Rudy's new political ad attacking Hillary Clinton features multiple pictures of General Petraeus in uniform -- but now the Pentagon says that the General "has not condoned" the use of his image in Rudy's ad or any other political ads, adding that it was done "without his consent."

Rudy's Web ad -- launched yesterday -- features images of a uniformed Petraeus as a narrator's voice in the background accuses Clinton of slandering the General. In the ad, the Giulilani campaign also faults Clinton for not forcefully condemning a MoveOn ad in The Times that also features a picture of Petraeus.

Giuliani's ad, in addition to featuring multiple pictures of Petraeus in uniform, also features photos of uniformed American soldiers in Iraq that are "shown as Mrs. Clinton is accused of turning her back on them," as today's New York Times piece on the ad puts it. You can view the ad here, on Giuliani's campaign Web site.

Defense Department regulations prohibit uniformed personnel from appearing in political ads. And while these are stock photos, meaning that neither Petraeus nor the other military personnel actively moved to appear in Giuliani's ad, their use in this ad makes the question of whether Petraeus or the Defense Department condone the use of images of him or other military uniformed personnel a fair one.

It also raises the question of whether the Giuliani campaign perhaps should have asked Petraeus' permission to use his image in the ad -- particularly since the ad is designed to portray him as respectful of the General while painting Clinton as disrespectful, even disdainful, towards the top commander in Iraq.

So we posed the question to Petraeus' spokesman, Colonel Steven Boylan: Does General Petraeus condone the use of his image in political ads? He emailed this reply:

"General Petraeus has not condoned the use of his photo in political ads. Use of his photos in recent ads was without his consent or advance knowledge."

We've emailed the Giuliani campaign for comment about this, asking whether Petraeus should have been informed of the use of his image in a political ad in advance. We also asked whether the ad would continue to remain posted now that Petraeus's spokesperson has confirmed that he "has not condoned" its use in any political ad.

We'll keep you posted.

Late Update: Quick clarification. I should have made it clearer in this post that the point I'm making here isn't that the ad is a violation of DOD regs. Rather, it's that the spirit of the regs, which frown on the appearance of uniformed personnel in political ads, makes the question as to whether Petraeus condones the use of his image in ads a fair one.

It's also a fair question in light of Petraeus' high profile and in light of Rudy's aggressive use of his image to paint Hillary as disrespectful, even disdainful, of the top commander and of the military in general.