Congress wants answers on Petraeus affair

WASHINGTON (AP) — Members of Congress said Sunday they want to know more details about the FBI investigation that revealed an extramarital affair between ex-CIA Director David Petraeus and his biographer, questioning when the retired general popped up in the FBI inquiry, whether national security was compromised and why they weren't told sooner.

"We received no advanced notice. It was like a lightning bolt," said Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The FBI was investigating harassing emails sent by Petraeus biographer and girlfriend Paula Broadwell to a second woman. That probe of Broadwell's emails revealed the affair between Broadwell and Petraeus. The FBI contacted Petraeus and other intelligence officials, and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper asked Petraeus to resign.

A senior U.S. military official identified the second woman as Jill Kelley, 37, who lives in Tampa, Fla., and serves as an unpaid social liaison to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, where the military's Central Command and Special Operations Command are located.

Staffers for Petraeus said Kelley and her husband were regular guests at events he held at Central Command headquarters.

In a statement Sunday evening, Kelley and her husband, Scott, said: "We and our family have been friends with Gen. Petraeus and his family for over five years. We respect his and his family's privacy and want the same for us and our three children."

A U.S. official said the coalition countries represented at Central Command gave Kelley an appreciation certificate on which she was referred to as an "honorary ambassador" to the coalition, but she has no official status and is not employed by the U.S. government.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the case publicly, said Kelley is known to drop the "honorary" part and refer to herself as an ambassador.

The military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation, said Kelley had received harassing emails from Broadwell, which led the FBI to examine her email account and eventually discover her relationship with Petraeus.

A former associate of Petraeus confirmed the target of the emails was Kelley, but said there was no affair between the two, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the retired general's private life. The associate, who has been in touch with Petraeus since his resignation, says Kelley and her husband were longtime friends of Petraeus and wife, Holly.

Attempts to reach Kelley were not immediately successful. Broadwell did not return phone calls or emails.

Petraeus resigned while lawmakers still had questions about the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate and CIA base in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens. Lawmakers said it's possible that Petraeus will still be asked to appear on Capitol Hill to testify about what he knew about the U.S. response to that incident.

Rep. Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said the circumstances of the FBI probe smacked of a cover-up by the White House.

"It seems this (the investigation) has been going on for several months and, yet, now it appears that they're saying that the FBI didn't realize until Election Day that General Petraeus was involved. It just doesn't add up," said King, R-N.Y.

Petraeus, 60, quit Friday after acknowledging an extramarital relationship. He has been married 38 years to Holly Petraeus, with whom he has two adult children, including a son who led an infantry platoon in Afghanistan as an Army lieutenant.

Broadwell, a 40-year-old graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and an Army Reserve officer, is married with two young sons.

Petraeus' affair with Broadwell will be the subject of meetings Wednesday involving congressional intelligence committee leaders, FBI deputy director Sean Joyce and CIA deputy director Michael Morell.

Petraeus had been scheduled to appear before the committees on Thursday to testify on the attack in Benghazi. Republicans and some Democrats have questioned the U.S. response and protection of diplomats stationed overseas.

Morell was expected to testify in place of Petraeus, and lawmakers said he should have the answers to their questions. But Feinstein and others didn't rule out the possibility that Congress will compel Petraeus to testify about Benghazi at a later date, even though he's relinquished his job.

"I don't see how in the world you can find out what happened in Benghazi before, during and after the attack if General Petraeus doesn't testify," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

Graham, who is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wants to create a joint congressional committee to investigate the U.S. response to that attack.

Feinstein said she first learned of Petraeus' affair from the media late last week, and confirmed it in a phone call Friday with Petraeus. She eventually was briefed by the FBI and said so far there was no indication that national security was breached.

Still, Feinstein called the news "a heartbreak" for her personally and U.S. intelligence operations, and said she didn't understand why the FBI didn't give her a heads up as soon as Petraeus' name emerged in the investigation.

"We are very much able to keep things in a classified setting," she said. "At least if you know, you can begin to think and then to plan. And, of course, we have not had that opportunity."

Clapper was told by the Justice Department of the Petraeus investigation at about 5 p.m. on Election Day, and then called Petraeus and urged him to resign, according to a senior U.S. intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly.

FBI officials say the committees weren't informed until Friday, one official said, because the matter started as a criminal investigation into harassing emails sent by Broadwell to another woman.

Concerned that the emails he exchanged with Broadwell raised the possibility of a security breach, the FBI brought the matter up with Petraeus directly, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation.

Petraeus decided to quit, though he was breaking no laws by having an affair, officials said.

Feinstein said she has not been told the precise relationship between Petraeus and the woman who reported the harassing emails to the FBI.

Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss, the top Republican on the Senate intelligence committee, called Petraeus "a great leader" who did right by stepping down and still deserves the nation's gratitude. He also didn't rule out calling Petraeus to testify on Benghazi at some point.

"He's trying to put his life back together right now and that's what he needs to focus on," Chambliss said.

King appeared on CNN's "State of the Union." Feinstein was on "Fox News Sunday," Graham spoke on CBS' "Face the Nation," and Chambliss was interviewed on ABC's "This Week."

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Associated Press writers Michele Salcedo, Pete Yost and Matthew Lee contributed to this report.

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Israel kills Gaza rocket crewman in second day of clashes

GAZA (Reuters) – An Israeli air strike killed a Palestinian militant in the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip on Sunday as a surge in cross-border violence entered its second day, local officials said.

Islamic Jihad, a smaller faction than Hamas which often operates independently, identified the dead man as one of its own, saying he was a member of a rocket crew hit by an Israeli missile in Jabalya, northern Gaza.

The Israeli military confirmed carrying out an air strike in the area. The death brought to six the number of Palestinians killed by Israel since four of its troops were hurt in a missile attack on their jeep along the Gaza boundary fence.

Islamic Jihad said it had fired 70 short-range rockets and mortar bombs across the border since Saturday, salvoes which drove Israeli residents to blast shelters. At least one Israeli, in the town of Sderot, was wounded, ambulance workers said.

Israel described the jeep ambush as part of a Palestinian strategy of trying to curb its countermeasures against possible cross-border infiltration. Israeli forces often mount hunts for tunnels and landmines on the inside of the Gaza boundary, creating a no-go zone for Palestinians.

“Of course we don’t accept their attempt to change the rules,” Defence Minister Ehud Barak told Israel’s Army Radio.

“The essence of the struggle is over the fence. We intend to enable the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) to work not just on our side but on the other side as well.”

Palestinians said four of Saturday’s dead were civilians hit by an Israeli tank shell while paying respects at a crowded mourning tent in Gaza’s Shijaia neighborhood. Israel denies targeting civilians.

The bloodshed puts internal pressure on Hamas, which, though hostile to the Jewish state, has sat out some of the recent rounds of violence as it tried to consolidate its Gaza rule and reach out to neighboring Egypt and other foreign powers.

Israel blames Hamas for any attacks emanating from Gaza, but has shown little appetite for a major sweep of the territory which might strain its own fraught ties to the new Islamist-rooted government in Cairo.

(Writing by Dan Williams; Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by Todd Eastham)

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Mail.Ru cuts stakes in Groupon, Facebook, Zygna

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian email-to-social networking group Mail.Ru cut its stakes in U.S. internet firms Groupon, Facebook, and Zygna, according to the company’s website.

Mail.Ru now has a 0.52 percent stake in the world’s largest social networking site Facebook, 0.16 percent of U.S. game maker Zynga and 0.84 percent of daily deal website Groupon.

As of October 30, it had a 1.17 percent stake in Zynga, a 0.75 percent stake in Facebook and 4.12 percent of shares in Groupon.

It could raise between $ 200 million and $ 250 million from the sales, said Anastasia Obukhova, an analyst at VTB Capital in Moscow. Mail.Ru declined to comment on the disposals.

“We’ve always been very clear that Groupon, Zynga and Facebook, positioned inside of Mail, are financial assets, not strategic ones,” said Matthew Hammond, the investor relations director at Mail.Ru Group.

At the end of October, Mail.Ru, part-owned by metals tycoon Alisher Usmanov, sold 16 million Facebook shares, worth around $ 370 million, on top of a more than $ 700 million sale as part of Facebook’s initial public offering. That was followed by a hefty dividend payout to Mail.Ru’s shareholders.

(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova and Anastasia Teterevleva; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

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Colin Firth, Emily Blunt film “Arthur Newman” goes to Cinedigm

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Cinedigm has acquired domestic distribution rights to “Arthur Newman,” starring Colin Firth and Emily Blunt, the studio announced on Friday.

“Arthur Newman,” the directorial debut of Dante Ariola, chronicles Wallace Avery (Firth), a depressed man loathed by his ex-wife. He stages his own death and heads out on the road where he meets Mike (Blunt), who also wants a fresh start.

Cinedigm will release the film in theaters mid-2013, with on-demand, premium digital, DVD and TV distribution to follow.

“‘Arthur Newman’ is perfect for today’s audiences… A deeply entertaining film highlighted by touching performances from Colin and Emily that bring real heart and soul to a powerful story of displacement, longing and ultimately, redemption. Moviegoers will leave the theatre moved and uplifted,” Vincent Scordino, vice president of acquisitions for Cinedigm Entertainment Group, said in a statement.

Becky Johnson penned the script for the film, which she also produced alongside Vertebra Films’s Mac Cappuccino, Cross Creek Pictures’ Brian Oliver and Alisa Tager.

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U.S. investigator in Afghan rampage case suggests gunman not alone

TACOMA, Washington (Reuters) – The wife of an Afghan villager killed in a rampage blamed on a decorated U.S. officer told an Army investigator that more than one soldier was present when her husband was shot dead at their home in March, the investigator testified on Saturday.

Military prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, accusing him of killing 16 villagers, mostly women and children, when he ventured out of his remote camp on two revenge-fueled forays over a five-hour period in March.

The wife’s account, relayed by Army criminal investigator Leona Mansapit, appeared to cast doubt on the government’s case that Bales alone was responsible for the deaths, although survivors have so far testified to seeing only a single soldier.

The U.S. government, which has been laying out its case against Bales in a pre-trial hearing aimed at deciding whether he can be sent for court martial, says a coherent and lucid Bales acted alone and with “chilling premeditation”.

Mansapit said that the wife of Mohamed Dawood, who was killed in the village of Najiban, recalled a gunman entering the couple’s room shouting about the Taliban, while another man, a U.S. soldier, stood at the door.

The shootings in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province marked the worst case of civilian slaughter blamed on an individual U.S. soldier since the Vietnam War and damaged already strained U.S.-Afghan relations.

Mansapit said the wife, who spoke to her through an interpreter, said one of the men pulled her husband out of the door, while the other stopped her from following. One of the men then put a gun to her husband’s head and killed him, while the other continued to yell about the Taliban, grabbing her by the hair and slamming her head against the wall, she said.

Mansapit, who was called by the defense, recalled the woman as saying that outside there were more soldiers “speaking English among themselves”. She put the woman’s age at about 25 but did not name her. It was not immediately clear whether the wife would testify to the hearing herself.

The testimony came a day after a father and two sons described being attacked by a sole U.S. soldier in their family compound in the Afghan village of Alkozai. So far, the only sworn references to more than one soldier have been second hand.

AFGHAN TESTIMONY

A veteran of four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, Bales faces 16 counts of premeditated murder and six counts of attempted murder, as well as charges of assault and wrongfully possessing and using steroids and alcohol while deployed.

Prosecutors have already presented physical evidence to tie Bales to the crime scene, with a forensic investigator saying a sample of blood on his clothing matched a swab taken in one of the compounds where the shooting occurred.

Bales’ lawyers have not set out an alternative theory to the prosecution’s case, but have pointed out inconsistencies in testimony and highlighted incidents before the shooting where Bales lost his temper easily, possibly setting up an argument that he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Gathering evidence and witness statements was complicated by the speedy burial of victims, the inability of U.S. investigators to access the crime scenes for three weeks after the violence, and the dispersal of possible witnesses after treatment at a Kandahar hospital.

Bales’ lead civil defense attorney John Henry Browne, who is in Kandahar to question witnesses, complained early in the investigation that his team was denied access to villagers wounded in the attacks.

One of the villagers, a 15-year-old boy who was wounded in the rampage in Alkozai but survived by hiding, testified to the hearing at a U.S. Army base in Washington state that the shooter wore a U.S. military uniform.

“He put his pistol in my sister’s mouth and then my grandmother started wrestling with him,” the boy, introduced to the court by the single name of Rafiullah, said via video link from Kandahar Air Field. “He shot me in my legs.”

The boy’s testimony was consistent with the recollections of another teenage boy, Sadiquallah, who testified previously that he saw only a single American that night.

(Reporting By Bill Rigby; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Pravin Char)

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Sick, frail struggle most in storm's aftermath

NEW YORK (AP) — Some of society's most vulnerable people — the elderly, the disabled and the chronically ill — have been pushed to the brink in the powerless, flood-ravaged neighborhoods struggling to recover from Superstorm Sandy.

The storm didn't just knock out electricity and destroy property when it came ashore in places like the Far Rockaway section of Queens. It disrupted the fragile support networks that allowed the neighborhood's frailest residents to get by.

Here, the catastrophe has closed pharmacies, kept home care aids from getting to elderly clients and made getting around in a wheelchair impossible. The city has recorded at least two deaths of older men in darkened buildings.

For some living in the disaster zone, it has all been too much.

When a team of medics and National Guardsmen turned up at Sheila Goldberg's apartment tower in Far Rockaway on Friday to check on the well-being of residents, floor by floor, the 75-year-old burst into tears and begged for help caring for her 85-year-old husband.

"This is a blessing. I'm at my wit's end," she said, sobbing.

Her husband, Irwin, has a pacemaker, wears a colostomy bag and needs her help to do almost everything. When the power was on, Goldberg said, "I could take care of him by myself and survive." But for days, the building had no heat or electricity. There were no open stores to buy food. Until the end of the week, there was no water or elevators either, meaning residents like the Goldbergs, on the 25th floor, had to cart water up the steps themselves just to flush the toilet. A bad stench permeates much of the building.

"I'm running out of my blood pressure medication. We're both going to drop dead in this apartment," Sheila said. The medical team said it would make arrangements to transfer Irwin to a medical facility, at least temporarily.

City and federal officials, and a growing army of volunteers, are trying hard to make sure families like that don't fall into despair. Their efforts come alongside relief workers, donations, volunteers and demolition crews who flocked to New York and New Jersey in recent days to assist in the massive cleanup. The region took a few more steps to move past the storm Saturday, when power was restored for many more and gas rationing eased some of the clogged lines at stations in New York.

Paramedics from all over the country, including the ones that found the Goldbergs, fanned out across the Rockaways this weekend to check on shut-ins and anyone else who might need help.

The idea was to find people who "sheltered in place" during the storm, who might need assistance, said Nancy Clark, an assistant commissioner in the city's health department.

The going was slow. In their first three hours, the teams had gone through five high-rise towers. Several people were taken to the hospital. Others were hooked up with water, food, blankets or needed prescription medications.

Two floors below the Goldbergs, medics from South Carolina found Daisy Nixon, 70, slumped in a chair under a pile of blankets. A diabetic and a victim of two strokes, she was suffering from an untreated dislocated shoulder injured before the storm. Nate Thompson, an EMT, checked her blood glucose levels and found them troublingly high.

"It's been cold. Lord, have mercy," Nixon said. She said she was also having trouble breathing at night. When Thompson said he would get her an ambulance, Nixon was overjoyed.

"Can I kiss you? Don't you walk away from me," she said, and planted a smooch on his cheek.

Another neighborhood resident, Joseph Williams, said that the home care aide who normally helps look after his 27-year-old son, who has cerebral palsy and needs a wheelchair, hasn't been able to visit since the storm. After days of trying to take care of him himself, in a flooded high-rise with no utilities, Williams gave up and carried him down seven flights, so he could be evacuated to Brooklyn.

Yet, there were rays of hope amid the gloom. In Newark, N.J., an Amtrak train arrived pulling a box car filled with donations from New Orleans.

Fuel lines in the region remained long, but were only a shade of the nightmare they had been in recent days. Some gas stations on Staten Island had 20 cars in line Saturday afternoon.

In Staten Island's waterlogged New Dorp section, volunteers walked in knots, often carrying shovels and pails with the price tags still on them. A Boy Scout troop served hot dogs and grilled cheese. People pushed grocery carts filled with food and bottled water. On one sidewalk, a generator was hooked up to a popcorn maker, spilling a fresh batch into a bowl.

Mandie Collins and Mary Lou Sabatini, from the West Brighton neighborhood of Staten Island, cooked a turkey and ham, and walked door to door with coolers offering sandwiches.

"It's surreal," Collins said. "I lived down the block before. I passed by my old apartment and it's gone."

Utility companies have made progress restoring power. Most service was expected to be restored in New Jersey over the weekend, and the utility that serves New York City and suburban Westchester County said it has restored electricity to about 99 percent of the 1 million homes and businesses that lost power in the storm and a subsequent nor'easter, though that percentage doesn't count tens of thousands of homes the utility says are too damaged to receive power.

Power problems remained unresolved on New York's Long Island, where about 300 people staged an angry protest at an office of the beleaguered Long Island Power Authority. About 130,000 of its customers still didn't have power Saturday, LIPA said.

Amid the drudgery and heartbreak of cleanup came one special moment for Joanne McClenin, who had 5 feet of water in her Staten Island home.

On Wednesday, her husband returned to their house to find someone had returned Joanne's 1930 baptism certificate from St. Anthony's Church in Manhattan. It had a smudge of mud on it.

The certificate had been stored in a file cabinet of her late parents' belongings, stored in a shed in their yard. The water from Sandy swept it away.

"It felt like my father was watching me," she said.

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Associated Press writers David Bauder, Verena Dobnik and Mae Anderson contributed to this report.

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Twin explosions strike southern Syrian city

BEIRUT (AP) — Syria‘s state-run news agency says two large explosions have struck the southern city of Daraa, causing multiple casualties and heavy material damage.

SANA did not immediately give further information or say what the target of Saturday’s explosions was.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the blasts went off near a branch of the country’s Military Intelligence in Daraa.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists on the ground, says the explosions were followed by clashes between regime forces and rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad.

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“Carrie Diaries” Gets January Premiere Date

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – The 1980s-set “Sex and the City” prequel “The Carrie Diaries” will debut on the CW on Monday, January 14, the network announced.

“90210,” meanwhile, will move to its new 9 p.m. timeslot. And most CW shows will return from holiday break during that week.

“The Carrie Diaries,” one of the CW’s most-anticipated shows, stars AnnaSophia Robb as 16-year-old Carrie Bradshaw, who discovers the flashing lights of Manhattan as she copes with the death of her mother. She quickly discovers a vibrant and thrilling club scene.

Based on the novels by Candace Bushnell, “The Carrie Diaries” is from Warner Bros. Television and CBS Television Studios, in association with Fake Empire, with executive producers Josh Schwartz (“Hart of Dixie,” “Gossip Girl“), Stephanie Savage (“Hart of Dixie,” “Gossip Girl”), Len Goldstein (“Hart of Dixie”) Amy B. Harris (“Gossip Girl”) and Bushnell.

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Marijuana possession cases in Washington state going up in smoke

SEATTLE (Reuters) – Prosecutors in Washington state‘s two most populous counties plan to dismiss scores of misdemeanor marijuana possession cases following passage of a landmark voter initiative earlier this week to legalize pot for adult recreational use.

Washington and Colorado became the first U.S. states to remove criminal sanctions for personal possession of an ounce (28.5 grams) or less of marijuana as voters approved ballot measures on Tuesday to legalize recreational use of the drug, setting up a possible showdown with the federal government.

Washington state’s legalization measure passed with more than 55 percent of voters supporting it and fewer than 45 percent opposed, and will take effect next month.

But prosecutors in Washington’s King and Pierce counties – which contain the cities of Seattle and Tacoma – moved swiftly to announce they were dropping 225 pending possession cases currently in the pipeline.

“The people have spoken loudly in Initiative 502, and there seems to be no point in continuing to prosecute cases for conduct that’s going to be legal in a couple of weeks,” King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg told Reuters.

Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist said, “I don’t believe any jury is going to convict on a simple marijuana case after this initiative has passed.”

All the cases slated for dismissal represent the relative few in which marijuana possession alone is charged. Conviction for possession of an ounce or less carries a maximum penalty of 90 days in jail, Lindquist said.

Legalization efforts put both Washington state and Colorado at odds with federal law, which classifies marijuana as an illegal narcotic. The U.S. Justice Department has yet to say what if any actions it will take in response to the votes.

Asked to comment on the charge dismissals, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for western Washington said the Justice Department was reviewing the newly passed ballot initiatives and “has no additional comment at this time.”

In addition to legalizing personal possession of marijuana, the new Washington and Colorado laws will permit cannabis to be legally sold and taxed at state-licensed stores in a system modeled on what many states have in place for alcohol sales. Those provisions will take longer to be put into effect.

Washington and Colorado already have laws on the books legalizing marijuana for medical purposes, along with 15 other states and the District of Columbia.

Federal prosecutors in some of those states have launched a crackdown on pot dispensaries and greenhouses deemed to be engaged in large-scale drug trade under the pretense of supplying medical cannabis to patients.

(Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Peter Cooney)

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How 'poor judgment' felled military star Petraeus

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - David Petraeus was a star on the battlefield, commanding the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, but was undone by "poor judgment" in engaging in an extramarital affair that led to his downfall as CIA director.

Just two days after his 60th birthday, Petraeus stepped down from the spy agency where he had held the top office since September 6, 2011.

"After being married for over 37 years, I showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair. Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours. This afternoon, the President graciously accepted my resignation," Petraeus told the shadow warriors he commanded at CIA.

It was a stunning downfall for a revered military man who was seen as one of the top American leaders of his generation and was once considered a potential contender for the White House.

Petraeus was credited with pulling Iraq from the brink of all-out civil war and for battlefield successes in Afghanistan after overseeing a surge of 30,000 troops ordered by President Barack Obama in late 2009. He became known for counter-insurgency strategies that were seen as gaining ground against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

"I don't think he was professionally overrated. His were genuine accomplishments," said James Carafano, a war historian with the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank.

At the time of his nomination to the CIA post, some Washington insiders had said the White House wanted to find a prominent position for Petraeus to ensure he would not be recruited by Republicans as a challenger to the 2012 Obama-Biden ticket.

When he was nominated to lead the CIA there were some concerns in intelligence circles that the high-profile four-star Army general might not be able to lead from the shadows as appropriate for a spy chief.

But once he took over the head office at the U.S. spy agency, Petraeus kept a decidedly low public profile.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, expressed regret about the resignation of "one of America's best and brightest" and said it was an "enormous loss" for the country.

"At CIA, Director Petraeus gave the agency leadership, stature, prestige and credibility both at home and abroad. On a personal level, I found his command of intelligence issues second to none," she said.

RESIGNATION ACCEPTED

After accepting his resignation about a year-and-a-half after nominating Petraeus to the CIA post, Obama said: "By any measure, he was one of the outstanding General officers of his generation, helping our military adapt to new challenges, and leading our men and women in uniform through a remarkable period of service in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he helped our nation put those wars on a path to a responsible end."

Earlier this week, in a Newsweek article entitled "General David Petraeus's Rules for Living," he listed 12 lessons for leadership. Number 5 was: "We all will make mistakes. The key is to recognize them and admit them, to learn from them, and to take off the rear­ view mirrors - drive on and avoid making them again."

In 2010 Petraeus stepped into the breach as the new commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan to replace General Stanley McChrystal who was fired by Obama in a scandal over an article in which McChrystal and his aides made mocking comments about the president and some of his top advisers.

In 2009 Petraeus was diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer and underwent radiation treatment. The media-friendly general joked at that time at a Washington event that reporters were only gathered "to see if the guy is still alive."

Petraeus, born in Cornwall, New York, lives in Virginia with his wife Holly. They have two grown children, a son who was an Army Ranger who served in Afghanistan, and a daughter.

Petraeus's wife, Holly, is an activist and volunteer who champions military families, and she continued that work after her husband retired from the military and moved to the CIA.

She currently is assistant director of the office of servicemember affairs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where she tries to keep unscrupulous lenders from taking advantage of military personnel. The bureau was championed by Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren, who was elected to the Senate from Massachusetts this week.

Holly Petraeus is the daughter of four-star General William Knowlton, who was superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point when Petraeus was a cadet.

She briefed the press at the Pentagon on her efforts recently and was introduced by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who called her "a true friend of the Department of Defense and a dedicated member of our military family."

Petraeus has four Defense Distinguished Service Medal awards, three Distinguished Service Medal awards, the Bronze Star Medal for valor, and the State Department Distinguished Service Award.

He has a doctorate in international relations from Princeton University.

(Additional reporting by David Alexander, Matt Spetalnick and Diane Bartz; Editing by Warren Strobel and Jackie Frank)

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