Free Republic

<p>Retired Adm. Robert Harward turned down President Donald Trump’s offer to be national security adviser over concerns that political advisers would interfere with security affairs, Politico reports.</p> <p>Trump reportedly offered Harward the position Monday night after former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn resigned in disgrace. Harward told Trump he would need a few days to consider the offer, but was still widely expected to accept the position.</p>

....retired Gen. John Allen told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that electing Trump could cause a “civil military crisis, the like of which we’ve not seen in this country.” ...That’s a pretty damning statement. Unfortunately, it’s even more damning — for the left — when you consider who Gen. Allen is.... Allen was, at one point, the White House coordinator for anti-Islamic State group efforts. Along with Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Susan Rice, and the whole sick crew, he was responsible for the policy of treating the Islamic State as the “JV team” — a bunch of angry, stupid teens who...

Marine Gen. John Allen, a 1976 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, served this country admirably for more than 36 years. Now he has announced he wants to retire. The 59 year-old former top officer in Afghanistan cited his wife's "chronic" illness and said he wants to devote more time to helping his beloved Kathy cope with serious health problems, including an undisclosed "auto-immune disorder." We join the vast majority of Americans who pray the general's wife will get better, and thank him for his service to this country. But one would have to be pathetically naive not to realize...

When you read this, sip slowly, dust off the way-back machine, and think about those who have surfaced visibly to support Hillary Clinton. Including “retired” U.S. General John Allen (retired in 2012), who was previously brought out of retirement to lead President Obama’s fight against ISIS in 2014. In order to understand the scope of the relationships it takes understanding the full back story. Stay with it….

While Secretary of State Hillary Clinton boozes it up in Australia and the Pentagon grapples with more floozy eruptions, outraged military families are still waiting for answers about the forgotten 9/14 attack on Camp Bastion. Muckrakers and distraction engineers are having a front-page field day with the so-called "sex scandal." But for surviving relatives and colleagues of heroic Marine Lt. Col. Christopher Raible and Sgt. Bradley Atwell, it's the national security scandal at Afghanistan's Camp Bastion that deserves headline coverage. There's been a virtual blackout of the alarming story in the national press. As I reported last month, the meticulously...

In a humbling chapter of an exemplary career, David Petraeus – a West Point grad who went on to command U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan before becoming the nation’s top spy – pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to sharing classified information. Under a plea agreement, Petraeus was to be sentenced by U.S. Magistrate Judge David Keesler to two years’ probation and a $40,000 fine. As Kessler moved through the methodical proceedings, Petraeus answered questions in strong voice, one accustomed to addressing troops and congressmen. Patraeus was sentenced in Charlotte, the city where the security breach was discovered as...

Tossed over the transom by an anonymous (and very reputable) source: Do you know who the woman on the left is? Her name is Jill Kelley. She's from Tampa. Do you remember the Petraeus story and Paula Broadwell emailing the "other woman"? In 2012, Kelley, a Florida socialite with connections to diplomatic and military circles, issued a complaint to the FBI in May 2012 over a series of anonymous stalking e-mails she had received. The threatening emails were traced to Paula Broadwell, the biographer that had an affair with General David Petraeus. Kelley became a focus of media coverage when...

.... Di-Natale provided coverage of the [Osama bin Laden] raid's aftermath, including an exclusive interview with Shakil Afridi, the doctor who helped U.S. agents verify Bin Laden's presence, and who remains imprisoned in Pakistan to this day. Di-Natale notably reported from Osama bin Laden's Pakistan compound in the aftermath of the US raid, and is known for chiseling out a brick from the compound: Call me a conspiracy theorist, but when I heard about Di-Natale's death, the first thing that popped into my mind was this: Who killed him? It isn't that far-fetched to suspect foul play when a journalist...

Edward Jay Epstein has a large and distinguished body of work on intelligence and intelligence-related issues. Among his books in the field are Legend: The Secret World of Lee Harvey Oswald and Deception: The Invisible War Between the KGB and the CIA. Ed has also taken to the ebook form. His ebooks on intelligence-related issues include Killing Castro and James Jesus Angleton: Was He Right? This morning Ed has forwarded the following questions on the Petraeus scandal: Before we can walk the cat back, and establish the chronology of a possible penetration, we need to answer the following ten...

WASHINGTON – During the weeks before he was killed in a car crash in Los Angeles, reporter Michael Hastings was researching a story about a privacy lawsuit brought by Florida socialite Jill Kelley against the Department of Defense and the FBI. Hastings, 33, was scheduled to meet with a representative of Kelley next week in Los Angeles to discuss the case, according to a person close to Kelley. Hastings wrote for Rolling Stone and the website BuzzFeed. Kelley alleges that military officials and the FBI leaked her name to the media to discredit her after she reported receiving a stream...

A TAMPA, Florida, socialite and her husband claimed in a lawsuit that the government willfully leaked false and defamatory information about them in the scandal that led to the resignation of David Petraeus as CIA director. Jill Kelley and Scott Kelley filed the lawsuit in federal court against the FBI, Pentagon and unidentified officials in the government, claiming the couple's privacy was violated. It was Jill Kelley who became the focus of national media attention last year after it was revealed she received anonymous emails from Paula Broadwell, Mr Petraeus' biographer and mistress.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Benghazi scandal might have taken on yet another dimension. Facts uncovered concerning the firing of Gen. David Petraeus indicate that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may have played a role in exposing Petraeus’ extramarital affair with biographer Paula Broadwell. Publication of this affair ultimately forced Petraeus to resign as CIA director. If a link is proven between Clinton and the Petraeus sex scandal, it could be viewed as consistent with other allegations of retaliation by the Obama administration against the three “whistleblowers” that testified before Congress on May 8. Petraeus, who clashed with Clinton's State...

And the Central Command web site says Gottlieb was detailed from the White House for a time to a joint inter-agency task force focusing on detainee operations in Afghanistan. He was in Kabul from January 2010 through March 2011, according to a biography. Gottlieb, as a White House employee, is allowed to bring guests to dine in the White House mess -- basically an employee cafeteria.

Jill Kelley, the Tampa socialite connected to ISAF Commander John Allen and former CIA Director David Petraeus, is an "honorary consul" of South Korea, a diplomatic official with direct knowledge of the arrangement told The Cable. "She is an ‘honorary consul' of the Republic of Korea," the official said. "She assumed this position last August thanks to her good connections and network." The position of honorary consul is symbolic and has no official responsibilities, the official said. "She does not work as a real consul. They play a role to improve the relationship between the ROK and the U.S.," the...

The Daily Telegraph of London, citing an unnamed Republican source, reports it has learned Jill Kelley's financially-challenged twin sister, Natalie Khawam, once dated former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist. Reached by phone, Crist said: "Consider the source." "Didn't happen," he said. "I may have met her." Crist said he met Jill Kelley and her husband Scott, and retired Gen. David Petreaus and wife Holly for a dinner at Bern's Steak House. He said Jill Kelley had arranged the dinner. Asked what he thought of Jill Kelley, Crist said: "I think she's a delightful person."

Jill Kelley, the Tampa socialite who reported anonymous emails from CIA director David Petraeus' mistress Paula Broadwell, has made her way into some high social circles. Angelette Aviles, a member of the Hispanic Leadership Council of the Florida Republican party, tweeted out this photo of Kelley with freshman Florida Senator Marco Rubio at an undated fundraiser. The fundraiser was likely from the Senator's run in 2010, but could also be from a fundraiser since then. Aviles tweets that Kelley didn't contribute at the fundraiser, and she didn't greet people there. In fact, she wasn't even invited. Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/jill-kelley-marco-rubio-2012-11#ixzz2CKaBswek

The twin sisters involved in the David Petraeus scandal crashed one of Sen. Marco Rubio's campaign fundraisers in 2010, the host of the fundraiser said. The twins, Jill Kelley and Natalie Khawam, came to the party uninvited, took their photo with Rubio and quickly left without donating money to his Senate campaign, said Angelette Aviles, of Tampa

Let us turn from the post-Thanksgiving scenes of inflamed mobs clubbing each other to the ground for a discounted television set to the comparatively placid boulevards of the Middle East. In Cairo, no sooner had Hillary Clinton's plane cleared Egyptian air space then Mohammed Morsi issued one-man constitutional amendments declaring himself and his Muslim Brotherhood buddies free from judicial oversight and announced that his predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, would be retried for all the stuff he was acquitted of in the previous trial. Morsi now wields total control over Parliament, the Judiciary, and the military to a degree Mubarak in his...

Morsi now wields total control over Parliament, the Judiciary, and the military to a degree Mubarak in his jail cell can only marvel at. Old CIA wisdom: He may be an SOB but he's our SOB. New post-Arab Spring CIA wisdom: He may be an SOB but at least he's not our SOB.

TAMPA — Soon after she was appointed honorary consul to South Korea, Jill Kelley of Tampa went to work trying to establish a relationship between that country and the University of South Florida's medical school. "I was nominated for this diplomatic appointment, for the purpose to facilitate new agreements in the USA with my contacts," Kelley wrote in a Sept. 7 email to USF medical school dean Stephen Klasko. "I have a unique opportunity to propose bids because of my relationship with the top executive branch of Korea, and in addition, the President of the Free Trade Act is my...