Report: CIA using polygraph tests to ensure Benghazi operations stay secret

The CIA allegedly had “dozens” of agency operatives on the ground at the U.S. diplomatic annex in Benghazi, Libya, during last year’s deadly terrorist attack that ended with the deaths of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. 

Langley is taking extreme measures to mask the agency’s operations in Benghazi and in northern Libya at the time of the strike, according to CNN.

Agency employees involved with CIA operations in the country are being subjected to monthly polygraph tests, among other counterintelligence measures, an unnamed source told CNN. 

{mosads}Those efforts, according to the source, are part of a larger effort to suppress any information from Congress or the public of U.S. intelligence operations that might have been taking place at the CIA annex to the consulate. 

CIA spokesman Dean Boyd dismissed the claims, saying all agency employees involved with the agency’s operations in Benghazi have been allowed to testify before Congress on those missions. 

“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,” according to Boyd. 

Thursday’s reports has only added more fuel to the political firestorm surrounding the Obama administration’s involvement in the ongoing CIA operations in Benghazi prior to the attack and its response after the deadly strikes. 

The Obama administration initially claimed the Benghazi attack was the result of an anti-American protest gone wrong. Only weeks later did the Obama administration acknowledge the strike was a planned, coordinated attack by Islamic extremist groups.

Republican lawmakers have charged that the administration sought to downplay the terrorist attack in the weeks ahead of November’s presidential election.

News reports last year also suggested the diplomatic mission of the U.S. annex in Benghazi was a cover for a large-scale CIA intelligence operation inside Libya run out of the State Department facility.

The spartan outpost in Benghazi was reportedly one of several intelligence hubs set up by Langley in the aftermath of the Libyan revolution that ended with former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s death in March 2011.

The large CIA presence in Benghazi has convinced one House Republican the agency’s mission in Benghazi was far larger than just collecting intelligence. 

On the House floor on Thursday, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) accused the agency of running a large-scale weapons distribution operation, designed to move heavy weapons captured from Gadhafi’s arsenals to rebel forces in Syria. 

“Is it possible that the president … [authorized] the weapons collected in Libya to be transferred to Syrian rebels? Was the CIA annex being used to facilitate these transfers?” Wolf asked. 

“If these weapons were not being transferred to other countries like Syria, where exactly did they end up?” Wolf asked.

“Was the CIA annex being used as a logistics center to track and transfer these weapons?” he added. 

On Thursday, the State Department told CNN it was aiding the transition government in Libya to destroy captured weapons and was not involved in any arms transfers to foreign countries. 

However, State Department officials could not comment on the activities of other government agencies stationed at the U.S. diplomatic outpost.