Twin Florida socialites Jill Kelley and Natalie Khawam have emerged at the centre of the David Petraeus affair. Jon Swaine investigates their high-rolling lifestyles and access to America’s elite.
Left to right: Jill Kelley’s twin sister Natalie, David Petraeus, Jill Kelley’s husband Scott, Jill Kelley, David Petraeus’s wife Holly.
Jon Swaine
Telegraph [UK]
13 Nov 2012
Twin Florida socialites who are at the centre of the David Petraeus affair gained intimate access to America’s military and political elite through their high-rolling lifestyles even as they quietly racked up millions of dollars in debts and credit card bills.
Jill Kelley, whose complaint over threatening emails prompted the FBI inquiry that has ensnared two top generals, is mired in lawsuits from a string of banks totalling $4 million (£2.5 million), court filings obtained by The Daily Telegraph in Florida show.
Meanwhile Mrs Kelley’s identical twin Natalie Khawam – who obtained testimonies to her good character from both Gen Petraeus and Gen John Allen during her own separate legal battle – declared herself bankrupt earlier this year with liabilities of $3.6 million, filings show.
The 37-year-old sisters have emerged as central players in the saga gripping Washington’s national security establishment since Mrs Kelley was named as the “second woman” allegedly harassed by jealous emails from Paula Broadwell, Gen Petraeus’s biographer and mistress…
…The sisters grew up in Pennsylvania, the daughters of a couple who emigrated to the US from Lebanon during the 1970s. Their parents, who had two other children, owned a middle-eastern restaurant and a vehicle registration firm, records suggest.
“They are active in the G.O.P. social scene in Florida,” said a Republican source [emphasis CAJ]. “They are fun, friendly and beautiful people and political folks like them. I guess they’ve hit difficult times”. After being given a certificate at one event naming her an “honorary ambassador”, Mrs Kelley is said to have begun using the title without the “honorary” prefix.
Miss Khawam, a lawyer, called on their high-level contacts during a bitter custody battle over her four-year-old son in Washington earlier this year…
The article continues at The Telegraph.
Related: David Petraeus scandal: The silliness of using Gmail for your affair
Broadwell, Kelley both guests at the White House
…Kelley boasted about her White House visits in emails to acquaintances. In an email to a Tampa Bay Times reporter on Sept. 28, published by the newspaper, Kelley wrote: “Btw I was made the (honorary) Ambassador to US Central Command’s Coalition!” she told a Times reporter in a Sept. 28 email. “In addition to that, I was just recently appointed to be the Honorary Consulate General to South Korea! I’m in DC today — just left from breakfast at the White House. . . . I really hope to see you soon!”
Days before the Petraeus scandal broke, Kelley emailed Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn: “I was at the WH with my friends in the Administration this weekend — the stress was surreal!” she wrote. “But glad POTUS has been reelected!” [emphasis CAJ]
As for Broadwell, she at no time set foot in the Executive Mansion, the White House official said. Her June 2009 visit was to meet a national security staffer working on Afghanistan-Pakistan policy matters. In the June 2011 visit, Broadwell was one of 20 participants in a briefing on Afghanistan-Pakistan policy….
Also, Jill Kelley, Paula Broadwell Made Repeat Visits to Obama White House
…Neither Kelley nor Khawam met with the President or any other senior administration officials on their visits, sources said. They were present only for a “tour” and “courtesy meals.” (President Obama and his senior aides were out of Washington, barnstorming the battleground states on Oct. 24 and Nov. 4.)
Officials declined to reveal the identity of the staffer, citing privacy concerns. However, his or her name will be revealed publicly in less than 90 days when White House visitor logs for those dates are posted online.
Petraeus biographer and paramour Paula Broadwell was also on the White House campus twice during President Obama’s first term — on both occasions for meetings in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building…
…I learned that Ms. Kelley, who was until this week under the radar, was quietly involved in pushing the agenda of Muslim Arab nations on our nation’s top generals with whom she’d grown close by design. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Ms. Kelley got her hooks into our two top generals in the Middle East, David Petraeus and John Allen. I’m now convinced that my friend, lawyer Gary Welsh of Advance Indiana, who has excellent instincts, was correct…
…I guarantee you that Jill Khawam Kelley wasn’t hosting visits from dignitaries from Israel. And, other than those from Israel, every single “Middle Eastern diplomat” in Washington is a Muslim, most of them Muslim Arabs. And all of them Muslims with an agenda that is anti-Israel and anti-Western. And definitely not in America’s best interests. They come to Tampa for one reason and one reason only–to ingratiate themselves with the top military brass at CentCom at MacDill…
…Kelley’s sister, Natalie Khawam, was married to a top Bush administration official, Grayson Wolfe, Director of Broader Middle East Initiatives and Iraqi Reconstruction at the Export-Import Bank of the United States, and frequently accompanied him on trips to the Middle East, including to Pakistan. Before that position, Wolfe was the Bush-installed Manager of the Private Sector Development Office of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, Iraq…
…Just look at what they’ve accomplished for the Muslim Mid-East, all of it under the radar . . . until Paula Broadwell had the stupidity to send her threatening e-mails and Jill Khawam Kelley had the stupidity of complaining about it to shirtless FBI agent Frederic Humphries.
Update 2: The Wonderful World of Jill and Scott Kelley
…If you’re a Kelley, you can…
…Use those fake diplomatic positions to attempt to extract an $80 million cut of a business deal. At the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Kelley was introduced to New York energy entrepreneur Adam Victor as “a very close friend of Gen. Petraeus,” the Los Angeles Times reports. Victor eventually flew Kelley to Hawaii to discuss a coal project with South Korean executives. But then Kelley asked for 2 percent cut of the gross cost of the project — which would have been $80 million. “It was such an astronomical figure that it suggested she had no experience in negotiating these types of deals,” Victor told the Times. “Gen. Petraeus had a lapse in judgment in using his influence to put her in that position.”
Use your diplomatic cred to stop Bubba The Love Sponge from ‘deep fat frying’ a Koran. Kelley emailed Tampa mayor Bob Buckhorn to stop a radio DJ from burning the Muslim holy book, a mission she claimed she was sent on by Petraeus himself. When the mayor’s office said they were working on it, Kelley responded, “OK keep me in the loop… Gen Allen will be calling me from Afghanistan at 1 p.m on this-and our next step.” It is very difficult to imagine this phone call, but you should try it, it’s well worth the effort…..
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