Petraeus Regrets Not Focusing More on CIA's Email Policy

"A policy refresher with Paula might have taken all of fifteen minutes," friend says.

photo credit: Darren Livingston

EVERAL PEOPLE close to David Petraeus are coming out with revelations of the former CIA Director's misgivings now that his affair with Paula Broadwell has been made public.

Speaking confidentially, one friend said the meticulous retired General "wanted nothing more than to review the CIA's email policy with Paula, given his highly sensitive new position as Director." However Petraeus feared that Ms. Broadwell would find such a session "completely unromantic."

The friend went on to say that Petraeus stopped short of the policy review, which he had planned to bring up "after an intimate dinner for two." The retired General told close friends he wanted to pitch the review "as a fun little game, with the promise of romance later that evening," said the anonymous friend.

"A policy refresher with Paula might have taken all of fifteen minutes," the friend continued, "but David was afraid Paula would get suspicious if he tried to pass off the session as some new kind of foreplay."

Petraeus then told friends he would instead attempt to weave the subject of email security into his conversations with Broadwell in an unobtrusive manner.

"He asked me to weigh in on some of his ideas," said another friend. "He wanted to try things like, 'Darling, don't you look beautiful today. And by the way, I am no longer going to write even draft emails to that effect, considering I'm the Director of the CIA and should know better.'

"Or, 'If I were foolish enough to declare my love for you by actually sending a draft email, I would be tempted to do so in capital letters! However we both know that an email typed in all caps looks like yelling, which could draw unnecessary attention.' That sort of thing," the friend revealed.

Although the former CIA Director had not envisioned the possibility that Ms. Broadwell might send anonymous, threatening emails to a friend of his at the State Department, his friends believe a quick review of CIA email policy might have given his secret lover pause.

"She might have thought, 'Hey, wait a minute. David is concerned about our improper use of email technology, so maybe this is a really stupid thing to do,' one friend conjectured. "But I guess now we'll never know."