King's College reviewing Broadwell ethics

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BOSTON, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- King's College London is planning an ethical review of Paula Broadwell, Gen. David Petraeus' biographer and paramour, an official at the school said.

Petraeus is also the subject of Broadwell's doctoral thesis. Mervyn Frost, head of the war studies department, told The Boston Globe that could be a problem.

"We have a very stringent ethical review process," Frost said. "We found nothing wrong with her original proposal, but in light of what's happened now, I suspect we'll revisit that process."

Broadwell began studying at King's College after failing to advance to doctoral candidacy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, the Globe said.

She earned a master's degree in public administration there.

Two Harvard professors who did not want their names used gave the Globe critical assessments of Broadwell. One said she did not appear to have the academic background to do the Petraeus biography, and the other said she had difficulty writing it.

"She was a lot of talk but not a lot of follow-through," the second professor said. "That is why she brought on a co-author."

But the school embraced Broadwell as an alumna when "All In: The Education of General David Petraeus," written with Vernon Loeb of The Washington Post, was published this year and became a best-seller.