Benghazi Update: Obfuscations & Lies

Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz says the State Department still refuses to provide the House Oversight Committee and the National Security Subcommittee with the names of the Americans who survived the September 11, 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi.

Committee members would like to interview the survivors to find out exactly what happened on the night of the attacks, but the White House refuses to disclose the names of the survivors to the committee.

"The State Dept. will not provide us the information." Chaffetz said. "There were more than a dozen [survivors]. Some were interviewed in Libya, some were interviewed in Germany the night after the attack. We know that there have been people at the Bethesda Hospital; Secretary Kerry has visited those people. They won't even tell us their names!"

Chaffetz also said that the committee had sent a letter to the Accountability Review Board requesting them to testify before congress, but the Review Board - the investigative panel which Hillary Clinton appointed to do a whitewash job and absolve the administration of any blame - turned down the committee's request.

In a related development: The Obama administration, in recent days, handed over some documents pertaining to the Benghazi attacks after Congressional Republicans threatened to withhold confirmation of CIA director nominee John Brennan unless the White House agreed to disclose additional information about the attacks.

CBS' Sharyl Attkisson reported on Monday:

Regarding the [Obama adminstration's] talking points [on Benghazi]: one source who reviewed the documents said removal of the word "al Qaeda" from the talking points was initiated, at least in part, by one of the "press shops." The source said press officers from the Defense Intelligence agency, the White House and the FBI were "looped in" from the start and that some of them expressed concerns in writing that the media would ask follow up questions if certain words or phrases were used...

The documents indicated numerous other changes were made to the talking points, including removal of certain references to an "attack."

The source who reviewed the documents also flagged several emails prior to the Benghazi attacks from officials in Libya to Washington, D.C., that supposedly specifically warned of an imminent attack within days of the Benghazi consulate.

In other words, despite claims from the Obama administration - the President, Leon Panetta and the rest of the gang - that there were no signs of an imminent attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi prior to actual attack, there were indeed specific warnings of an imminent attack on the consulate. Likewise, Attkisson noted via twitter that, "An official familiar with the docs says there were warnings from Libya sent to Washington in the days leading up to the attack that specifically warned of an imminent attack on the US compound in Benghazi."

Additionally, the source says "most if not all contact" between officials in Libya and Washington, D.C., once the attacks began reference al Qaeda, al Qaeda-affiliated cells or both as being the suspected instigator from the very start...

"It's amazing that anyone would question who was behind the attack and keep the idea of the demonstration going for weeks," said the source.