Why is CIA wasting their time investigating a “phony” scandal?
We all suspected this kind of intimidation was going on but now CNN is confirming it. They are reporting that the CIA is involved in a “unprecedented” effort to keep everyone who was in Benghazi at the time of the attack to keep quiet:
Sources now tell CNN dozens of people working for the CIA were on the ground that night, and that the agency is going to great lengths to make sure whatever it was doing, remains a secret.
CNN has learned the CIA is involved in what one source calls an unprecedented attempt to keep the spy agency’s Benghazi secrets from ever leaking out.
Since January, some 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.
The goal of the questioning, according to sources, is to find out if anyone is talking to the media or Congress.
It is being described as pure intimidation, with the threat that any unauthorized CIA employee who leaks information could face the end of his or her career.
In exclusive communications obtained by CNN, one insider writes, “You don’t jeopardize yourself, you jeopardize your family as well.”
Another says, “You have no idea the amount of pressure being brought to bear on anyone with knowledge of this operation.”
“Agency employees typically are polygraphed every three to four years. Never more than that,” said former CIA operative and CNN analyst Robert Baer.
In other words, the rate of the kind of polygraphs alleged by sources is rare.
They are also reporting that there was 21 CIA operatives in the Annex at the time of the attack. That’s quite a few agents for a town that the State Department didn’t deem important enough to place a secure embassay in.
Remember…State denies the weapon transfer rumor but the CIA hasn’t confirmed nor denied it.
Could that be why there were so many agents on the ground?
Either way the CIA is doing it’s best to make sure no one talks, they are hiding something and it stinks of a cover-up.
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@john: Why am I not surprised you cited an article you didn’t even read?
Brennan sent a classified letter: we don’t know what it said. This news does nothing to discredit the claim that the CIA involved are being steered to not testify in front of Congress.
The article only strengthens the case that something is amiss.
Thanks for the support, john. You seem to be supporting the very things you think you’re railing against.
@Nan G:
Nan,
Thanks for those kind words. I didn’t even stop to think it might sound apologetic as that would be the farthest from how I feel. I think I was actually trying to whittle down my big post into a little synopsis.
Seriously, I was trying to convey I’m five times as mad now. 🙂
You are dead on as to your assertion of “outrage fatigue”. It is something we must fight against every day. One thing I have seen for many years now and many others have commented on in the past: Unfortunately the Republicans and conservatives play the political game very badly, always willing to compromise with an opponent that is in your face and openly defies them to cave in on their principles so as to avoid being stabbed in the back while if anyone would open their eyes, it is openly apparent the knife will in fact be plunged into their back as soon as they cave. And heaven forbid a conservative should openly voice their opinions and possibly insult a PC correct loon!
@Nathan Blue:
In regard to #50:
Two quotes from an evil past, our good friend (this is sarcasm for the loonies out there) Adolf that augment your premise:
“It is not truth that matters, but victory.”
“All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach.”
How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don’t think.
By the skillful and sustained use of propaganda, one can make a people see even heaven as hell or an extremely wretched life as paradise.
@joetote: I stopped supporting the Dem party when the above quotations became the words they live by.
Dangerous times we live in . . .
@joetote:
Interesting read. Thanks.
But the biggest threat to us is what I call “creeping” Socialism. And how it came to have any power in our nation. Start with Woodrow Wilson who believed that the intelligentsia and academia were the only ones who had the smarts, and the wisdom, to lead our nation. Add to the mix FDR’s Second Bill of Rights, and basically you have modern day America, aided by the Frankfort Marxists who fled Nazi Germany to become professors in our universities who then taught the teachers who became the teachers who taught William Ayers and Barack Obama. So for almost 100 years, intelligentsia and academia has become more and more left and socialist. It is simply a domino effect; one professor teaches 20 students who become teachers who teach 400 students, etc.
Of course, Gramsci outlined the whole process by peaceful means.
I remember when Obama first came on the scene, I wondered why a little known politician from Illinois had been chosen to give the key-note speech at the Democrat National Convention. Who was pushing him? Who was behind his planned rise in national politics? I found an article written by Obama while at Columbia that supported the Greens. Most people, when you say “Greens” think environment but that is not what they were, or are. They are socialists who differ from the Reds in that they included the “environment” into their platform. Anti-war, anti-nuclear, anti-capitalism, pro-socialism, pro-environment. And here was Obama singing their praises as a student.
Not one website ever mentioned Obama’s Columbia years article.
Every day we get farther and farther from our beginnings. And now I wonder if we will ever be able to return to them. Has the damage a Socialist President is doing to our nation ended the original goals of a free people?
You see, the Greens were smart. They knew if you could control people through energy and health care, you could control their every action. From where you live to where you work to how much you are allowed to earn, and spend; you would no longer be a free man but a member of the “nudged” proletariat. And having control means having power.
One other thing that is required is dissention. Dissention between the classes, be it poor/middle class against the wealthy or race. We are definitely seeing a rise in racial dissention. All achieved via dumbing down the masses in our educational system. Detroit didn’t get where it is because it educated people, it got where it is because 47% of the city’s population is functionally illiterate. Those people stopped being individuals with personal goals and started being just another member of the collective. An uneducated/unarmed society is a society that can be controlled and manipulated. Green/Socialist Party goals.
@retire05:
Retire05,
It’s funny because so much of the stuff I left out of that repost is almost exactly what you refer to, the Creeping Socialism”. I’ve said more than once the problem is deeper and goes back decades earlier than what so many are just now discovering. And of course you, I and so many others have questioned from the start exactly where this guy actually came from. Again though, the information was there if one looked so in many ways it still falls back on the people in general for they are allowing the dream to be bastardized into the nightmare that the American Dream is becoming. Starting 100 years ago is in fact a good starting point if one is to analyze why we are where we are now.
@Nathan Blue, #35:
So far as I know, Obama has used executive privilege only once. That was in connection with Issa’s Fast and Furious investigation. He claimed executive privilege to withhold sensitive documents about the ATF operation that Eric Holder didn’t believe should be made public.
Obama has thus far signed a total of only 161 executive orders. The annual rate at which he has been issuing them has been less than most modern presidents. Refer to this Forbes article for a table. Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan, and G.H.W. Bush all issued them with greater frequency.
The real issue, of course, is the content of executive orders, not the quantity. A number of those issued by G.W. Bush raised rather alarming questions of Constitutionality. There’s been nothing comparable during Obama’s time in office.
@Greg:
So signing an EO absolving the Congress from Obamacare, in direct violation with the law itself, a law Obama pushed for and that Democrats forced through Congress, does not raise rather alarming questions of Constitutionality? Yeah, right!
@retire05, #58:
Would you care to explain specifically what was done, how it’s a direct violation of the law itself, and how it is somehow unconstitutional?
Most of the conservative articles I’ve found on the topic are short on details and high on hysterical babble. In short, I don’t think they know what they’re talking about.
@Greg:
Good, God, Greggie; can you even tie your shoes without help? Try Politico, hardly a right wing site.
Damn, you’re lazy.
@Greg, tough to “tie your shoes” when you’re wearing loafers, eh? LOL
Let’s see… chain of events and major misrepresentation comes down like this.
1: White House Dossier’s Keith Koffler comes out two days ago with an old story which, again links back to Politico. Their 8/1/13 story headline is “Hill gets Obamacare fix”, by John Breshahan and a co-writer.
2: I say old story because Breshahan tried this back in April with the headline, “Lawmakers, aides may get Obamacare exception”.
3: Oddly enough, it was a conservative site, Freedomworks, that had to straight out Politico’s mess of the facts. Congress is not exempt or “absolved” from O’healthcare. Freedomworks explains the law’s text and details in the story.
What happened recently is that question INRE the govt employer can contribute funds to staffers using exchange based insurance has been answered…. yes, they can and the OPM is issuing a ruling that confirms the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program could contribute premium payments toward plans on the exchange. This debate was created over Grassley’s inserted amendment language, saying that members of Congress and their aides must be covered by plans “created” by the law or “offered through an exchange.
Whether the ruling requires an EO, or just a regulatory ruling by the FEHBP and OPM, I don’t know. The only person who’s raised the specter of some heretofore unseen EO is Ulsterman a couple of days ago.
Regardless of ruling or EO, it is not an exemption from O’healthcare, but a question of contributions by the “employer”, being the federal govt. In fact, as conservative/TP organization, Freedomworks, pointed out back in April, the fact that Congress and their members could only be offered plans that are either created by Obamacare or are offered through an exchange, is not only *not* exempt, it’s actually more restrictive than for the average US citizen. IOW, only Congress and staff were forced into new or exchange plans. Which is probably why Grassley wanted it in there. Likely he was trying to force Congress and staff to dump their existing coverage and push them in to the Exchanges.
If the govt could not contribute as the employer, and they wanted to keep what they had instead of an exchange program, they’d just have to pay more for it… which wouldn’t happen to a standard citizen keeping his existing plan.
Hopefully the disinformation campaign will come to a halt… but I doubt it. And I doubt you’ll get more than lip service from the GOP members and staffers. They are sorta in a win win situation.
@MataHarley, #61:
All of us radical Marxist types wear sandals—a habit we picked up in our hippy days. It makes it easier to wash our feet without taking our shoes off, on the rare occasions when we decide to wash.
Thanks for the clarification on healthcare issue.
@Greg:
Perhaps you should consider adding underwear and deodorant to the mix.
@Greg:
Unfortunately, the majority of Americans disagree, and I’m not sure you could keep a straight face while repeating that.
Lack of Constitutionality has been a hallmark of the Obama presidency. Nothing comparable to Bush’s rather honest and transparent use of Executive powers.
@retire05: #55
Well said.
@Greg: #62
That was funny. Even though we disagree on most things, someone who can’t joke about themselves is hard to get a long with.
Since you mentioned, “…our hippy days….”, can you relate to this song? If so, then I understand your lack of understanding common sense. LOL
So, as per the 48-hour rule, it’s been a few days since this CIA/intimidation story surfaced.
How has it shaken out?
No sources yet for the story’s allegations.
BUT, John Hinderaker, at Powerline claims he has a source in congress with inside information that the entire CIA/intimidation story is bogus.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2013/08/benghazi-is-the-alleged-cia-scandal-real.php?tsize=large&tsize=large
His source:
John asks about the night of the attack:
Does that include Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton back in Washington? No:
Another necessary distraction.
After all who really is to blame for our failure in Benghazi?
Hillary, Susan Rice, Obama.
Can’t be having fingers pointing at them, now, can we?
no wander all those rebellions last so long,
they had the help of the president from the beginning,
and SYRIA WOULD HAVE FINISH HIS FIGHT WITH THE REBELS IF NO HELP WAS ON THE SIDE OF THE REBELS, NOW WE KNOW HE IS TRYING TO ENFORCE THE SIDE OF THE HARD CORE ISLAM
and close the circle. so they can invade the USA, HIS PLAN IS SHOWING UP NOW
AND THERE IS NO DOUBT, THAT IS HIS PLAN FROM DAY ONE,
HE HAD TO BLINDFOLD HIS SUPPORTERS FIRST AND HE DID WITH THE INDOCTRINATION OF THE YOUTH AND THE PEOPLE WHO VERY STRANGELY FOLLOW HIM AS IF HE WAS A SAVIOR which is abnormal in this USA,
BUT IS THE REGULAR BEHAVIOR IN MUSLIM COUNTRIES,
now look where the CHRISTIANITY IS REDUCE TO IN THIS AMERICA,
THIS IS ONE PROOF UN-DENIED AND ONE OF MANY,
IT TOOK EGYPT TO GIVE US THE OTHER PROOF, AMONG OTHER PROOFS
THE HEAD OF CIA, HAS BEEN NOMINATED BY OBAMA ,
NOT SO LONG AGO,
OF COURSE SHE WILL SIDE UP WITH HIS RHETORIC,