text: The U.S.'s top general in Afghanistan is under investigation for alleged inappropriate communications. The WSJ's Enda Curran tells us what this latest development could mean in a scandal that has impacted officials from the CIA, FBI and now U.S. military. 
   
   WASHINGTON—The adultery scandal that led to the downfall of David Petraeus as CIA director widened Tuesday as President Barack Obama put on hold his nomination of Marine Gen. John Allen as commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, one of the world's top military posts. 
   
   The Pentagon said a Federal Bureau of Investigation probe into Mr. Petraeus's communications had revealed that Gen. Allen, now the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, exchanged numerous emails with Jill Kelley, the Florida woman who triggered the investigation. Ms. Kelley had complained to the FBI about receiving harassing emails that the agency later traced to a woman involved with Mr. Petraeus. 
   
   On Tuesday, people familiar with the case said that at one point in the summer, after the investigation began pointing to larger potential national security issues, Ms. Kelley tried to get the FBI to drop the matter. The people said she made the request because she was worried about the personal information being provided to investigators. 
   
   Enlarge Image Close European Pressphoto Agency U.S. Gen. John Allen 
   
   Enlarge Image Close Bloomberg News U.S. Gens. David Petraeus, left, and John Allen listen to a speech by U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House in Washington in April 2011. 
   
   Enlarge Image Close Associated Press FBI agents carry boxes and a computer from the home of Paula Broadwell in Charlotte, N.C., Tuesday. 
   
   After the discovery of allegedly inappropriate e-mails between Marine Gen. John Allen and a Tampa woman, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta asked the Senate to put on hold the confirmation of the top commander in Afghanistan. Photo: Getty Images. 
   
   U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Gen. John Allen's nomination as commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is on hold pending an investigation linked to David Petraeus. The WSJ's Enda Curran has the details. 
   
   Ms. Kelley, a 37-year-old volunteer who organized social events for military personnel, developed misgivings after friends in her Tampa social circle urged her to drop the matter, saying the probe would only cause bigger problems, the people familiar with the case said. 
   
   Ms. Kelley's apparent regret points to one of the more unusual aspects of the case: what began as a seemingly minor case of cyberstalking mushroomed into fears that the Central Intelligence Agency director's personal email account had been hacked, which spawned concerns the CIA director might have passed sensitive information to his mistress. Each of those fears ultimately proved unfounded, U.S. officials familiar with the probe said. But the investigation eventually exposed Mr. Petraeus's relationship with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, leading to his resignation, according to U.S. officials familiar with the probe. 
   
   Into the early fall, investigators focused principally on Ms. Broadwell. They found classified documents on her computer, though they decided there was no proof she had received them from Mr. Petraeus. They also determined that the two had at times shared access to an email account to communicate. 
   
   In the course of determining that the email messages Ms. Kelley complained about had been sent by Ms. Broadwell, investigators also discovered reams of emails between Ms. Kelley and Gen. Allen, both of whom are married. 
   
   Military officials said the FBI had turned over emails between the two, dating back to 2010. Pentagon investigators haven't found any sensitive or classified material in the messages, though they are still reviewing the material. Another government official said no evidence of criminal wrongdoing or security lapses by Gen. Allen had been found. 
   
   Gen. Allen has denied that he had an affair with Ms. Kelley, or that he shared any classified information with her, according to an official familiar with his thinking. He also told officials that he never had been in a room alone with Ms. Kelley and that there had been no affair or sex, the official said. 
   
   White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Mr. Obama remains supportive of Gen. Allen. A defense official urged against prejudging, saying Gen. Allen's nomination as NATO commander may yet go forward. "We probably ought to give him the benefit of the doubt," said a senior defense official. 
   
   Ms. Kelley and Ms. Broadwell haven't commented on the scandal. Defense officials said that Gen. Allen was weighing whether to make a statement. 
   
   The official familiar with Gen. Allen's thinking described Ms. Kelley as a wealthy socialite who was friendly with many top military commanders in Tampa, home of the U.S. Central Command, which Gen. Petraeus once ran. Though her emails, sent to Gen. Allen and other senior officials, may appear flirtatious in nature, this doesn't mean she engaged in any adulterous relationships, the official familiar with Gen. Allen's thinking said. 
   
   Key Facts in the Petraeus Scandal See a guide to the players and a timeline of the scandal that led Gen. David Petraeus to resign. View Interactive 
   
   This person added that Gen. Allen may innocently have used endearing terms, such as "sweetheart," in his communications with Ms. Kelley. 
   
   Defense and military officials who have seen the emails have different opinions of them, said one senior military official. Some see no indication of impropriety while others view them as possibly indicative of an inappropriate relationship. "It is going to come down to your perspective," said one official. 
   
   Gen. Allen has told associates he became entangled in the Petraeus adultery scandal a few months ago, when he received an email later traced to Ms. Broadwell, the official familiar with his thinking said. 
   
   Ms. Broadwell, whose extramarital affair with Mr. Petraeus had ended by then, believed that Ms. Kelley may have been a romantic rival, according to this official. Besides the emails sent directly to Ms. Kelley, she also sent a flurry of emails from a pseudonymous account to senior military officials, denigrating Ms. Kelley, the official said. 
   
   In the email received by Gen. Allen, Ms. Broadwell—writing under the pseudonym KelleyPatrol—described Ms. Kelley as a "seductress" and warned the general about being entangled in a relationship with her, the official said. A lawyer for Ms. Broadwell didn't return messages seeking comment Tuesday. 
   
   Gen. Allen was concerned by that email and forwarded it to Ms. Kelley, the official with knowledge of Gen. Allen's thinking said. 
   
   FBI agents conducted a consensual search at Ms. Broadwell's home in Charlotte, N.C., Monday, though it was unclear why. Multiple government officials have said that while the FBI doesn't believe Mr. Petraeus committed any crimes, they are still examining Ms. Broadwell's conduct. 
   
   Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said that the Pentagon received the information concerning Gen. Allen from the FBI on Sunday. 
   
   Some officials believe that if Gen. Allen's account is proved true—that there was no physical relationship and that flirtation was mostly on the part of Ms. Kelley—his nomination to become NATO commander won't be derailed. Gen. Allen will remain commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan while the facts are ascertained, Mr. Panetta said. 
   
   "His leadership has been instrumental in achieving the significant progress that ISAF, working alongside our Afghan partners, has made in bringing greater security to the Afghan people and in ensuring that Afghanistan never again becomes a safe haven for terrorists," Mr. Panetta said in a statement. "He is entitled to due process in this matter." 
   
   —Julian E. Barnes, Adam Entous and Maria Abi-Habib contributed to this article. 
   
   Write to Devlin Barrett at devlin.barrett@wsj.com, Evan Perezat evan.perez@wsj.com, and Yaroslav Trofimovat yaroslav.trofimov@wsj.com 
   
   A version of this article appeared November 14, 2012, on page A1 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Scandal Entangles A Second General. ||||| Jill Kelley, the Tampa socialite connected to ISAF Commander John Allen and former CIA Director David Petraeus, is an "honorary consul" of South Korea, a diplomatic official with direct knowledge of the arrangement told The Cable. 
   
   "She is an ‘honorary consul' of the Republic of Korea," the official said. "She assumed this position last August thanks to her good connections and network." 
   
   The position of honorary consul is symbolic and has no official responsibilities, the official said. 
   
   "She does not work as a real consul. They play a role to improve the relationship between the ROK and the U.S.," the official said. "Jill Kelley helped to get support for [the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement] and she arranged meetings between the ROK Ambassador to Washington and local businessmen when the ROK Ambassador visited the Tampa area." 
   
   There's no implication that the South Korean government has anything to do with the growing scandal that involves Kelly, Allen, Petraeus, and Paula Broadwell, Petraeus's biographer and alleged mistress. But her work on behalf of the South Koreans may explain some of the 20,000 to 30,000 pages of e-mails between her and Allen that the Defense Department's Inspector General's office is investigating now. 
   
   Kelley does drive a Mercedes sedan with license plates that say "Honorary Consul," and she invoked her honorary diplomatic status in a Nov. 11 911 call when she was complaining about trespassers on her private property. 
   
   "I'm an honorary consul general, so I have inviolability, so they should not be able to cross my property," she told the 911 operator. "I don't know if you want to get diplomatic protection involved as well, because that's against the law to cross my property because, you know, it's inviolable." 
   
   "Ok, no problem, I'll let the officer know," the 911 operator responded. 
   
   In fact, "honorary" diplomats have no specific privileges or protections under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and therefore her property is not actually ''inviolable" as a matter of international law. 
   
   A New York Post report today said that Kelley's sister Natalie Kwaham had invoked Allen and Petraeus's names in her custody battle. She also invoked in legal papers the names of Sens. John Kerry (D-MA) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). Spokesmen for Kerry and Whitehouse both said the senators had met Kwaham through Kwaham's boyfriend Gerald Harrington, a Democratic Party fundraiser. 
   
   Calls to Kelley for comment were not returned. 
   
   Associated Press ||||| Jill Kelley requested "diplomatic protection" in 911 call Posted: Tuesday, November 13, 2012 4:50 PM EST Updated: Tuesday, January 8, 2013 4:50 PM EST 
   
   The vehicles at the Kelley house have "honorary consul" license plates. We've obscured the numbers in this image. 
   
   The South Tampa woman connected to the Gen. David Petraeus scandal has called police to her home several times in the last few days, and at least once tried to invoke "diplomatic protection." 
   
   Media from around the world have convened on the two-story Bayshore Boulevard home of Scott and Jill Kelley. Jill is the socialite mother of three whose FBI complaint about harassing emails eventually led investigators to uncover the CIA director's affair with his biographer and is now linked to the name of a second top general. 
   
   The Kelleys have kept a low profile since news of the scandal broke, and had to request police help to chase people from their yard. 
   
   Two 911 calls were made from the Kelleys' home on Sunday. In the first recording, a man whose name was redacted says there is someone at the door who won't leave his property. The second caller, who identifies herself as Jill, says there's someone lurking in their yard. 
   
   As the call ends, she makes an apparent reference to her role at MacDill Air Force Base, which the Associated Press has described as an "unpaid social liaison." 
   
   "You know, I don't know if by any chance, because I'm an honorary consul general, so I have inviolability, so they should not be able to cross my property. I don't know if you want to get diplomatic protection involved as well," she told the 911 dispatcher, who agreed to pass the information along to police. 
   
   Three more calls were made to police on Monday, all to the non-emergency number. In each one, the caller identified herself as Jill Kelley, reporting trespassers on the property. 
   
   "They're trying to push the door open; they won't leave," she says in one call. 
   
   "Are you sure you don't know who these people are?" the dispatcher asks her. 
   
   "I do not know who they are, no," she insists. 
   
   Tuesday, the house remained quiet aside from the media circus. A woman could be seen inside the home's large bay windows, but it was not clear if it was Jill or her twin sister. 
   
   
   
   According to retired Colonel E.J. Otero, Jill Kelley doesn't qualify for diplomatic protection. 
   
   "It is not possible at all. Diplomatic immunity, diplomatic protection is only given to American personnel. Diplomatic personnel in foreign countries," he said. 
   
   Otero says Kelley's title was honorary, given by the Coalition Village at MacDill. He compared it to an honorary doctorate, stating that does not make an individual a physician. 
   
   "So (Kelley's honorary title) has no value, no legal protection, no legal authority," he said. ||||| She drives a luxury Mercedes and always dresses to kill — but Jill Kelley is actually drowning in debt. 
   
   The woman at the root of the four-star scandal that led to the downfall of David Petraeus and threatens the career of Gen. John Allen lives an extravagant lifestyle that conceals mountains of money owed to banks and credit card companies, court documents show. 
   
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   The palatial home in Tampa, where Kelley, and her husband, Scott, hosted top military brass, including Petraeus and Allen, has been in foreclosure since 2010. 
   
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   Court records reveal that in March of that year, Bank of America claimed the Kelleys hadn’t paid their mortgage since September 2009. 
   
   The bank said the couple owed $328,338 on their home valued at $1,837,571. 
   
   SDFL/Splash News 
   
   The house remains in the foreclosure process, with the most recent motion filed on Oct. 12. 
   
   Kelley, who is an unpaid social liaison to the men and women in uniform coming and going from MacDill Air Force Base mere miles away from her home, never showed signs of stress. 
   
   “ She turns heads,” an anonymous friend of the Kelleys told the Daily Mail. 
   
   “At the parties she would flirt with all the senior military guys. She’s touchy-feely. Her hands would be on their arms. She was attentive. It’s not hard to see why she had some guys under her spell.” 
   
   Yet the party was at risk of coming to an end for at least two years. 
   
   Chris O'Meara/AP 
   
   A second property owned by the Kelleys in downtown Tampa was also in foreclosure proceedings beginning in 2010. 
   
   In that case, Central Bank claimed the couple owed $2.2 million, according to the Tampa Bay Times. The case was resolved, though details were not available. 
   
   And in 2010, Chase Bank sued the Kelleys over failure to pay a $25,088.56 debt on a revolving credit account. The case was voluntarily dismissed by the bank a year later. 
   
   Regions Bank sued the Kelleys for $253,437.31 in unpaid credit card bills, according to court documents. 
   
   In February the couple agreed to pay $850 a month, with $8,500 down, until the balance is paid, records show. 
   
   Chris O'Meara/AP 
   
   All told, Jill or Scott Kelley have been the subject of at least nine lawsuits since they moved to Florida, according to the Tampa Bay Times. 
   
   But their troubles weren’t just restricted to the Sunshine State. 
   
   The Kelleys were sued in 2004 in Montgomery County, Pa., by a couple who said they refused to return a $10,000 deposit on a condo rental that fell through. The court issued a default judgment against the Kelleys, and court records show it was paid the following year. 
   
   Despite their debt, the couple remained firmly established as the de facto welcoming committee to top military brass at U.S. Central Command. 
   
   Photos from bashes at Chez Kelley show a jolly Petraeus wearing beads around his neck alongside the woman who would ultimately lead to his undoing. Holly Petraeus — who is now reportedly fuming over her spy husband’s not-so-secret affair — also is all smiles. 
   
   Courtesy of Tampa Bay Magazine. 
   
   The swank soirees came complete with catered buffets, valet parking, primo cigars, Champagne and even string quartets, the Washington Post reported. 
   
   “Jill was such an awesome client,” one caterer told the Tampa Bay Times. “(She) did so much for the military, fabulous mother and amazing wife; can’t say enough nice things about her. She never spared anything for the military. It was all about them.” 
   
   Scott Kelley is reportedly a highly sought-after surgeon specializing in cancer of the esophagus . 
   
   But a tax filing from 2007 for the Doctor Kelley Cancer Foundation provides a hint at the cost of sparing no expense for the brass he and his wife so admired. 
   
   The nonprofit foundation lists only Jill and Scott, along with Jill’s twin sister Natalie Khawam as its trustees. 
   
   Chris O'Meara/AP 
   
   The foundation — dedicated to “efforts to discover ways to improve the quality of life of terminally ill adult cancer patients” had no employees, according to the documents. 
   
   Yet in a single year, the Kelley clan spent $43,317 in meals and entertainment connected to the foundation, according to tax filings. They spent $8,822 in travel expenses, and $3,740 in office-related expenses, though the nonprofit was based in their home. 
   
   The foundation did not file tax information past 2007. 
   
   But it’s clear the Kelleys’ connections had perks — though they couldn’t save Natalie from her own money troubles. 
   
   Both four-star generals caught in the scandal vouched for Natalie in letters supporting her in a custody battle over her son. 
   
   Amy Scherzer/St. Petersburg Times 
   
   Not only did the judge in the case award Natalie’s ex-husband custody last year of their now 4-year-old son, John, but he also told Natalie to pay his legal bills amounting to $350,000. 
   
   She filed for bankruptcy in April after racking up more than $3 million in debt, according to federal court records. Court filings indicate that the debt included an $800,000 personal loan from Jill and Scott Kelley. 
   
   The status of Natalie’s most recent custody appeal was not known. 
   
   None of the lawyers listed in the reams of court documents returned phone calls. 
   
   Chris O'Meara/AP 
   
   The only information from the Kelley family came in a statement from their superstar crisis manager, Judy Smith, who pleaded for privacy. 
   
   Jill’s brother David Khawam, an attorney based in Mount Laurel, N.J., told the Burlington County Times he spoke with her Sunday. 
   
   “She was doing okay. I don’t know how she’s handling it now,” Khawam, 40, told the paper. 
   
   sbrown@nydailynews.com 
   
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target: – The Tampa socialite at the heart of the Petraeus "love Pentagon" sex scandal was the co-founder of a cancer charity that does not appear to have been involved in any charity work, the Huffington Post finds. Jill Kelley and her surgeon husband founded the Doctor Kelley Cancer Foundation in 2007, stating that it "shall be operated exclusively to conduct cancer research and to grant wishes to terminally ill adult cancer patients." But records reveal that the charity went bust later that year, having spent every penny of the $157,284 it started with on expenses like parties, entertainment, and travel. The charity also listed $12,807 for office expenses and supplies, and $7,854 on utilities and telephones, which is a little on the steep side for a charity that operated out of the couple's mansion, the HuffPo notes. But the charity isn't all that's surfaced on Kelley: The mansion where Kelley and her husband threw lavish parties for military top brass has been in foreclosure since 2010, reports the New York Daily News. The couple owes vast sums to banks and credit card companies and has been hit by at least nine lawsuits. Kelley isn't just an unpaid social liaison to nearby MacDill Air Force Base, she's an honorary consul of South Korea, an embassy official tells Foreign Policy. "She assumed this position last August thanks to her good connections and network," the Korean official says, adding that the position is symbolic and has no official responsibilities. Kelley tried to invoke "diplomatic protection" in one of several 911 calls made over the last few days, Fox reports. Complaining about trespassers on her property, Kelley told the dispatcher, "I'm an honorary consul general ... I don't know if you want to get diplomatic protection involved as well, because that's against the law to cross my property because, you know, it's inviolable." The Wall Street Journal adds that over the summer, Kelley became worried about personal information getting aired and tried to get the FBI to drop its investigation into threatening emails Paula Broadwell sent her. Broadwell, it notes, also sent anonymous emails to military brass bashing Kelley.