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Herridge: Admin Withholding Emails on Report That Contradicted Benghazi Claims


BY FOX NEWS INSIDER //MAY 06 2014 // 2:50PM
AS SEEN ON THE REAL STORY WITH GRETCHEN CARLSON


The Obama administration is said to be withholding emails in which officials apparently discussed how to respond to media coverage in the weeks after the Benghazi attack. The email chain, which included top White House officials Denis McDonough, John Brennan, and Ben Rhodes, was dated Sept. 27-28, 2012 and is believed to have referenced a report by Fox News' chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge.

Herridge wrote the following on Gretawire today:

Fox news learning new details of a seven page email — circulated at the highest levels of the white house – apparently to come up with a media strategy to deal with a fox news report- is being withheld by the state department, citing executive branch deliberations.

The report, which is the subject line of the emails, “Fox News: US officials knew Libya attack was terrorism within 24 hours, sources confirm” was circulated September 27th and September 28th 2012 concluded the intelligence community knew Benghazi was terrorism within 24 hours

]On the email chain, among others, Denis McDonough, the president’s deputy national security adviser during Benghazi, John Brennan former White House counterterrorism adviser and now CIA Director, then deputy director of the CIA Michael Morell, and presidential aide Ben Rhodes who sent the email September 14th 2012, critics say, attempted to shape the public discussion of Benghazi

Chris Farrell with Judicial Watch which is suing for the documents, including the email related to the Fox News report, said “A 7-page dialogue concerning one Fox News report to me uh demonstrates um an alarm bell situation where they are reacting to and trying to shape a response or commentary to react to or to shut down reporting.

“The reporting itself would appear to be at odds or at least to challenge strongly the White House position that had been announced. And so this report from Fox News would run counter to what the Obama administration was attempting to put out there as their position.”

Herridge reported the latest details on The Real Story this afternoon and went over the next steps of the newly formed House Select Committee. Watch the report above.

Earlier today, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) reacted to the news that additional emails are being withheld by the administration. He believes the White House is now trying to "conceal" documents by labeling them classified so the truth does not come out about their attempt to "manipulate" the Benghazi story to help the president politically.
Graham also highlighted a promise by the White House to release all relevant information on Benghazi in exchange for Congress confirming Brennan as CIA Director.

Jon Scott noted that after the raid that killed Usama bin Laden, classified information about the operation was leaked to the New york Times, along with the release of a photo showing President Obama, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and other top officials in the Situation Room watching the raid in real-time.

"If they are willing to leak classified information to make themselves look good, would they withhold it to keep from having to talk about a failure? They've got a propensity here to play politics with national security matters and I think it caught up with them in Benghazi," said Graham, adding that in contrast to the bin Laden raid we still don't know Obama's whereabouts during the Benghazi attack.

"To me, he was virtually AWOL as commander-in-chief."

Watch the full interview at the link below:

http://foxnewsinsider.com/2014/05/06...enghazi-claims


This is not Denis McDonough's first scandal. He seems to be in the middle of every dirty deal. The administration sent him to Iraq to keep him from testifying - looks like he is back. Why hasn't he been questioned about Fast and Furious ?

Obama's media hit man linked to Fast and Furious


(Photo by Pete Souza/The White House via Getty Images)

Anthony Martin
Conservative Examiner
June 18, 2012

A name that most Americans have probably never heard is Denis McDonough, who serves as Deputy National Security Adviser for the President. But McDonough is perhaps one of the two or three most influential advisers on the Obama team, and he is now directly linked to the Fast and Furious scandal.

According to an exclusive report published today, McDonough's relationship with the President goes far beyond the political and professional. The two are close friends. McDonough is Obama's basketball buddy. And it is McDonough who has interjected himself as Obama's protector, a "media hit man" of sorts who will dress down reporters in a heartbeat if they veer off of the official Administration spin.

Investigative journalists have provided details on McDonough's background and work history in politics, but the information that makes McDonough relevant to the continually breaking news on the Fast and Furious scandal is his role in silencing complaints from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) about the "gunwalking" activity of the ATF and the FBI.

As early as October of 2009 the CIA and the DEA had sent complaints about the Fast and Furious operation through their respective chains of command, eventually making their way directly to the National Security Council (NSC) at theWhite House.
The NSC is the entity that has been previously established as the direct link between the Fast and Furious operation and the White House itself.

As members of the NSC, McDonough, Fast and Furious central figure Kevin O'Reilly, and O'Reilly's boss Dan Restrepo were all informed about the complaints lodged by the CIA and DEA.

A biographical sketch of McDonough at the time described him as Obama's most influential foreign policy adviser and a "tough guy."
Thus, when news reached the NSC concerning complaints about Fast and Furious from the CIA and the DEA, the word that was sent back to the agencies was a vehement "butt out," according to the report issued today.

Given that the President meets on a regular basis with the NSC, sometimes on a daily or weekly basis depending on current events, it would be a stretch to conclude that Obama knew nothing of the Fast and Furious operation from the start. And given that his most influential adviser on the NSC, McDonough, was a close friend and basketball buddy, the suggestion that the President was kept uninformed about the operation is virtually ludicrous.

Further, when it became clear that NSC member Kevin O'Reilly was being transferred to the State Department, where he was then assigned to Iraq to prevent the Darrell Issa committee in the House from questioning himabout Fast and Furious, it was McDonough who became the NSC point man concerning the Gunwalker operation.

O'Reilly had begun to exchange emails in March of 2009 about the Fast and Furious operation with Phoenix ATF Field Division Special Agent in Charge William Newell. When the Issa committee began investigating the Fast and Furious scandal in 2011, O'Reilly was identified as a key witness that Issa wished to question.

But by that time O'Reilly had already been transferred to the State Department and shipped out of the country to Iraq, where he remained out of reach. The State Department has also been implicated in the Fast and Furious scandal.

Hillary Clinton is O'Reilly's boss at the State Department.

McDonough, however, filled the role previously held by O'Reilly on the NSC. McDonough's boss, Dan Restrepo, had also been fully briefed on all communication between O'Reilly and Newell.

Thus, the NSC was fully in on the scandal from the beginning, including Obama's close friend and top adviser Denis McDonough.
The vast significance of this revelation lies in the fact that it places the scandal ever closer to Barack Obama himself.

http://www.examiner.com/article/obam...st-and-furious