- Brandon Webb, a former Navy SEAL, and Jack Murphy, a former Green Beret, reveal the new claims in their book 'Benghazi: The Definitive Report'
- Petraeus was humiliated after a 'palace coup' by high-level intelligence officers who did not like the way he was running the CIA, authors say
- The book also claims that Petraeus and Ambassador Chris Stevens were caught off guard by Benghazi consulate attack because they weren't briefed about on-going U.S. military operations in Libya
- Webb and Murphy say Benghazi attack was a retaliation for secret raids authorized by Obama security adviser John Brennan
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David Petraeus was betrayed by his own bodyguards and vengeful high-ranking enemies in the CIA, who made sure his affair with his biographer was exposed to the public, a new book claims.
MailOnline can reveal a new angle on the story that rocked Washington last fall. It comes from two retired special operations commandos - a Navy SEAL and a Green Beret - who say they discovered a plot against the former CIA director while doing research about the attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.Senior CIA officers targeted Petraeus because they didn't like the way he was running the agency - focusing more on paramilitary operations than intelligence analysis. They used their political clout and their connections to force an FBI investigation of his affair with Paul Broadwell and make it public, according to 'Benghazi: The Definitive Report.'
'It was high-level career officers on the CIA who got the ball rolling on the investigation. It was basically a palace coupe to get Petraeus out of there,' Jack Murphy, one of the authors, told MailOnline.
Intimate knowledge: A new book claims CIA Director David Petraeus was betrayed by his bodyguards, who leaked in affair with Paula Broadwell to his enemies in the agency
Betrayed: Petraeus worked hard to keep his affair with Broadwell secret, but his personal security officers knew the truth
Inside accounts: Brandon Webb, a former Navy SEAL, right, and Jack Murphy, a former Green Beret and Army Ranger, say they used their vast network of special operation contacts to tell the 'real' story
The book claims that neither Stevens nor even Petraeus knew about the raids by American special operations troops, which had 'kicked a hornet's nest' among the heavily-armed fighters after the overthrow of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
John Brennan, President Barack Obama's Deputy National Security Adviser, had been authorizing 'unilateral operations in North Africa outside of the traditional command structure,' according to the e-book. Brennan is Obama's pick to replace Petraeus as head of the CIA.
'Benghazi: The Definitive Report,' published by William Morrow and Company, is due out in e-book on Tuesday. The authors, Webb and Murphy, are editors of SOFREP.com, a site devoted to news and stories written by current and former special operations commandos.
Perhaps the most startling accusation in the book is that Petraeus' affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell was leaked by the members of his personal protection detail.
The authors say that senior intelligence officers working on the 7th floor of Central Intelligence headquarters in Langley, Virginia, used their political clout to ensure that the FBI investigated the former Army general's personal life.
Palace coup: Petraeus, seen here with wife Holly as Broadwell looks on, fell victim to his powerful enemies inside the CIA, the authors claim
Disgraced: Petraeus was publicly humiliated when he admitted the affair with his biographer. The scandal ended his career in public life, at least for the time being
CONSIDER THE SOURCE: SPECIAL OPERATIONS INSIDERS ARE BEHIND NEW PETRAEUS CLAIMS
Brandon Webb and Jack Murphy say they are uniquely placed to tell the story of the Benghazi consulate attack and the political fall-out.
Webb, 37, spent ten years in the Navy SEALs and was deployed overseas five times - including a tour in Afghanistan shortly after 9/11. He left the Navy in 2006 as a Chief Petty Officer after serving as a SEAL sniper instructor.
Murphy, 28, served eight years in the U.S. Army as an Army Ranger and later as a Special Forces Green Beret. He deployed three times. He retired in 2010 at the rank of Staff Sergeant and is now studying political science at Columbia University.
Both men run SOFREP.com, a site dedicated to telling the stories of current and former special operations commandos.
They said they tapped into their vast network of military insiders and intelligence officers to uncover the 'untold' story behind the attacks.
Their reporting on the scandal surrounding for CIA Director David Petraeus was based on interviews with people both inside and outside the CIA, as well as FBI agents, they said.
Webb, 37, spent ten years in the Navy SEALs and was deployed overseas five times - including a tour in Afghanistan shortly after 9/11. He left the Navy in 2006 as a Chief Petty Officer after serving as a SEAL sniper instructor.
Murphy, 28, served eight years in the U.S. Army as an Army Ranger and later as a Special Forces Green Beret. He deployed three times. He retired in 2010 at the rank of Staff Sergeant and is now studying political science at Columbia University.
Both men run SOFREP.com, a site dedicated to telling the stories of current and former special operations commandos.
They said they tapped into their vast network of military insiders and intelligence officers to uncover the 'untold' story behind the attacks.
Their reporting on the scandal surrounding for CIA Director David Petraeus was based on interviews with people both inside and outside the CIA, as well as FBI agents, they said.
'It was well known to Petraeus’s Personal Security Detachment (bodyguards) that he and Broadwell were having an affair. He wasn’t the only high-ranking Agency head or general engaged in extramarital relations, but when the 7th floor wanted Petraeus out, they cashed in their chips,' Webb and Murphy write.
The book continues: 'The reality of the situation is that high-ranking CIA officers had already discovered the affair by consulting with Petraeus’s PSD and then found a way to initiate an FBI investigation in order to create a string of evidence and an investigative trail that led to the information they already had—in other words, an official investigation that could be used to force Petraeus to resign.'
Webb and Murphy said the CIA bureaucracy wanted Petraeus out of the CIA. Senior officials were furious over the way he had been running the agency since he was appointed in September 2011.
He was turning the agency's focus from intelligence gathering and analysis to paramilitary operations, including drone strikes.
Additionally, he ran the CIA like a four-star general, instead of treating it like a political institution, the authors say. His management style made countless powerful enemies within the CIA.
On November 9, three days after Obama's reelection, Petraeus shocked the nation by resigning as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and admitting that he had been sleeping with Broadwell - whom he had met while she was researching her biography of him, 'All In: The Education of General David Petraeus.'
Before he was publicly castigated, Petraeus was the most high-profile and highly-respected commander in the military. His counter-insurgency strategy was credited with turning the tide in the Iraq War and securing the country so U.S. troops could withdraw. He also commanded a surge of American forces in Afghanistan.
Shocking: The September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate shocked killed four Americans. It also became sparked a political firestorm that distorted the facts of what really happened, the authors say
Covert operations: The book claims that the attack was a retaliation for U.S. military raids on Libyan militants ordered by John Brennan, President Barack Obama's Deputy National Security Adviser
Comprehensive: The ebook, 'Benghazi: The Definitive Report' will be released on Tuesday
Petraeus' public image is in shambles after the affair went public.
'It’s almost like they wanted him not just to resign but that they wanted him kicked out of the political game for at least a number of years,' Murphy told MailOnline.
Media reports indicate that the FBI began investigating Petraeus' affair with Broadwell after Tampa socialite Jill Kelley, a friend of Petraeus and his wife Holly, reported that she had received threatening emails from the mistress warning her to stay away from Petraeus.
The authors say that Kelley's report may have started in the FBI investigation - but CIA officers pressured the Justice Department to keep the inquiry open.
Webb said his sources in the FBI told him federal agents wanted to close down their investigation when they learned that nothing illegal had happened, but they were told to keep digging. The FBI investigators, Webb says, never wanted to out Petraeus' affair.
The authors claim that Petraeus was already on his way out when the scandal broke. They learned weeks before that he was interviewing for teaching jobs at Princeton University.
Petraeus was furious, they say, because he was kept in the dark about the raids being conducted without his knowledge by the Pentagon's Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) across Libya and North Africa.
Webb and Murphy claim that the September 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. consulate and a CIA outpost in Benghazi proved to Petraeus that he was an outsider in the Obama administration and that he would remain marginalized as long as he was at the CIA.
Escalation: The authors pointed a buildup of attacks on western targets in Benghazi before the assault on the consulate. This is the battered wreckage of a British diplomatic security vehicle that was ambushed by militants
Friends: Glen Doherty, left, was the best friend of author Brandon Webb. Both Doherty and Ty Woods, right, were former Navy SEALS who died defending an attack on the CIA annex in Benghazi
Heavily-armed militants with Ansar al-Sharia attacked the consulate on September 11 as retaliation, the book claims. Ambassador Chris Stevens and Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith died of smoke inhalation when insurgents set fire to the consulate.
After the raid, the militants launched a second attack against a CIA annex across town. It was there that CIA security contractors Ty Woods and Glen Doherty - both former U.S. Navy SEALs - were killed when their position took a direct hit from an enemy mortar.
Webb and Murphy said they wrote the book to reveal 'the truth' behind the attack. They say news accounts of the incident have often been inaccurate because journalists have not had inside access to the people who were on the ground at the time.
The authors have been frustrated, they say, by politicians who have attempted to twist the facts of the case to suit their own ends. Conservatives sought to use the attack as an election issue and place the blame on Obama.
Democrats and the Obama administration have worked to deflect responsibility and downplay the warning signs that were present before the consulate was raided.
Murdered: Christopher Stevens was the first U.S. Ambassador murdered in the line of duty since 1979. He and Foreign Officer Sean Smith both died of smoke inhalation after militants set fire to the consulate
Had the State Department and the intelligence community known about what was happening, they would have stepped up security in Benghazi and could have prevented the tragedy.
Webb counts Doherty, 42, as one of his best friends and he is furious that the real story of what happened has not yet surfaced.
He said Doherty and a team of CIA security officers chartered a flight from Tripoli to Benghazi when the consulate came under attack - despite initial resistance from the CIA - to rush to the aid of the Americans who were in danger.
Both authors are well-positioned to access classified insider information about the attack. They run SOFREP.com, a news site written and edited by current and former members of the special operations community.
Webb served as an Navy SEAL for ten years and deployed overseas five times. He left the Navy in 2006. Murphy served eight years in the U.S. Army, including as an Army Ranger and a Special Forces Green Beret. He deployed overseas three times before retiring in 2010. He is currently studying political science at Columbia University.
Calls to the White House were not returned on Saturday. The CIA could not be reached on Saturday.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS: AUTHORS SAY BOOK IS THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE ACCOUNT OF THE BENGHAZI ATTACK
'Benghazi: The Definitive Report' is a short read at just 83 pages. However, it is packed with little-known details and exclusive information and background about the consulate attack. Here are a few key excerpts from the book:
- (Deputy National Security Advisor) John Brennan also ran a highly compartmentalized program out of the White House in regard to weapons transfers, and Stevens would not have been trusted with that type of information. Stevens likely helped consolidate as many weapons as possible after the war to safeguard them, at which point Brennan exported them overseas to start another conflict.
- During the rebellion against Gaddafi and in the aftermath of his death, Libya and North Africa became a staging ground for a dizzying array of operations by SpecOps, paramilitary forces, and international private military contractors working for everyone from European nations to multibillion-dollar oil corporations.
- What we do know is that the British Special Air Service (SAS) landed in Libya at some point—probably the secretive intelligence gathering component of the SAS called 'The Increment,' which works alongside MI-6.
- Elite counter-terrorist operators from America’s Delta Force were deployed to Libya as 'analysts,' which allowed President Obama to declare that America did not have any boots on the ground but was simply providing air support for the rebels. The reality was that Delta Force had a small contingent instructing the rebels in the finer points of weapons and tactics.
- Behind closed doors, President Obama had given his counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, carte blanche to run operations in North Africa and the Middle East, provided he didn’t do anything that ended up becoming an exposé in The New York Times and embarrassing the administration. In 2012, a secret war across North Africa was well underway.
- With JSOC (Joint Special Operations Command), Brennan waged his own unilateral operations in North Africa outside of the traditional command structure. These Direct Action (DA) operations, unlike the traditional ISR missions mentioned above, were 'off the books' in the sense that they were not coordinated through the Pentagon or other governmental agencies, including the CIA. With Obama more than likely providing a rubber stamp, the chain of command went from Brennan to McRaven, who would then mobilize the men of ISA (Intelligence Support Activity), SEAL Team Six, or Delta Force to conduct these missions.
- With a small element launching from an airfield in a European nation, JSOC operations targeted Al Qaeda personalities within Libyan militia organizations. In the weeks before the Benghazi tragedy, they most likely hit a known associate of Al-Suri in order to get him to “up periscope” and increase his visibility, which would then make it possible for JSOC to run a targeted operation to kill or capture him.
- The aftermath of one of these secret raids into Libya would have grave consequences for all of them, including former Navy SEALs Ty Woods and Glen Doherty. SOFREP believes the Benghazi attack on 9/11/12 was blowback from the late-summer JSOC operations that were threatening the Al Qaeda-aligned militant groups (including Ansar Al-Sharia) in Libya and North Africa, now a leading base of operations for Islamic extremism.
- 'Benghazi: The Definitive Report,' written by Brandon Webb and Jack Murphy, is published by William Morrow Company, an imprint of HarperCollins. It will be available for download in ebook format on Tuesday.
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