general allen thing is different from general pa contemporaneous but general pa contemporaneous' infidelity has got allen up in this point. >> rose: that may mean he has somebody's back. >> information as well. >> general allen is still the commanding general in afghanistan so i think it would be unusual for the man to undermine the man who is still in charge of 68,000 troops in afghanistan. martha is right they are describing these e-mails hundreds of e-mails between general allen and jill kelly as flirtatious in nature. general allen insists he did not have a sexual relationship with jill kelly who is a socialite known who host parties at her house in tampa. also hosted the pa trace family and they were known to visit socially with the petraeus family in washington. this is now in love square if you will. there wasn't necessarily love between all of them but the connection is growing all around. things that concern people on capitol hill what was the consent of these e-mails because hundreds of e-mails is still a lot. martha describes people at the pentagon pea are saying these are mostly e-mails from jill kelly to the general praising him for being on television, social types of e-mails

surveillance do you think they were general petraeus who was idolized by the same administration when general allen well there's certainly there's certainly some questions that have to be asked like why were they targeted to begin with. what law were they breaking or what probable cause did they have in beginning and even so the job for trade is i was one would argue that ok they could have been there could have been a security breach or something like that with but with general allen i don't quite understand because what they were looking into his private e-mails of to this to this woman and well this is that's the whole point the whole point is what president was there is a telling and why did they i'm not sure what the internal knowledge like it is you know well that's part of the problem this government doesn't want things in the public that it's not a government a transparent government so they whatever they're doing whatever reason they had the motive and whatever the motivation was i'm not privy to it so i don't really know but i certainly think that there was something going on the background th

talk about general john allen because there has been as we taped this proto a statement by the whitehouse by jay carney the president continues at this time to stand behind general allen well me about the allen aspect of this story. >> i think it's very very different than the aspect of general petraeus. i may be naive but i don't think anytng towa wen on between john allen and jill kelly. i've been told by someone very close to general allen that he and his wife were friends with jill kelly and her husband and that absolutely there was no sex. the e-mails that you're talking about and documents and they say there are 20 or 30,000, this person very close to general allen said there were actually hundreds of actual e-mails and they came out with all the ccs to have all these documents. but there were things like hey general allen i saw you on tv today. and he would write back and say thanks, sweetheart, thanks dear. so they may have sounded flirty to someone just reading them but they insist they were just friends. i think general allen has been entanged in this. it's very bad timing. his e-mails were found on jill kelly's computer and of course she went to the fbi because

the men he counted on most, former cia director david petraeus and afghan war commander general john allen. well, the newest headlines in the investigation are creating even more of a tangled web. this morning "the wall street journal" reports general allen, who is now under investigation for e-mails between he and jill kelley of tampa, florida, is telling associates that he received an e-mail traced back to paula broadwell, the petraeus biographer accused of sending harassing e-mails to jill kelley. according to "the journal," allen says the broadwell e-mail was written under the pseudonym kelley patrol. it's describing kelley as a, quote, seductress, and warned the general about becoming entangled in a relationship with the married socialite. "the journal" also reports kelley tried this summer to get the fbi to drop the investigation that began with kelley's complaint of harassing e-mails traced back to broadwell. well, people familiar with the case tell "the journal" that she became worried about personal information being provided to investigators. meanwhile, "the washington post" quotes sen

community saying and reacting to what we were watching with the general petraeus and also general allen? >> wellre's a general feeling of disappointment of course, because what he did represented a breach of trust not only with his wife, but with everyone in the agency as well inso far the way it embodies everybody who is working at the cia and he created a potential security risk by what he did, and worse, i think in my opinion, was the lack of judgment that was shown by entering into the affair while he occupied such an important position in our intelligence community. i this they as far as the future of the cia is concerned, this will to coin a phrase be nothing but a bump in the road. people are of course disappointed, but we have some very good people waiting in the wings to take over if the president decides that they are the ones to do so. we have mike more rel who is now the acting dci who has a long and distinguished career as an analyst at the pentagon and also michael vickers who is head of intelligence at the pentagon who has spent some time in the agency, and personally, as a former

the president still had confidence in general allen. >> i can tell you that the president thinks very highly of general allen and his service to his country as well as the job he has done in afghanistan. >> reporter: is it accurate to say the president still has full faith in general allen? >> he has faith in general allen, believes he's doing and has done an excellent job at i.s.a.f. and i would refer you to the pentagon for the process under way with regards to general allen. >> pelley: the center of this tale is in tampa where the pentagon's central command is headquarters on an air force base. centcom, as it is known, is in charge of the middle east, petraeus was the head of the command and general allen was deputy commander. that's how they met jill kelley who often hosted parties for officers and civilians. john miller has more on her story. john? >> well, scott, the picture that emerges of jill kelley has two sides. one portrays a wealthy socialite who devotes a lot of her time to the military. the other is that of a woman who seeks out powerful connections and is not afraid to use them. dr. scott kelley, a prominent tampa surgeon, and his

general allen, leader of the u.s. military in afghanistan, the nato commander there, he's involved apparently as well. at can you tell us about first of all general allen's role in what's going on right now? >> well, this is all news to me, too. in late spring of this year, the four corners of our two committees, house and senate, the leadership, met with general allen in kabul. we were very impressed with him. he gave a historic narrative of the area which was impressive. he talked about his mission, how it was going, and i think the four of us came away with a sense that he is, in fact, a fine commander. i don't know exactly what the situation is here. we will look at it, we will ask for a report, we will gather the materials, we will ask to see classified documents that may have been miss broadwell's computer. i spoke to the attorney general about that last night. he agreed to present this to the intelligence committee, so we will have those, which is important to our mission because our mission is to see was intelligence what it should have been. should we have known this was a terrorist attack, mu

well, that is right. i can assure that while there may be some attention paid inside of the beltway with senator petraeus and perhaps general allen, the general is well informed of what is happening in the middle east, and those two commanders have day-to-day responsibility for the area around israel and the area around egypt. >> we have video of the military leader of hamas who was blown up in his car, and you can even see the explosion here. this is released on the internet in a sort of war of the internet going on as well in the ground with both sides using it for their propaganda purposes. how dangerous do you think it is over there given what we are seeing? hamas has threatened tremendous retribution talk about the gates of hell opened? >> well, i'm more concerned of egypt. the muslim brotherhood is in power now, and it is unsteady power. they have to find the fine line between the secular military and the opponents. if there is a battle, it is inside egypt. >> and we were talking today earlier to find out that one by one all of the major security breaches are down played and in the end, we are left with general petraeus hav

administration and then general petraeus over a woman and now general john allen three of the biggest names in the war in afghanistan well is because more thoughts. his resignation of the implication of a general allen in the scandal is well we'll talk to someone who's worked with the cia should we. susan lindauer on the line from washington d.c. bolling susan so go reportedly the entire investigation was started by an f.b.i. agent so infatuated with jill kelley that he said topless pictures of himself do you think the f.b.i. was within its rights to expose the cia director's involvement in this scandal i'm sure you've got some thoughts on. oh i do it's a juicy story what's happening in washington is we're discovering the f.b.i. motivation was not so pure is they've tried to make it sound general allen for example has vehemently denied having an affair with kelly he says that he was writing letters home. to a friend. and general betray us his girlfriend he didn't have a girlfriend but the f.b.i. lived when they said that she was sending threatening e-mails to a rival it turns out something very different happened the f.b

she knows general allen extremely well and has hosted parties for a lot of generals.e story was breaking, she was hosting a party that night for senior officials at the base. what fuels her interest in our top military leaders? what makes her want to be in that social scene? do you know? >> i have no idea, but i would imagine most other people if they had the opportunity, would want to be in that social maloof. we're talking about some of the most wonderful men in the world. these are leaders. these are very accomplished people. why wouldn't you want to be this their presence? >> all right, thank you very much for coming out and telling your side of the story. we appreciate it. >> my pleasure. >> the president today came out swinging. on a lot of things. not talking taxes now, we're talking about a defense of susan rice, republican senators say they're going to block the secretary of state nomination. rand paul comes "outfront." and a hamas military leader was killed by an israeli air strike. hamas says they have opened the gates of hell on themselves. where others fa

general allen right now? what is his reaction to these allegations of potentially inappropriate e-mails? >> reporter: well, erin, general allen is said to be here in washington. in fact, he flew here from afghanistan, because on thursday he was supposed to have that senate confirmation hearing to become the military head of nato, all of that now on hold. sources close to general allen have told our own nick paton walsh that allen says he did not have an affair with jill kelley, a pentagon official has also said directly that general allen denies any affair, any extra marital involvement with jill kelley. but look, erin. the reality here is, defense secretary leon panetta ordered up a full-blown inspector general investigation, and a lot of people around the pentagon say leon panetta wouldn't have done that unless there was something that needed to be looked into. >> and barbara, what's your understanding about general allen and if he's heading back to afghanistan, as we had heard he might be? >> reporter: well, he might, in fact, head back, we're told, in the next couple days to afghanistan, because frank

as the first person who sparked the investigation into the affair and now she's linked to general allen as well. >> reporter: well, what we can tell you is she's 37 years old. she's essentially a socialite. during the years 2008 to 2010, she apparently had many parties for david petreaus. a close friend and family friend by all accounts and frank, she is also married. >> we know that, you know, david petreaus has stepped down now but what is the status of the affair. >> reporter: well, apparently according to reports the affair ended about four months ago. has been going on apparently since david petreaus took the position as head o of the cia last year. by all accounts we're hearing that the affair ended. it was a mutual agreement. however, the contact with paula broadwell continued because she was writing a dissertation on his role as u.s. commander overseas. >> live in washington, tara mergener, thank you. >>> it is 6:05. a trip to texas four years ago at the bottom of a big shake up at the port of oakland, the executive director there omar benjamin announced he's stepping down. this amid a

well. that's a good question i think they didn't want this scandal to widen the you know it already involves general allen no it's well and then we don't know what's going to come out in those e-mails between him and jill kelley so. security breaches you know paula broadwell made a speech recently where she kind of foreshadowed foreshadowed patrice's testimony today where she said that the attack on the benghazi compound which included a cia annex was because of the cia had taken prisoners and was possibly holding them and so today general petraeus in a closed hearing changed his story and said unlike what he said at the beginning that it was this video he said that it was actually planned terrorist attack so there's all kinds of things that can get messy and i think they wanted to resign to try and cut the scandal short it's amazing that you know the director the cia as you said overseen kind of all these illegal campaigns assassination campaigns of trying to destroy their own strikes i mean two ground wars resigns over this love affair it is just amazing to me and and also thirty thousand e-mails i mean

general allen and general petraeus were both in sitcom in tampa florida, and they got to know this jill kelly, a wellnown socialite in the area. she host eud hosted a of parties for the top brass. she got to know them. it is clear that the tk-rpblg dod thinks there may be evidence of an inappropriate relationship and he pouring through 30,000 pages of email traffic between general allen and jill kelly. if they do find that there was a relationship of a sexual nature then he could face charges under the uniform code of military justice. we have a statement from afghanistan, from isf there. it says we are aware of the statement issued by the u.s. secretary of defense concerning a matter under investigation that may involve general allen. isef command tkefrplt it is our policy now not to comment on the statement but to refer all questions to the office of the u.s. secretary of defense. we phone lee heard kwreud from thyesterday from the defense and his spokesman as they were en route toia where they learned about this twist in the saga. bill: petraeus' investigation there was a lid on that, nobody knew

general, so i have in viability, i don't know if you want to get diplomatic protection as well but now -- >> officials uncovered thousands of emails described as flirtatious between kelley and general john allen. amidst all of this allen's possible promotion to become nato supreme scommander has been put on hold. >> the president thinks very highly of general allen and his service to his country, as well as the job he has done in afghanistan. >> and speaking of that job in afghanistan, he's expected to stay in that post. meanwhile, allen has denied any wrongdoing. we do understand that the confirmation hearing that was scheduled for thursday for a possible successor there for allen in afghanistan if, in fact he gets promoted is expected to continue as scheduled. again, the president could address all of this at his press conference later this afternoon. reporting live on capitol hill brianne carter abc 7 news. >> brianne, thanks so much. to help you follow the petraeus scandal, we have a special photo gallery on our website, where we identify all the key players. you can go to wjla.com and access it there. >> we're expecting a big decision today on capitol hill. we expect to found out if hous

general john allen. >> the president thinks very highly of general allen and the service to his country. as well as the job he's done in afghanistan. >> reporter: a show of support from the white house. even as hearings for general allen's nomination as nato's supreme commander are put on hold. officials found what they call thousands of inappropriate e-mails between general allen and tampa socialite jill kelly. kelly is the woman who sparked the investigation into petraeus and broadwell. general allen says he did nothing wrong. >> i believe john allen until somebody proves otherwise. i believe he did nothing appropriate. >> reporter: while those involved in this case have been quiet. in a 911 call, jill kelly tells tampa dispatchers she needs diplomatic protection because she's honorary counsel to south korea, an unofficial position according to the state department. >> i'm an honorary counsel general. they should not be able to cross my property. i don't know if you want to get diplomatic protection involved, as well. but now, because that's against the law to cross my property since it's invi

general allen has denied any wrongdoing in the white house as the president still has faith. >> the president thinks very highly of general allen and his service to this country as well as the job he has done in afghanistan. >> pour natoma intended ombudspersons as general allan will remain the commander of u.s. forces in afghanistan, but his nomination to become the commander of nato has been put on hold pending york, the investigation. sally kidd, wbal-tv 11 news. >> some members of congress want to know why they and the president were not notified sooner about the petraeus investigation. tomorrow, intelligence committee members will meet with the fbi and cia to go over the investigation including the timeline. congress is returning from a six-week election rate to a long list of unfinished business, number one, the need to figure out how to avoid the fiscal cliff. automatic tax increases and spending cuts defense and domestic programs would be triggered automatically. the deadline is january 1st. nancy pelosi will announce whether or not she continues her post doorstep down. they failed to gain the 25 seats needed to win the house majority. >> the issue of religio