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Anchored by Jake Tapper, The Lead airs at 4 p.m. ET on CNN.

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An investigation into what CIA agents were doing the night of Benghazi attack.

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The Lead with Jake Tapper draws not only on Tappers deep knowledge of politics and national issues, but also seeks to examine and advance stories across a wide range of topics that demonstrate his own curiosities and interests. Compelling headlines come from around the country and the globe, from politics to money, sports to popular culture, based on news drivers of the day. The Lead with Jake Tapper airs weekdays at 4 p.m. ET.

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August 1st, 2013
05:00 PM ET

Exclusive: Dozens of CIA operatives on the ground during Benghazi attack

CNN has uncovered exclusive new information about what is allegedly happeningattheCIA,inthewakeofthedeadlyBenghazi terror attack.

The Lead with Jake Tapper

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Four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, were killed in the assault by armed militants last September 11 in eastern Libya.

Sources now tell CNN dozens of people working for the CIA were on the ground that night, and that the agency is going to great lengths to make sure whatever it was doing, remains a secret.

CNN has learned the CIA is involved in what one source calls an unprecedented attempt to keep the spy agency's Benghazi secrets from ever leaking out. Read: Analysis: CIA role in Benghazi underreported
1,875 people like The Lead with Jake Tapper.

Since January, some CIA operatives involved in the agency's missions in Libya, have been subjected to frequent, even monthly polygraph examinations, according to a source with deep inside knowledge of the agency's workings.

The goal of the questioning, according to sources, is to find out if anyone is talking to the media or Congress.
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It is being described as pure intimidation, with the threat that any unauthorized CIA employee who leaks information could face the end of his or her career.

Archive
In exclusive communications obtained by CNN, one insider writes, "You don't jeopardize yourself, you jeopardize your family as well." AUGUST 2013

Another says, "You have no idea the amount of pressure being brought to bear on anyone with knowledge of this operation."

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"Agency employees typically are polygraphed every three to four years. Never more than that," said former CIA operative and CNN analyst Robert Baer.

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In other words, the rate of the kind of polygraphs alleged by sources is rare.

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"If somebody is being polygraphed every month, or every two months it's called an issue polygraph, and that means that the polygraph division suspects something, or they're looking for something, or they're on a fishing expedition. But it's absolutely not routine at all to be polygraphed monthly, or bi-monthly," said Baer.

CIA spokesman Dean Boyd asserted in a statement that the agency has been open with Congress.

"The CIA has worked closely with its oversight committees to provide them with an extraordinary amount of information related to the attack on U.S. facilities in Benghazi," the statement said.

"CIA employees are always free to speak to Congress if they want," the statement continued. "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."

Among the many secrets still yet to be told about the Benghazi mission, is just how many Americans were there the night of the attack.

A source now tells CNN that number was 35, with as many as seven wounded, some seriously.

While it is still not known how many of them were CIA, a source tells CNN that 21 Americans were working in the building known as the annex, believed to be run by the agency.

The lack of information and pressure to silence CIA operatives is disturbing to U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, whose district includes CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

"I think it is a form of a cover-up, and I think it's an attempt to push it under the rug, and I think the American people are feeling the same way," said the Republican.

"We should have the people who were on the scene come in, testify under oath, do it publicly, and lay it out. And there really isn't any national security issue involved with regards to that," he said.

Wolf has repeatedly gone to the House floor, asking for a select committee to be set-up, a Watergate-style probe involving several intelligence committee investigators assigned to get to the bottom of the failures that took place in Benghazi, and find out just what the State Department and CIA were doing there.

More than 150 fellow Republican members of Congress have signed his request, and just this week eight Republicans sent a letter to the new head of the FBI,JamesComey,askingthathebriefCongresswithin30days.

Read: White House releases 100 pages of Benghazi e-mails

In the aftermath of the attack, Wolf said he was contacted by people closely tied with CIA operatives and contractors who wanted to talk.

Then suddenly, there was silence.

"Initially they were not afraid to come forward. They wanted the opportunity, and they wanted to be subpoenaed, because if you're subpoenaed, it sort of protects

you, you're forced to come before Congress. Now that's all changed," said Wolf.

Lawmakers also want to about know the weapons in Libya, and what happened to them.

Speculation on Capitol Hill has included the possibility the U.S. agencies operating in Benghazi were secretly helping to move surface-to-air missiles out of Libya, through Turkey, and into the hands of Syrian rebels.

It is clear that two U.S. agencies were operating in Benghazi, one was the State Department, and the other was the CIA.

The State Department told CNN in an e-mail that it was only helping the new Libyan government destroy weapons deemed "damaged, aged or too unsafe retain," and that it was not involved in any transfer of weapons to other countries.

But the State Department also clearly told CNN, they "can't speak for any other agencies."

The CIA would not comment on whether it was involved in the transfer of any weapons.

Programming note: Was there a political cover up surrounding the Benghazi attack that killed four Americans? Watch a CNN special investigation The Truth About Benghazi, Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET.

Posted by Drew Griffin, Kathleen Johnston Filed under: World Lead

soundoff
Jim Butler

(8 Responses)

Damia Savon, My my how you rant and rant, start over and be a little more specific about your subject matter. I got nothing at all from you post except that you are probably a dumacrat. August 2, 2013 at 8:58 am | Reply

xx4zu1
Of course there is a cover up this is our spy agency. What do people think they do? Are Americans that naive that they believe everything the government does should be out in the open? For all we know "Ambassador" Stevens wasn't even an Ambassador. Do you honestly think we have a right to know what covert operations are going on everywhere? How many Americans in Special Operations groups die in "training accidents" is it really our right to know what it was these great men and women were doing at the time? Wake up people these agencies exist to do the dirty work that we really don't want to know about. August 2, 2013 at 7:29 am | Reply

BO
This is HUGE. Basically the CIA is reportedly giving polygraph tests EVERY MONTH to more than a dozen CIA employees that were on the ground in Benghazi during the attack, to ensure that none of them talk about what happened that night. August 2, 2013 at 6:40 am | Reply

BO
COVER-U P August 2, 2013 at 2:38 am | Reply

axxhole
"Lawmakers also want to about know the weapons in Libya" its one thing to misspell something. but to not get your words in order? come on guys you do this for a living. August 1, 2013 at 11:53 pm | Reply

brown

hahaha! Your government at work. They are going to start another Great War in your lifetime. August 1, 2013 at 9:41 pm | Reply

BO
Remember over 54 million did not vote for Obama. The welfare crowd and the blacks however did. August 2, 2013 at 6:47 am | Reply

Damia Savon
Pure BS. Stop being so f**king hateful and your party might do well at the polls. You realize how many "welfare" people are Republican don't you? People, surprisingly, do not vote in monlithic blocks nor is everyone a member of the same party regardless of skin color, socioeconomic status or any other stupid criteria you want to name. Grow the heck up. Your stupid rhetoric and 30 second sound bite may get you off but it won't help the country at all. Or are you and your Republican fools just so self-centered that you prefer to sit in a corner and just whine rather than actually do something, like, you know, compromise. That rant over, it does not surprise me the CIA is trying to cover things up. They were probably running amok again just like they did in the 70s and 80s. I bet there were more people availablle to go to the consolate but were held back because so many agents would raise too many questions. This does stink to high heaven. August 2, 2013 at 7:26 am |

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