CIA affair 'kept secret'

The crisis over General David Petraeus's resignation reached President Barack Obama's cabinet for the first time yesterday.

It was alleged that the US attorney-general knew about the affair for months but kept it secret until the day of the US election.

Eric Holder, the head of the Justice Department, was reportedly told around May that FBI agents were investigating the former CIA director's sexual relationship with Paula Broadwell, his biographer.

However, the information was kept inside the Justice Department until the day of the presidential election, when officials informed James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence.

Clapper immediately urged Petraeus to resign.

The decision not to inform Congress or the White House of the inquiry raises further questions about the timing of the abrupt resignation.

Representative Peter King, a Republican who sits on the House intelligence committee, said the FBI had been "derelict in its duty" by not immediately informing the White House that Petraeus was under investigation.

Neither the FBI nor the Justice Department has officially commented on the decision not to inform President Obama of the investigation into one of the core members of his national security team.

However, in private briefings the FBI insisted it was under no obligation to pass on the information.

It said it had already determined that there was no breach of national security and no crime had been committed.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, the Democrat chair of the senate intelligence committee, said on Sunday that she would investigate the FBI's decision to sit on the information.

Broadwell was interviewed by the FBI at least twice, according to the Wall Street Journal, and during her first interview handed over a laptop containing classified documents. Their content is not known.

Both Broadwell and Petraeus admitted the affair in interviews with the FBI but both denied that he was the source of the classified information.

Meanwhile, the woman identified as the source of the FBI inquiry that led to the downfall of Petraeus, asked for privacy on Sunday as she hosted a lavish birthday party for one of her children in Tampa.

Jill Kelley, 37, a volunteer social liaison with military families at the base,expressed "her family's continuing fondness for Petraeus", according to the Tampa Bay Times.

A source close to the Petraeus family confirmed that Kelley, and her husband, Scott Kelley, a Tampa cancer surgeon, became friends when Petraeus was based at MacDill from 2008 until 2010 as commander of the military's central command, which runs operations in the Middle East.

The couples stayed in touch, later meeting in Washington when the Kelleys visited relatives. The source stressed that Kelley and Petraeus "are long-time friends and nothing more".

The investigation that led to the discovery of Petraeus' affair with Broadwell was sparked by threatening e-mails from her to Kelley.

The CIA director's name unexpectedly turned up in the course of the investigation, according US law enforcement and security officials.