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Petraeus scandal: Did anything illegal happen? Five questions so far.

An investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation has now called into question the private lives and careers of two of the nation’s top national-security officials. Here is an accounting of what is known so far.

2. How did Gen. John Allen, commander of US forces in Afghanistan, become embroiled in the scandal?

Haraz N. Ghanbari/AP/File
In this March 26 file photo, Marine Gen. John Allen, commander of US forces in Afghanistan listens during a news conference at the Pentagon.

  • By Anna Mulrine Staff writer

In trying to trace the anonymous e-mails being sent to Kelley, FBI investigators found between 20,000 and 30,000 “potentially inappropriate” e-mails between Kelley and Allen.

Allen is currently under investigation by the Pentagon’s Office of Inspector General (IG), but remains in command for now. He has denied an improper relationship, and the White House has praised the job that Allen has done in Afghanistan. But before the scandal broke, Allen was nominated to become Supreme Allied commander, Europe, and now, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has asked President Obama to put that nomination on hold, pending the Pentagon IG investigation. Also, with the urging of Secretary Panetta, Senate confirmation hearings are proceeding for Gen. Joseph Dunford, currently the No. 2 officer in the Marine Corps, to succeed Allen in the top Aghanistan post.

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

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The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

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