Disgraced General David Petraeus is back and trying to cash in on Gaza

Ex-US general David Petraeus is trying to make money out of Israel’s genocide. The one-time special forces chief and counter-insurgency ‘expert’ now works for a private equity firm linked to military and fossil fuel contracts. Wow. What a surprise for us all.

Petraeus is know for many things. Like being a former top US special forces commander. And also head of the CIA. Oh, and leaking state secrets to his biographer. Who he was having an affair with. And getting away with it, barring a fine.

All of this is relentlessly cringe obviously, but somehow the biography in question ultimately ended up being called ‘All In: The Education of General David Petraeus’. Which is a bit much for a Monday. Anyway…

David Petraeus and biometric warfare

Drop Site News now reports Petraeus has been out to Israel giving speeches and schmoozing. He

visited the U.S.-military run coordination center established in southern Israel to oversee the so-called ceasefire in Gaza.

Why? Well it is likely connected to his reputation as:

a major proponent of biometric gated communities in counterinsurgency, now works for KKR whose portfolio includes companies that have technology and defense interests in Gaza.

So who are KKR?

Drop Site reported:

Soon after his resignation from the CIA in 2012, Petraeus began work for Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), a powerful U.S. private-equity and investment company. Petraeus is currently a partner at KKR, chairman of the KKR Global Institute, and chairman of KKR Middle East, which has offices in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Sounds like he knows all the worst people…

A dubious track record

The general is seen by some as the pioneer of modern counter-insurgency, despite being forced to resign from the CIA. He escalated the war in Iraq, deploying more troops and arming militias. He also expanded the dirty war of night raids and drone strikes in Afghanistan and Yemen.

Former US president Barack Obama then installed him as head of the CIA – until his mortifying downfall. Petraeus has worked around the private equity sector ever since.

But why is he interested in Gaza? Well one of his hobby horses is the role of gated communities in counter-insurgency. In effect, how to control populations. And the US-led transitional authority, named the Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC), has come up with a deranged plan to keep Gazans in special UAE-funded blocks.

One week prior to Petraeus’s visit, the U.S. Army presented the CMCC with plans for a “Gaza First Planned Community” in Rafah, as first reported by Drop Site.

Drop Site said:

The residential compound would house up to 25,000 Palestinians in an area under full Israeli military control and would include biometric entry, identity checks, reeducation programs, and controls over aid and housing.

Sounds deeply fucked up, but understandably appealing to someone like Petraeus.

Wall it off

Petraeus’ January 21 speech to the CMCC was reportedly full of praise over the current non-ceasefire in Gaza. But the former general also visited Israel in 2024 for a major military conference. He told the Israeli press then:

The foundational concepts of counterinsurgency are that you clear an area, you hold it, and you hold it in a very significant manner…You wall it off. You create gated communities, as we call it, 12 or 13 of them in Fallujah alone. You use biometric ID cards because you’re trying to separate the enemy, the extremists, from the people. That’s the fundamental idea.

It’s not clear what is in it for Petraeus. But Drop Site said:

The exploration of Gaza’s gas would fit into the economic and energy cooperation between Israel and the UAE under the Abraham Accords. In 2025, a formal UAE–Israel energy cooperation memorandum of understanding was signed, outlining gas sector cooperation.

They added:

UAE involvement in Gaza gas would further position it as a regional energy hub linking the Gulf’s capital and infrastructure with Eastern Mediterranean resources and European markets.

And here is the thing, UAE’s national oil firm has links to KKR:

KKR, together with Blackrock, held a $4 billion investment in the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and has a minority stake in ADNOC Gas Pipeline Assets, which has the technical expertise required for offshore gas exploration and extraction…

Retired military officers often end up making money in lucrative roles in the arms and energy industry. Petraeus is no different. The fact he also gets to riff about population control and counter-insurgency is an added bonus. Like so many of the War on Terror’s ghoulish figures, where most of us see genocide, Petraeus sees opportunity.

Featured image via the Canary