Today's column is a round-up of troubling news regarding government secrecy regarding the resignation of CIA Director David Petraeus in November, as well as increased war-making, detention without charges or trial, and other police state powers by the Obama administration as it proceeds on its second term.

Just in is a report that the Petraeus affair was much deeper and darker than previously reported. This is part of the theme of my forthcoming book, Presidential Puppetry. Today, Bush biographer Russ Baker and co-author Douglas Lucas report in collaboration with WikiLeaks that:

1) Petraeus was suspected of having an extramarital affair with biographer Paula Broadwell, shown with the general at left, nearly two years earlier than previously known; 2) Petraeus’s affair was known to “foreign interests with a stake in a raging policy and turf battle” in which Petraeus was an active party; and 3) Those providing the “official” narrative of the affair—and an analysis of why it led to the unprecedented removal of America’s top spymaster— have been less than candid with the American people.

Additional alarms documented below on related national security, civil rights, and due process topics are provided by commentators of widely diverse politics, including supporters of the president. A White House photo shows him at right in the Situation Room. Two weeks ago, we provided coverage of his eloquent Inauguration speech and related uplifting developments at the beginning of the president's second term. Now comes an edition of the rest of the story.

The news items below are especially timely in advance of Thursday's Senate confirmation hearing for John Brennan, the administration's nominee to become CIA director. Brennan, deputy national security director, is a career CIA employee for the most part. In 2008, Brennan was president of a private security company that performed government work, and he also served as national security advisor for the 2008 Obama presidential campaign.

Under Obama, the the CIA's traditional intelligence capabilities have been augmented with paramilitary and drone warfare activities. Brennan is reputed to lead Tuesday briefings whereby the White House chooses kill targets for drones.