NEW Benghazi Scandal Emails

[WEEKLY UPDATE]

REVEALED: OBAMA EFFORT TO ‘EVOLVE’ EXPLANATION OF BENGHAZI ATTACK

[[link removed]]
It’s hard to keep your story straight if you’re making it up as
you go along, which was the modus operandi of Obama fabricator
[[link removed]]
Ben Rhodes.

The Justice Department released 80 pages
[[link removed]]
of records showing top Obama White House officials scrambling to
“evolve” its false claims that the September 11, 2012, terrorist
attacks on U.S. Government facilities in Benghazi, Libya, began
“spontaneously” in response to an anti-Muslim video on the
Internet.

The emails reveal top Obama White House official Ben Rhodes and
Clinton State Department Deputy Chief of Staff Jake Sullivan joking
about being called “liars” and “leakers.”

The records were produced in response to our 2016 Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit (_Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of
Justice
[[link removed].
1:16-cv-02046)). We filed the lawsuit
[[link removed]]
after the Justice Department failed to comply with a July 7, 2016,
FOIA request for records of the FBI’s investigation of former
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server
during her tenure.

On September 16, 2012, then-U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice
[[link removed]]
appeared on five Sunday television talk shows claiming the Benghazi
attack was incited spontaneously by an anti-Muslim Internet video. The
newly released records show a redacted official’s email
[[link removed]]
from September 27 to then-Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes
and then-NSC spokesman Tommy Vietor, copying then-Deputy Chief of
Staff Jake Sullivan, saying, “What’s the plan here?” Rhodes
responds:

> Broader plan is IC [intelligence community] acknowledgement of an
> evolving assessment of what took place, which happens to be true
> (unlike just about everything else we’ve seen reported on
> Benghazi.)
Further along in the email thread, an official whose name is
redacted, says, “Everyone know [sic] Susan [in her TV appearances]
was using not just IC approved guidance, but IC created.”

Additionally, Rhodes says
[[link removed]]
to Sullivan and other redacted officials:

> At least you’re only a liar. Could be worse – we’re liars and
> also allegedly leakers. So you’ve got that going for you, which is
> something.

> Sullivan replies: “We’re only lying footsoldiers [sic]. You’re
> lying masterminds. That’s cooler.”

> A redacted official replies to Sullivan: “I prefer that we go by
> henchmen. Has more of a Marvel comic sinisterness to it. There
> should be a cable show where all the guests, and the anchor, have to
> wear polygraphs. Or, when there’s a dispute between source, the
> aggrieved parties take a poly, with some neutral third party
> rendering judgment. The Biggest Liar.”

> Rhodes says to Sullivan: “I’d like to go on television and tell
> everybody what I think…. Look at it this way. I[t] could be worse.
> You could be a career bureaucrat whose greatest thrill in life is
> leaking half-truths, self-justifications and outright lies to the
> likes of Eli Lake, Kim Dozier, and whoever picks up the phone at Fox
> News.”
We previously uncovered
[[link removed]]
that on September 14 Rhodes and other Obama administration officials
were attempting to orchestrate a campaign to “reinforce” President
Obama and to portray the Benghazi consulate terrorist attack as being
“rooted in an Internet video, and not a failure of policy.” Also
included were numerous emails sent during the assault on the Benghazi
diplomatic facility. The contemporaneous and dramatic emails describe
the assault as an “attack:”

> September 11, 2012
>
[[link removed]],
6:41
> PM – Senior Advisor Eric Pelofsky
>
[[link removed]],
to Susan
> Rice:
>
> As reported, the Benghazi compound came under attack and it took a
> bit of time for the ‘Annex’ colleagues and Libyan February 17
> brigade to secure it. One of our colleagues was killed – IMO Sean
> Smith. Amb Chris Stevens, who was visiting Benghazi this week is
> missing. U.S. and Libyan colleagues are looking for him…

> At 8:51 pm, Pelofsky tells Rice
>
[[link removed]]
and
> others that “Post received a call from a person using an [sic] RSO
> phone that Chris was given saying the caller was with a person
> matching Chris’s description at a hospital and that he was alive
> and well. Of course, if he were alive and well, one could ask why
> he didn’t make the call himself.”

> Later that evening, Pelofsky emailed Rice
>
[[link removed]]
that
> he was “very, very worried. In particular that he [Stevens] is
> either dead or this was a concerted effort to kidnap him.” Rice
> replied, “God forbid.”
The new records show a December 2, 2015, communication
[[link removed]]
from NASA Regional Counterintelligence Director Arthur Payton to the
FBI Counterintelligence Division in which Payton returns a review of
evidence obtained in the course of the FBI investigation of
Clinton’s email server, specifically, a “classification and
determination review.” The contents of the classification review and
determination were not included among the records released.

In an April 20, 2016, memorandum
[[link removed]]
from Robert Zanger, of DOJ’s Office of Records Management and
Policy, to Peter Strzok memorializing an earlier request by Strzok,
Zanger indicates that Strzok had requested that DOJ produce “‘all
electronic and transactional records between any @clintonemail.com
email account’ and thirty-nine (39) specified DOJ email accounts
…’” Strzok also asked the DOJ for a “general, or gateway,
search of its [DOJ’s] systems for any other electronic and
transactional records involving the identified external e-mail domain
[@clintonemail.com].” The April 20 memo indicates DOJ complied with
the request, saying, “JMD [Justice Management Division] searched
for any appearance of the @clintonemail.com domain in the electronic
information (including emails and documents) of current and departed
named custodians from the components for which JMD maintains
electronic information. JMD located a small number of documents, but
no email between the @clintonemail.com domain and any named
custodian.” The memo notes that JMD had other DOJ components search
their records too, and that:

> The Civil Division located nine documents containing the term
> @clintonemail.com. A review of the content of the nine records by
> the Civil Division confirmed that the responses were related to the
> Division’s handling of Freedom of Information Act litigation, not
> communications between the custodian and the @clintonemail.com
> domain.
The memo noted that while it conducted a search of DOJ’s email
gateway server for any email between DOJ email accounts and the
@clintonemail.com domain, “THE SERVER LOG IS MAINTAINED FOR A PERIOD
OF TWO YEARS. [Emphasis added] JMD performed a search [April 2016] in
the JMD-managed Email Gateway Server Log for the @clintonemail.com
domain covering the period of 2/3/14 to 2/3/16 and found no email to
or from the @clintonemail.com domain. [By the time this search was
conducted, and no records were found, Clinton had been out of office
as secretary of state since January 2013, a period of three years and
three months.]

In a January 28, 2016, memo
[[link removed]]
from Peter Strzok to the Counterespionage Group at the CIA, Strzok
says that – due to a Section 811(c)
[[link removed]]
referral under the Intelligence Authorization Act from the
Intelligence Community Inspector General relating to the unauthorized
release of classified information – the FBI is requesting a copy of
a document, the title of which is redacted. Strzok notes that, “The
assessment was provided to the Office of the Director of National
Intelligence (ODNI), the National Security Council (NSC) and to the
Department of State (DoS) in, or around, October of 2009.”

In connection with an apparent response to the above “Request for
Records,” an FBI memo
[[link removed]]
dated June 27, 2016, indicates that the CIA provided the document
sought. The synopsis of the memo reads: “CIA response to FBI LHM
[Letterhead Memo] dated January 28, 2016 regarding a document
request.” The memo further notes: “[redacted] document attached to
CIOL [apparently referring to a Counterintelligence Operations
Letter].”

Joking about being called ‘liars’ after being caught lying about
the Benghazi terrorist attack says a lot about the Obama-Clinton
team’s contempt for the rule of law and those four innocent
Americans murdered in Libya September 11, 2012. The documents also
show that Ben Rhodes, the Obama White House official who created the
false story for Susan Rice to use on Benghazi, was planning to
orchestrate again an ‘evolving’ explanation about the Benghazi
attack by the Intelligence Community in time for then-President
Obama’s reelection. You can see how this manipulation is a prelude
to Obama’s extensive abuse of the “intelligence community”
during the next election to go after President Trump!

SECRET SERVICE: HUNTER BIDEN TOOK 411 FLIGHTS, VISITED 29 COUNTRIES,
INCLUDING 5 VISITS TO CHINA

New Secret Service records show Hunter Biden’s significant overseas
travels during the first part of the Obama-Biden administration.

Judicial Watch investigators uncovered records
[[link removed]]
from the U.S. Secret Service showing that, for the first five and a
half years of the Obama administration, Hunter Biden traveled
extensively with a Secret Service protective detail. During the time
period of the records, the son of then-Vice President Joe Biden took
411 separate domestic and international flights, including to 29
different foreign countries. He visited China five times.
Our February 7, 2020, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request
sought:

> Records reflecting the dates and locations of travel, international
> and domestic, for Hunter Biden while he received a U.S. Secret
> Service protective detail; please note whether his travel was on Air
> Force One or Two, or other government aircraft, as applicable and
> whether additional family members were present for each trip; time
> frame is 2001 to present.
The Secret Service did not indicate, as was requested, whether
Biden’s travel was on Air Force One, Air Force Two or other
government aircraft, or whether additional family members were
present.

The records show that countries and territories visited by Hunter
Biden, between June 2009 and May 2014, included:

* Ethiopia and India on June 14-22, 2009
* Argentina on September 14-17, 2009
* France and Spain on November 9-13, 2009
* Canada on February 12-15, 2010
* Dominican Republic on February 18-22, 2010
* Puerto Rico on March 20-27, 2010
* China on April 6-9, 2010
* Belgium, Spain, and the United Kingdom on May 5-8, 2010
* UK, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, Ascension Island, U.S. Virgin
Islands on June 6-13, 2010
* Denmark and South Africa on August 9-24, 2010
* Hong Kong, Taiwan and China on April 16-22, 2011
* Mexico on May 15-17, 2011
* Colombia, France, United Arab Emirates and France again on
November 1-11, 2011
* UK and Russia on February 15-18, 2012
* Germany, France and UK on February 1-5, 2013
* UK and Ireland on March 20-22, 2013
* China on June 13-15, 2013
* Switzerland and Italy on July 26-August 7, 2013
* Japan, China, South Korea and the Philippines on December 2-9,
2013
* China and Qatar on May 7-14, 2014

The records were also provided, but were not made public, to Senate
Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and Senate Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson in a response
to a request the senators sent to Secret Service Director James Murray
on February, 2020.

In its cover letter to Grassley and Johnson, which was included in the
records we received, the Secret Service said that the senators’
request was time and labor intensive, and they could only provide a
limited amount of information by the senators’ imposed turnaround
time of February 19.

Given the Burisma-Ukraine-China influence peddling scandals, Hunter
Biden’s extensive international travel during the Obama-Biden
presidency, including at least 5 trips to China, will certainly raise
additional questions.

According to reports
[[link removed]],
Vice President Joe Biden and Hunter Biden flew on Air Force Two for
the official trip to Beijing in December 2013. The records we obtained
show Hunter Biden arrived in Tokyo on December 2, 2013, and departed
for Beijing two days later. While it is typical for the families of
the president and vice president to travel with them, questions have
been raised about whether Hunter Biden used the government trip to
further his business interests.

NBC reporter Josh Lederman, who was one of four reporters on the
December 2013 trip, noted in an October 2, 2019, report
[[link removed]]
that, “What wasn’t known then was that as he accompanied his
father to China, Hunter Biden was forming a Chinese private equity
fund that associates said at the time was planning to raise big money,
including from China.”

His travel is only one of our inquiries.

During the last year and a half of the Obama administration, Hunter
Biden
[[link removed]]
served on the board of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings while
his father was heading up Ukraine policy. We are seeking records
through six lawsuits
[[link removed]]
and
dozens of FOIA requests related to Hunter Biden’s dealings with the
Ukrainian Burisma Holdings and the Chinese BHR Partners.

FDA BOUGHT ‘FRESH’ HUMAN FETAL PARTS FOR ‘HUMANIZED MICE’
CREATION

Your federal government has been an active customer of the abortion
industry, and we have new details of the sordid transactions.

We received 165 pages
[[link removed]]
of records from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) showing that
between 2012 and 2018 the FDA entered into eight contracts worth
$96,370 to acquire “fresh and never frozen” tissue from 1st and
2nd trimester aborted fetuses for use in creating “humanized mice”
for research.

These documents are a horror show. They show that the FDA was
trafficking in human fetal parts. Incredibly, there continues to be a
push
[[link removed]]
to reopen these monstrous experiments!

The contracts were with Advanced Bioscience Resources (ABR), a
nonprofit firm that has been the subject of criminal referrals
[[link removed]]
from House and Senate committees investigating whether Planned
Parenthood or any other entity was illegally profiting from the
handling of fetal tissue from aborted babies.

Federal law
[[link removed]]
regulates the purchase and acceptance of human fetal tissue for
research purposes. It is unlawful to knowingly transfer fetal tissue
for profit.

We received the records after filing a lawsuit
[[link removed]]
in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (_Judicial
Watch v. U.S. Department Health and Human Services_
[[link removed]]
(No. 1:19-cv-00876)) after HHS failed to respond adequately to our
September 28, 2018, FOIA request seeking:

* All contracts and related documentation between FDA and Advanced
Biosciences Resources (ABR) for the provision of human fetal tissue to
be used in humanized mice research.
* All records reflecting the disbursement of funds to ABR for the
provision of human fetal tissue to be used in humanized mice research.
* All guidelines and procedural documents provided to ABR by FDA
relating to the acquisition and extraction of human fetal tissue for
its provision to the FDA for humanized mice research.
* All communications between FDA officials and employees and
representatives of ABR related to the provision by ABR to the FDA of
human fetal tissue for the purpose of humanized mice research.

The records show a June 28, 2017, email exchange
[[link removed]]
with the subject line “FDA RFQ” (Request for Quotation) between a
redacted FDA contract specialist and an ABR official named Ms. Larton,
in which the FDA official tells the ABR official, “I am tasked with
the purchase of tissues suitable for HM [humanized mice] research. I
would like to request a quote. Please review the Statement of Work and
quote your pricing as outlined.” She then includes a table for 16
“Human Fetal Tissue – Liver”, 16 “Human Fetal Tissue –
Thymus”, 16 HIV, HepA, HepB, HepC tests, and shipping and delivery.
The Statement of Work notes:

> The Division of Applied Regulatory Science (DARS) OCP/OTS/CDER is
> conducting a research program to evaluate the usefulness of
> humanized mice (HM) for regulatory purposes. The HM are created by
> surgical implantation of human tissue into mice that have multiple
> genetic mutations that block the development of the mouse immune
> system at a very early stage. The absence of the mouse immune system
> allows the human tissues to grow and develop into functional human
> tissues. As part of this process DARS needs to repeatedly acquire
> the proper type of tissues. In order for the humanization to proceed
> correctly we need to obtain fetal tissue with a specific set of
> specialized characteristics.
Among the specific characteristics are that the tissue be “Age
range 16-24 weeks” and “Tissue must be fresh and never frozen.”
An ABR official responds, saying, “Your quote is attached.”

In a June 12, 2017, email thread
[[link removed]]
related to a “contract closeout” of a $24,500 contract between the
FDA and ABR in a project titled “Human Tissue,” an FDA official
emails an ABR official asking to “confirm all the items/services
requested under this order were delivered and all payments processed,
so that I may close out this contract…. Our records indicate funds
in the amount of $15,090.00 to be de-obligated as a result of this
closeout.”

A screenshot of a database (called UFMS) print-out indicates a
“Matched Amount” of $9,410. The difference between the “matched
amount” and the contract value is $15,090. An ABR official responds
on June 26, 2017, saying, “I confirm there are no outstanding
invoices or [redacted] P.O. #HHSF223201510746P, and it is my
understanding that there are no pending requests for tissue
procurements on this P.O. at this time.”

In an email thread
[[link removed]]
beginning July 14, 2017, an FDA contracting specialist advises ABR
that, “In order to properly document pricing, I require some
documentation of your prices as offered to the public.” They ask for
either redacted invoices or “a place on your website that lists
prices.” An ABR representative responds:

> We do not have a website, and we don‘t allow ‘the public’ to
> request tissue. It is only sent to verified researchers who have
> applied and have been approved to receive tissue.

> As we are not selling items, we do not have prices. We assess fees
> for our services. The only document provided then to qualified
> recipients would be our Fees For Services Schedule. I’ve attached
> another copy of our current Fee Schedule for your reference. We’re
> a small non-profit company, and the fees are the same for everyone.

> I hope this fulfills your requirement. We’ve done business with
> the F.D.A. for many years and we‘ve not experienced such rigorous
> procedures for the production of purchase orders. Will this process
> be necessary for each P.O. created now?
The “Fees for Services Schedule” provided by ABR lists “Fetal
Cadaverous Specimen Procurement” that includes pricing for “2nd
trimester specimen (13 – 24 weeks)” and “1st trimester specimen
(8 – 12 weeks),” with the pricing amounts redacted. Under a
section titled “Special Processing/Preservation” are fees for
“Specimen ‘cleaning,’” “Snap freezing (LN2),” “Passive
freezing (dry ice)” and “Foreign shipments.”

A July 25, 2018, FDA “Order for Supplies or Services” to ABR
called for the purchase of “humanized mice
[[link removed]
for the period July 26, 2018, to July 25, 2019, for a contract amount
of $15,900. The contract called for the provision of 15 sets of second
trimester livers and thymuses, along with associated “HIV/HA/HB
blood testing,” and shipping.

In a September 17, 2018, email
[[link removed]]
from the FDA to ABR notifying ABR of the “Closeout” of a contract
for “Tissue procurement for humanized mice”, the FDA notes the
contract value was $9,900, and that remaining funds of $2,430 for the
purchase order existed. The FDA asks ABR to “confirm if all the
items/services requested under this order were delivered so that I may
close out this contract.” The responding ABR official notes that the
FDA said that no invoices were submitted under the purchase order, and
the ABR official adds that the FDA acknowledged that “there is a
$7,470 difference between the noted Contract Value of $9,900 and
REMAINING FUNDS of $2,430.” ABR further advises they would submit
nine invoices under the contract, all of which were paid.

On September 24, 2018, the FDA terminated a contract
[[link removed]]
with ABR to provide fetal tissue, saying: “[T]he Government is not
sufficiently assured that the human tissue provided to the Government
to humanize the immune systems of mice will comply with the
prohibitions set forth under 42 U.S.C. § 289g-2.” The letter adds
that “[T]he Government has concerns with the sufficiency of the
sole-source justification.”

The law 42 USC 289g-2
[[link removed]]
involves
“Prohibitions regarding human fetal tissue.”

HHS said in a statement
[[link removed]]
on September 24, 2018, that it was “conducting an audit of all
acquisitions involving human fetal tissue to ensure conformity with
procurement and human fetal tissue research laws and regulations.”

In February, we uncovered 676 pages
[[link removed]]
of records from NIH showing that the agency paid thousands of dollars
to California-based ABR to purchase organs from aborted human fetuses
to create “humanized mice
[[link removed]
for HIV research.

These documents are the most disturbing I’ve reviewed in my 22 years
at Judicial Watch. Both the Trump administration and Congress should
launch emergency investigations into this barbarism.

Until next week …



[Contribute]
[[link removed]]


<a
href="[link removed]"
target="_blank"><img alt="WU01"
src="[link removed]"
style="width:100%; height:auto;" /></a>

[32x32x1]
[[link removed]]

[32x32x2]
[[link removed]]

[32x32x3]
[[link removed]]

[32x32x3]
[[link removed]]

Judicial Watch, Inc.
425 3rd St Sw Ste 800
Washington, DC 20024

202.646.5172



© 2017 - 2020, All Rights Reserved
Manage Email Subscriptions
[[link removed]]
|
Unsubscribe
[[link removed]]

View in browser
[[link removed]]