PUBLISHED: 16:53 EST, 12 August 2013
 |
| As the Benghazi compound went up in flames, says Joe diGenova, 400 missiles capable of bringing down jetliners were 'stolen' from U.S. control, possibly at the nearby CIA annex |
A former U.S. Attorney who represents whistle-blowers with knowledge of what happened when armed militants attacked the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya last year says 400 surface-to-air missiles were 'taken from Libya' during the attack, and that the U.S. intelligence community is terrified they might be used to shoot down airliners.
Joe diGenova, whose wife Victoria Toensing – a former deputy assistant attorney general – also represents Benghazi witnesses and others with knowledge of the terror attack, told WMAL radio that the loss of those missiles is also one the reason the U.S. State Department shut down 19 embassies across the Middle East last week.
'A lot of people have come forward to share information with us,' he said during the radio station's 'Mornings On The Mall' program Monday morning.
'We have learned that one of the reasons the administration is so deeply concerned' is that 'there were 400 surface-to-air missiles stolen, and that they are ... in the hands of many people, and that the biggest fear in the U.S. intelligence community is that one of these missiles will be used to shoot down an airliner. 400 missiles, surface-to-air missiles, taken from Libya.'
Asked if the missiles are now 'in the hands of al-Qaeda operatives,' DiGenova replied, 'That is what these people are telling us.'
SCROLL DOWN FOR AUDIO
Iranian military units are routinely equipped with surface-to-air missiles. 400 such units were taken during the Benghazi terror attack, says lawyer Joe diGenova
diGenova (L) and Toensing (R) represent whistle-blowers who were privy to information about the government's response during and after the Benghazi terror attack
Nightmare scenario: A single surface-to-air missile in the hands of a trained militant could bring down a civilian aircraft like Pan Am 103, which exploded in 1988, killing 270 people
DiGenova said his sources are 'former intelligence officials who stay in constant contact with people in the Special Ops and intelligence community.'
'And it's pretty clear that the biggest concern right now are 400 missiles which have been diverted in Libya and have gotten in the hands of some very ugly people.'
diGenova said that while he was uncertain whether the stolen weapons were being kept at the U.S. Consulate's CIA annex, 'it is clear that the annex was somehow involved in the process of the distribution of those missiles.'
A longtime legal fixture inside the beltway, diGenova was U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia for four years beginning in 1983, and later was an Independent Counsel appointed to investigate a State Department official who ordered politically embarrassing searches of the passport files of Bill Clinton, Clinton's mother and Ross Perot before the 1992 presidential election.
In 2007 the New York State Senate retained him to investigate then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer over allegations that he ordered the State Police to track the whereabouts of Republican State Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno when he used police escorts to travel to and around New York City.
President Obama and then-Secretary of State Clinton originally maintained that the terror attack was the product of a spontaneous protest, a line that diGenova thinks was calculated to conceal the loss of so much military hardware to enemies of the United States
CNN last week broadcast an audio interview with Ahmed Abu Khattala, the leader of Ansar al-Sharia who is suspected of carrying out the attack. He said U.S. authorities have not sought him out
Today diGenova and Toensnig, a former chief counsel for the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, represent Gregory Hicks, the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Libya at the time of the Benghazi attacks; and Mark Thompson, a former Marine who serves as Deputy Coordinator for Operations in the State Department's Counterterrorism Bureau.
The attorneys say Hicks' and Thompson's superiors subjected them to an intimidation campaign after then-Secretary Hillary Clinton's Accountability Review Board ignored their accounts of the Benghazi attack.
Toensing told Fox News in April that one of the two men was warned about the impact on his career if he cooperated with Republican investigators in Congress.
'It's frightening, and they're doing some very despicable threats to people,' Toensing said.
'Not "we're going to kill you," or not "we're going to prosecute you tomorrow," but they're taking career people and making them well aware that their careers will be over.'
President Obama has said he is unaware of any witnesses from Benghazi who have been prohibited from working with Congress. Secretary of State John Kerry has attributed such stories to 'an enormous amount of misinformation.'
In a May 30 letter, CIA Director John Brennan told Benghazi-stationed personnel that they were free to speak with Congress, but that they should involve their chain of command and follow specific procedures.
That measure was seen in some circles as a subtle warning that CIA agents must not approach lawmakers on their own.
CIA Director John Brennan wrote to Benghazi survivors that they must undergo a prescribed bureaucratic process if they want to speak with congressional investigators
Chris Stevens, the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, was killed along with three other U.S. personnel when terrorists opened fire with mortars and other live ammunition
Audio source WMAL Washington
Renewed interest in Middle Eastern terrorism appeared in Washington last week, as the State Department shuttered 19 embassies across the region, following what the administration said was a credible terrorist threat articulated by someone high in the command structure of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
diGenova said Monday that he knows what that threat may have involved.
The loss of the 400 surface-to-air missiles, he told WMAL's audience, 'is why we shut down the 19 embassies recently.'
'They were afraid that there was going to be a missile attack on one of the embassies. Remember, you can take a shoulder-held missile and shoot it into an embassy. Not just into the sky.'
'That's what this was all about,' he insisted. 'That's why they're so worried. That's why they have lied repeatedly about what happened in Benghazi, because they are now responsible for all of the stepchildren of violence that happens as a result of this. This is a very serious matter.
