Benghazi is back in the news again. The terrorist attack on the American consulate that claimed the lives of four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, has received new interest due to whistleblowers who may have new information to give to congressional investigators:
CBS News has learned that multiple new whistleblowers are privately speaking to investigators with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee regarding the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attacks on the U.S. compounds in Benghazi, Libya.
The nature of the communications with the whistleblowers and their identities are not being made public at this time. But in response, the Oversight Committee yesterday sent letters to the three federal agencies involved: the CIA, the Defense Department and the State Department.
The letters make the case for the whistleblowers to be able to share sensitive or classified information with their own attorneys, and ask for each agency’s official description of the legal steps that process must follow. The letters also state that additional witnesses may be “compelled by subpoena to give testimony.”
Secretary of State John Kerry, who assumed his new role in February, recently told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that it is, in his opinion, time to “move on” from Benghazi. But there are still many unanswered questions about security failures and the initial messaging from the White House that the attack was a “spontaneous” protest against an anti-Islam video that had gone awry.
A report released from an independent panel charged with looking into the State Department’s handling of Benghazi concluded that “systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies” led to lax security at the consulate. The report also noted that the ”first reference to the anti-Islam film that was initially blamed for sparking the attack was not detected on social media until a day later.”
Four officials at the State Department were relieved of their duties due to the report. Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is thought to be the likely frontrunner for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 2016, was not held accountable.
Source: United Liberty
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