Money woes for family in Petraeus sex scandal

TAMPA, Florida (AP) - When news vans camped outside her stately home, a Florida socialite tied to the Gen David Petraeus sex scandal fell back on her informal credentials as a social ambassador for Tampa society and top military brass: She asked police for diplomatic protection.

In a phone call to authorities, Jill Kelley, a party hostess and unofficial social liaison for leaders of the US military's Central Command in Tampa, cited her status as an honorary consul general while complaining about news media that had descended on her two-story, five-bedroom brick home overlooking Tampa Bay, which was purchased in 2004 for US$1.5 million (S$1.8 million).

"You know, I don't know if by any chance, because I'm an honorary consul general, so I have inviolability, so they should not be able to cross my property. I don't know if you want to get diplomatic protection involved as well," she told the emergency service dispatcher Monday.

Nearly all lines in the tangled sex scandal involving Gen Petraeus lead back to Ms Kelley, whose complaint about anonymous, threatening emails triggered the FBI investigation that led to the general's downfall as director of the CIA. And now Ms Kelley is in the middle of an investigation of Gen John Allen, the top US commander in Afghanistan, over alleged "inappropriate communications" between the two.