美国有线新闻 CNN 2012-11-15

 We begin tonight “Keeping Them Honest” with new questions about the scandal that has led to David Patraeus resigning as director of the CIA. Now it certainly isn’t the first sex scandal to bring down a powerful man in Washington. It certainly won’t be the last. But tonight there are growing questions about the timing¹ of how the word got out, whether more people in the government should have been told or been told sooner that the FBI was investigating a case involving the director of the CIA. 

 

We’re “Keeping Them Honest” as we do every night not to take side. You can get that on other cable news channels, but to look for the truth, for the facts. 

 

Here is what we know right now about who knew what and when. According to Wall Street Journal the FBI discovered the affair between Patraeus and his biographer, Paula Broadwell, in late summer. We’ll have more on how in just a moment. So the FBI reportedly knew in late Summer that the head of the CIA was having an affair, but it wasn’t until months later after Election Day that President Obama found out, and the House and Senate intelligence committees didn’t find out until Friday. Congressional leaders from both parties are angry, they say they should have been notified sooner that there were potential national security issues. Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein said today she is going to investigate why the FBI didn’t tell oversight² committee about the investigation³. 

 

A decision was made somewhere not to brief us, which is atypical. It is very puzzling and I think was a mistake because this thing just came so fast and so hard, and since then, it’s been like peeling an onion. Every day some, another peel comes off and you see a whole new dimension to this. 

 

And there’s still a lot we don’t know tonight. Now analysts⁴ say there’s no evidence, no evidence that the affair led to any security breaches⁵ and that there are strict FBI protocol⁶ about who gets notified in this kind of investigation. But the timing of when the scandal broke right after Election Day and right before Petraeus was scheduled to testify in the attack on the U.S. consulate⁷ in Benghazi, Libya, that certainly has a lot of people asking a lot of questions. Understandably. 

Now the other angle to this story is of course the age-old tale of an affair between a married powerful, highly respected man in Washington and a much younger woman. Now in this case, the woman who literally⁸ wrote the book on General Petraeus, Paula Broadwell. According to Charlotte Observer the two first met in 2006 when she was a graduate student at Harvard. She later traveled to Afghanistan, interviewed Petraeus, sometimes going running with him, interviews that led to the best-selling book, “All In: The Education of General David Patraeus.” Now the revelation about the affair is bringing new interest in all the interviews Broadwell did to promote the book and what she said about Petraeus at that time. Take a look. 

 

“He at the end of the day is a human, and is challenged by the burdens of command and has mastered wearing the mask of command, if you will. So he has this mask of command, you think he’s really confident, but I got to see a more personal side. But it’s not a hagiography. I’m not in love with David Petaeus.”

 

“He is quite a physical specimen⁹. He really loves to work out. I think at the agency they called him genetic¹⁰ mutant. This project started as my dissertation¹¹ about three years ago. And I was working with General Petraeus virtually, doing interviews via e-mail and occasionally running with him and interviewing. I’m not a spokesperson for him. And if, you know, showing a role model to other people in the world or other readers is a repugnant thing, then I’m sorry, but I think the values that he upholds and tries to instill in his, in his organizations are valuable and worth pointing out.” 

 

Well, that was Paula Broadwell then. She has not spoken subsequently. As we said, the timeline of the scandal, who got notified and when, is now under the microscope. CNN intelligence correspondent Suzanne Kelly has more on that. 

 

According to a friend of Petaeus, the affair began in November last year, two months after the retired¹² general took the helm at the CIA. That same friend also reports that meetings between the two were infrequent, but at some point, Petraeus and Broadwell began communicating via personal e-mail accounts. E-mails that a government official describes as explicit¹³. Skip ahead to May of this year. That’s about the time a government official says Broadwell began sending threatening e-mails to Jill Kelley, described as a family friend of Petraeus, who lives in Tampa, warning her to stay away. That official tells us that Kelley shared her concerns over the threatening nature of the e-mails with a friend at the FBI, and that prompted an investigation. Sometime after Patreaus became aware of the e-mails, a government official says Petraeus told Broadwell to stop sending them and sometime around July, according to the friend of Petraeus, the affair ended. The source tells CNN that Petraeus indicated Broadwell might to be obsessed¹⁴ with him and that Broadwell may have felt that she was warding¹⁵ off the competition by sending e-mails to Kelley. 

 

At some point, both Broadwell and Petraeus were interviewed by the FBI and it was after that things began to unravel¹⁶ quickly. The Wall Street Journal says Broadwell was interviewed in September and that Attorney General Eric Holder¹⁷ knew about the investigation then. A senior intelligence official says director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, was notified of the investigation by the FBI last Tuesday, Election Day, just at some polls were beginning to close. That same source says that on Wednesday, Clapper notified the White House. Petraeus met with the president last Thursday and offered his resignation which was accepted as the ordeal¹⁸ became public on Friday.

 

1 timing   

n.时间安排，时间选择

参考例句：

• The timing of the meeting is not convenient.会议的时间安排不合适。
• The timing of our statement is very opportune.我们发表声明选择的时机很恰当。

2 oversight   

n.勘漏，失察，疏忽

参考例句：

• I consider this a gross oversight on your part.我把这件事看作是你的一大疏忽。
• Your essay was not marked through an oversight on my part.由于我的疏忽你的文章没有打分。

3 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

4 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

5 breaches   

破坏( breach的名词复数 )； 破裂； 缺口； 违背

参考例句：

• He imposed heavy penalties for breaches of oath or pledges. 他对违反誓言和保证的行为给予严厉的惩罚。
• This renders all breaches of morality before marriage very uncommon. 这样一来，婚前败坏道德的事就少见了。

6 protocol   

n.议定书，草约，会谈记录，外交礼节

参考例句：

• We must observe the correct protocol.我们必须遵守应有的礼仪。
• The statesmen signed a protocol.那些政治家签了议定书。

7 consulate   

n.领事馆

参考例句：

• The Spanish consulate is the large white building opposite the bank.西班牙领事馆是银行对面的那栋高大的白色建筑物。
• The American consulate was a magnificent edifice in the centre of Bordeaux.美国领事馆是位于波尔多市中心的一座宏伟的大厦。

8 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

9 specimen   

n.样本，标本

参考例句：

• You'll need tweezers to hold up the specimen.你要用镊子来夹这标本。
• This specimen is richly variegated in colour.这件标本上有很多颜色。

10 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

11 dissertation   

n.（博士学位）论文，学术演讲，专题论文

参考例句：

• He is currently writing a dissertation on the Somali civil war.他目前正在写一篇关于索马里内战的论文。
• He was involved in writing his doctoral dissertation.他在聚精会神地写他的博士论文。

12 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

13 explicit   

adj.详述的，明确的；坦率的；显然的

参考例句：

• She was quite explicit about why she left.她对自己离去的原因直言不讳。
• He avoids the explicit answer to us.他避免给我们明确的回答。

14 obsessed   

adj.心神不宁的,鬼迷心窍的,沉迷的

参考例句：

• He's obsessed by computers. 他迷上了电脑。
• The fear of death obsessed him throughout his old life. 他晚年一直受着死亡恐惧的困扰。

15 warding   

监护，守护（ward的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• Magina channels a powerful warding magic damping the negative effects of spells. 敌法师用守护魔法来抵御负面法术的攻击。
• Indeed, warding off disruption is the principal property of complex systems. 的确，避免破损解体是复杂系统主要的属性。

16 unravel   

v.弄清楚（秘密）；拆开，解开，松开

参考例句：

• He was good with his hands and could unravel a knot or untangle yarn that others wouldn't even attempt.他的手很灵巧，其他人甚至都不敢尝试的一些难解的绳结或缠在一起的纱线，他都能解开。
• This is the attitude that led him to unravel a mystery that long puzzled Chinese historians.正是这种态度使他解决了长期以来使中国历史学家们大惑不解的谜。

17 holder   

n.持有者，占有者；(台，架等)支持物

参考例句：

• The holder of the office of chairman is reponsible for arranging meetings.担任主席职位的人负责安排会议。
• That runner is the holder of the world record for the hundred-yard dash.那位运动员是一百码赛跑世界纪录的保持者。

18 ordeal   

n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验

参考例句：

• She managed to keep her sanity throughout the ordeal.在那场磨难中她始终保持神志正常。
• Being lost in the wilderness for a week was an ordeal for me.在荒野里迷路一星期对我来说真是一场磨难。