The Patriot Post® · Benghazi: Honor Will Prevail

Yesterday the Washington Free Beacon reported that a CIA agent who refused to sign a nondisclosure agreement preventing him from talking about Benghazi has been suspended and forced to hire an attorney, according to Congressman Frank Wolfe (R-VA). “The reports on the NDA are accurate. We’re getting people who call,” Wolf said Monday. Wolfe was appearing at the inaugural meeting of the Citizens Commission on Benghazi, where he reiterated his contention that the Congressional investigation into the incident is being bogged down by five separate committees working independently of each other to discover the truth. His call for a House Select Committee has been stonewalled by House Majority leader John Boehner (R-OH).

In response to Wolfe’s allegations, CIA director John Brennan sent a letter to Mike Rodgers (R-MI), Chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, addressing four critical questions. Brennan categorically denied that any “officer, staff or contractor” has been forced to undergo polygraph testing because of their presence in Benghazi, or their participation in any activity related to the attack; no one has been forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement; no one has been denied an opportunity to speak to Congressional investigators; and he is “unaware” of any threats of reprisals for speaking to Congress about the attacks. Brennan further insisted Congress’s request for a list of officers in Libya on September 11, 2012 is “classified,” but that he will “work with the Committee to provide the relevant information via classified channels.”

On August 1, a CNN piece written by Jake Tapper revealed that the “CIA is involved in what one source calls an unprecedented attempt to keep the spy agency’s Benghazi secrets from ever leaking out,” and that “CIA operatives involved in the agency’s missions in Libya, have been subjected to frequent, even monthly polygraph examinations, according to a source with deep inside knowledge of the agency’s workings.” A day later, Fox News upped the ante, noting that “at least five CIA employees were forced to sign additional nondisclosure agreements this past spring in the wake of the Benghazi attack. These employees had already signed such agreements before the attack but were made to sign new agreements aimed at discouraging survivors from leaking their stories to the media or anyone else.”

Someone is lying.

The latest revelations came to light the same day House Oversight Committee Chairman Darryl Issa (R-CA) released a report detailing the State Department’s whitewash of an internal investigation conducted by the Accountability Review Board (ARB), which failed to hold any senior officials in the Department responsible for the debacle. What came out of that “investigation” was the suspension of four mid-level officials, none of whom were responsible for formulating policy decisions with regard to the mission in Libya. Furthermore, all four were subsequently re-instated by Secretary of State John Kerry. The report cites further details about the investigation, yet all one has to know to understand what really occurred here is one, salient, overarching reality:

Despite an investigation President Obama characterized as having examined “every element” of the attack, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was never interviewed.

Regardless, last Sunday State Department Assistant Secretary of State Douglas Frantz reiterated Obama’s assertion, claiming the ARB’s report and the State Department’s response to the scandal were "thorough and transparent.“ "In fact, it set a new standard for transparency measured by tens of thousands of pages of documents turned over to Congress, testimony in public and closed hearings and a declassified report for the public,” he added. “To suggest anything has been hidden or that accountability has been averted requires willful ignorance of these facts.”

Again, someone is lying.

Almost as egregious as the failure to interview Clinton is the reality that Under Secretary Patrick Kennedy, who was never disciplined despite having admitted taking part in the decision to reject requests for added security in Benghazi before the attack, was one of the people who helped select members of the ARB. Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs, Beth Jones, also escaped any blame for the failure at State–despite ARB head Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering’s contention that responsibility for the failures in Benghazi should have been placed at the Assistant Secretary level. That would be the same Beth Jones who led the charge against Benghazi witness Greg Hicks.

Hicks, who had been praised by both Obama and Clinton for his courage under fire during the attack, suddenly became a pariah when he voiced objections to the Obama administration’s Muslim video “talking points,” that have been subsequently revealed as blatant lies. According to Hicks testimony in May, Jones gave a “blistering report” of his performance when he returned to the U.S. to attend Stevens’ funeral. “She even said she didn’t understand why anyone in Tripoli would want me to come back,” Hicks testified. In another key element of his testimony, Hicks revealed he had talked to Clinton at 2 a.m. the night of the attack, and told her it was a terrorist operation.

That would be the same Hillary Clinton who partnered with Barack Obama for a $70,000 ad campaign run in Pakistan, declaring the administration had nothing to do with the aforementioned Muslim video they desperately sought to blame for the attack. The same video that was still being blamed for the attack by Barack Obama on September 25, 2012 in a speech at the U.N, where he declared that there is “no video that justifies an attack on an embassy.” That would be the same Barack Obama so “concerned” about the attack as it was unfolding that, according to testimony by former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey, the president spoke with them once at 5 p.m. for 30 minutes, after which they never heard from him or anyone else at the White House again. The next day, Obama went to a fundraiser in Las Vegas.

No one can lie about that despicable reality.

Yet with each damnable revelation, including the exposure of the White House talking points as a tissue of lies, the contradictory statements regarding whether or not a “stand down” order was given, the blatant stonewalling regarding where the president was for the critical eight hours after he handed off responsibility for Benghazi to Panetta and Dempsey, or the possibility that Benghazi itself was an international gunrunning operation coordinating a weapons flow from Libya to Syrian rebels, the pushback from the Obama administration, fellow Democrats, and a contemptibly disinterested mainstream media continues in earnest.

Yet they won’t be able to keep a lid on this scandal indefinitely. Despite every effort undertaken by this administration to “socialize” the military, America’s warrior class, the one that does the fighting – and dying – to defend this nation, isn’t about to let the idea that we never leave our dead and wounded behind be abandoned for cynical political considerations. Unlike much of the current military chain of command, which has seemingly acquiesced to the progressive agenda, these men and women will not be cowed. The honorable and courageous will emerge eventually, despite every effort to keep them contained.

They will not be contained. Count on it.

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