By James Rosen

Published April 29, 2013

FoxNews.com

Effort to intimidate potential Benghazi...

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.

“So if you have additional questions or you think there's some document that somehow you need, I'll work with you to try to get it and see if we can provide that to you,” Kerry told committee Chairman Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., on April 17. But Kerry added: “I do not want to spend the next year coming up here talking about Benghazi.”

Asked about Issa’s complaints about attorneys not receiving security clearances, State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell on Monday indicated that – far from threatening anyone – the administration hasn’t been presented with any such cases. “I'm not aware of private counsel seeking security clearances or -- or anything to that regard,” Ventrell told reporters. “I'm not aware of whistle-blowers one way or another.”

Ventrell cited the work of the FBI – whose probe of the attacks continues almost eight months later and without any known instances of perpetrators being brought to justice – and the Accountability Review Board. The board was an internal State Department review panel led by former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Thomas Pickering and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen. An unclassified version of the board’s final report that was released to the public contained no conclusions that suggested administration officials had willfully endangered their colleagues in Benghazi or had misled the public or Congress.

“And that should be enough,” Ventrell said at Monday’s press briefing. “Congress has its own prerogatives, but we've had a very thorough, independent investigation, which we completed and [which was] transparent and shared. And there are many folks who are, in a political manner, trying to sort of use this for their own political means, or ends.”


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/04/29/obama-administration-officials-have-threatened-whistle-blowers-on-benghazi/?intcmp=trending#ixzz2RxEcuLTU

I can't wait for the truth to finally come out, it has been swept under the political WH rug way to long. Did they really think as time goes by this would be forgotten ? Not happening Hillary can stop hiding and Obama and Holder can stop lying. Hillary's statement at the investigation about denying extra security "What does it matter anyway " will come back to haunt her a million times over. The blood of the four Americans stains her and Obama's hands.

SSC wrote:I can't wait for the truth to finally come out, it has been swept under the political WH rug way to long. Did they really think as time goes by this would be forgotten ? Not happening Hillary can stop hiding and Obama and Holder can stop lying. Hillary's statement at the investigation about denying extra security "What does it matter anyway " will come back to haunt her a million times over. The blood of the four Americans stains her and Obama's hands.

The Obama-lites say this is over. Hillary says "Who cares now?". Yes, they certainly DO think the American people will ignore this. Really? You bet. The American people ignored Obama's incredibly bad record in office and re-elected him,did they not? I have totally lost faith in the American electorate. Obama,Hillary, and Holder will NEVER tell the truth.That would be inconveniant and unecessary but,of course,I hope to be proven wrong about the upcoming hearings.It would be nice to hear the truth at least ONCE.

Obama's popularity is dropping like a bomb, his lying and assistance in coverups in time will be his demise. Immigration will be another nail in his coffin and now possible bio attacks in Syria and his lack of action, but he may be sending in troops another war maybe and the topper 1.3 billion in aid to Egypt, I wonder how many peoples SS that will cost. Obama is out of control, all this sequester crap and the intimidation he is using, he signed it, how quick people forget. I would really like to see him tell me how much money I am allowed to put aside for later years, this fool has lost his mind.The scarey part is he has 3 more years to tear down this country piece by piece, but the Dem. puppets are bailing out on him. Obamacare hopefully will dissolve, once word leaked out the politicians were not agreeing to be covered by it maybe the light came on and people realized it is a huge flawed plan that will destroy the medical treatment of millions. I hope every idiotic fool who voted for Obama is proud of themselves, every vote was a strike against the very morals and foundation the country was established on.

What an amazing day of testimony at the hearing on Benghazi, the emotions that filled the room as finally the truth has come out. These three whistle blowers have risked threats from Obama team members but stood their ground to bring to light the truth. Hillary is a liar, Obama is a liar, Rice is a liar and the list goes on. I really hope these brave men who begged for help will not have died in vain and those responsible for ignoring their pleas for help will be convicted of every charge that can be leveled on them. Starting at the top and going down.

SSC wrote:What an amazing day of testimony at the hearing on Bengazi.....

I dunno about Rice;a mid-level functionary. Iffen I was a b-crat and was told to parrot nonsense,I probably would.That's what they are paid to do.

But,as Michel Malkin says,this is the "Chicago Way".The outrageous lie hypothesis insists that the bigger the lie,the more it demands repetition. THAT we have received from the Obama crowd since before the 2008 election.It is jarring to see these incredible lies exposed and then defended by the admin and their acolytes.They lied about the huge "stimulus spending".It stimulated nothing but debt and dependency.They lied about "Affordable Health Care".It is an un-affordable "train wreck" that is slowly but surely,as we predicted,destroying the SSA program we worked for all our working lives.The "Fast & Furious" program that saw American law enforcement officers tortured and murdered was (somehow) a GW Bush program.Obama didn't adhere to Rev. Wright's vile,hateful,racism and anti-semitism, yet the preacher officiated at Obama's wedding and Barak described him as his "spiritual mentor". HUH??? WHAT???

High unemployment rates year after year are described as "recovery".Islamic murder and mayhem is NOT terrorism.Holder is a "dedicated public servant".H. Clinton was a "successful" Sec. Of State.Just a FEW examples of the Orweillian "new-speak". It is,I suggest, "double un-good".

Watching Carney stumble through a press meeting resembles a rat caught in the corner with nowhere to go. The testimony given by the three whistleblowers was damning to say the least but it will go farther. The WH defying orders to release e-mails is just another example of this huge coverup. Hillary stepping down was a fine tuned plan, she not only was a failure but is neck deep in this whole mess. I see the whole Democratic party unraveling. Attempts to defelect the attention to other issues are failing.The truth has to come out and those responsible for these deaths must be brought to justice. The very thought a presidential fundraiser was more important than the lives lost is beyond comprehension, the attempt to sweep this under the rug during the election is a total disgrace. Justice must be served. Rice was a puppet but a lying one for sure well coached by the WH, it just blew up in her face.

Seems to be more and more coverups, everyday on the news is another Obama created lie and the poor people trying to expose them are being demonized. We have the right to know when our rights are violated, phones and internet being tapped into and our political views held against us. Of course lets worry about global warming when Benghazi is being swept under the rug, or a $100,000,000.00 trip to Africa for Big O and the family when the tours of many places are cancelled for budget cuts. This country is going to hell not only by Dem hands but some really stupid Repubs too.

SSC wrote:Seems to be more and more coverups....

Yep. I watched Bret Beir's show Fri night on the truth about Benghazi.What actually happened as opposed to the "story" as reported in the major press is absolutely stunning. I don't like using such hyperbole but what can I say? How can I say it? We have a woman,H. Clinton, who is highly regarded in American society, responsible directly for deliberately denying,at a time of obvious danger,adequate security protection for American diplomatic staff in a foreign place.

We saw the president of Libya stating unequivocally on the following Sunday morning on "Face The Nation" that the events were the result of a co-ordinated terrorist attack while on the same day, Rice was positing in 5 different interview shows that it was caused by a video that nobody saw or even knew existed. Libya's prez made it clear he was made to look like a fool and/or a liar. And now we expect Libya's co-operation in finding the perpetrators?

The admin is STILL stonewalling and lying and you can bet Hillary will run in 2016. And,as she asked, "what does it matter"???

Incompetency can be excused and,sometimes, even forgiven but I hope that the American people will NOT FORGET the perfidy and perjury. America has become the fat idiot on the block who paints his face red,white,and blue and gets drunk at football games.

meemoon wrote:America has become the fat idiot on the block who paints his face red,white,and blue and gets drunk at football games.

Well thats not the worst reputation in the world, I'll take that over some other countries rep. We also have a rep of being a military super-power, which basically means we can kick anyones ass that don't like it, and just might, and can afford to not give a shit. We didn't get in a position of being a super-power by being dainty and charming, we got there by guts and will-power, and an understanding that we better have superior weapons, and more of them than anyone else, if we want to keep painting our faces and getting drunk at football games.

If that's the way some Americans like to blow off steam I say more power to them, its healthier than being hunched-over in a cave somewhere praying to a goat, or an ox, or whatever it is they pray to, the little green chubby guy?

I think its more important what WE think of other countries than it is what they think of us, they already know who has the most power, its us, that's all they need to know and all that really matters. We can afford not to care what they think, they on the other-hand should be very concerned about what we think, because one of us with the painted face just might become president someday.

T wrote"...We can afford not to care what they think..."

I gits yer point,but you seem to have missed mine. When the American government lies to the American people with stories that contradict the prez of Libya, we lost any opportunity of getting their co-operation in finding the guilties.

When the islamists can attack and murder with impunity because Obama and we Americans seem to be asleep at the wheel,maybe we should START to care what they think.A powerful fool will still be treated like a fool.

Yeah I did seem to stray away from your point. Good point and well taken, I cannot dispute that, not that I was looking to dispute anything.

Happy birthday man, created you a happy birthday thread here:

https://runawayhorses.forumotion.com/t9236-happy-birthday-moon-2013#45557

Finally evidence is coming out and boy oh boy is it damning for the WH, Susan Rice was so schooled for her press conferences with a huge pack of lies, Obama lied, Hillary lied, Jay Carney lied, Susan Rice lied and we lost 4 good men who had begged for help, any other president would be impeached, maybe we can cross our fingers that isn't out the question yet.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/09/11/explainer-a-year-of-benghazi-myths/195821At What Point Do We Start An Investigation Into The Behavior ...
www.forwardprogressives.com/point-start-investigation-behavior-... - Similar to At What Point Do We Start An Investigation Into The Behavior ...
Mar 6, 2014 ... Who would have ever thought a congressman from (of all states) California would ... guy until the infamous Benghazi obsession swept through the Republican party. ... Yet despite the fact that these conspiracies have been proven false on ... base which is gullible enough to believe his lies and propaganda.

Gee you must not be watching the news again, even all the major stations are covering this, get your head out the sand

Emails illustrate how White House shaped Benghazi talking points

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/emails-illustrate-how-white-house-shaped-benghazi-talking-points

Last Updated Apr 30, 2014 2:50 PM EDT

Newly-released emails from within the White House shed more light on the way the administration shaped its response to the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya that left four Americans dead.

Obtained by the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act request, an email from then-White House Deputy Strategic Communications Adviser Ben Rhodes (the brother of CBS News president David Rhodes) listed several goals for then-United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice as she prepared to go on political talk shows just a few days after the Sept. 11, 2012 attack.

Rhodes wrote that one "goal" for Rice was "To underscore that these protests are rooted in and Internet video, and not a broader failure or policy." Another stated "goal" was to "reinforce the President and Administration's strength."

Congressional Republicans say the new email shows a deliberate attempt by the White House to put politics ahead of the facts in the weeks before President Obama's re-election.

Senators ask again: What about Benghazi?

"It demonstrates for the first time that the direction on the talking points came directly out of the White House," Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told CBS This Morning.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told Newsmax that the emails amounted to a "smoking gun."

"It shows political operatives in the White House working to create a political narrative at odds with the facts," he said.

Play Video
White House: Benghazi talking points "what we knew at the time"
White House spokesman Jay Carney on Wednesday said that the recommendations from Rhodes "were not about Benghazi" specifically, but "about the general situation in the Muslim world... where you saw protests outside of embassy facilities across the region."

Carney stressed that it was the CIA -- not the White House -- that prepared talking points on Benghazi. Those talking points were prepared at the request of Congress, and the White House decided that Rice would use those talking points for the sake of consistency.

"We believed that it was appropriate for everyone... to be using the same set of points produced by the intelligence community," Carney said.

Internal emails the White House released last year showed how the CIA modified its Benghazi talking points repeatedly before Rice appeared on five political talk shows on Sept. 16, 2012. The final version of the talking points said the attack may have been "spontaneously inspired by the protests at the U.S. embassy in Cairo." One page of the documents released showed handwritten changes ordered by Mike Morell, former deputy director of the CIA and a current CBS News contributor. In his congressional testimony earlier this month, Morell said an intelligence analyst said on Sept. 13, 2012 that the attack evolved spontaneously from a protest.

A national security council spokesman told CBS News that the latest email from Rhodes simply "contains general topline talking points."

"There were protests taking place across the region in reaction to an offensive internet video, so that's what these points addressed," the spokesperson said.

Congress, meanwhile, is still actively investigating the matter.

On Thursday. the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hold a hearing called, "Benghazi, Instability, and a New Government: Successes and Failures of U.S. Intervention in Libya." Earlier this week, a trio of Republican senators called on the House and Senate Foreign Affairs Committees to hold more hearings.

back up your claim SSC this Benghazi thing is two years old. and it has all been proven it was Izza lie's,and been  debunked over and over...I told you I don't watch the media channels especially not fox..

and if anyone believe the whiner Lindsey Graham. that is a hoot  plus this is from a conservative news watch~ another hoot republican mouthpiece. Also SSC your concerned about taxes that people are paying for this kind of crap, the republicans have alread spent millions on these investigations and Republicans came up wrong everytime.

I brought it, how many media outlets covering this do you need to be able to comprehend the WH is now busted and Issa has nothing to do with the WH lies that were disclosed. Hillary, Obama were all aware it was not some stupid video, but no one wanted to risk Obama losing the election so they LIED !!!

yes you brought propaganda from the Republican mouth piece and all have been debunked. Issa is a criminal and thief, how does anyone take him serious is a funny thing. show me where they are busted 

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/nov/11/cbs-news-60-minutes-benghazi-investigation

The Very Important Detail About the Latest Benghazi Emails Revealed During House Hearing
May. 1, 2014 2:20pm Pete Kasperowicz
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/05/01/the-very-important-detail-about-the-latest-benghazi-emails-revealed-during-house-hearing/

A retired Air Force general testified before a House panel Thursday that he and others knew in the first few hours that the 2012 Benghazi assault was a planned terrorist attack, and not a spontaneous response to an anti-Muslim video. It’s a revelation that raises new questions about emails released this week suggesting the administration was blaming the video days after others had ruled it out as a cause.

Retired Brigadier Gen. Robert Lovell, speaking before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Thursday, testified that it was clear “quite early on” that the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi was facing a terrorist attack.
a GOP member presses for answers on Benghazi on Thursday

Under questioning from Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, a retired general said it was clear early on that the Benghazi attack was a terrorist attack, not a response to a video. (AP/Rick Bowmer)

“[W]hat we did know quite early on was that this was a hostile action,” he said in his prepared remarks. “This was no demonstration gone terribly awry.”

He was pressed on this point by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), who asked how quickly it became clear that Al Qaeda was involved.

“Very, very soon,” Lovell said. “When we were still in the very early, early hours of this activity.”

“Was it a video?” Chaffetz asked?

“No sir.”

Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) also asked Lovell when he heard of the notion that the attack was a response to a video. Lovell said he heard it only briefly, but not as a serious theory.

When Issa asked if he had heard of this idea before 3:15 a.m. on September 12, 2012, Lovell said it was well before that time, and that the theory was quickly debunked.

“I would have to say [we] probably dismissed that notion by then, by working with other sources,” Lovell said.

“As the highest ranking person working that moment, you dismissed the idea that this attack was in fact a demonstration that had went awry and it was based on a YouTube video out of Los Angeles,” Issa then stated.

“Yessir, short answer,” Lovell responded:

Lovell’s testimony further undermines the story the White House initially put out, which was that their “best information” was that the attack was a spontaneous protest.

Emails released earlier this week showed that White House officials were actively trying to downplay the initial reports of a terrorist attack. Days later, the White House was writing talking points to then-U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice that played up the idea of a protest against the video.

The emails, released by conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, indicate that White House officials worked to ensure the event was not portrayed as a “broader failure” of U.S. policy.

Pressed on the discrepancy Thursday, White House press secretary Jay Carney continued to dismiss it as a phony controversy, and said the decision to play up the video angle was done in talking points dealing with protests around the region that were happening at the time.

Lovell did further damage to the Obama administration Thursday by testifying that the State Department never asked for military help to fight off the attack that ultimately led to the death of four Americans at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.

Chaffetz asked Lovell whether the military assets in Europe made an effort to get into Benghazi to save Americans.

“No sir, those assets did not,” Lovell said.

When asked why not, Lovell said the military was waiting for the State Department to make the call.

“Basically, there was a lot of looking to the State Department for what they wanted and the deference to the Libyan people and the sense of deference to the desires of the State Department in terms of what they would like to have,” he said. When asked again whether anyone ever went to help, Lovell said, “Not to my knowledge, sir.”

Chaffetz grew outraged at the news that the State Department didn’t ask for military help.

“We didn’t run to the sound of the guns,” he said. “They were issuing press releases. We had Americans dying. We had dead people. We had wounded people. And our military didn’t try to engage in that fight.”

Chaffetz then asked if the military could have helped. “We may have been able to, but we’ll never know.”

**************************************************************************
you sound like Hillary's what difference does it make, American lives lost for no reason and a lying White House make a big difference, and of course here we go again with your Republican bashing, really don't think all the news media sites ar their fans and nothing was posted from Fox so back up on that one and pay attention.

yes lives lost but at no fault of the adminstration,or obama and Clinton how about the thousands of lives lost over a false war from the Bush Adminstration why wasn't there a criminal invetigation on this? because Obama said we need to move forward, Bush and Cheny are war crimminals. you have proved nothing with you Benghazi myth. SSC your negative thoughts,does not make it right.. the lies have been debunked did you read my links? We will see the outcome as more myths are created the Repulican party is grasping for straws,as you are. If I remember right the Republican party cut more security . so does that count for fault?
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/10/10/985191/chaffetz-absolutely-funding-embassy-security/

maybe this will refresh your memory>>

aas I said IsSa is at it again!

how much more money will they spend of our taxes> how many more debunks ?  

http://www.msnbc.com/politicsnation/issa-subpoenas-kerry-testify-benghazi

also the first article on thei subect was posted a year ago,republicans still at it. even though it has been debunked over and over.

It was never debunked it was hidden by your current administration to save an election, I know it is a blow to your liberal ego but your president it a liar...I hope they spend billions if they have to , just to show the world Obama, Hillary, Carney and Rice each lied to the face of this country, and 4 men's lives could have been saved, don't go off talking points Gyp, this is not about any war this is about a failure by Obama's administration to protect the Bengazi embassy.
You seem confused about affiliation of networks CBS certainly isn't a Republican favoring site, but when a lie such as this is brought into the open they have to cover the NEWS...

it was debunked I can put the articles saying this.cbs apologized for the mistake reporting on Benghazi, if you would read my links. it is all garbage started by ISSA Talking points!!SSC? two years of this stupidity by your republican party. I find this humorous. the bush administration will always be talking points..