 CIA Director David Petraeus was shocked to learn last summer that his mistress was suspected of sending threatening emails warning another woman to stay away from him, former staff members and friends told The Associated Press. An FBI spokeswoman confirmed the agents' presence but did not say what they were doing. They wrote their "intimate messages" as draft e-mails in a shared Gmail account, according to the AP, allowing them to see one anothers' messages while leaving a much fainter data trail. Petraeus and Broadwell apparently used a trick, known to terrorists and teen-agers alike, to conceal their email traffic, one of the law enforcement officials said. Rather than transmitting emails to the other's inbox, they composed at least some messages and instead of transmitting them, left them in a draft folder or in an electronic "dropbox," the official said. As the Associated Press reported on Monday, the pair would save unsent messages in their inboxes, and then log into each other's account to read them. This avoids creating an email trail that is easier to trace. But the FBI continued its investigation into whether Petraeus had any role in the harassing emails. The besotted Broadwell may have viewed the curvaceous Kelley as a threat. Broadwell is married with two young sons and lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. The FBI notified Obama's director of national intelligence, James Clapper, of the investigation on Tuesday, Nov. 6, Election Day. And Clapper is said to have urged Petraeus to resign on his own terms rather than await the jackals. Clapper informed the White House late Wednesday, and aides informed the president Thursday morning, before Petraeus came to personally hand in his resignation letter. By the long-honored principle of minimization, the members of Congress who are demanding to know why they were not told earlier about Petraeus’s affair with his biographer should be asking another question. The agent was a friend of Kelley and long before the case involving Petraeus got under way, the agent had sent Kelley shirtless photos of himself, according to this official. Cooper told The Associated Press Monday that Cantor notified the FBI's chief of staff of the conversation but did not tell anyone else because he did not know whether the information from a person he didn't know was credible. Dozier can be followed on Twitter (at)kimberlydozier.
– David Petraeus and Paula Broadwell attempted to keep much of their communication secret by using a trick popular with both teens and terrorists, the AP reports: They shared an email account and saved unsent draft messages to one another, so both could log on and read them. The tactic, which is used by al-Qaeda, leaves a much fainter trace than actually sending messages. The Washington Post calls it a "well-worn online trick" that has "been around for quite some time"—it was even featured in a 2008 spy movie—and thus it didn't fool FBI investigators. The AP also reports that Petraeus was "shocked" when he learned that Broadwell allegedly sent threatening emails to Jill Kelley, the woman who eventually set off the FBI investigation. Those emails were said to contain "stay away from my man" type warnings, according to the AP, but a source tells the Daily Beast that's not so. Yes, the emails included "kind of cat-fight stuff," but they were "more like, 'Who do you think you are? ... You parade around the base ... You need to take it down a notch,'" the source says, and they included just one passing reference to Petraeus. Kelley was apparently disturbed by the emails, which were sent anonymously, but the FBI found no evidence of actual threats and almost decided not to pursue the case. Click for the latest from the Petraeus scandal.