US commander cleared in Petraeus case
2013-01-23 19:46
Washington - A Pentagon investigation has cleared General
John Allen, the top US commander in Afghanistan, of professional misconduct in
exchanging e-mails with a civilian woman linked to the sex scandal that led
retired General David Petraeus to resign as CIA director.
Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said on Tuesday
that Defence Secretary Leon Panetta was informed of the conclusion by the
Pentagon's inspector general.
"The secretary was pleased to learn that allegations
of professional misconduct were not substantiated by the investigation,"
Little said, adding that Panetta has "complete confidence in the continued
leadership" of Allen.
The matter had been referred to the Pentagon in November
by the FBI during the course of its investigation of e-mails between Petraeus
and his biographer-turned-paramour, Paula Broadwell. The FBI turned up
thousands of e-mails between Allen and Jill Kelley, who was said to have
received threatening e-mails from Broadwell.
At the time, officials said 20 000 to 30 000 pages of e-mails
and other documents from Allen's communications with Kelley between 2010 and
2012 were in question. None of the e-mails have been made public.
Shortly after being contacted by the FBI, Panetta
referred the matter to the Pentagon's inspector general, while expressing
confidence in Allen and deciding that he would remain in Kabul as commander of
all allied forces in Afghanistan.
At the same time, Allen's nomination to be the next US
commander of Nato forces in Europe was put on hold.
The officials said on Tuesday the White House had not
decided whether to go forward with the nomination.
Major David Nevers, a spokesperson for Allen, said he had
no immediate comment on reports of his being exonerated.
Allen's successor in Kabul, Marine General Joseph
Dunford, has been confirmed by the Senate and is scheduled to take over on 10 February.
Allen had maintained he did nothing wrong in the Kelley
communications, but he has not spoken publicly about the specifics of his e-mail
exchanges with her. She served as a sort of social ambassador for US Central
Command in Tampa, Florida.
Petraeus is a former Central Command commander, and Allen
is a former deputy commander there.
Shortly after he referred the e-mails to the inspector
general, Panetta asked the Joint Chiefs of Staff to review ethics training and
to brainstorm on ways to steer officers away from trouble.
The move was a reflection of the depth of concern
triggered by a series of misconduct cases in a military that prides itself on
integrity and honour.
General Martin Dempsey, chairperson of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff, has not released the results of his review but has said he found that
ethics training for senior leaders, while adequate, should begin earlier in an
officer's career and be reinforced more frequently.
Meanwhile, Kelley has spoken out on the loss of privacy
that she says made her a prisoner in her own home.
In an op-ed piece published in The Washington Post on
Wednesday, Kelley and her husband, Scott Kelley, recounted how their lives were
upended after Petraeus resigned.
The Kelleys say their story is a cautionary tale of what
can happen when the "careless handling" of information can
"endanger citizens' privacy”.
- AP
