Is the CIA Creating 'Aliases' for Benghazi Survivors?

Rep. Trey Gowdy told Fox News that the CIA is creating aliases for some of the dozens of CIA operatives who were on the ground during the attack on our diplomatic outpost in Benghazi and dispersing them around the country.

Rep. Trey Gowdy claimed in an interview on Fox News that the Obama administration is creating “aliases” for survivors of the Benghazi terror attack and “dispersing them” throughout the country.

The allegation followed new reports about the lengths to which the administration is going to keep witnesses to the attack quiet. Fox News has learned that at least five CIA employees were forced to sign additional nondisclosure agreements this past spring in the wake of the Benghazi attack.
CNN also reported that CIA operatives are being intimidated into keeping quiet.

Gowdy, a South Carolina Republican, addressed the reports Thursday night on Fox News. He claimed the effort to keep information about the attack secret included “changing names, creating aliases.”

“So you stop and think what things are most calculated to get at the truth? Talk to people with first-hand knowledge. What creates the appearance or perhaps the reality of a cover-up? Not letting us talk to people who have the most amount of information, dispersing them throughout the country and changing their names,” he said.

The administration claims it has been forthcoming, both in providing documents about the attack and access to personnel. The CIA told CNN that CIA employees are “always free to speak to Congress.”

Either Gowdy has been misinformed, fed a load of hornswoggle, or there is a lot more to the Benghazi story than we can imagine.

What would cause the CIA to go to such extraordinary lengths to prevent Congress from hearing testimony from some of the survivors of the Benghazi attack? It could be that revealing what the agency was up to that night would compromise other operations and put people’s lives in danger. It might just be part of the culture of the CIA and their mania for secrecy.

Or they might have been up to something not entirely legal. It was not illegal for the CIA to transfer weapons from Libya to the Syrian rebels as long as there was a Presidential finding authorizing it. But what if the weapons transfer was just one part of the operation? The fact that only select CIA personnel are being subjected to the extra polygraphs and being shuttled around the country with different names might suggest only a few operatives knew of the entire operation.

Gowdy’s revelation sounds fantastic. But the level of cover-up of what went on in Benghazi during the attack just continues to grow and at this point, the least that can be said is that Gowdy’s information should be taken seriously.

Don’t miss Barry Rubin on What the Benghazi Leaks Mean