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Clinton Sought End-Run Around Counter-Terrorism Bureau on Night of Benghazi Attack, Witness will Say

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Photo Credit: Foreign and Commonwealth Office Creative CommonsOn the night of Sept. 11, as the Obama administration scrambled to respond to the Benghazi terror attacks, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a key aide effectively tried to cut the department’s own counterterrorism bureau out of the chain of reporting and decision-making, according to a “whistle-blower” witness from that bureau who will soon testify to the charge before Congress, Fox News has learned.

That witness is Mark I. Thompson, a former Marine and now the deputy coordinator for operations in the agency’s counterterrorism bureau. Sources tell Fox News Thompson will level the allegation against Clinton during testimony on Wednesday before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.

Fox News has also learned that another official from the counterterrorism bureau — independently of Thompson — voiced the same complaint about Clinton and Under Secretary for Management Patrick Kennedy to trusted national security colleagues back in October.

Extremists linked to Al Qaeda stormed the American consulate and a nearby annex on Sept. 11, in a heavily armed and well-coordinated eight-hour assault that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three other Americans.

Thompson considers himself a whistle-blower whose account was suppressed by the official investigative panel that Clinton convened to review the episode, the Accountability Review Board (ARB). Thompson’s lawyer, Joseph diGenova, a former U.S. attorney, has further alleged that his client has been subjected to threats and intimidation by as-yet-unnamed superiors at State, in advance of his cooperation with Congress.

Read more from this story HERE.

Benghazi May Turn Out to be Obama’s Watergate

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Photo Credit: Greg GroeschBenghazi may turn out to be President Obama’s Watergate. The scandal is a growing cancer on the administration, threatening its very existence. The more information comes out, the more damning it is. This is why Democrats — and their media allies — are desperately trying to sweep the truth under the rug. Mr. Obama’s political survival is at stake.

High-profile lawyers Joseph diGenova and Victoria Toensing are in touch with State Department whistleblowers who were on the ground in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012, when our diplomatic mission was attacked by jihadists. Mr. diGenova says they can no longer remain silent. The whistleblowers want to testify before a House congressional committee. There is only one problem. According to Mr. diGenova and Ms. Toensing, the whistleblowers are being prevented — and intimidated — from speaking out by the Obama administration. Vindictive State Department officials are denying their request for legal representation. Since the whistleblowers’ potential testimony relates to classified information, they refuse to go forward in public without effective legal representation. The possible personal and professional consequences are immense.

If — and I stress if — they testify, then the Obama presidency is in mortal jeopardy. Mr. diGenova stresses that the whistleblowers possess information that will expose the administration’s lies and cover-up. Republicans on Capitol Hill should pursue this scandal to the end.

Benghazi should have been prevented. During the summer of 2012, al Qaeda thugs were roaming the streets of the city. The Red Cross and the British diplomatic mission pulled out. Our consulate had been physically attacked several times. This is why U.S. officials there repeatedly asked the State Department for bolstered security. It was denied.

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Militia Hired by State Dept. Warned It Wouldn’t Protect Stevens’ Movements in Benghazi

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(CNSNews.com) – The February 17th Martyrs Brigade, a Benghazi-based militia with Islamist elements that the State Department hired as a “quick reaction force” (QRF) to protect the department’s mission in Benghazi, warned the State Department that it would not protect the movements of Amb. Chris Stevens when he visited there last September.

That warning was relayed to the regional security officer (RSO) at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli–the top security adviser to the ambassador–in an internal State Department email dated Sept. 9, 2012.

That was one day before Stevens departed Tripoli for Benghazi–for what was scheduled to be a five-day visit.

“[O]n September 8, 2012, just days before Ambassador Stevens arrived in Benghazi, the February 17 Martyrs Brigade told State Department officials that the group would no longer support U.S. movements in the city, including the Ambassador’s visit,” said a report on Benghazi released last week by the chairmen of the House Foreign Affairs, Intelligence, Oversight, Judiciary and Armed Services committees.

In a footnote, the report attributed this information to an “Email from Alec Henderson to John B. Martinec, ‘RE: Benghazi QRF agreement,’ (Sep. 9, 2012 11:31 PM).”

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Report: Obama Knows Identity of Benghazi Mastermind but Does Nothing

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Photo Credit: Allison HargerBy Adam Housley. The U.S. has identified the mastermind of the Benghazi attack, sources tell Fox News, though the individual apparently is walking free in Libya.

The confirmation from multiple sources comes more than seven months after the assault on two U.S. locations in Benghazi, Libya, where four Americans — including Ambassador Chris Stevens — were killed. President Obama pledged after the attack that “justice will be done.”

But one source told Fox News the government is “sitting on” information.

“We basically don’t want to upset anybody, and the problem is, if Ambassador Stevens’ family knew that we were sitting on information about the people who killed their son, their brother, on and on, then, and we could look them as a government in the face, then we’re messing up. We’re messing up,” the source said.

Fox News spoke exclusively with one special operator who watched the events unfold in real time and has debriefed those who were part of the response. He remains anonymous for his safety and has decided to talk because he says he and others connected with the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks in Benghazi are frustrated with the excuses and lack of a military response since Stevens and three other Americans were killed. Read more from this story HERE.

GOP says Benghazi whistleblowers will ‘expose new facts’

By Jonathan Easley and Julian Pecquet. Eyewitnesses with potentially damaging information on the Obama administration’s handling of last year’s terror attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi will testify at a hearing next week, Republicans said.

The House oversight committee is holding a hearing next week that will “expose new facts and details that the Obama administration has tried to suppress,” oversight chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said Wednesday.

Two of Issa’s lieutenants said the witnesses at the hearing would include federal employees with direct knowledge of the attack that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in Libya.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the oversight subpanel on national security, said people with “personal firsthand knowledge” would testify about the attack. Asked if any “whistleblowers” would be among the witnesses, Chaffetz said: “I think they will be appearing. Some of them.”

“I think you will see — again I can’t release any names to you yet, but next Wednesday I think those of us who are concerned about this issue … we’re finally going to get some answers,” Chaffetz told Fox News on Wednesday. Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Claims Ignorance of Admin. Pressure on Benghazi Survivors Not to Testify (+video)

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During the President’s press conference today, a Fox News reporter directly ask Obama about his knowledge of the administration’s ongoing efforts to block the testimony of Benghazi’s survivors:

“… there are people in your own State Department saying they have been blocked from coming forward, that they survived the terror attack and they want to tell their story. Will you help them come forward and say it once and for all?”

Obama responded that, although he was “not familiar with this notion that anybody has been blocked from testifying,” he would “find out what exactly you’re referring to.”

The President continued, “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. But I’ll find out, what exactly you’re referring to.”

The Fox News reporter then pointed out that the Benghazi whistle-blowers “hired an attorney because they say they’ve been blocked from coming forward.”

Obama insisted that he was “not familiar with it.”

Obama Admin. Threatening Benghazi Whistle-Blowers at CIA, State

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Photo Credit: Jonathon NarveyAt 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.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Admin. Says its Prior Investigation into Benghazi is Enough, Doesn't Need Congressional Hearings

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Photo Credit: U.S Embassy Kabul AfghanistanThe State Department on Monday defended its decision not to have lower-level employees testify before Congress about last year’s attack in Benghazi, Libya.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is pushing ahead with his investigation of the terrorist assault, and has asked for legal protections for lower-level employees who might be called to testify.

The State Department pushed back on Monday and said the independent probe into the attack “should be enough” for lawmakers.

“We think that we’ve done an independent investigation, that it’s been transparent, thorough, credible, and detailed, and that we’ve shared those findings with the U.S. Congress,” State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said. “And that should be enough.”

Ventrell said the employees who were present during the attack or were otherwise involved have already provided “extensive testimony” to the FBI and the State Department’s independent review board, which issued a scathing report last year. He said they’re back on duty and at their posts around the world.

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Congressman: ‘Explosive’ Benghazi Hearings ‘Coming Quickly’

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Photo Credit: Washington TimesRep. Trey Gowdy, appearing on Fox News on Saturday afternoon, promised that “explosive” congressional hearings over the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, are “coming quickly.”

“There are more Benghazi hearings coming; I think they’re going to be explosive,” Mr. Gowdy, a South Carolina Republican who is a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told Fox’s Uma Pemmaraju.

Mr. Gowdy wasn’t able to give out too many details, but he hinted that the public for the first time might hear from witnesses to the terror attack that left four Americans dead.

“I am bound by certain measures of confidentiality, but I would tell you that you are getting very warm,” Mr. Gowdy said when asked by Ms. Pemmaraju whether witnesses could be coming forward…

Read more from this story HERE.

Report: Hillary Clinton Lied Twice Under Oath

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Photo Credit: IIP StateA new congressional report indicates former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may have lied under oath at least twice during her Benghazi testimony. On September 11, 2012 four Americans including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens were killed in a terrorist attack by militants linked to al-Qaida and Ansar al-Sharia. Militants stormed the U.S. consulate building in Benghazi, Libya with rockets and machine guns; Stevens and four other Americans died.

Stevens became the first U.S. Ambassador since 1988 to die in office. And CIA employees and former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were both killed despite the fact that the U.S. military had almost seven hours to send them back-up assistance.

Hillary Hyperbole #1: She Didn’t See or Approve Cables Requesting Support In Libya

Obama’s White House and Clinton’s State Department knew of the danger to Stevens for months and did nothing about it. On August 16, Stevens sent a cable notifying Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the State Department of an anticipated “coordinated attack” that the consulate would not be able to manage without backup support. Clinton’s State Department did not take proactive measures to respond.

On the day of the attack, reports indicate that the CIA initially denied requests from its own personnel for backup assistance at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and later at the CIA annex or safe house. When support finally arrived, it was too late.
This January, Clinton testified that: “I have made it very clear that the security cables did not come to my attention…” and “I didn’t see those requests. They didn’t come to me. I didn’t approve them. I didn’t deny them.”

But a new congressional report shows that Clinton did indeed sign an April, 2012 State Department cable acknowledging formal requests for help. So, she DID know of various cables requesting assistance in Libya. Reporter @SharylAtkisson tweeted that while Clinton knew of these requests for aid, she “ordered the withdrawal of elements to proceed as planned.” Worse yet, the report indicates that Obama’s White House and State Department literally changed their talking points in order to cover for Clinton. Specifically: “…. to remove references to likely participation of Islamic extremists in attacks, references to threat of extremists linked to al Qaeda…,” according to the report.

Read more from this story HERE.

GOP Benghazi Report: Obama Admin. Lied, Set-Up Military for Failure

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Photo Credit: APHouse Republicans have concluded that the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies bear no blame for failing to halt the terrorist assault on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, last year, releasing a report Tuesday that said President Obama and the State Department set up the military for failure.

The report also found that plenty of intelligence presaged the attack, but the White House and State Department — including the secretary at the time, Hillary Rodham Clinton — failed to heed the warnings.

In the most damning conclusion, House Republicans said Mr. Obama’s team lied about the attacks afterward, first by blaming mob violence spawned by an anti-Muslim video, and then wrongly saying it had misled the public because it was trying to protect an FBI investigation.

“This progress report reveals a fundamental lack of understanding at the highest levels of the State Department as to the dangers presented in Benghazi, Libya, as well as a concerted attempt to insulate the Department of State from blame following the terrorist attacks,” the GOP investigation concluded in its 46-page report.

The White House dismissed the report as a rehash of questions the administration has answered, and said it has provided extraordinary cooperation.

Read more from this story HERE.