WASHINGTON: A Florida socialite at the heart of a scandal that brought down the CIA chief was once asked by him to stop a radio talk show host who was threatening to “deep fat fry” the Quran, US media reported early on Saturday.
That account, which comes from emails sent by socialite Jill Kelley, offers a new glimpse at her relationship with Petraeus and other senior military officials.
In March, a Florida radio talk show host named Todd Alan Clem but known as Bubba the Love Sponge said he was going to “deep fat fry” a copy of the Quran as a stunt, the reports said.
Gen John Allen, commander of US and Nato troops in Afghanistan, and CIA director David Petraeus, both asked Kelley, who lives in Tampa, to try to intervene and stop the radio host by contacting the city’s mayor, Bob Buckhorn.
“I have Petraeus and Allen both e-mailing me about getting this dealt with,” Kelley wrote to the mayor, according to NBC News.
The generals saw the “Bubba” announcement as a potential threat to the safety of US troops stationed in Islamic countries.
Defacing the Quran is forbidden in Islam and in the past plans to burn the Muslim holy book by a controversial Christian pastor in Florida sparked deadly protests across the Muslim world.
Kelley’s e-mails were released by the mayor.
Petraeus, a retired four-star general and America’s most celebrated military leader in a generation, resigned from the top CIA job last week after an FBI probe exposed his months-long extramarital affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell.
Allen has also been linked to the scandal. He is under investigation by the Pentagon for hundreds of e-mails he wrote to Kelley, some of them reportedly “flirtatious”. Allen denies any sexual liaison with Kelley.
Her complaint over threatening emails sparked the FBI probe that eventually uncovered Petraeus’ adulterous relationship and led to his resignation.
