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2013-07-19 Home Front: WoT

Congressman: Benghazi Survivors Forced to Sign Non-Disclosure Agreements

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Posted by Uncle Phester 2013-07-19 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11127 views ] Top

#1 Oh, you do not WISH to sign the Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), no problem. Unfortunately, however, your declination may result in a derogatory finding by the investigating officer on your upcoming security clearance periodic re-investigation. Maintaining your security clearance is, as you know, a condition of employment.

Please give it some thought.

Posted by Besoeker 2013-07-19 01:14|| 2013-07-19 01:14|| Front Page Top

#2 Both the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) and the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) have personnel with the appropriate clearances and access necessary to hear any Benghazi testimony contained in an NDA. If for some reason they do not have access, they can be selectively "read on" to necessary programmatic elements.

The failure of the HPSCI and SSCI to gain the required access and information can only be attributed to two causes:

a. They don't want the information.
b. As lawmakers, they no longer have the power to enforce compliance.

After what we have seen in recent weeks with testimony concerning the NSA, I'm leaning toward "b".

Posted by Besoeker 2013-07-19 01:45|| 2013-07-19 01:45|| Front Page Top

#3 You mean, that I could be thrown OUT If I don't sign (Breaks pencil in half) Where's the door.

Posted by Redneck Jim 2013-07-19 04:58|| 2013-07-19 04:58|| Front Page Top

#4 I go with (b). Congress is toothless and cowardly.

Posted by Secret Asian Man 2013-07-19 05:19|| 2013-07-19 05:19|| Front Page Top

#5 I can't figure out how this is even remotely legal. NDAs do not, cannot, apply with the intent to, or effect of, obstructing a criminal or Congressional investigation.

I know, I know - we're in Ogabe's utopia now. But I'm surprised that so many seemed to have signed, and didn't testify anyway. Am I the only one who'd toss a worthless signature on a worthless document, and go about the business of being sure the truth is known anyway? Maybe that course of action has just seemed routine in my life.

Posted by RandomJD 2013-07-19 15:28|| 2013-07-19 15:28|| Front Page Top

#6 You are entirely correct RDJ. It is absolutely not "legal" it is simple coercion under the usual cover of sensitive programs and national defense. Failure to comply could result in one's removal and a very long struggle to return. The survivors are caught between a rock and a hard place.

Power in this country now appears to rest in McLean, VA. not in the congress, but I drone on.

Posted by Besoeker 2013-07-19 15:44|| 2013-07-19 15:44|| Front Page Top

#7 Old days it was wet-work.

Now it's legal-work. Much more long-lasting and painful to the target.

Posted by Pappy 2013-07-19 15:52|| 2013-07-19 15:52|| Front Page Top

#8 So sign the NDA to buy yourself some time, spill your guts to Issa, and find another job. Maybe file suit if you have the resources and you're feeling frisky. End of the day, it's just a job. I don't know how these people sleep at night.

Here's where I'm coming from. I walked away from a million or three because I wouldn't compromise my integrity or sell my soul. Not sayin it didn't hurt, but money is fungible. Sure, everyone has a price, and I'm not unreasonable. I decided my soul is worth 8 or 9 figures at least. The blackmailer in question couldn't deliver the goods. Oh well. Sucks to be him.

Just sayin, if people are going to survive this regime with their souls intact, they'd better expand their thinking and find their spines.

Posted by RandomJD 2013-07-19 16:08|| 2013-07-19 16:08|| Front Page Top

#9 I agree RJD, and we wonder why we have Edward Snowdens.

Posted by Besoeker 2013-07-19 16:19|| 2013-07-19 16:19|| Front Page Top

#10 What's the Spot Market on Souls these days?

Posted by Shipman 2013-07-19 16:20|| 2013-07-19 16:20|| Front Page Top

#11 As I recall, our good Senator from SC, Lindsey Graham reportedly visited a few of these people in Bethesda and or Walter Reed. Has he signed an agency NDA as well, or has he just forgotten all about the visit(s) and moved on ?

Posted by Besoeker 2013-07-19 16:24|| 2013-07-19 16:24|| Front Page Top

#12 Judging by the gutless weenies who signed NDAs and have kept mum, the average looks to be about, mm, $100k/yr, +/- $25k? Pathetic. I could sell my body for a lot more than that, and feel a lot less disgusted with myself.

Posted by RandomJD 2013-07-19 16:28|| 2013-07-19 16:28|| Front Page Top

#13 Hard to actually say unless each situation is examined. Could have been some long-term disabilities, medical requirements [resulting from the Benghazi attack], not to mention pensions, etc. We don't even know who these people are, let alone their individual duties and responsibilities. Gov't or contractor, State Dept, US Citizen, Non-US Citizen, detainee......? We may never know.

Posted by Besoeker 2013-07-19 16:42|| 2013-07-19 16:42|| Front Page Top

#14 I disagree. The minute it became clear that this industrial age commie retread was just another corrupt, lawless, unaccountable, redistributionist tyrant cut from the same cloth that has ruined so many societies before, people needed to prepare themselves to never depend on the government for anything again. Not a paycheck, not a pension, nuthin. I say this as a federal employee with veteran's preference. I'm surfing the wave as long as I can, but I do not expect it to last.

I grant that the attacks were not even a year ago, and it takes time to shift gears. But the longer the NDA-signers take to speak up, the more I consider them complicit with the cover-up, and in the harm Ogabe is inflicting on this country. Their knowledge gives them power that Random Citizens don't have, and that gives them the obligation to do something with it. They wanted to serve their country? To live a meaningful life? Then now is the time. Now is their chance. Such opportunities are often foisted upon us, unwanted, at the worst possible time, and call upon us to do the previously unthinkable. I'd like to know WTF rock COL Bristol, in particular, has been hiding under.

Harsh, yes. But am I wrong?

Posted by RandomJD 2013-07-19 17:09|| 2013-07-19 17:09|| Front Page Top

#15 No, I won't say you're wrong RJD. However, altruism is not a key motivating factor for most folks who take up this rather sordid line of work. It's a small community and once you go off the reservation, you're done. These people know who they are working for. They are also keenly aware they can be betrayed and instantly be stuffed under the bus.

The people who have the answers are folks like Petreaus, Brennen, Donilon, Rice, Panetta, and possibly Jarrett. These are the people who we should be putting the pressure on.

Posted by Besoeker 2013-07-19 17:46|| 2013-07-19 17:46|| Front Page Top

#16 Could have been some long-term disabilities, medical requirements [resulting from the Benghazi attack], not to mention pensions, etc.

and security clearances. Could also be a long and agonizing process through the legal system digestive track. Especially if there... issues that would not stand the light of day.

Posted by Pappy 2013-07-19 18:25|| 2013-07-19 18:25|| Front Page Top

#17 I don't expect altruism to be the motivation, but rather principle. People can be blackmailed only when they are dependent on something, or can't detach from something they want. When they allow their desire for something material to be exploited. When their thinking is too rigid to consider a broader range of options.

Anyone in a "sordid line of work" should be able to ask themselves, "would the world come to an end if I no longer had [thing of material value I'd rather not lose]?" And be able to answer: no.

But fair enough, I'd rather see the cheeses in the hot seat. Wouldn't it be easier to make that happen, though, if rank-and-file, on-the-ground folks exposed incriminating details? Isn't burying such details the point of the NDAs?

Posted by RandomJD 2013-07-19 18:28|| 2013-07-19 18:28|| Front Page Top

#18 I should add: I too was part of a small community, within which being betrayed and stuffed under the bus was a matter of when, not if. I knew very well that once I left the reservation, I'd be done.

I've never regretted it. So it's just hard for me to imagine how anyone would.

Posted by RandomJD 2013-07-19 18:40|| 2013-07-19 18:40|| Front Page Top

#19 I don't look at it as being blackmailed. I look at it as having a choice. When option A permits lies and evil to prevail, unthinkable option B starts to seem thinkable.

Problem here is, even if someone could supply direct evidence of Ogabe's malfeasance, nothing would change. The MFM would bury it under "look, squirrel!" noise, and no one would be impeached. In which case, there's no point dying on that hill, and I'd in fact be quite forgiving.

Posted by RandomJD 2013-07-19 19:07|| 2013-07-19 19:07|| Front Page Top

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