14 DAY TRIAL // Gen. John Allen is being investigated by the Pentagon for maintaining communications with Jill Kelley, the whistleblower on CIA director David Petraeus's affair with biographer Paula Broadwell.
Allen was the NATO forces ground commander in Afghanistan, having served under Gen. Petraeus and Gen. John Mattis as deputy commander of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM).
The “inappropriate communications” between Gen. John Allen and MacDill social liaison Jill Kelley consisted of some 20,000 to 30,000 pages of emails, sent over a two-year period. Huffington Post reports that the correspondence between the two started in 2010.
No information about the nature of the emails has been made public to this point, but they are believed to either chronicle an undisclosed romantic involvement or prove a leak of classified information.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta mentioned that the FBI has turned over the inquiry to the Pentagon on Sunday, November 11. Two days before, Gen. Petraeus resigned as director of the CIA, as we reported at the time.
In his statement, the former director admitted to an extramarital affair with West Point graduate Paula Broadwell, the author of his biography, “All In.”
Kelley, a family friend of the general's, and unpaid social liaison for the MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, had contacted the FBI over alleged menacing emails she received from a jealous Broadwell.
Gen. Allen has not been suspended from his position as commander of the International Security Assistance Force, based in Kabul, and currently finds himself in Washington.
The inquiry into his actions is led by the Defense Department Inspector General. Meanwhile, he is denying any involvement into the Petraeus scandal.
“Gen. Allen disputes that he has engaged in any wrongdoing in this matter,” the Defense Secretary states.
Allen was up for the positions of commander of the U.S. European Command, as well as commander of NATO forces in Europe, however his nomination has been put on hold, following the end of the investigation.
President Barack Obama is to nominate Gen. Joseph Dunford as Allen' successor in Afghanistan, in a hearing which has been expedited.