"Paula Broadwell Access To Classified Information Raises Questions" [View all]

[KoKo]

Paula Broadwell Access To Classified Information Raises Questions (UPDATED)

Posted: 11/12/2012 12:34 pm EST Updated: 11/12/2012 3:12 pm EST

Paula Broadwell, whose reported relationship with former CIA director David Petraeus hastened the end of his career last week, has come under scrutiny for the unusual level of access she appears to have had in the process of writing a biography of the general.

In a speech this summer at the Aspen Institute, Broadwell noted that she regularly had access to classified information in the course of her work in Afghanistan, when she was embedded for about a year in 2010 and 2011.

"I was entrusted with this opportunity to sit in on high level meetings with General Petraeus. Sitting in on SCIF [sensitive compartmented information facility] meetings in the morning, listen to classified chatter of terrorist talk and so forth. And I had that background anyhow, so I knew a lot of that information for my writing, but I knew there was a clear line that I couldn’t cross when I was writing it out," Broadwell said, according to remarks recounted by Politico.

It's not clear how inappropriate Broadwell's access was. As an Army reservist with a background in counterintelligence, Broadwell had a high-level security clearance.

It is also not unheard of for reporters embedded with the military in war zones to encounter some classified information or spend time in secure compartmented information facilities. The standard non-disclosure agreement for reporters embedding with the military in Afghanistan, for instance, includes pledges not to reveal any specific plans or classified information the reporter might see.

Petraeus was also famous for granting reporters extraordinary access to his thought process and planning, and as The Washington Post reported on Monday, he even afforded permanent office space to a pair of conservative Washington, D.C. think-tankers at his military headquarters.

It may have been this general tendency that Broadwell was referencing when she wrote, in the introduction to her 2012 biography of the general, "I took full advantage of his open-door policy to seek insight and share perspectives."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/12/paula-broadwell-david-petraeus_n_2117386.html