[WEEKLYSTANDARD] One year after the terrorist attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, the survivors may finally begin to talk.Perhaps one of the things they can talk about is what they've been doing for the past year.
In a three-page letter to the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Mike Rogers, CIA director John Brennan says that his agency will provide the "relevant information" to Rogers in order to facilitate meetings between CIA-affiliated personnel in Benghazi and congressional oversight committees. The offer of cooperation, dated September 3, 2013, comes as four committees of jurisdiction in the House of Representatives prepare to reinvigorate separate inquiries into the events of September 11, 2012, and their aftermath. In the next two weeks, the House Foreign Affairs, Armed Services, Government Oversight and Reform, and Intelligence Committees will all hold hearings looking into different aspects of the Benghazi attacks -- beginning with an Intelligence Committee hearing later this week on the lack of progress in the investigation and apprehension of the perpetrators of those attacks. 60 Minutes is planning to air its investigation into the Benghazi attacks later this fall.
In his letter to Rogers, Brennan responded to several specific questions the Intelligence Committee chairman had posed in a letter dated August 2, 2013, denying that CIA officers on the ground during the attacks had been subjected to polygraphs or required to sign non-disclosure agreements. He also denied that any CIA officers -- "either staff or contractor" -- had been told not to speak to Congress about the attacks or threatened with consequences for any such cooperation. "To the best of my knowledge after inquiry, I am unaware of any officer who has been threatened with reprisals," Brennan wrote. "Nor would I tolerate such behavior. To retaliate or threaten retaliation would be a violation of law."