CIA operatives to testify at classified Benghazi hearing
updated 9:42 PM EDT, Thu October 31, 2013
CIA officers will testify on Benghazi
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- CIA contractors who responded to terror attack in Libya will tell their story to Congress
- Lawmakers have been pressing for witness accounts from the September 2012 attack
- Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in attack
- Benghazi has become a political flashpoint between Republicans and Obama administration
The men, described by
sources as former Navy SEALs, former Army Special Forces and former
Marines, were under contract to guard CIA agents on the ground there.
The security officers were among those who responded when Stevens' compound was attacked on the night of September 11, 2012.
They will appear before lawmakers behind closed doors during the week of November 11, sources told CNN.
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Members of Congress have
been trying to get access to the security officers and CIA agents, but
those attempts have failed to date.
Of the estimated nearly two dozen CIA operatives on the ground that night, only one has testified, the sources said.
Frustrated lawmakers have
told CNN they have been dissatisfied with the investigation so far
conducted by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers,
R-Michigan.
His staff defends the
work of the committee, telling CNN previously the review has included
nine full committee hearings, roundtable discussions with some Obama
administration officials, an interim report and a vow that the
investigation continues.
The members of Congress
say they don't want information that's filtered like what they've gotten
in briefings and documents, but that they want to hear the answers to
three basic questions straight from those who were there:
One: What was the CIA
doing in Libya? There have been allegations the CIA was operating a
gun-running program with weapons going from Libya to Syrian rebels.
Two: What happened
during the failed rescue attempts? CNN has been told that there was a
group of would-be rescuers at the CIA annex, armed and ready to go
within minutes of the attack, but they were held off until finally they
defied orders and staged a rescue on their own.
Three: Did the
administration know immediately that this was a planned terrorist
attack? And if so, why did administration officials try to first claim
it was a spontaneous response to a demonstration over a movie that
offended Muslims?
"I think that there's a
real mystery here surrounding what really took place and for reasons
unbeknownst to me, the Congress as well as the agency are going out of
their way to protect whatever there was that they were doing
operationally in Libya," said Fred Burton, a former State Department
diplomatic security agent who has written a book about Benghazi that's
now being turned into an HBO movie.
And sources say the CIA has been trying to keep its employees quiet.
CNN reported previously
that some operatives involved in the agency's missions in Libya have
been subjected to frequent -- even monthly -- polygraph examinations to
find out whether they've have spoken to Congress or the media, according
to sources with deep inside knowledge of the agency's workings.
The CIA said in a statement this is "patently false."
"Not a single CIA
officer who was on the ground in Benghazi during the attacks has been
subjected to any CIA polygraph intended to discourage them from speaking
to Congress or as retaliation," the agency told CNN.
"To date, some of these officers have already spoken to the oversight committees on Benghazi," it added.
CNN's Elizabeth Nunez contributed to this report.
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