Feinstein Unaware of CIA Annex Before Attack on U.S. Compound In Benghazi

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D – CA), Chairman of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, told Breitbart News on Monday she did not know a CIA annex existed in Benghazi, Libya before the deadly September 2012 attack, which took the lives of four Americans, on the U.S. compound happened. Feinstein could also not confirm if other members of Congress knew about the CIA annex prior the attack. 

Like Feinstein, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D – CA) is also a member of Congress’s Super 8, a group of top House and Senate leaders from both parties as well as intel committee chairmen and ranking members. Pelosi would not confirm nor deny to Breitbart News in September if she was briefed about the CIA annex before the attack on the U.S. facilities in Benghazi. 

As reported previously by Breitbart News, section 503’s Presidential Approval and Reporting of Covert Actions in the 1947 National Security Act, mandates the President of the United States to inform Congress (in this case, Congress’s “Super 8“) of any covert CIA actions before authorizing the spy agency of any operations. 

According to the recent Senate Select Intelligence Committee report on Benghazi, General Carter Ham, head of AFRICOM at the time of the attack, did not even know about the CIA annex in Benghazi when the deadly assault occurred.

Page 12 of the 85 page report reads: 

We are puzzled as to how the military leadership expected to effectively respond and rescue Americans in the event of an emergency when it did not even know of the existence of one of the U.S. facilities.

Between pages 27 and 28:

With respect to the role of DoD and AFRICOM in emergency evacuations and rescue operations in Benghazi, the Committee received conflicting information on the extent of the awareness within DoD of the Benghazi Annex. According to U.S. AFRICOM, neither the command nor its Commander were aware of an annex in Benghazi, Libya.

However, it is the Committee’s understanding that other  DoD personnel were aware ofthe Benghazi Annex.

The Senate Select Intelligence Committee made no mention as to why the CIA annex was in Benghazi and Rep. Frank Wolf (R – VA), who is leading the call for a Select Committee to investigate the terror attack in Libya, asked why the report failed to address the matter.