Breaking: CIA Director Brennan Sent Letter to Benghazi 'Survivors' telling them to cooperate with Congressional investigations

In response to prior news reports saying that the CIA was giving monthly polygraph exams toBenghazi survivors in order to intimidate them from cooperating with Congress, comes new information that appears to contradict the story.   

The WeeklyStandard has a piece that implies the CIA has been more cooperative than previously reported.  So much so that letters were put in writing inviting Benghazi survivors’ to cooperate with Congress.      

The Weekly Standard reports John Brennan, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, sent a letter to each of the CIA employees who were on the ground during the Benghazi attack on September 11, 2012, inviting them to share information with Congress, according to three sources familiar with the missive. Brennan sent the letter in late May at the behest congressional intelligence committees, whose members remain interested in hearing from the survivors of those attacks.

The letter from Brennan, which remains classified, conveyed a message the CIA leadership was willing to support and facilitate communications between the CIA employees involved in the Benghazi attacks and congressional oversight committees. The letter did not generate additional responses from CIA employees in Benghazi.

The disclosure of the existence of Brennan’s letter comes amidst renewed interest in the Benghazi attacks and their aftermath triggered in part by a CNN report last week that “dozens of people working for the CIA were on the ground that night” and “the agency is going to great lengths to make sure whatever it was doing remains a secret.” 

According to that report, “some CIA operatives involved in the agency’s missions in Libya have been subjected to frequent, even monthly polygraph examinations,” part of “an unprecedented attempt to keep the spy agency’s Benghazi secrets from ever leaking out.”

A statement from CIA spokesman Dean Boyd provided to THE WEEKLY STANDARD and other media outlets strongly disputes any suggestion of a cover-up. “The CIA has worked closely with its oversight committees to provide them with an extraordinary amount of information related to the attack on US facilities in Benghazi. 

 

Furthermore, CIA leadership has informed officers who may want to speak with the oversight committees on this matter that it will support and facilitate such contact.  CIA employees are always free to speak to Congress if they want to and there is an established process to facilitate such communication on a confidential basis.  The CIA enabled all officers involved in Benghazi the opportunity to meet with Congress. We are not aware of any CIA employee who has experienced retaliation, including any non-routine security procedures, or who has been prevented from sharing a concern with Congress about the Benghazi incident.”

More here

This raises an interesting question.  Who is giving the Benghazi survivors the polygraphs?   Is it the CIA or another government entity that wants to keep them quiet?