South Korea Strips Jill Kelley Of Honorary Consul Title

The government of South Korea has decided that the Tampa Bay Kardashian, Jill Kelley, is not worthy of the title of honorary consul after disclosures recently came to light that she was using the title to peddle business consulting gigs and making false claims of diplomatic immunity. "It's not suitable to the status of honorary consul that (she) sought to be involved in commercial projects and peddle influence," Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Kyou-hyun told a Korean news agency. South Korea has 15 honorary consuls in the U.S., each of which are paid $2,500 a year.

It's not clear how Kelley wound up with this title. The Lebanese immigrant was apparently given open access to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, home to the military's Central Command, where she worked as a volunteer. Kelley developed a close relationship with former CIA Director Gen. David Petraeus and his wife, an official in the Obama administration, while he was serving as the military's top commander in Afghanistan. Petraeus was forced to resign as CIA Director after an extramarital affair he had with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, became public. An investigation was launched after Kelley complained to the FBI about threatening e-mails Broadwell had sent to her. That investigation has also tarnished Gen. John Allen, Petraeus' successor in Afghanistan, after e-mails revealed that he had an inappropriate relationship with Kelley.

Kelley made three trips to the White House in the weeks prior to the disclosure of the investigation of Petraeus' affair where she reportedly was granted access due to her friendship with a White House attorney who formerly worked as a civilian attorney in Afghanistan. This blog exclusively revealed that Michael J. Gottlieb is the only attorney on the White House counsel's staff who worked in Afghanistan as a civilian attorney during Gen. Petraeus' command there. Kelley was introduced to Gottlieb by military officials she knew at CentComm. For some odd reason, the state-run Omedia is going to great lengths to protect Gottlieb's identity and discussing just why it was that he was inviting Kelley to the White House. It seems to discredit the Obama White House's claim that it knew nothing about the Petraeus investigation prior to this month's election.