Forget love triangles. It's a love pentagon

The affair between the CIA director and his biographer may have stayed hidden if she hadn’t got jealous. The fallout has rocked the US government

David Petraeus and Paula Broadwell met at Harvard in 2006. Petraeus, then a commander in Iraq, delivered a guest lecture. Broadwell, a master’s student, attended a group dinner with him. An attractive woman 20 years his junior, she worked her way into Petraeus’s heart by professing an interest in counterinsurgency strategy. Petraeus asked for her card. They corresponded.

The four-star general was promoted to head of US central command at MacDill air force base, in Tampa, Florida, in 2008. Broadwell decided to write her doctoral thesis about him.

When President Obama appointed Petraeus to head the international coalition in Afghanistan in 2010, Broadwell transformed her thesis into a book.

The graduates of West Point military academy, both superachievering soldier-scholars and fitness fanatics, seemed destined for one another.

Petraeus had done a doctorate in international relations at Princeton in 1987. Broadwell had reached the rank of lieutenant colonel in the army reserves.

But both are married. Petraeus’s wife of 38 years, Holly Knowlton, is the daughter of the superintendent of West Point. She has been a model military wife, putting up with long separations during her husband’s deployments, parenting their two children and devoting herself to the cause of military families.

Broadwell met her husband, Scott, a radiologist, when both served in Germany. They live in Charlotte, North Carolina, with their young sons, Lucien and Landon.

Broadwell made six trips to Afghanistan to interview Petraeus. “That was the foundation of our relationship,” she wrote in her biography of him, All In: The Education of General David Petraeus. For Petraeus, on-the-hoof interviews were “a good distraction from the war”, she said.

Vernon Loeb, of the Washington Post, wrote the book with Broadwell. “The two must have seen a lot of themselves in each other,” he says. “They shared the West Point bond, an addiction to physical fitness and running and an uberoptimistic, never-say-die outlook on life.”

“Petraeus once joked I was his avatar,” Broadwell told the Charlotte Observer.

Loeb says he never suspected an affair, though he marvelled at Broadwell’s unfettered access to Petraeus. He recounts that, when Petraeus left Afghanistan in August 2011, Broadwell flew out with the general on his jet, then accompanied him on a tour of European capitals before Petraeus returned to Washington.

The general’s friends claim they did not become lovers until November 2011. Broadwell sat in the front row of the Senate hearing that confirmed Petraeus as director of the CIA, the previous summer, looking every inch the femme fatale, in a sleek black dress and high-heeled sandals.

Their affair reportedly ended four months ago. But as late as July 28th, when at a conference in Aspen, Colorado, Broadwell boasted to new acquaintances that Republican donors had suggested she stand for a Senate seat in North Carolina. Petraeus discouraged her, she said.

In Aspen, Broadwell planned a birthday gift for Petraeus, arranging for him to go cycling with Lance Armstrong on November 7th, Petraeus’s 60th birthday. It was not to be. President Obama was informed of the scandal – a computer used by Broadwell contained classified information that should have been held more securely, security officials say – on November 7th. Petraeus resigned on Broadwell’s 40th birthday, November 9th.

When Broadwell’s biography of Petraeus was published, last January, she promoted it on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, wearing a black silk halter top. “The real controversy here is, ‘Is he awesome or incredibly awesome?’” Stewart quipped.

It’s not clear what prompted the jealousy that proved the lovers’ undoing. In May, Broadwell sent six threatening emails to Jill Kelley, a 37-year-old Lebanese-born socialite who lives with her husband (who is, like Broadwell’s spouse, a doctor called Scott) and three daughters in Tampa. “Back off; he’s mine!” was the message.

Under the pseudonym “kelleypatrol” Broadwell also sent a message to Gen John Allen, the officer Petraeus had recruited as his deputy at US central command and who later replaced Petraeus as commander in Afghanistan, warning him to beware of Kelley, a “seductress”.

Kelley and her twin sister, Natalie, brought Lebanese charm, hospitality and intrigue to Tampa. Dr and Mrs Kelley entertained lavishly in their bayside mansion, feting generals with champagne, caviar, cigars and string quartets. Holly and David Petraeus arrived at one such party in February 2010 escorted by 28 motorcycle cops. The Kelleys, it now transpires, have been sued at least nine times for millions of dollars in debts.

Jill Kelley served as an informal liaison between Middle Eastern officials and the officers at MacDill, which is also home to the special-operations command that trains commandos such as those who killed Osama bin Laden. Kelley’s entry pass for the base was cancelled this week.

Alarmed by the anonymous emails, Kelley enlisted the help of Frederick Humphries, an FBI agent in Tampa who had once sent her a photograph of himself shirtless. Using electronic metadata that pinpoints times, places and IP addresses of emails, the FBI traced the messages to Broadwell – and in the process discovered the shared Gmail account in which Petraeus and Broadwell left erotic messages.

Kelley tried to stop the investigation, but she was too late. The cybercops also found up to 30,000 pages of messages between her and Gen Allen. He insists they did not have an affair, but some military sources describe the content as sexual.

Allen’s appointment as supreme commander of Nato has been suspended, pending the results of a Pentagon investigation.

“I really screwed up,” Petraeus told a retired general, Jack Keane, after resigning. “This is my fault, and I’m devastated by the pain and suffering that I’ve caused,” he told his confidant Col Peter Mansoor.

Petraeus should have remembered his advice to his own proteges. In Loeb’s words, “Character was what you did when no one was watching. And he would always hasten to add that someone is always watching.” The Petraeus affair has left huge human and institutional damage. The CIA is now without a permanent director, at a time of turmoil in the Middle East.

The former lovers’ hitherto flawless careers are destroyed and those of Gen Allen and agent Humphries, who is also under investigation, are seriously endangered.

It has complicated the Obama administration’s efforts to cope with Republican criticisms over the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi on September 11th because, as CIA director, Petraeus was the source of intelligence on what happened. Republicans are using the FBI’s handling of the case to undermine Attorney General Eric Holder, who has authority over the agency.

Kelley and Broadwell have hired celebrity lawyers. As an honorary consul for South Korea, Kelley, who often has reporters camped outside her Tampa mansion, has tried to claim diplomatic protection.

Broadwell was last seen through a window of her brother’s home in Washington DC, looking worried, with a glass of red wine in her hand.

Love pentagon Who's who

Gen David Petraeus(60, married), former commander in Iraq and then Afghanistan, former commander of US central command and now ex-director of the CIA, following revelations that he had an affair with Paula Broadwell

Gen John Allen(58, married), who replaced Gen Petraeus as commander in Afghanistan. His appointment as Nato's supreme allied commander has been stalled following revelations that he had "inappropriate" correspondence with Jill Kelley

Paula Broadwell(40, married), Petraeus's biographer and ex-lover, and a lieutenant colonel in the army reserves. Emailed Gen Allen anonymously to warn him about Jill Kelley

Jill Kelley(37, married) Lebanese-born socialite and informal liaison between Middle Eastern officials and US military. Corresponded heavily with Gen Allen

Frederick Humphries(47), FBI agent whose investigations precipitated the scandal. He once sent Jill Kelley a photograph of himself shirtless

Did they share secrets in bed?

Can one conduct a war efficiently and carry on an affair at the same time?Apparently so. Paula Broadwell was "embedded" with Gen David Petraeus for the better part of a year while he commanded international forces in Afghanistan, though allegedly their affair did not begin until November 2011, by which time he was director of the CIA, responsible for the war with al-Qaeda.

Is email a safe medium in which to correspond with an illicit lover?Absolutely not. Petraeus and Broadwell left draft messages in a joint account, a method used by terrorists and drug dealers. The director of the world's most powerful spy agency should have known better. Governments frequently seek data about users from internet companies; Google complied with 90 per cent of the nearly 8,000 such requests it received in the first half of this year. Under the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, no warrant is required to access emails more than six months old, considered "abandoned".

How will this be seen in the Muslim world?US defence secretary Leon Panetta says he can't rule out the possibility the Taliban will use the Petraeus-Broadwell affair for propaganda. Admiral Dennis Blair, a former director of US national intelligence, says the scandal is "awful" for national security because it provides "so much fodder for those who say the US is not serious about its wars".

What possesses middle-aged men at the pinnacle of their careers to risk decades of achievement on a passing fancy?Because they can and because they think they will get away with it. Experts call it "the Bathsheba syndrome", after the Old Testament King David, who watched Bathsheba bathing from his rooftop, seduced and impregnated her, then disposed of her husband by sending him to battle.

Did Petraeus and Broadwell discuss US national security in bed?Both lovers had security clearances, though Petraeus's was a higher level. Broadwell's was withdrawn this week. The FBI found classified information when it searched her home on Monday. Broadwell says she did not get it from Petraeus. Petraeus told CNN he never gave classified information to Broadwell. The CIA's inspector general is investigating whether Petraeus used the agency's resources – bodyguards, private jets, lodging – to carry on the affair.

Is Washington DC a hotbed of sex?As Henry Kissinger said, "power is the ultimate aphrodisiac". There have been sex scandals in Washington at least as far back as 1859, when a politician shot dead his wife's lover, a district attorney, in front of the White House. In the 1880s, opponents of Grover Cleveland chanted, "Ma, ma, where's my pa?" referring to Cleveland's illegitimate child. "Gone to the White House, ha, ha," Cleveland responded when he was elected. The former Washington mayor Marion Berry used an apt slogan: "He may not be perfect, but he's perfect for DC."

What happens to the protagonists' partners?A Petraeus family friend says "furious would be an understatement" for the reaction of the general's wife Holly. Chalk graffiti in a child's hand, presumably written by one of Broadwell's sons on the drive of the family home, was a poignant reminder of the toll on the children. "Dad hearts Mom," it said.