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Petraeus appeal: STOP BUBBA the Love Sponge FRYING a KORAN

Shockjock and awe - Love-rat CIA boss just keeps giving

Socialite Jill Kelley, whose allegations of cyberstalking sparked the downfall of love-rat CIA director David Petraeus, was pressured by the spy boss and a top US general to prevent a radio DJ deep-frying a Koran.

Petraeus, who quit over an extramarital affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell, and Gen. John R. Allen, who heads American forces in Afghanistan, wanted to stop Florida shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge from cooking the Islamic sacred text.

The proposed stunt came nearly a year after Florida pastor Terry Jones's threat to torch a Koran provoked protests and several killings around the world, although the book burning never took place.

Kelley reportedly emailed Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn for help in stopping the radio DJ. Her missives were revealed this week by the city's leader.

"I have Petraeus and Allen both emailing me about getting this dealt with," Kelley told Buckhorn in in an email on 7 March, Reuters reports.

In reply, Buckhorn said Tampa's police chief would speak to a manager at Bubba's radio station about the matter.

"OK. Can you keep me in the loop?" Kelley responded. "Gen. Allen will be calling me from Afghanistan at 1pm on this - and our next step."

It's a bizarre twist to the events that led to Petraeus's resignation: Kelley, a volunteer at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, had complained to an FBI acquaintance after receiving unwelcome emails from a cyberstalker. A subsequent investigation revealed Kelley had been emailed by Broadwell, Petraeus's biographer and secret lover.

The Feds followed the trail to a Gmail account shared by the the CIA boss and his mistress, who were swapping messages to each other in a draft email folder, and confronted Petraeus over his extramarital fling.

The same investigation also discovered the exchange of "inappropriate" correspondence between Kelley and General Allen, leading to an indefinite delay of his planned appointment as Nato's Supreme Allied Commander for Europe.

Kelley was a family friend of Petraeus and his wife, and also met Gen Allen when organising entertainment for senior officers at MacDill, which is close to her Tampa house and also home to the US Central Command, which oversees American operations in the Middle East.

Both generals were also friends with Natalie Khawam Wolfe, Kelley's identical twin. The two military men wrote letters of support to Wolfe in a custody battle over her son with ex-husband Grayson Wolfe, a former Bush administration official who worked on Iraqi reconstruction.

Reuters adds that it was unable to confirm whether Allen called back about Bubba's planned stunt. In her emails to the Tampa mayor, Kelley referred to herself as "ambassador to US Central Command's Coalition". Military sources said the title conferred no special privileges, was not exclusive to Kelley, and was purely honorary. ®

Bubbanote

Bubba has vowed revenge after Buckhorn described him as a "complete moron" in the email exchange with Kelley, according to local reports. The shock jock said he abandoned frying the Koran after his lawyer and the heads of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office and the Tampa Police Department had a word with him.

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