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CIA Personnel Asked to Sign Additional Non-Disclosure Form After Benghazi Attack

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Photo Credit: Fox News At least five CIA personnel, including government contractors, were asked to sign a second non-disclosure agreement after the Benghazi terrorist attack, Fox News has learned.

While the three-page NDA, obtained by Fox News, does not contain specific references to the 2012 attack which killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, it does contain standard language that unauthorized disclosures could lead to “temporary loss of pay or termination” and “in some circumstances, constitute a criminal offense.”

Sources not authorized to speak on the record, given the sensitivity of this week’s closed-door testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, said the five CIA personnel did not feel pressure to sign the document. But they felt the request for a second non-disclosure agreement after the terrorist attack was odd and not standard practice because their original NDA’s were still in effect, and only some in the group were undergoing contract modifications that might require a new NDA.

Read more from this story HERE.

C.I.A. Collects Global Data on Transfers of Money

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Photo Credit: Shannon Stapleton/ReutersThe Central Intelligence Agency is secretly collecting bulk records of international money transfers handled by companies like Western Union — including transactions into and out of the United States — under the same law that the National Security Agency uses for its huge database of Americans’ phone records, according to current and former government officials.

The C.I.A. financial records program, which the officials said was authorized by provisions in the Patriot Act and overseen by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, offers evidence that the extent of government data collection programs is not fully known and that the national debate over privacy and security may be incomplete.

Some details of the C.I.A. program were not clear. But it was confirmed by several current and former officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the matter is classified.

The data does not include purely domestic transfers or bank-to-bank transactions, several officials said. Another, while not acknowledging the program, suggested that the surveillance court had imposed rules withholding the identities of any Americans from the data the C.I.A. sees, requiring a tie to a terrorist organization before a search may be run, and mandating that the data be discarded after a certain number of years. The court has imposed several similar rules on the N.S.A. call logs program.

Several officials also said more than one other bulk collection program has yet to come to light.

Read more from this story HERE.

Americans’ Personal Data Shared with CIA, IRS, Others in Security Probe

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Photo Credit: MELINA YINGLING AND DANNY DOUGHERTY — MCTU.S. agencies collected and shared the personal information of thousands of Americans in an attempt to root out untrustworthy federal workers that ended up scrutinizing people who had no direct ties to the U.S. government and simply had purchased certain books.

Federal officials gathered the information from the customer records of two men who were under criminal investigation for purportedly teaching people how to pass lie detector tests. The officials then distributed a list of 4,904 people – along with many of their Social Security numbers, addresses and professions – to nearly 30 federal agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service, the CIA, the National Security Agency and the Food and Drug Administration.

Although the polygraph-beating techniques are unproven, authorities hoped to find government employees or applicants who might have tried to use them to lie during the tests required for security clearances. Officials with multiple agencies confirmed that they’d checked the names in their databases and planned to retain the list in case any of those named take polygraphs for federal jobs or criminal investigations.

It turned out, however, that many people on the list worked outside the federal government and lived across the country. Among the people whose personal details were collected were nurses, firefighters, police officers and private attorneys, McClatchy learned. Also included: a psychologist, a cancer researcher and employees of Rite Aid, Paramount Pictures, the American Red Cross and Georgetown University.

Moreover, many of them had only bought books or DVDs from one of the men being investigated and didn’t receive the one-on-one training that investigators had suspected. In one case, a Washington lawyer was listed even though he’d never contacted the instructors. Dozens of others had wanted to pass a polygraph not for a job, but for a personal reason: The test was demanded by spouses who suspected infidelity.

Read more from this story HERE.

CIA Drone Strike Kills Head of Pakistani Taliban

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Photo Credit: A Majeed/AFP/Getty The CIA’s secret drone campaign claimed one of its highest profile scalps on Friday with the killing of the chief of the Pakistani Taliban by an unmanned aircraft in the country’s lawless tribal areas.

Hakimullah Mehsud, the feared leader of an alliance of militant groups attempting to topple the Pakistani state, was killed when a missile struck a compound in the village near the capital of North Waziristan, according to militant, US and Pakistani sources.

Although his death has been misreported in the past, informants in the tribal area said they were confident one of the country’s most vicious militant leaders was dead.

“He was targeted as he was returning to his home from a nearby mosque where he had been holding discussions with his comrades,” said a military officer based in a city close to the semi-autonomous Federally Administered Tribal Areas, which is home to many Islamist terrorist groups.

“He was right at his front door and at least three missiles were fired.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Report: CIA Employee who Refused to Sign Non-Disclosure Agreement on Benghazi Suspended

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Photo Credit: Getty Images

Photo Credit: Getty Images

A CIA employee who refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement prohibiting him from speaking out about last year’s deadly terror attack in Benghazi, Libya has been suspended and forced to hire an attorney, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) said Monday that his office received an anonymous call about the employee’s suspension, the Free Beacon reported. Wolf previously revealed that Benghazi survivors had been forced to sign non-disclosures in a speech on the House floor in July.

“The reports on the NDA are accurate. We’re getting people who call,” Wolf said at an event launching the new Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi…

Read more from this story HERE.

Government Now Admits There IS an ‘Area 51’

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area_51The last time I visited Area 51, it didn’t exist.

But as of this week it does. Officially.

For reasons unknown, the government finally has admitted that Area 51 — the Shangri-La of alien hunters and a sturdy trope of ­science-fiction movies — is a real place in the Mojave Desert about 100 miles north of Las Vegas.

It presumably does not house hideous squidlike ETs, but at least you can see the place on a map. Area 51 is confirmed in declassified CIA documents posted online Thursday by the National Security Archive at George Washington University. A dogged researcher pried from the CIA a report on the history of the U-2 spy plane, which was tested and operated at Area 51.

The military, which runs the base, always denied that Area 51 was called by its famous moniker, preferring a designation connected to the Groom Lake salt flat, a landing strip for the U-2 and other stealth aircraft.

Read more from this story HERE.

Hastings, Who Died in Mysterious Accident, Was Investigating CIA Chief (+video)

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Photo Credit: D Dipasupil/Getty ImagesThis week Elise Jordan, wife of famed journalist Michael Hastings, who recently died under suspicious circumstances, corroborated this reporter’s sources that CIA Director, John Brennan was Hastings next exposé project (CNN clip below).

Last month a source provided San Diego 6 News with an alarming email hacked from super secret CIA contractor Stratfor’s President Fred Burton. The email (link here) was posted on WikiLeaks and alleged that then Obama counter-terrorism Czar Brennan, was in charge of the government’s continued crackdown or witch-hunt on investigative journalists.

After providing the Stratfor email to the CIA for comment, the spymaster’s spokesperson responded in lightning speed. Two emails were received; one acknowledging Hastings was working on a CIA story and the other said, “Without commenting on information disseminated by WikiLeaks, any suggestion that Director Brennan has ever attempted to infringe on constitutionally-protected press freedoms is offensive and baseless.”

The emails also prompted a phone from CIA media spokesman Todd Ebitz. He said they were saddened by Michael’s death and reiterated their position that they had a cordial working relationship with the investigative reporter.

On the other hand, Stratfor, specifically Fred Burton, remains nonresponsive.

Read more from this story HERE.

CIA Official Warns of Syrian Jihadist Threat to US

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JERUSALEM – At least 6,000 jihadist rebels in Syria, many affiliated with al-Qaida, now pose a major security risk to the United States and Europe, according to Obama administration officials and Mideast experts.

Most of the news coverage of the emerging threat fails to mention U.S. and Western support, including weapons transfers, to the Syrian rebels. Al-Qaida-linked groups reportedly are prominent among the rebel ranks.

On Tuesday, Michael Morell, the Central Intelligence Agency’s second-in-command, warned in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that al-Qaida groups in Syria, along with the civil war itself, pose the greatest threat to U.S. national security.

The Wall Street Journal reported Morell said there are now more foreigners flowing into Syria each month to fight with al-Qaida-affiliated groups than there were going to Iraq to fight with al-Qaida at the height of the war there.

Meanwhile, according to UPI, Matthew G. Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, stated Syria “has become really the predominant jihadist battlefield in the world.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Video: Carney Won’t Answer Question About Benghazi Witness Intimidation

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White House Press Secretary Jay Carney wouldn’t answer Fox News correspondent Ed Henry’s question Thursday about reports on the CIA being on the ground the night of the Benghazi attack and whether operatives with information about it were being silenced by agency higher-ups.

Carney dodged, referring Henry to the CIA and claiming the agency had provided “an extraordinary amount of information” related to the attack. He also said he was not aware of any CIA employees who experienced retaliation, although a CNN report last week said there was an “unprecedented” effort by the agency to keep its Benghazi secrets from ever leaking out:

HENRY: Last one. Last week CNN reported that dozens of people were working for the CIA around Benghazi on the night of the attack, and they are claiming that some of these CIA operatives now feel like they’re being intimidated, that they’re getting polygraph tests sometimes on a monthly basis, which is much more frequent than CIA officials apparently normally get, because the government is trying to figure out whether or not they’re talking to the media, they’re talking to Congress about what happened that night. Can you assure the American people that’s not happening, and can you shed any light on what the CIA was doing? I realize there may be classified information there, but in general, is there anything you can say about what the CIA was doing there?

CARNEY: I don’t have any information on CIA individuals or operations in — around the world. I would refer you to the CIA on that. I would also refer you to the very clear statement in response to that put out by the CIA, which says the CIA has worked closely with its oversight committees to provide them with an extraordinary amount of information related to the attack on U.S. facilities in Benghazi. Furthermore, CIA leadership has informed officers who may want to speak with the oversight committees on this matter that it will support and facilitate such contact. CIA employees are always free to speak to Congress if they want to, and there is an established process to facilitate such communication on a confidential basis…

Read more from this story HERE.

Explosive Revelation: DOZENS of CIA Operatives on the Ground DURING Benghazi Attack

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Photo Credit: Breitbart By Restoring Liberty. CNN is reporting this evening that, at the time of the Benghazi terrorist attack that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stephen, the Central Intelligence Agency had literally dozens of agents on the ground inside of Benghazi.

This explosive revelation was apparently leaked by a source who has also reported the CIA has undertaken an unprecedented effort to keep all knowledge of its actions on the ground secret. The Agency has even gone as a far as to require monthly polygraph tests of all agents with knowledge of the Benghazi operation.

CNN reports that the CIA has been using “pure intimidation” against its agents to ensure that none of them are talking to the press or Congress about what was happening on the ground in Libya. One agent reported, “You have no idea the amount of pressure being brought to bear on anyone with knowledge of this operation.”

Another source reportedly claimed that the CIA is threatening agents’ families, stating, “You don’t jeopardize yourself, you jeopardize your family as well.”

Representative Frank Wolf, a Republican from the district that includes the CIA’s Langley headquarters, said that immediately after the Benghazi attack a number of CIA employees approached his office to give information about what happened the night in question. Apparently, the CIA’s intimidation has worked because they aren’t talking at all, now.

Whatever the CIA Benghazi operation was remains a mystery, as CNN’s sources provide no information on why dozens of US operatives would be in Benghazi at the same time the Ambassador was murdered. The sources also fail to explain why the dozens of CIA operatives on the ground apparently did not render direct assistance to the Ambassador’s compound when it came under attack.

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Photo Credit: ReutersRep. Wolf: sources say CIA was moving guns in Benghazi

By Kerry Picket. “We’re getting calls from people who are close to people who were [in Benghazi at the time] that they were moving guns. So where are the guns?” asked Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), a sub-committee chairman of the Appropriations Committee. Wolf also wonders what Ambassador Chris Stevens was actually doing in Benghazi on that night. Stevens and three others were killed over the course of the attacks.

“Are they in a warehouse somewhere? Some people say they moved on to Turkey and then from Turkey to Syria,” Wolf told Breitbart News on Thursday. “Did they fall into the hands of some of the Jihadis?”

“Nobody knows, so I think there are so many questions from the failure to respond to where the guns went,” he stated.

Wolf is currently attempting to create a Select Committee to investigate the Benghazi attack by launching a discharge petition from committee. He needs 218 signatures to take the issue to a vote on the floor. Read more from this story HERE.