"We respect his and his family`s privacy and want the same for us and our three children."
Washington (ANTARA News/AFP) - Senior FBI and CIA officials are set to brief top lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Tuesday about their investigation of an affair that ended the career of Central Intelligence Agency Director David Petraeus and sparked concerns about a possible security breach.

Petraeus, an American hero credited with turning the tide of the Iraq war, resigned on Friday after admitting an extramarital affair, sending shockwaves around Washington just three days after President Barack Obama`s re-election.

A leading Republican on Sunday questioned why, if there were serious concerns about comprised intelligence, it had taken several months for the FBI to finally notify the Obama administration.

"It just doesn`t add up," Peter King, the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, told CNN. "I have real questions about this. I think a timeline has to be looked at and analyzed to see what happened."

The US government is closed on Monday as part of the Veterans Day holiday. But on Tuesday, when the government reopens, senior FBI and CIA officials were scheduled to meet with leading members of Congress to bring them up to date about details of the probe, media reports said.

It has emerged that the woman he was having an affair with is Paula Broadwell, a 40-year-old former Army major granted unprecedented access to the general as she co-authored a best-selling biography: "All In: The Education of General David Petraeus."

Newspaper reports on Sunday revealed that the affair came to light after the FBI was called in as part of a criminal investigation launched when a second woman complained that she had received vicious emails from Broadwell.

"It didn`t start with Petraeus, but in the course of the investigation they stumbled across him," an unnamed congressional official briefed on the matter told The New York Times.

The threatening and harassing emails from Broadwell, a married mother of two, indicated that she thought the other woman was a potential rival for the 60-year-old general`s affections, officials told the US media.

A government official told The New York Post that the emails contained such language as: "I know what you did," "back off" and "stay away from my guy."

US media identified the other woman as 37-year-old Jill Kelley, a "social liaison" to a Florida air force base who apparently had a longstanding friendship with Petraeus but no official status in the military.

The recipient of the emails was so frightened, according to the Washington Post, that several months ago she went to the FBI for protection and to help track down the sender.

The FBI soon uncovered Broadwell`s sexually explicit correspondence with Petraeus, leading to initial fears of a national security breach if someone had broken into the CIA chief`s private email account.

Broadwell lives in North Carolina with her radiologist husband Scott and their two young sons. She planned to celebrate her 40th birthday with a big party in Washington this weekend, but the event was reportedly canceled.

Kelley said in a statement that her family and the Petraeuses had been friends for five years. Her husband, also named Scott, is an oncologist.

"We respect his and his family`s privacy and want the same for us and our three children," she said in the statement sent to ABC News.

Petraeus had been due to testify Thursday about the Benghazi attacks that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. CIA deputy director Michael Morell, now acting director, will testify in his place.

The stunning departure of Petraeus has left Obama with an added headache as he begins his second term.

The president will likely have to replace not only departing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but also Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.
(U.T008/H-AK)

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