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Did CIA Official Suppress Benghazi Narrative? Accounts Raise New Questions

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Photo Credit: Fox News New information about the intelligence available in the immediate aftermath of the Benghazi attack raises questions about whether the former No. 2 at the CIA downplayed or dismissed reporting from his own people in Libya that it was a coordinated attack and not an out-of-control protest over an anti-Islam video.

Then-Deputy Director Mike Morell, whose own agency lost two employees at Benghazi, former Navy Seals Ty Woods and Glen Doherty, was heavily involved in editing the administration’s internal narrative on what happened – known as the “talking points” – which served as the basis for then-U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice’s controversial claims about a protest on the Sunday talk shows after the attack.

According to the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report on Benghazi, on Sept. 15, four days after the attack and one day before Rice’s appearance, the CIA’s most senior operative on the ground in Libya emailed Morell and others at the agency that the attack was “not/not an escalation of protests.”

Fox News has confirmed that three days earlier, the CIA Chief of Station and the agency’s team in Libya also sent situation reports, known as sitreps, to Washington.The raw intelligence reporting described a coordinated attack by extremists, not an out-of-control protest.

“In a crisis like Benghazi, you would expect it’s going directly to the seventh floor,” Sam Faddis, who recently retired from the CIA and writes extensively about the intelligence community, said. The “seventh floor” refers to CIA leadership – at the time, Director David Petraeus and his second-in-command Morell, among others. “In a situation like this, you’re going to be looking at it immediately … your aides are going to be asked to flag it to your attention the second that it comes in and bring it to your desk — right in front of you,” he said.

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Kerry Comments Add to Mystery About Rogue CIA Agent Missing in Iran

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The intrigue over the rogue CIA agent last seen six years ago in Iran intensified Sunday with an accusation about a cover-up, Secretary of State John Kerry rejecting allegations the United States has abandoned the search and Iran distancing itself from the mystery.

Kerry expressed hope the new Iranian government would provide information on the whereabouts of the 65-year-old Robert Levinson and pushed back on the argument that the U.S. has stopped looking for the retired FBI agent.

“To suggest that we have abandoned him or anybody has abandoned him is simply incorrect, and not helpful,” he told ABC’s “This Week.” “I think the Iranian government has the ability to help us here, and we hope they will.”

Meanwhile, Iran Foreign Minister Javad Zarif told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that Levinson is not being held by the government and that he has “no idea” about who might have him.

Still, Zarif said his country “will certainly discuss” Levinson’s return should he be found.

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CIA Benghazi Team Clash Led to ‘Stand Down’ Report

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

CIA officers who testified privately to Congress about the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, revealed a disagreement among them about how quickly they could go help the besieged U.S. ambassador and others as well as a standing order for them to avoid violent encounters, according to a congressman and others who heard or were briefed on the testimony.

Complaints that the White House, Pentagon and State Department may not have done enough before and during the attack to save U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other men, along with accusations that it engaged in a cover-up after the attack, have continued to dog the Obama administration. One of the allegations was that U.S. officials told the CIA to “stand down” and not go to the aid of the embattled Americans — charges that top CIA and Defense and State Department officials have denied.

The testimony from the CIA officers and contractors who were in Libya that night bolster those denials but also shed light on what may have led to the delay of less than 30 minutes. None of those who testified said that a quicker response would have saved the lives of Stevens, Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods and Glenn Doherty.

The CIA officers in charge in Libya that day told Congress of a chaotic scramble to aid Stevens and others who were in the outpost when it was attacked by militants on the 11th anniversary of 9/11. Those CIA leaders decided they and the security contractors working for them should wait before rushing from their annex into the violence roughly a mile away. They testified that they were trying to first gather intelligence and to round up Libyan militia allies armed with heavy weapons, according to the testimony by the CIA officers in charge, including both the head of the CIA security team and the CIA chief of the Benghazi base.

Some of the CIA security contractors, however, disagreed with their bosses and wanted to move more quickly.

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CIA Witnesses Offer More Evidence Benghazi Attack Planned

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Photo Credit: REUTERSCIA personnel who testified Tuesday on the Benghazi attack provided new evidence that it was premeditated, telling lawmakers that the deadly mortar strike on the CIA annex began within minutes of a rescue team’s arrival, Fox News has learned.

According to the closed-door testimony on the Hill by two CIA personnel, a small team was sent on the night of the attack from Tripoli and got held up at the Benghazi airport. After they were eventually cleared, they arrived at the annex. Witnesses testified that it did not seem coincidental that the mortar attack began soon after.

Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga., told Fox News after the closed, classified session that all of the witnesses (eight total witnesses have now testified in these sessions) were on the same page about the nature of the mortar attack, which killed former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty on the annex roof.

“These were trained people and … it was an attack. It wasn’t over any type of film or propaganda,” Westmoreland emphasized, referring to the administration’s initial claims that an anti-Islam film triggered protests that led to the attack.

“We don’t know why the administration would have ever thought any differently,” Westmoreland said. “Other than that them and the State Department were trying to make sure that they were covered because of the unpreparedness they were in.”

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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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…

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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.

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