Several State Department and CIA workers were allegedly intimidated into keeping silent over the attacks on the US diplomatic mission in Benghazi last year. The unnamed officials feel if they testify their livelihood and their jobs could be put at risk.
“If you are going to take away somebody's job or living then
it's a threat,” said Victoria Toensing, one of the officials’
attorneys to Fox. She did not describe how the intimidation
occurred but stressed that it was done in a “very subtle
way.”
She went on to stress that her client had invaluable information to
share with Congress regarding the attack that killed the American
Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three of his aides last
September. Moreover, Toensing signaled that her client also had
information about the days following the attack and the way in
which it was dealt with by US intelligence.
“What the State Department has to do is clear the lawyer for the
information to come out. So even if my client is a witness they
will only get half a story,” Toensing stated. She hinted that
other employees had not come forward with their testimonies because
they were afraid of the consequences. She described it as
“frightening” that cooperating with congressional
investigators could end a career in one fell swoop.
Republicans have repeatedly attacked the Obama Administration’s
handling of the attack on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi,
alleging security lapses in the run up to the incident and attempts
at a cover-up.
The president addressed the claims on Tuesday during a press
conference, maintaining that he was aware of no such reports of
intimidation among CIA employees.
"I'm not familiar with this notion that anybody's been blocked
from testifying," President Obama said.
The State Department echoed the president’s words, stating it was
unaware of any requests of security clearance for private attorneys
for employees.
"The State Department would never tolerate or sanction retaliation
against whistleblowers on any issue, including this one,"
deputy agency spokesman Patrick Ventrell said.
Obama’s government has always maintained it treated the incident
with the utmost transparency. There have been eight hearing into
the matter thus far, as well as a testimony from former Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton in January.
Conjecture has been rife since the attack in September over whether
or not the White House had information in advance on Benghazi. The
Obama Administration initially insisted that it was a knee-jerk
reaction to an inflammatory American-made video, ‘Innocence of the
Muslims’, which sparked protests across the Muslim world.
However, it was later suggested that the attack may have been
orchestrated by an affiliate of Al-Qaeda and it was labeled as an
act of terrorism rather than a spontaneous reaction to the video.
An independent inquiry from The Accountability Review Board
concluded that the State Department was woefully unprepared for the
attack on the consulate and that failures in leadership and
management had led to the blunder. The probe stopped short at
personally blaming Clinton.
Clinton’s private emails to former presidential aide Sidney
Blumenthal regarding the Benghazi attack were leaked to RT in March
by a hacker using the alias ‘Guccifer’.