allen denies having an affair. a person close to kelley said adamantly there was absolutely no physical sexual relationship. that person also noted kelley used an account she shares with her husband to correspond with allen. but even flirtatious e-mails could cost allen his career if the inspector general determines that the content is dishonorable and violates the uniform code of military justice. a law enforcement source says the f.b.i. turned up no criminal activity and no evidence that classified information was ever compromised in the allen-kelly e-mails but with allen's confirmation hearing pending, the f.b.i. felt compelled to tell the pentagon what it found. >> pelley: thank you bob. today the white house spokesman jay carney was asked whether the president still had confidence in general allen. >> i can tell you that the president thinks very highly of general allen and his service to his country as well as the job he has done in afghanistan. >> reporter: is it accurate to say the president still has full

john allen is now the subject of a pentagon investigation. it centers around hundreds, possibly thousands of e-mails sent to this woman. details of where she fits into an increasingly tangled web of relationships. i'll talk about all of this with the chair of the senate intelligence committee. dianne feinstein says it is like something off the front page of a tab roid mloid magazine and s demanding answers. i'm wolf blitzer and you're in "the situation room." >>> we begin with stunning twists in the scandal that brought down the head of the cia, general david petraeus. another u.s. general is caught in the same tangled web. john allen, top commander in afghanistan, is being investigated by the pentagon for allegedly sending inappropriate e-mails to a married woman, the same woman whose complaint of threatening e-mails from general petraeus' lover cracked the scandal wide open. barbara starr is trying to sort this out for us. it is rather complicated, what's the latest you're getting? >> it is still the same fundamental question for the last 2

kelley and general allen. secretary leon panetta announced it all in a statement released at 1:00 in the morning this morning saying the fbi referred the case to the pentagon. the pentagon is now investigating. let's get right to maryland congressman elijah cummings the ranking democrat on the house oversight committee. okay. let's start with general john allen which is the latest thing and we now know about announced by -- leon panetta at 1:00 in the morning. how much concern do you have about what's happening in the story? are we really just seeing sort of a tangled, you know, connections of what is essentially a sex scandal and nothing more than that? >> i'm not sure what it is. and i think that that's why we need to let these investigations go forward. to try to figure out what we have here. i do believe that it's becoming quite serious when you're talking about 20,000 to 30,000 e-mails. i think we need to let it run its course as one who has done investigations and as a lawyer i can tell you that i think

general john allen, the top u.s. commander in afghanistan, under scrutiny for some communications with a woman who was the one who sparked the investigation into general petraeus. the web doesn't stop there. so what does this breaking scandal mean for congress and the white house? more things to do on taxing and spending decisions. we're going to talk about the fate of the fiscal cliff. plus he's a pioneer of the internet anti-virus software. he's now wanted in questioning for the murder of a longtime friend. new details in this bizarre search for john mcafee. that's ahead this morning at 7:00. >> don't go away. >> the tip -- >> there will be developments by 7:00. new ones, trust me. >> thank you, soledad. >> 44 minutes past the hour. thousands of people in new york city and long island now entering, if you can believe it, week three without power. after superstorm hurricane sandy. and anger is boiling over, especially at lipa. that's the power company that serves long island and the hard-hit far rockaway in queens.

: some lawmakers are coming out in support of general allen. >> general allen said he's not guilty of any improper behavior. i think he deserves to have us withhold judgment until the investigation the completed. >> reporter: general petraeus was scheduled to testify today about the attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi. in light of the scandal he will not appear at that hearing a decision that's angered some lawmakers. >> i think it's absolutely imperative that general petraeus come and testify. >> reporter: in his place today acting cia director michael morell a leading candidate to replace petraeus at the cia. now paula broadwell and jill kelly two women involved here are not making any statements to the press so far. general allen is considering making a statement. >> susan mcginnis in washington this morning. >>> jill kelley is well-known in social circles for her work with the military community. kelly and her husband often hosted parties for officers and their families. she was given an honorary ambassadorship for her work. over the weekend she made a call to 911 complaining

general allen is doing an excellent job in leading those fors. he has my continued confidence to lead our forces and to continue the fight but his nomination has been put on hold as a prudent measure until we determine what the facts are. >> reporter: that caution was echoed at the white house. >> he has faith in general allen, believes he's doing and is doing an excellent job. >> reporter: james incarnate engineer was peppered with questions. >> he's not going to make a grand pronouncement or decisions about things based on, you know, two situations, two individual cases. >> reporter: among the hundreds of emails exchanged between general all lean kelly investigators are focusing on one from several months ago. in it allen told kelly he just received an anonymous e-mail which warned him to stay away from kelly. that e-mail came from paula broadwell. broadwell who had been out of sight since the scandal broke friday was spotted tuesday night preparing dinner and drinking a glass of wine inside her brother's washington, d.c. home. sources say in h

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john allen we believe what at this moment? >> well that he will continue for the time being as commandser in afghanistan while the pentagon inspector general looking at these e-mails people inside the pentagon close to general allen saying they are innocuous and flirtatious which is behavior unbecoming an officer and put him in some trouble according to the military justice. for now they're looking into it. >> rose: if i said this is a human tragedy, would you all agree. >> i would say this is a profound human tragedy. and i think if you look at in life, if we had rewind and we said gee, you know, would i have send those letters to ms. kelly and if i was ms. kelly and was now under this kind of scrutiny, would i have marched into the fbi and said take care of this person. and if i were general petraeus and if i were, and you see when you start to pull that thread you don't know what's going to unravel. it's like the thread on the hem of your coat and you say it's bothering me and you yank it off and the whole coat unraffles an

george allen? >> i thought it was amazing that the governor, the republican governor would even talk about outstanding votes who haven't come in from really very democratic jurisdictions. prince women went 58% for obama. if i were the republican governor, i wouldn't be crowing that they're still out. also, fairfax went 60%. fairfax county went 60% for obama. he mentioned that. he did mention one, which is the largest city in virginia. virginia beach, which is a republican province. but brian moran, the chairman of the democratic party's enthusiasm and optimism is justified. >> let's boil this down for a minute. mitt romney has gotten up to a point where there's not a lot of room to grow based upon what is still left to count. >> i don't know how much is left in virginia beach. i stress that virginia beach is the largest city. so we don't know how much of the vote of virginia beach is out. but in terms of fairfax, and in terms of prince william those are democratic votes. they help the president, an

general allen. today we learn the afghanistan commanding general also implicated in this sex scandal. as well as an unnamed f.b.i. official who was taken off the case for becoming personally involved. the statement from tommy vi tabour of the spokesman on general allen's involvement, at the request of the secretary of defense, the president put on hold the nomination of general allen as the head of the european command. pending the investigation of general allen's conduct by the department of defense i.g. this is where we begin. bring in panel. a.b. stoddard, associate editor of the hill. bill kristol editor of the "weekly standard." mara liasson, national political correspondent of national public radio. in san diego, syndicated columnist charles krauthammer who appears to be at the san diego aquarium. i'm not sure where he is. is that where you are? >> i'm in the shark tank so i have to talk quickly. >> bret: let's start with you, charles. what about this? we have been talking about it for a coupl

now, general allen, top u.s. commander in afghanistan, is being investigated by the defense department for alleged flirtatious e-mails that he exchanged with kelley, this was over a two-year period. >> kelley is pleading for privacy, even though she finds herself in the middle of a real-life soap opera. we're now hearing her voice for the first time in a 911 call to tampa police last weekend. she called to complain about the people outside her house. listen. >> you know, i don't know if by any chance, because i'm an honorary consul general, so i have invileability so they should not be able to cross my property. i don't know if you want to get diplomatic, protection involved as well. but now because it's against the law to cross my property, since this is now like, you know, it's vie owable. >> all right. i'll let the officers know. >> thank you. >> we have team coverage this morning. jill dougherty is at the state department. brianna keilar is in our washington bureau. jill, defense secretary leon panetta delive

allen's attorney late today issued a statement saying general allen intends to fully cooperate with the inspector general investigators and directed his staff to do the same. allen has told officials he's done nothing wrong and has written nothing to kelly that would preclude his nomination. officials have characterized the communications with kelly as flirtatious, saying they contain nothing of an explicit sexual nature. but one official said the e- mails, if made public, would be embarrassing. defense secretary leon panetta was asked about allen today. >> no one should leap to any conclusions here. general allen is doing an excellent job at i.s.a.f. in leading those forces. he certainly has my continued confidence to lead our forces and to continue the fight. but his nomination has been put on hold as a prudent measure until we determine what the facts are, and we will. >> reporter: the e-mails between allen and kelly were discovered by the f.b.i. in the course of an investigation that uncovered the affair between david petraeus and paula broadwell. a search of broadwell's computer fi

general john allen, top u.s. military commander in afghanistan, and the man in line to lead nato forces in europe. well he's under military investigation for allegedly sending inappropriate e-mails to this woman jill kelley she's the woman whose complaints led to the investigation that exposed the patreaus affair. general allen has said, he's told the pentagon, that he hasn't done anything to wrong and you know he's obviously up for this promotion. you know him very well. i met him in afghanistan last year. he's incredibly respected among his peers. what do we make of these e-mails, first of all? >> reporter: well, we don't know what they actually contain. we know that some of these 20,000, 30,000 documents -- behind me there's a protest -- 20,000, 30,000 documents may be examined in case they contain inappropriate conduct by the general. nothing proven at this point. obviously serious enough that it's referred to department of defense inspector general to examine it. we don't know quite what this holds for his f

general john allen is in washington today. he was preparing for his own confirmation hearing to be the supreme allied commander in europe. that's on hold. the hearing for joseph dunford to be allen's successor as commander in afghanistan will go ahead. look, we have all the angles covered here. nbc's capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnell, investigative correspondent michaeli isikoff. pete williams seemed to indicate the fbi was closing its investigation of broadwell. so why have to go to her house? >> reporter: well, the fbi confirms, chuck, it did conduct a search of broadwell's house. agents were seen carrying out about half a dozen boxes of plastic containers. "the charlotte observer" newspaper is reporting two xauters and a printer were among those taken. senior law enforcement tells pete williams, our justice correspondent, this wasn't necessa necessarily a raid but rather a consensual search. that official says this wasn't necessarily a game changer either but rather an extra step to ensure thoroughness. now the inv

george allen did have a primary. he ran against two or three people who ran to the right of him. >> he had a tea party candidate, who was not initially the shoe in candidate. quickly dispensed of it. >> when i was down at the convention, i said where is george allen? he didn't go to the convention. >> hold that thought. here comes the senator elect for the state of virginia. this is tim kaine. it appears to introduce tim kaine. >> hello virginia! you know what? we did it again! [ cheers and applause ] >> and as mark warner speaks, i want to bring managing editor of the hill, bob cusack into the mix here. how much has george allen's macaca moment really affected his loss tonight? >> it's the reason he lost six years ago to senator jim web who obviously now is retiring. it was always mentioned in the race here. it seem like allen ran a very cautious campaign with this loss. you've got to think it's probably the end of his political career. he was once considered a presidential contender, they were talking about him run

general allen denies he has done anything wrong. meanwhile, secretary panetta is asking to move up the confirmation of general joseph dunford, allen's likely successor in afghanistan. >>> meanwhile, with david petraeus out, the cia has a new leader. michael morell is a career cia officer who has held a variety of leadership positions and it's the second time he's held the role of acting director. david martin has more. >> reporter: after only 14 months, david petraeus, the supposedly indispensable man, is gone. without warning, a new man, michael morell, must step forward from his post as deputy first to leon panetta, then to petraeus, and take over. john mclachlan knows what that's like. he did it in 2004. >> once you're sitting in that chair, there's no one sitting behind you. there's no safety net. so the acting director for all practical purposes is the director for that period of time. >> reporter: can morell head an organization in the middle of a shooting war. he has been in on the war since it started. as president bush's da

now it reaches into general allen. a lot of questions about the fbi and the timing and just a lot swirling around. we have a hearing this afternoon on some of the cables we've received regarding benghazi. it's a classified briefing, but i'm sures there's going to be a lot of discussion about all these things during that briefing. >> do you think that the intelligence leaders should have been notified sooner of an fbi investigation going on for months and months into the cia director? >> i was with diane fine stein, we were both on a sunday program this week and watched her comments, but talked to her back before we both went on and it's almost beyond belief this would be happening and the leaders of our intelligence community would not know it's happening. there are a lot of questions. they're multi layered questions. i will say i did listen to the end of your last segment and, you know, i've had very high-level conversations at the cia over the last several weeks and certainly before and i still will say it's almost b

general allen, i don't understand that at all. i'm going to wait and see what the facts are, but very strange. >> general, thank you so much for your time. greatly appreciated. we are awaiting an update from the pentagon briefing there. perhaps more information. when that happens in about two or three minutes. >>> tough love is what some are calling it. bobby jindal has some harsh warnings for his own party. he says the gop should "stop being the stupid party and put an end to offensive, bizarre comments." you political panel will weigh in. >>> plus tens of thousands of people sign a petition asking texas to secede. what are my mother's neighbors thinking? what is rick perry saying about this after he suggested -- remember the comments about texas and the secession? and join our conversation on twitter. find ut@on twitter. melons!!! oh yeah!! well that was uncalled for. folks who save hundreds of dollars switching to geico sure are happy. how happy, ronny? happier than gallagher at a farmers' market. get happy. get geico. chances

allen writes that because gates looked like he was 13, they decided allen should go alone to pitch their software. sitting by an old original altair, he showed me how he fed the computer a paper strip with their code punched into it and typed, "print 2+2." >> and then i hit return to send it, and lo and behold, it printed "4." and a wave of relief surged over me because i couldn't--i almost couldn't believe it had worked the first time. so that night, i call bill up and i say, "billy, it's unbelievable; it worked." and we were just over the moon. >> it was the beginning of the age of a computer in every home on every desk. almost overnight, people started buying these small computers, and their software was in high demand. in 1977, gates was even interviewed on a tv show. >> there's a lot of people who are forecasting that there'll be software stores just like there are record stores today and that there'll be thousands and thousands of those. and i think i'd have to agree with that. >> allen writes that gates had a rare gift for programming. he was also the shrewder businessman. from th

but, first, to general allen's relationship with kelley. cnn's nick payton walsh told me last hour and follow me here, the general may have been warning kelley about e-mails allegedly sent by petraeus' former mistress. >> one was received by general john allen warning him about jill kelley. he knew jill kelley. he would according to the senior official, he wrote to her and said, look, somebody is talking badly about you in e-mail, even threatening you. >> it is not clear what happened after that, but we do know how general allen and retired general david petraeus' troubles are connected. it started with the bombshell friday, david petraeus resigned from his cia post because of an affair with his biographer and fellow west point grad paula broadwell. the man who co-wrote the biography says he was absolutely clueless that there was an affair. >> i'm sure both of them look back on what is now transpiring and realized they both made the biggest mistakes of their lives. and i assume both of them regret it tremendously. but i would bet both of th

reports 20,000 e-mails between kelly and john allen. they have been handed over to the pentagon where they are being analyzed. i interviewed general petraeus and general alan several times. paula broadwell joined me for a conversation early this year. joining me from washington d.c., davidic nake a column else for "the washington post" and martha raddatz a senior affairs correspondent with abc news. two cbs colleagues, norah o'donnell my cohost and john miller correspondent at cbs news who is frequently with me on cbs this morning. i'm please to do have all of them here. we'll be joined by norah and john in just a moment. martha tell me about general petraeus. do you know him. what is it about this story that surprises you most? >> well, i have known general petraeus and covered him in war zones for about a decade and what surprised me most is he seems like a man who is so disciplined and so careful about his image and about his reputation that it was jaw dropping to me when i first heard it. >> rose: so the question is what didn't you

have they said anything in regard to general allen? >> thus far, no statement from the jill kelley camp about the allen relationship. no. >> also, let's check in now with kristen welker, kristen fill us in what the white house reaction has been, at all, we understand that general allen is in washington, ahead of what was going to be a confirmation hearing, where does this stand right now. >> that confirmation process has been put on hold for general john allen. they're speeding up the confirmation process for his replacement in afghanistan. we're awaiting of course for the white house to respond on camera. i can tell you that the briefing will likely focus on exclusively on this issue the fallout from general petraeus and now general john allen. white house released this statement in the early hours of this morning, we havegraphic of it. it says, quote at the question of the secretary of defense, the president has put on hold his nomination of general allen as saceur pending the investigation of john allen. that's coming from tommy vie

general allen and jill kelley. the same jill kelley who had contacted the fbi about receiving harassing e-mails from petraeus biographer and former mistress, paula broadwell. allen, who once worked for petraeus at the u.s. central command, denies any wrongdoing as investigators look through 20,000 to 30,000 pages of documents. now, i want to make it clear what we know at this time is that it's not clear how many of those documents may include potentially inappropriate communication. but the new allegations have raised serious questions tonight about the culture of relationships in the military, and we're going to have more on that in a moment. but first, we go to our pentagon correspondent, barbara starr. she has more on this developing story, breaking headline after headline today. barbara, where is general allen right now? what is his reaction to these allegations of potentially inappropriate e-mails? >> reporter: well, erin, general allen is said to be here in washington. in fact, he flew here from afghanistan,

general allen will remain in his job. but the defense secretary has asked for the general's pending nomination, as nato's top commander to europe will be delayed. rob and paula? >> thank you for sorting all of that out on this tuesday morning. thanks. >>> a lot of layers to this story to say the least. what's making it newsworthy is what access did paula have to classified information? was national security ever at risk? that's why this is getting so much attention beyond the soap opera-like details of this. it's really the access issue and national security. >> layers, would be an understatement. >> lots of questions. >>> another developing story overnight. the search is on for tech pioneer john mcafee, wanted for questioning in a murder. mcafee, who gave his name to the famous anti-virus software, lives in the country of belize, where his neighbor has been found shot to death. police there called the 57-year-old a person of interest in the case. and a lot of people describe his recent behavior as eccentric. >>> and the

now she's linked to general allen. what else can you tell us. >> reporter: well, that's right, michelle. she was complaining about harassing e-mails from paula broadwell. she is 37 years old. she is from tampa florida and essentially she's a socialite. she hosted parties for david petreaus between 2008 and 2010. and david petreaus said he had frequented her home for these parties and she is married. >> and david petreaus he stepped down but what's the status of his affair and could he be charged for anything? >> reporter: well, apparently the affair ended four months ago according to officials. the affair started two months after he became head of the cia. now, even after the affair ended, the two reportedly kept in touch because she was writing her dissertation about when he was a u.s. commander overseas. as for charges, the thinking is they're looking at this as a possible military infraction, not necessarily a violation and we're talking about john allen at this point. not necessarily military violation, or let me s

and who is general john allen? he is the top u.s. commander in afghanistan and he is the man who's nominated to be the supreme leader of nato. as you can imagine that, nomination was put on hold in light of all of these allegations. for the record, general allen denies any inappropriate relationship with kelley and these e-mails are described as flirtatious. so reaction to this unfolding and unbelievable drama is coming in from all sides a senior official close to general allen said of jill kelley, she is a nice bored rich socialite. senator dianne feinstein who heads the select intelligence committee that will investigate this whole petraeus affair finds the whole situation very tawdry. >> it's been like peeling an onion. every day another peel comes off. and you see a whole new dimension to this. >> jennifer: of course, conservative republicans like former u.n. ambassador john bolton are frothing at the mustache to politicize the scandal. oh goodness sakes. >> i think we need to look at eric holder in the late summer and ask what d

many e-mails were from kelley to general allen's wife. the two couples were good friends. >> until someone proves otherwise, i believe that he did nothing inappropriate. >> reporter: today the white house says the president obama still has faith in petraeus and allen. federal agents descended on the home of paula broadwell, gathering more material including a desktop computer, making sure she doesn't hold any classified information. and dave petraeus, once such a public hero, now forced into the shadows. while there is plenty of anger over petraeus' behavior with paula broadwell, the overwhelming reaction i have heard from troops is one of sadness mixed with pride for his years of leadership and hardship, diane, in this nation's wars. >> thank you so much, martha, for all your reporting on this. >>> but what about that woman in tampa martha mentioned front and center in the headlines. a wife and mother, jill kelley and abc's chief investigative correspondent brian ross set out to learn how she forged such a close relationship with the gen