Money and power are strange things. They attract women, and they corrupt the men, seemingly. Men with lots of money and power, must find themselves in a world surrounded by people ready to do their bidding. How does that not affect your view of your own vulnerability. Pretty soon you’re feeling entitled to the fawning attention, and invulnerable to discovery. You are understandably less discrete.
In Columbia the problem was one of the CIA guys refused to pay his prostitute. He felt entitled and invincible, as a US CIA agent in a Columbian brothel.
Power corrupts. Just the same old story. Even smart guys fall.
My bad, thank you for the correction. My point still stands. Even those in positions that demand integrity and moral discipline, with severe conduct codes - power still corrupts.
I think it’s pretty clear that the harassing emails to whatsherface, the real housewife of Tampa, was the event that led to the whole gmail thing being uncovered by the FBI.
The FBI got a court order. Presumably cracking isn’t really necessary after that, Google or whomever just lets them access it.
I guess Petraeus could’ve encrypted his emails but if it had been encrypted, it probably just would’ve led to closer scrutiny of Broadwell by the FBI, leading to them discovering the affair in any case. (plus, I don’t think CIA employees are supposed to have encrypted stuff outside work).
But in any case, I think that misses the point. The circumstances that led to Petraeus getting caught were pretty bizarre. You might be able to figure out a way to have hidden the affair in retrospect, but I don’t think you could’ve done so before hand. Petraeus didn’t bother setting up a system that would be immune to prying by the FBI because he never guessed Broadwell would ever come under investigation by the FBI.