen Biddle, a military scholar at
George Washington University who advised Mr. Petraeus at times. “He was
controversial; a lot of people didn’t like him. But everybody looked at
him as the model of what a modern general was to be.”
White House officials say they were informed on Wednesday night that Mr.
Petraeus was considering resigning because of an extramarital affair.
Intelligence officials notified the president’s national security staff.
Mr. Obama was at the time on his way back to Washington from Chicago,
where he had gone to receive Tuesday’s election returns.
On Thursday morning, just before a staff meeting at the White House, Mr.
Obama was told. “He was surprised, and he was disappointed,” one senior
administration official said. “You don’t expect to hear that the
Thursday after you were re-elected.”
The president closeted himself in the White House all day on Thursday,
getting back to his old routine after months on the campaign trail. That
afternoon, Mr. Petraeus came in to see him personally, and informed the
president that he strongly believed he had to resign.
Mr. Obama did not accept his resignation right away. “He told him, ‘I’ll
think about it overnight,’ ” the administration official said. After
months on the road, a disclosure of a career-killing extramarital affair
from his larger-than-life C.I.A. director was the last thing that Mr.
Obama was expecting, the official said.
The president, officials said, did not want Mr. Petraeus to leave. But
he ultimately decided that he would not lean heavily on him to stay. On
Friday, he called Mr. Petraeus and accepted the resignation, “agreeing
with Petraeus’s judgment that he couldn’t continue to lead the agency,” a
White House official said.
The White House had hoped to keep the news under wraps until after the
daily briefing for the news media, but as it was reported on MSNBC,
reporters checking their e-mail confronted Jay Carney, the press
secretary, who tried to duck the questions.
“I think I’ll let General Petraeus address this,” Mr. Carney said.
Shortly after the news broke, Mr. Obama released a statement praising
Mr. Petraeus for his “extraordinary service” to the country, and
expressing support for him and his wife, Holly.
“By any measure, through his lifetime of service, David Petraeus has
made our country safer and stronger,” the president said. Without
directly addressing the affair, Mr. Obama added: “Going forward, my
thoughts and prayers are with Dave and Holly Petraeus, who has done so
much to help military families through her own work. I wish them the
very best at this difficult time.”
A favorite of President George W. Bush and once the subject of intense
speculation about his future as a possible presidential candidate, Mr.
Petraeus managed the awkward move from a Republican administration to a
Democratic one. He was one of the most telegenic faces of the military
during his tenure, testifying frequently in Congress about the country’s
difficult battles overseas.
Mr. Petraeus clashed with Mr. Obama in 2008 during a campaign visit to
Iraq, having what David Plouffe, his campaign manager, called in his
book a “healthy debate” over troop levels in the country.
But the president’s decision to tap Mr. Petraeus to command the war in
Afghanistan, and later picking him to lead the C.I.A., effectively ended
lingering concerns among Mr. Obama’s political advisers that the
popular general might challenge his commander in chief during the
election that just ended.
Mr. Petraeus has been married for 38 years and has two children. Ms.
Petraeus is the assistant director of the Office of Servicemember
Affairs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Mr. Petraeus’s resignation and the circumstances surrounding it stunned
military officers who have served alongside him in war zones over the
past two decades.
“It was a punch in the gut for those of us who know him,” said Col.
Michael J. Meese, a professor at West Point who has known Mr. Petraeus
for a decade and served as one of his top aides in Bosnia, Iraq and
Afghanistan.
The resignation also came as a shock to the national security
establishment. In a statement, James R. Clapper, the director of
national intelligence, called the decision “a loss” to the country.
“Dave’s decision to step down represents the loss of one of our nation’s
most respected public servants.” Mr. Clapper wrote. “From his long,
illustrious Army career to his leadership at the helm of C.I.A., Dave
has redefined what it means to serve and sacrifice for one’s country.”
By acknowledging an extramarital affair, Mr. Petraeus, 60, was
confronting a sensitive issue for a spy chief. Intelligence agencies are
often concerned about the possibility that agents who engage in such
behavior could be blackmailed for information.
In his statement, Mr. Petraeus did not provide any details about his
behavior, saying that he asked the president to be allowed “for personal
reasons” to resign.
Mr. Petraeus praised his colleagues at the C.I.A.’s headquarters in
Langley, Va., calling them “truly exceptional in every regard” and
thanking them for their service to the country. He made it clear that
his departure was not how he had envisioned ending a storied career in
the military and in intelligence.
“Teddy Roosevelt once observed that life’s greatest gift is the
opportunity to work hard at work worth doing,” he said. “I will always
treasure my opportunity to have done that with you, and I will always
regret the circumstances that brought that work with you to an end.”
Over the last several years, Mr. Petraeus had become one of the most
recognizable military officials, serving as the public face of the war
effort in Congress and on television.
Under Mr. Bush, Mr. Petraeus was credited for helping to develop and put
in place the “surge” in troops in Iraq that helped wind down the war in
that country. Mr. Petraeus was moved to Afghanistan in 2010 after Mr.
Obama fired General Stanley A. McChrystal over comments he made to a
magazine reporter.
In Afghanistan, Mr. Petraeus led the push for a similar increase in
troops ordered by Mr. Obama, but he was unable to replicate the success
he had in the Iraq conflict. Last year, Mr. Obama persuaded Mr. Petraeus
to leave the Army after 37 years to lead the C.I.A., succeeding Mr.
Panetta, who moved to the Defense Department.
In recent months, Mr. Petraeus was seen as a credible part of the
administration’s response to Republican critics of Mr. Obama’s handling
of the killings at the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya.
Mr. Petraeus had been scheduled to testify at a closed-door hearing on
the subject next week.
In his statement on Friday, Mr. Obama said that Michael J. Morell, the
deputy director of the C.I.A., would take over once again as acting
director. Mr. Morell served in that position briefly after Leon E.
Panetta left the agency last year.
Among the candidates who might replace Mr. Petraeus permanently is John
Brennan, the president’s adviser for homeland security and
counterterrorism. Mr. Brennan was considered for C.I.A. director before
Mr. Obama’s term began but withdrew among criticism from some of the
president’s liberal supporters.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: November 9, 2012
An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that David H. Petraeus was expected to remain in President Obama’s cabinet. The C.I.A. director is not a cabinet member in the Obama administration.
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