Petraeus Scandal: Jill Kelley Allegedly Linked To Gen. John Allen

Jill Kelley, the Tampa socialite identified as the target of Paula Broadwell’s harassing emails, allegedly may have had some kind of inappropriate relationship with the current US commander in Afghanistan, Marine General John Allen.

According to The Wall Street Journal, as part of the ongoing investigation of the Petraeus-Broadwell affair, “the FBI also uncovered some 30,000 pages of emails between Ms. Kelley and Gen. Allen.” A senior Defense Department official “declined to say whether these allegedly inappropriate emails contained discussions of a sexual nature, or classified information.”

Gen. Allen was due for promotion to NATO Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, but his US Senate confirmation hearings have been put on hold because of this revelation. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has referred the Allen matter to the Pentagon’s Inspector General for further investigation.

An unnamed senior US official who is a close associate of Gen. Allen denied that there was any hanky-panky going on, according to the Washington Post:

“Allen and Kelley, who threw parties and other social events involving senior leaders at the Central Command, did exchange ‘a few hundred e-mails over a couple of years,’ beginning when Allen was the deputy commander at the Central Command, this senior official said. But ‘most of them were about routine stuff.’ “

Jill Kelley, 37, worked as unpaid social liaison at the MacDill Air Force base in Tampa, and it was her complaints to the FBI about the harassing emails that led to the revelation of the extramarital affair between Broadwell and CIA Director David Petraeus.