ABOARD A U.S. MILITARY AIRCRAFT — In a new twist to the Gen. David Petraeus sex scandal, the Pentagon said Tuesday that the top American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen, is under investigation for alleged “inappropriate communications” with a woman who is said to have received threatening emails from Paula Broadwell, the woman with whom Petraeus had an extramarital affair.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in a written statement issued to reporters aboard his aircraft, en route from Honolulu to Perth, Australia, that the FBI referred the matter to the Pentagon on Sunday.

Panetta said that he ordered a Pentagon investigation of Allen on Monday.

A senior defense official traveling with Panetta said Allen’s communications were with Jill Kelley, who has been described as an unpaid social liaison at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., which is headquarters to the U.S. Central Command. She is not a U.S. government employee.

Kelley is said to have received threatening emails from Broadwell, who is Petraeus’ biographer and who had an extramarital affair with Petraeus that reportedly began after he became CIA director in September 2011.

Petraeus resigned as CIA director on Friday.

Allen, a four-star Marine general, succeeded Petraeus as the top American commander in Afghanistan in July 2011.

The senior official, who discussed the matter only on condition of anonymity because it is under investigation, said Panetta believed it was prudent to launch a Pentagon investigation, although the official would not explain the nature of Allen’s problematic communications.

The official said 20,000 to 30,000 pages of emails and other documents from Allen’s communications with Kelley between 2010 and 2012 are under review. He would not say whether they involved sexual matters or whether they are thought to include unauthorized disclosures of classified information. He said he did not know whether Petraeus is mentioned in the emails.

“Gen. Allen disputes that he has engaged in any wrongdoing in this matter,” the official said. He said Allen currently is in Washington.

Panetta said that while the matter is being investigated by the Defense Department Inspector General, Allen will remain in his post as commander of the International Security Assistance Force, based in Kabul. He praised Allen as having been instrumental in making progress in the war.

The FBI’s decision to refer the Allen matter to the Pentagon rather than keep it itself, combined with Panetta’s decision to allow Allen to continue as Afghanistan commander without a suspension, suggested strongly that officials viewed whatever happened as a possible infraction of military rules rather than a violation of federal criminal law.

Allen was Deputy Commander of Central Command, based in Tampa, prior to taking over in Afghanistan. He also is a veteran of the Iraq war.

In the meantime, Panetta said, Allen’s nomination to be the next commander of U.S. European Command and the commander of NATO forces in Europe has been put on hold “until the relevant facts are determined.” He had been expected to take that new post in early 2013, if confirmed by the Senate, as had been widely expected.

Panetta said President Barack Obama was consulted and agreed that Allen’s nomination should be put on hold. Allen was to testify at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday. Panetta said he asked committee leaders to delay that hearing.

Panetta also said he wants the Senate Armed Services Committee to act promptly on Obama’s nomination of Gen. Joseph Dunford to succeed Allen as commander in Afghanistan. That nomination was made several weeks ago. Dunford’s hearing is also scheduled for Thursday.

“From 1982-92, roughly the period of US involvement in Afghanistan, heroin addiction in the US rose by 50%. All the while Nancy Reagan was telling us all to ‘Just Say No’.”

Newest Benghazi Scapegoat: CIA’s David Petraeus

• By Spencer Ackerman
November 2, 2012

There’s an unexpected casualty of the September assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya: the reputation of David Petraeus, the celebrated Army general turned CIA director. For among the first times in his career, a bureaucratic effort to throw Petraeus under the bus is showing through in the press.

Last week, a Fox News story portrayed the CIA as doing practically nothing while the consulate burned. The CIA pushed back against that on Thursday, telling reporters that two different CIA teams, one on hand at the Benghazi compound and the other rushing in from Tripoli, played an active role in repellingthe hours-long assault that ultimately left four Americans dead. But not everyone is happy about the CIA’s performance — including that of its director.

The Wall Street Journal cites several anonymous officials who go after Petraeus hard. The CIA, operating out of an “annex” near the 13-acre consular compound, dwarfed the regular diplomatic presence in Benghazi, with the mission of hunting down ex-dictator Moammar Gadhafi’s unsecured rockets and missiles. That apparently led to an expectation at the State Department that the CIA would secure the compound in the event of a disaster, which never congealed into a formal arrangement. The next month, after a contentious congressional hearing, the Journal reports that officials “were surprised” Petraeus attended a screening of the film Argo, a celebration of a CIA success.

The complaints compile: unlike predecessor Leon Panetta after the 2009 attack on a secret base in Afghanistan, Petraeus kept the CIA’s Benghazi role in the shadows. The Journal’s sources portray Petraeus as shielding the agency from embarrassment; keeping the agency’s role in Benghazi a secret even from top-level officials; and leaving Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to phone Petraeus directly as the attack proceeded in the hope of getting real-time intelligence.

And while the Journal piece doesn’t mention it, there’s a possible policy element to the discrepancy between the State Department and CIA. The CIA had 10 people to protect its annex in Benghazi, but the State Department relied on a previously obscure British firm, Blue Mountain, to guard the entire compound. Blue Mountain paid its Libyan guards $4 an hour. It’s speculative, but the State Department’s expectation that the CIA would be “the cavalry” in an assault, as an anonymous official tells the Journal, might have contributed to State’s relatively lax security posture at the consulate.

It’s worth noting that, in the CIA’s telling, the agency did come to the compound’s aid. One CIA team, at the annex inside the compound, prepared an extraction mission within 25 minutes of the attack beginning, arming itself with heavy weapons and lining up a vehicular fleet to extract personnel while dodging rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and thick smoke. A second team raced to Benghazi from Tripoli, toting a suitcase full of cash to commandeer a plane ride, and arrived about three hours later owing to Libyan officials who wanted Libyan security officers on the scene. Ultimately, the extraction proceeded without U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, who was lost in the chaos and died, apparently at Benghazi Hospital.

Petraeus is not used to being under the bus. His record commanding the surge in Iraq has given him a tremendous reputation, within official Washington and beyond. Politicians and the press tend to downplay his missteps, such as his less-than-impressive record training Iraqi security forces and thestalemate that persists in Afghanistan despite Petraeus’ year in command. Additionally, there is some concern that under Petraeus, the CIA is focused too much on counterterrorism and insufficiently on its broader intelligence mission, although the CIA denies that’s the case.

It’s unclear what Petraeus’ future holds, either in a second Obama term or a Romney administration. Regardless, congressional investigation into Benghazi is expected to accelerate after next week’s presidential election, including a closed-door hearing in two weeks by the Senate intelligence panel. Petraeus may have more tire-treadmarks on the back of his suit jacket before the Benghazi inquiries conclude.

Police officers try to push protesters back onto the pavement after they blocked traffic on Oxford Street, London, whilst taking part in a picket and demonstration they said was over dismissals of 28 workers employed by contractors on the Crossrail transport project, for being trade union members, Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2012. The protest was held to coincide with planned European strikes on Wednesday in Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal, France and Belgium against austerity measures and economic reforms. Crossrail, due to start running services in 2018, is a new train line that will include twin-bore 21 km tunnels under central London and link 37 stations including transport hubs such as Heathrow airport with business districts including the City and Canary Wharf. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

A protester shouts slogans during a general strike in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2012. Spain's main trade unions stage a general strike, coinciding with similar work stoppages in Portugal and Greece, to protest government-imposed austerity measures and labor reforms. The strike is the second in Spain this year. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

Protestors try to stop buses to run as the police stand guard outside a main bus garage during a general strike in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2012. Spain's main trade unions stage a general strike, coinciding with similar work stoppages in Portugal and Greece, to protest government-imposed austerity measures and labor reforms. The strike is the second in Spain this year. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

BRUSSELS (AP) — With rampant unemployment spreading misery in southern Europe and companies shutting factories across the continent, workers around the European Union sought to unite in a string of strikes and demonstrations on Wednesday.

Most European governments have in recent years had to cut spending, pensions and benefits and raise taxes aggressively to bring public debt under control. That includes not only the most financially troubled governments, like Greece, but also the traditionally more stable ones, like France and Britain.

The result has been a dramatic drop in living standards in many nations that leaders have accepted as collateral for policies they claim are unavoidable. With no end in sight to the economic misery, workers were trying to take a stand on Wednesday.

"Of course it's a political strike, against the policies of a suicidal and anti-social government," said Igancio Fernandez Toxo, a CCOO Spanish union leader, as the general strike spread through Spain where a 25 percent unemployment rate has put the country at the heart of the EU social unrest.

A Spanish Interior Ministry official says 32 people have been arrested and 15 people treated for minor injuries in disturbances.

Spain's General Workers' Union said the nationwide stoppage, the second this year, was being observed by nearly all workers in the automobile, energy, shipbuilding and constructions industries. The government downplayed the impact.

A north-south divide emerged in the participation to the strikes, with unions in wealthier states like the Netherlands and the Nordic nations, where the crisis has not hit that hard, not in the mood for closing down their countries.

Belgium straddles that divide but a 24-hour rail stoppage and scattered strikes through the south of the nation disrupted daily life. Both the Thalys and Eurostar high-speed rail services that connect Brussels with London and Paris were severely disrupted.

"Austerity means cuts in the public services and public companies and also cuts in the buying power for the working class," said Belgian socialist union leader Filip Peers. "Austerity means recession and it deepens the crisis."

From his headquarters nearby, the chief of the EU employers' federation took a different view.

"If you start striking at national level and in companies you only will harm the economy," said Eurobussiness leader Philippe de Buck in an interview. "And it is not the right thing to do today."

"It costs billions" of euros, he said, adding that Europe's reputation as a hotbed of trade union action would not attract global investors.

Europe has been a global trailblazer for union action and workers' rights over the past half century have been one of the cornerstones of the continent's vaunted welfare state, with its guaranteed medical care, unemployment benefits and often generous pensions.

Where this was not directly under threat on Wednesday, labor action was more muted.

"So far, there are only symbolic demonstrations here in Germany, because we were able to avoid the crisis," said Michael Sommer, the head of Germany's main labor union federation.

In Denmark, too, there were no strikes, since cooperation between workers and employers have largely survived the crisis so far.

"The employers speak the same language as we do and we understand each other's' needs and demands," said Joergen Frederiksen, a 69-year-old retired worker and a former shop steward. "There are good vibes between us and that means a lot."

___

Ciaran Giles from Madrid, Geir Moulson from Berlin, Jan Olsen from Copenhagen, Mike Corder from The Hague, Barry Hatton from Lisbon and Elena Becatoros from Athens contributed to this article.

Petraeus had been reluctant to testify following his resignation as CIA chief, but pressure had been growing in Congress for him to appear.

"Gen. Petreaus is willing to come before the committee and the details are being worked out," Sen. Diane Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said today. No date for his testimony has been set.

A source familiar with the case also told ABC News that Broadwell admitted to the FBI she took documents from secure government buildings. The government demanded that they all be given back, and when federal agents descended on her North Carolina home on Monday night it was a pre-arranged meeting.

Prosecutors are now determining whether to charge Broadwell with a crime, and this morning the FBI and military are pouring over the material. The 40-year-old author, who wrote the biography on Gen. Petraeus "All In," is cooperating and the case, which is complicated by the fact that as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Military Reserve she had security clearance to review the documents.

FULL COVERAGE: David Petraeus Scandal

The FBI found classified material on a computer voluntarily handed over by Broadwell earlier in the investigation. Prosecutors will now have to determine how important the classified material is before making a final decision. Authorities could decide to seek disciplinary action against her rather than pursue charges.

Senior FBI officials are expected to brief the House and Senate Intelligence Committees today on their handling of the Petraeus investigation. The officials are expected to lay out how the case was developed and argue that there were no politics involved.

The case is so critical that FBI Director Robert Mueller may attend to defend the bureau, ABC News has learned. Members of Congress have been angry that they were not informed about the case before the story was reported by the media, but FBI officials maintain that their guidelines forbid them from discussing ongoing criminal cases.

This summer, Florida socialite and "honorary ambassador" to the military Jill Kelley received anonymous emails accusing her of flaunting a friendly relationship with military brass in Tampa. Kelley then called the FBI, which traced those emails back to Broadwell's computer. Investigators are said to have then found emails in Broadwell's inbox that pointed to an intimate affair with Petraeus, who on Friday admitted to the affair and announced his resignation as CIA director.

See the timeline of the Petraeus/Broadwell affair HERE.

The FBI has now uncovered "potentially inappropriate" emails between Gen. John Allen, the commander of American forces in Afghanistan, and Kelley, according to a senior U.S. defense official who is traveling with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. The department is reviewing between 20,000 and 30,000 documents connected to this matter, the official said. The email exchanges between Kelley and Allen took place from 2010 to 2012.

Leon Panetta: 'No One Should Leap to Any Conclusions' Regarding Gen. Allen

The U.S. official said the emails were "innocuous" and mostly about upcoming dinner parties and seeing him on TV. Allen denies he was involved in an affair, a Pentagon official said. An intermediary for Allen told ABC News that Allen and his wife are friends with Kelley and her husband and most of the emails were sent from Kelley to Allen's wife.

A U.S. official said Allen may have triggered the investigation when he got an anonymous email a few months ago that was traced to Broadwell. The email had a "Kelley Patrol" return address or subject line and painted Kelley as a seductress, which Allen found alarming and mentioned to Kelley in a subsequent email, the official said.

The official described Kelley as a "nice, bored rich socialite who drops the honorary from her title... and tells people she is an ambassador. She gets herself in anything related to Centcom and all the senior people and has been for years."

Panetta cautioned that "no one should leap to any conclusions" about allegations against Allen over the investigation.

Panetta said he supports Allen, who has been in command in Kabul since July 2011. He took over that summer for Petraeus, who retired from the Army to take over as the head of the CIA.

"He certainly has my continued confidence to lead our forces and to continue the fight," Panetta said at a news conference in Perth, Australia, Wednesday.

Panetta declined to explain the nature of Allen's correspondence with Kelley, connected to the scandal that led to Petraeus' resignation last week as director of the CIA.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who appeared with Panetta, declined to comment on the Allen case, but insisted the scandal has not harmed the war effort.

"There has been a lot of conversation, as you might expect, but no concern whatsoever being expressed to us because the mission has been set forth and it's being carried out," Clinton said.

Allen had been nominated as the next commander of U.S. European Command and the commander of NATO forces in Europe, and despite President Obama's backing, the nomination has been put on hold. The change of command at NATO is currently slated to not take place until March at the earliest.

Allen was supposed to appear before a Senate confirmation hearing this Thursday alongside his designated replacement, Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford. Panetta said that while the matter is being investigated by the Defense Department IG, Allen will remain in his post as commander of the International Security Assistance Force, based in Kabul.