By Tom Watkins, CNN
(CNN) -- The extramarital affair acknowledged Friday by David Petraeus in his letter resigning his position as CIA director came as a
surprise to a number of people who know him but represented an acceptance of
responsibility characteristic of the man, they said.
"If you're running the operation, you
really can't step out of line," said Richard Haver, who spent 34 years in
the federal government specializing in intelligence operations. Petraeus
himself would have had to severely discipline if not fire any agency employees
involved in similar behavior, said Haver, who is retired after having served as
deputy for community affairs for the intelligence community.
"You're compromising, potentially,
your security."
Haver called Petraeus' resignation
"the honorable thing to do," but added, "I don't understand,
knowing that man, how this could have happened. ... I think it's a real
tragedy. I thought he was a great guy, but I think he did the right thing,
under the circumstances."
The retired four-star general who
commanded forces in Iraq and Afghanistan said he is devastated that he has hurt
his wife of more than 37 years and that she is "far better than he
deserves," a source told HLN's Kyra Phillips. "I spent a lot of time
with him on the battlefield," she said. "This is the last person I
ever expected to do something like this."
A U.S. official told CNN that the FBI
initiated an investigation after receiving a tip that Petraeus was involved
with Paula Broadwell, a co-author of his biography.
The concern was that he could potentially
be blackmailed or put "in a vulnerable spot," the official said.
Broadwell had spent a year with Petraeus
in Afghanistan for the book, "All In: The Education of General David
Petraeus."
"She had incredible access" and
others noticed, said Fran Townsend, CNN national security contributor and a
member of the CIA's External Advisory Committee. "There's bound to be some
sniping and gossiping, but I don't think anybody took it seriously," she
said. "He seemed beyond reproach; he worked incredibly hard; he was
incredibly competent."
It was not clear whether Broadwell was the
woman with whom Petraeus had an affair. CNN has not been able to reach her for
comment.
The White House would likely have known
about the FBI investigation into the tip before it received Petraeus' letter,
Townsend said.
Whenever the FBI opens a criminal
investigation of a senior Cabinet official or administration official,
"they've got to make notifications of that," she said.
Director of National Intelligence James
Clapper would probably have notified the White House chief of staff or the
national security adviser, she said.
CNN Contributor and former CIA officer
Robert Baer said the public announcement of the affair was uncharacteristic and
implies more may have happened than has been revealed.
"Something like this doesn't come out
and blow his career up unless something else is going on," Baer said.
"Normally, when a CIA director resigns under this sort of pressure, he'd
do it quietly. He'd say he was doing it for family reasons. He'd go off, we'd
never hear any more about it. Somebody would write a book 10 years later, but
to use it in his resignation letter is extraordinary."
But CNN's Pentagon correspondent, Barbara
Starr, said the simplest explanation may be the most likely one. "David
Petraeus, for decades, likes to control the circumstances around him," she
said.
"Clearly, this was a character lapse
in which he slipped out of control of his circumstances. This (going public) is
a way he could bring it back. He could limit the damage, not have the
Washignton drip drip of stories every day, try and do everything he could to
not humiliate his wife any further, cause any further embarrassment to his
grown children, one who is an Afghanistan veteran. This, I think, is classic
Petraeus trying to control what is going on around him."
If so, the letter would dovetail with
number five on a list of Petraeus' 12 rules for living, which Broadwell
published on November 5 on the Daily Beast: "We all will make mistakes.
The key is to recognize and admit them, to learn from them, and to take off the
rear-view mirrors -- drive on and avoid making them again."
Petraeus had little choice but to resign,
said Austin Long, assistant professor at Columbia University's School of
International and Public Affairs.
"It is a counterintelligence
issue," he said, referring to the potential that a man with security
clearance could wind up being coerced. "It's not that nobody at the agency
has affairs, but if you get caught on them, that's an avenue to be
coerced."
In addition, "the Army takes a very
dim view of extramarital affairs -- if you are busted," said Long, whose
research interests include intelligence.
It is the rare marriage, he said, that can
withstand many months apart from one's spouse, as occurred often during
Petraeus' career of multiple deployments.
Finally, Petraeus may simply be trying to
limit any damage to a possible political career.
"Eight years from now,
things might look very different," he said.
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