Petraeus scandal amuses Taliban
The scandal that has brought down CIA chief David Petraeus may be causing heartache in the Washington security establishment but the affair has prompted laughter among the Taliban.
Petraeus resigned last week to pre-empt revelations of an affair with his married biographer Paula Broadwell, bringing to an end a glittering military career that included a spell commanding NATO forces fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.
The Islamists dealt harshly with adulterers during their brutal 1996-2001 rule in Afghanistan, dishing out public floggings for offenders.
The traditional moral code of the Pashtuns, the main ethnic group the Taliban draw their members from, also demands severe punishment for adulterers.
"From a Pashtun point of view, Petraeus should be shot by relatives from his mistress's family," the Taliban official explained.
"From a sharia point of view, he should be stoned to death."
The White House has backed Allen and Obama has assured Americans the affair has not compromised national security.
FBI agents seized a trove of documents from the home of his mistress, 40-year-old Paula Broadwell, and may act if she improperly received classified material.
The CIA chief was very clear that he screwed up terribly -- it was all his fault -- even that he felt fortunate to have a wife who is far better than he deserves," Phillips said, after a series of calls to Petraeus.
ok..ok..that bed time stories. The swearing would comes first, anything be next. Its hard to be on the top, don't you.
I agree with you, but the difference here is that he was the head of the CIA and thus privvy to top secret information. The main aspect here is the possible leaking of information.
Blaming the media wouldn't be proper in this case.It was not the media who exposed Petraeuss... but published the story after his resignation and investigation reports. Media is always on the look out for such spicy stories so can't expect them to do anything better than this.
As we all know, it all started when the lady started sending threatening emails to another contender who was thought to be getting close to Petraeuss. This matter went to FBI when this was reported to the police.
So the whole trouble started when a 'mistress' became too possessive about an already married man!
Come on guys...sex is a private and personal matter. It's a matter of one's choice so why a big fuss?
Sharia law, stoned to death. Well god must believe in civil society for such a cruel punishment. The man is an idiot but where would you really want to live if this is justice?
Well i suppose David Petraeuss kept some of the high dosage Viagara tablets that were supposed to be given to the Afghanistan warlords for himself and the end result is he needed to use them and then he came across this two bombshells who made him loose his sense of control and co ordination
25% of the US presidents so far have had extramarital affairs according to historians (not newspapers!):
T. Jefferson, A. Jackson, M. v. Buren, J. A. Garfield, St, Cleveland, W. Harding, F, D, Roosevelt, D. D. Eisenhower, J. F Kennedy (at least 4 known affairs), L. B Johnson, and W. Clinton.
BUT: 50% of Americans have gone through an extramarital affair. So, if you are an American and haven't, be proud of yourself.
Spock, I agree! why do they drag people's private lives out in the open?What good does that do?
Look what they did with Clinton...and doing that, has certainly not served them in any way...
I think the US media are not better than the Taliban. What the hell do they have to sniff in people's private lives!
Fathimah...maybe they would have some fun...might distract them from doing what they usually do...:P
God forbid.. Given the way they act when supposedly sober, I shudder to think what em Taliban guys would be like when inebriated!
"From a Pashtun point of view, Petraeus should be shot by relatives from his mistress's family," the Taliban official explained."
Surely they mean his wife's relatives ..
In Afghanistan, he would has face somekind of honour killing. Time for these Talibans to celebrate & get drunk