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Omerta is the Italian word for "humility." It was also the code of silence in the Mafia the breaking of which was punished severely. Apparently the Obama Administration has a similar code of silence. According to Fox news at least four career employees of the State Department and the CIA have been threatened not to talk by their superiors. Victoria Toensing, a former Justice Department official and Republican counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee, is now representing one of the State Department employees. She told Fox News her client and some of the others, who consider themselves whistle-blowers, have been...

Rep. Trey Gowdy says that more Benghazi hearings are ‘coming quickly’ and they will be ‘explosive’. When asked if it will include witnesses who were there but haven’t been allowed to come forward, he wouldn’t say directly because of confidentiality but told the Fox News host that she was ‘very warm’ and suggested it may include ‘direct testimony by eyewitnesses’:

Some 72 members of Congress have signed on to a letter demanding that the mainstream media provide coverage of the murder trial of abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell. Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Steve Scalise (R-LA) were joined by 70 of their House colleagues late Wednesday demanding national broadcast news channels ABC, NBC, and CBS stop blacking out coverage on high-profile abortion controversies. Their letters specifically reference two instances where the media has covered up the story of Planned Parenthood lobbying in support of infanticide in the Florida State Legislature and in the ongoing murder trial of abortionist Kermit Gosnell in...

The House Science, Space and Technology Committee will hold a hearing on how to “better identify and address asteroids that pose a potential threat to Earth,” Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) said in a statement on Friday. The announcement comes after a meteorite exploded in a massive blast above Siberia that damaged buildings, houses and cars and injured about 1,000 people on Friday. "The light was so intense that it completely illuminated the courtyard of our apartment block," said Sergei Zakharov, head of the Russian Geographical Society in Chelyabinsk, according to The Wall Street Journal. "The sound, the shock wave came...

Countering the Republican-led opposition to President Barack Obama’s nominee for defense secretary is a less flashy but powerful constituency: military veterans. Veterans’ organizations have praised Chuck Hagel, a twice-wounded combat veteran of Vietnam and deputy administrator in President Ronald Reagan’s Veterans Administration. The Veterans of Foreign Wars has called him uniquely qualified to become Pentagon chief. The Military Officers Association of America said his experience gives him “a range of perspectives.” The American Legion said he was a longtime advocate for veterans. … VoteVets, a left-leaning veterans group, has campaigned for Hagel through social media, old-fashioned letters to editors and...

BREAKING: Obama to hand over drone documents ahead of Hagel hearing Posted by CNN White House Producer Lesa Jansen Washington (CNN) - Amid new controversy over his administration's targeted killing of American citizens, President Barack Obama has yielded to demands from Congress to turn over to them classified Justice Department legal advice justifying the policy. The president's move comes on the eve of confirmation hearings Thursday for his CIA director-nominee John Brennan, and complaints from senators - including several Democrats - about secrecy surrounding the drone policy.

Surprised they didn't opt for the Inquisition analogy . . . On Chris Hayes's MSNBC show this morning, Ali Gharib, editor of the "Open Zion" blog at the Daily Beast, described the questioning of Chuck Hagel at his Senate confirmation hearing as "a Republican purge" and a "Maoist public shaming." Michael Hastings of the Rolling Stone begged to differ, finding it more reminiscent of "Stalin." View the video here.

Senate Judiciary Committee Full Committee DATE: January 30, 2013 TIME: 10:00 AM ROOM: Hart 216 OFFICIAL HEARING NOTICE / WITNESS LIST: January 23, 2013 NOTICE OF COMMITTEE HEARING The Senate Committee on the Judiciary has scheduled a hearing entitled “What Should America Do About Gun Violence?” for Wednesday, January 30, 2013 at 10:00 a.m., in Room 216 of the Hart Senate Office Building. By order of the Chairman. UPDATED Witness List Hearing before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary “What Should America Do About Gun Violence?” Wednesday, January 30, 2013 Hart Senate Office Building, Room 216 10:00 a.m. Captain Mark...

On his Wednesday radio program, conservative talker Rush Limbaugh said that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Wednesday testimony about last year’s terrorist attacks in Benghazi were designed to help her politically. “What was happening here was the cleansing of Mrs. Clinton’s record in advance of her presidential run in 2016,” Limbaugh said. “Folks, this was banana republic kind of stuff. It was the kind of — you talk about two different worlds and isolation — the ruling class, the political class existing within its own borders, and its own world, and its own set of rules and taking care of...

2pm (ET) LIVE: Investigation of Benghazi Attack

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won't testify to Congress next week on Benghazi, after fainting and suffering a concussion Saturday and due to her ongoing stomach ailment. "While suffering from a stomach virus, Secretary Clinton became dehydrated and fainted, sustaining a concussion," Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Philippe Reines said in a statement. "She has been recovering at home and will continue to be monitored regularly by her doctors. At their recommendation, she will continue to work from home next week, staying in regular contact with Department and other officials. She is looking forward to being back in the office...

HOUSE COMMITTEE HEARING ON BENGHAZI ATTACK

Breaking on Fox.

Flashback to 1973...

Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer on Tuesday said the White House used David Petraeus’s affair to get the CIA director to give testimony about the attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that was in line with the administration’s position on the matter. Appearing on Fox News's Special Report, Krauthammer said, "The sword was lowered on Election Day" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

By MANU RAJU 11/13/12 11:23 AM EST It is "absolutely imperative" that Gen. David Petraeus testify about what went wrong in Libya, even as he reels from his sex scandal roiling the intelligence community, the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee said Tuesday. "I will say that I think it's absolutely imperative that Gen. Petraeus come and testify," Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the committee's ranking member, told reporters. "He was CIA director at the time of attack. He visited Libya at the time of attack. He has a great deal of information that we need...

One piece of information that got lost the last few days of sex scandals is the news that David Petraeus personally traveled to Libya after the Benghazi attack — and apparently filed a “trip report” covering his own findings. Senator Dianne Feinstein, who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee probing the Benghazi terrorist attack, wants either the report or Petraeus to testify to its contents. So far, though, the CIA and the White House have refused to provide it — and yesterday, Feinstein threatened that subpoenas may be forthcoming if the stonewalling continues... ...This lack of openness, coming on the heels...

The ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee said he’s spoken to former CIA Director David Petraeus about still testifying on the Benghazi attack — and the answer is not now. Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) said on ABC’s This Week this morning that his committee wasn’t told about the Petraeus investigation — reportedly centering around his mistress and emails — until Friday, when the general’s resignation was announced. “He and I have already had a conversation. You know, he’s trying to put his life back together right now and that’s what he needs to focus on,” Chambliss said in regard...

NEW YORK — The families of people killed in the Sept. 11 attacks have been invited to military installations in four states to watch pretrial hearings in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for five men charged with planning or assisting the terrorist strike. The hearings, which begin Monday, are closed to the public, but relatives who register in advance can watch on closed-circuit television at forts in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland and New York City. The suspects on trial before the military commission include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-professed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Trey Gowdy, an outspoken Republican congressman from South Carolina, blasted Obama administration officials during Wednesday's House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the Libya U.S. Consulate terrorist attack, raising his voice to levels rarely heard on the House floor.