This scandal just won't quit, will it? The Petraeus affair, which already took a turn for the weird earlier tonight when news broke that an FBI agent was emailing shirtless pictures of himself to Jill Kelley, has now expanded to include another high-ranking military official, General John R. Allen, the commander of U.S. And NATO troops in Afghanistan. According to a senior U.S. defense official, the FBI had uncovered between 20,000 and 30,000 "potentially inappropriate" pages of communication between Allen and Kelley, Petraeus's alleged other other woman and the subject of the shirtless FBI agent's affection.

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta released a statement early this morning, saying Allen will retain his position for now.

"While the matter is under investigation and before the facts are determined, General Allen will remain commander of ISAF," Panetta said, referring to the NATO-led force in Afghanistan.

However, Panetta did ask the Senate to hurry proceedings to appoint Allen's likely successor, Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford.

But back to all those emails. Reportedly, they were all sent between 2010 and 2012, although it's not clear if they were ongoing or if they stopped earlier this year.

But 20,000 to 30,000 pages? That's a lot. Like, an absurd amount. Assuming it's on the low end, right at 20,000 pages, that means the two sent, on average, 19 pages of email to each other every day between January 1, 2010 and today. That's mind-boggling.

More details to come, obviously.

[Image via AP]