Thread: Lawyer Claims Regime Made “Despicable Threats” Against Benghazi Whistleblowers

Lawyer Claims Regime Made “Despicable Threats” Against Benghazi Whistleblowers




http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=Q8uYcYnDfTs

If you are NOT Pissed you are NOT Paying Attention

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS THREATENED WHISTLE-BLOWERS ON BENGHAZI, LAWYER SAYS

At least four career officials at the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency have retained lawyers or are in the process of doing so, as they prepare to provide sensitive information about the Benghazi attacks to Congress, Fox News has learned.

Victoria Toensing, a former Justice Department official and Republican counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee, is now representing one of the State Department employees. She told Fox News her client and some of the others, who consider themselves whistle-blowers, have been threatened by unnamed Obama administration officials.

“I'm not talking generally, I'm talking specifically about Benghazi – that people have been threatened,” Toensing said in an interview Monday. “And not just the State Department. People have been threatened at the CIA.”

Toensing declined to name her client. She also refused to say whether the individual was on the ground in Benghazi on the night of Sept. 11, 2012, when terrorist attacks on two U.S. installations in the Libyan city killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens.

However, Toensing disclosed that her client has pertinent information on all three time periods investigators consider relevant to the attacks: the months that led up to the attack, when pleas by the ambassador and his staff for enhanced security in Benghazi were mostly rejected by senior officers at the State Department; the eight-hour time frame in which the attacks unfolded, and the eight-day period that followed the attacks, when Obama administration officials incorrectly described them as the result of a spontaneous protest over a video.

“It's frightening, and they're doing some very despicable threats to people,” she said. “Not ‘we're going to kill you,’ or not ‘we're going to prosecute you tomorrow,’ but they're taking career people and making them well aware that their careers will be over [if they cooperate with congressional investigators].”

Federal law provides explicit protections for federal government employees who are identified as “whistle-blowers.” The laws aim to ensure these individuals will not face repercussions from their superiors, or from other quarters, in retaliation for their provision of information about corruption or other forms of wrongdoing to Congress, or to an agency’s inspector-general.

Rep. Darrell Issa, the Republican from California who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, wrote to Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday to complain that the department has not provided a process by which attorneys like Toensing can receive the security clearances necessary for them to review classified documents and other key evidence.

“It is unavoidable that Department employees identifying themselves as witnesses in the Committee’s investigation will apply for a security clearance to allow their personal attorneys to handle sensitive or classified material,” Issa wrote. “The Department’s unwillingness to make the process for clearing an attorney more transparent appears to be an effort to interfere with the rights of employees to furnish information to Congress.”

The Obama administration maintains that it has been more than forthcoming on Benghazi and that it is time for the State Department to move on. At a recent hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Kerry noted that administration officials have testified at eight hearings on Benghazi, provided 20 briefings on the subject and turned over to Congress some 25,000 documents related to the killings

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013...#ixzz2RuTSAEf9

EXPLOSIVE REPORT CONTRADICTS THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION’S BENGHAZI STORY IN A BIG WAY

Apr. 29, 2013 9:07pm Jason Howerton

A man walks near a charred vehicle at the entrance of the U.S. Conulate, in Benghazi, Libya, Saturday, Feb. 16, 2013. The deadly Sept. 11 attack on the consulate killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. Credit: AP

The U.S. government had the ability to “react and respond” to the Benghazi terrorist attack and could have had forces on the ground before the second wave of the assault began, a special operator with knowledge of the response told Fox News in an exclusive interview. Due to the explosive nature of his allegations, the special ops member asked to remain anonymous.

“I know for a fact that C 110, the EUCOM CIF, was doing a training exercise, not in the region of northern Africa, but in Europe. And they had the ability to react and respond,” he told Fox News.

The C 110 is a 40-man Special Ops force capable of rapid response and deployment, a group trained specifically for an event like the Benghazi attack, Fox News reports. The unit was training in Croatia on Sept. 11, 2012, just 3.5 hours away from Benghazi.

“They would have been there before the second attack,” the anonymous special operator said. “They would have been there at a minimum to provide a quick reaction force that could facilitate their exfil out of the problem situation.”

He continued: “Nobody knew how it was going to develop, and you hear a whole bunch of people and a whole bunch of advisors say, ‘Hey, we wouldn’t have sent them there because the security was unknown situation.’ If it’s an unknown situation, at a minimum you send forces there to facilitate the exfil or medical injuries. We could have sent a C 130 to Benghazi to provide medical evacuation for the injured.”

The special operator said there are members of special ops and other officials who are still active and involved in the situation. “They would be decapitated if they came forward with information that could affect high-level commanders,” he added.

While he says he doesn’t “blame them for not coming forward,” the special operator said members of the community feel betrayed and believe the betrayal goes all the way to the top. Further, the Special Ops community feels like the Americans in Benghazi were left to fend for themselves.

The White House has said from the beginning that there were no forces available to assist Americans in Benghazi on Sept. 11. Four Americans were killed in the attack on the U.S. compound, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, State Department worker Sean Smith and former U.S. Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty.

Watch the exclusive segment via Fox News/WFB below:

Video at the Page Link:


http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013...k-in-benghazi/

CONGRESS IGNORES OBAMA PUSHES AHEAD ON BENGHAZI

President Barack Obama and other executive-branch officials have made clear that they don’t think that further discussion is needed on the Benghazi attacks, but Congress is not done with the issue.

At a press briefing Tuesday, President Barack Obama denied knowledge of allegations from some Republican senators that survivors of the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi were being blocked from testifying before Congress.

“I’m not familiar with this notion that anybody’s been blocked from testifying,” Obama said. “What I’ve been very clear about from the start is that our job with respect to Benghazi has been to find out exactly what happened, to make sure that U.S. embassies — not just in the Middle East but around the world — are safe and secure and to bring those who carried it out to justice.”

Secretary of State John Kerry, who assumed his cabinet post several months after the attack, said Tuesday that the Department of State remains committed to working with Congress to clarify remaining questions on the subject. However, Kerry added that there is a lot of false information floating around that needed to be dispelled.

“I do not want to spend the next year coming up here talking about Benghazi,” Kerry said.

Still, Republican members of Congress remain unconvinced that all there is to say has been said on the subject.

On Wednesday, the House Oversight Committee announced a hearing on the attacks scheduled for next Wednesday.

“This administration has offered the American people only a carefully selected and sanitized version of events from before, during, and after the Benghazi terrorist attack,” Committee Chairman Darrel Issa charged. “Not surprisingly, this version of events casts senior officials in the most favorable light possible.”

“Next week’s hearing,” he promised, “will expose new facts and details that the Obama administration has tried to suppress.”

On Wednesday, Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called for similar hearings to be held on the other side of the Capitol.

"Eight months after Benghazi, too many important questions remain unanswered,” Johnson said.

“I was shocked that President Obama, in his press conference yesterday, revealed that he was ignorant of these developing events,” Johnson continued. “This leads me to believe that this administration has no interest in providing answers to the American people. The House will be conducting new hearings on May 8th. I strongly urge the Senate to hold new hearings on Benghazi and include in those hearings people who were on the ground in Libya during the attacks.”

Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte sent a letter to Obama on Wednesday asking the administration to release the names of the survivors so that Congress could speak to them and “gain a clearer understanding of what happened before, during, and after the attack” that left four Americans dead. The senators offered to respect confidentiality concerns.



Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/01/co...#ixzz2SBu98qV4

Congress ignores Obama, pushes ahead on Benghazi

11:50 PM 05/01/2013

Alexis Levinson
Political Reporter

President Barack Obama and other executive-branch officials have made clear that they don’t think that further discussion is needed on the Benghazi attacks, but Congress is not done with the issue.

At a press briefing Tuesday, President Barack Obama denied knowledge of allegations from some Republican senators that survivors of the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi were being blocked from testifying before Congress.

“I’m not familiar with this notion that anybody’s been blocked from testifying,” Obama said. “What I’ve been very clear about from the start is that our job with respect to Benghazi has been to find out exactly what happened, to make sure that U.S. embassies — not just in the Middle East but around the world — are safe and secure and to bring those who carried it out to justice.”

Secretary of State John Kerry, who assumed his cabinet post several months after the attack, said Tuesday that the Department of State remains committed to working with Congress to clarify remaining questions on the subject. However, Kerry added that there is a lot of false information floating around that needed to be dispelled.

“I do not want to spend the next year coming up here talking about Benghazi,” Kerry said.

Still, Republican members of Congress remain unconvinced that all there is to say has been said on the subject.

On Wednesday, the House Oversight Committee announced a hearing on the attacks scheduled for next Wednesday.

“This administration has offered the American people only a carefully selected and sanitized version of events from before, during, and after the Benghazi terrorist attack,” Committee Chairman Darrel Issa charged. “Not surprisingly, this version of events casts senior officials in the most favorable light possible.”

“Next week’s hearing,” he promised, “will expose new facts and details that the Obama administration has tried to suppress.”

On Wednesday, Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called for similar hearings to be held on the other side of the Capitol.

“[E]ight months after Benghazi, too many important questions remain unanswered,” Johnson said.

“I was shocked that President Obama, in his press conference yesterday, revealed that he was ignorant of these developing events,” Johnson continued. “This leads me to believe that this administration has no interest in providing answers to the American people. The House will be conducting new hearings on May 8th. I strongly urge the Senate to hold new hearings on Benghazi and include in those hearings people who were on the ground in Libya during the attacks.”

Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte sent a letter to Obama on Wednesday asking the administration to release the names of the survivors so that Congress could speak to them and “gain a clearer understanding of what happened before, during, and after the attack” that left four Americans dead. The senators offered to respect confidentiality concerns.

Follow Alexis on Twitter

http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/01/co...#ixzz2SBu98qV4