It has been a full year since federal agents snooped through the private emails of my husband and me, setting in motion a series of events that ultimately led to the resignations of Central Intelligence Agency Director David Petraeus and Gen. John Allen, the commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan. The anniversary is a somber reminder of the unintended consequences and harsh realities that can result from unrestrained government probing into Americans' personal communications.
More recent revelations of National Security Agency
spying suggest that the government's invasion of citizens' privacy is
increasingly common. Millions of innocent Americans should be very
concerned about Washington's massive surveillance apparatus, which seems
to know no bounds.
My family's ordeal
began when my husband, Scott,and I were haunted by multiple, threatening email messages from
an apparent Internet stalker. Fearing for the safety of our family, as
well as the safety of U.S. officials named in the threatening emails, we
took the advice of military leaders and reported the messages to the
Federal Bureau of Investigation.
We authorized the FBI to look at one threatening email we received, and only
that email, so that the FBI could identify the stalker. However, the
FBI ignored our request and violated our trust by unlawfully searching
our private emails and turning us into the targets of an intrusive
investigation without any just cause—all the while without informing us
that they had identified the email stalker as Paula Broadwell, who was having an affair with Mr. Petraeus. (I have never
understood why she was stalking me and my family. In any event, she was
not charged with a crime.)
Adding insult
to injury, the FBI then leaked our identities to the media and
distorted the contents of the emails it had illegally obtained, throwing
my family into a destructive media vortex.
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