Former CentComm Commander: Jill Kelley Relationship With Top Commanders "Strange" and "Bizarre"

The former commander of the U.S. military's Central Command at Tampa's MacDill Air Force base finds the close relationship socialite Jill Kelley developed with Gen. David Petraues and Gen. John Allen "strange" and "bizarre." Retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni can't imagine how the two found so much time to socialize and communicate with her based on media reports. Gen. Zinni also said his staff would have protected him from people like Kelley. From the Tampa Bay Times:

Retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni, former chief of U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base, said the tawdry sex scandal that Kelley helped trigger is as hard to understand as it is odd. How, he asks, did Kelley – a flamboyant South Tampa socialite – skirt the vetting normally insulating the nation's top generals?

"This is strange," Zinni said Friday. "To me, it's just so bizarre." . . .

In his day every social invitation and meeting with a civilian was examined by his staff to make sure it would not reflect poorly on the military, said Zinni, a Virginia resident who is now an outside director of the aerospace company BAE Systems.

Zinni said his staff judge advocate — an office providing legal support to a military commander — helped him navigate these sometimes perilous shoals.

Speaking of Kelley's socializing with MacDill brass, Zinni said, "That's something my staff judge advocate would have been on in a heartbeat." . . .

Zinni didn't have much spare time when he commanded CentCom more than a decade ago. He actually tallied it up when he left the combatant command.

"I was gone more than 70 percent of the time," Zinni said. "And of course I didn't have the same crisis situations CentCom's been dealing with for the last 12 years."

So when Zinni heard news reports that Allen exchanged hundreds, perhaps even thousands of emails with Kelley, he was amazed.

"I don't know where the time came to do all of that," said Zinni, noting that he thinks Allen is one of the military's finest commanders. "It's a full-time job."

He said his biggest concern is that the sex scandal will harm the military's reputation. "It chips away at respect," Zinni said.

Zinni said civilians who love the military often try to get too close and, even though they may have good intentions, they can cause difficulties.

"Sometimes it's hard for them to understand that what they're doing might be inappropriate," he said.

The Tampa Bay Times also sheds more light on the member of Obama's White House staff who arranged for Kelley and her twin sister to visit the White House at least three times during the past six weeks, including a tour of the White House two days before the election just days before the Petraeus sex scandal became public. The unidentified man worked as civilian lawyer in Afghanistan where he got to know top military personnel at MacDill, which is where he met Kelley before joining the White House staff.

On Nov. 4, two days before the presidential election and five days before Petraeus visited President Barack Obama at the White House to offer his resignation, Kelley, her twin sister Natalie Khawam, their children and Dr. Scott Kelley went on a tour of the White House.

On Oct. 24, the sisters had lunch in the White House Mess with a White House staffer. That followed a Sept. 28 breakfast between the same three people.

The White House declined to name the staffer, saying his identity would become public in a few months when visitor logs are posted. But an official said the staffer had gotten to know Jill Kelley through connections to MacDill.

The man worked as a civilian lawyer in Afghanistan and got to know military personnel, who invited him to MacDill, where he met Kelley. He now works as a lawyer in the White House.

It looks like the Kelley twins also managed to cozy up to Florida's Sen. Marco Rubio, who has presidential ambitions of his own. The twin sisters reportedly showed up at a 2010 fundraiser for Rubio that cost $1,000 a person without paying but still managed to get a photo taken with him, which they immediately posted on social media. It's absolutely an embarrassment to our country that two floozies like this are able to circulate at the highest levels of power in this country. It was refreshing to read that Prince William's wife, Kate Middleton, shows better judgment than our nation's top generals in deciding with whom they socialize. News reports say Middleton sent a reply of "Get Real" to a request by Kim Kardashian to meet with her during a recent trip to London to promote her slutty clothing line.
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Jill Kelley (left) with Sen. Rubio and her sister, Natalie (right)