Republicans Call for New Clinton Testimony on Benghazi Attack

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  Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.AP

WASHINGTON –  Calls are growing for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to return to Capitol Hill -- under subpoena, if necessary -- to answer new questions that have surfaced about her role in the response to the Benghazi terror attack. 

“I believe she was disconnected and dispassionate about what was happening,” House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa told Fox News on Monday.

During the interview, Issa kept the option of forcing Clinton to testify on the table. 

Conservatives have challenged Clinton’s account of what happened and how it was presented to the public in light of recent details. 

Specifically, lawmakers like Issa and New Hampshire Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte say they want Clinton on the record about her role in watering down a CIA memo about how the attacks started -- and whether she knew about the apparent lack of security at the foreign outpost.

“Maybe, just maybe, she knew,” Issa said. 

It's unclear whether lawmakers would go so far as to subpoena the former secretary but they've suggested they'll do what it takes to bring her back to Capitol Hill, after she first testified in January. 

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R- S.C., suggested he was open to using subpoena power last week. "I hope she would come back without that, but yes," he said during an interview with USA Today. "I think she needs to come back and answer questions." 

Former Vice President Dick Cheney also told Republicans during a meeting last week that they may need to subpoena Clinton to get more answers. "I think Hillary (Clinton) should be subpoenaed if necessary," Cheney said.

The Libya controversy could undermine Clinton’s case as a future presidential candidate – something her supporters say is the real reason behind the push to get her back in the Benghazi spotlight. President Obama also pushed back against the revived controversy on Monday, calling it a political "sideshow." 

But Republicans rejected the charge as they sought new testimony from others. Issa sent letters Monday to the Benghazi Accountability Review Board (ARB) co-chairmen former Ambassador Thomas Pickering and former Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen requesting that they submit to transcribed interviews in anticipation of a public hearing on the board’s investigation. 

The letters come after three State Department officials described the report as “incomplete” and said that it let senior officials, like Clinton and her top staffers, “off the hook.”

Pickering defended his decision Sunday not to question Clinton because he said it had been concluded that the negligence that led to the attacks and the misinformation that followed was not her fault. Instead, he said the missteps were made by those working beneath her.

“We knew where the responsibility rested," Pickering told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”  “They've tried to point a finger at people more senior than where we found the decisions were made." 

Pickering said he and Mullen had to work within the legal scope of the investigation and that they “knew and understood” Clinton’s role based upon “talking to other people at meetings.” 

But lawmakers still have questions about Clinton's role in everything from considering security requests to emphasizing the role of an anti-Islam film in the days after the attack. 

Clinton reportedly told Charles Woods, the father of Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods who was killed in the attack, that the department would make sure to arrest and prosecute the maker of an anti-Islam film that had been linked to protests. Woods claimed on Glenn Beck’s online show that Clinton apologized for the attacks but said he “could tell that she was not telling me the truth.” 

That was around the time U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice claimed the attack was a “spontaneous” reaction to demonstrations over the video. The administration even paid for an ad to run in Pakistan condemning the video. 

According to news reports, the CIA’s version of the attacks changed 12 different times before being made public.

A resolution sponsored by Virginia Rep. Frank Wolf that calls on the House to form a special committee to investigate the terror attacks is gaining traction. More than 200 lawmakers have signed on to the cause.

Calls to the State Department for additional comment were not immediately returned.

Calls to Clinton’s spokesman were also not immediately returned.

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BENGHAZI BACKLASH: Did Clinton Skate Through Q&A After Deadly Attack?

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  FILE: Jan. 15, 2013: House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and other lawmakers on Capitol Hill, in Washington, D.C.AP

Congressional Republicans on Sunday pressed their investigation into the Benghazi attacks, suggesting depositions of high-ranking officials and more whistle-blowers testifying amid further questions about why then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was not thoroughly interviewed about the issue.

Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, told “Fox News Sunday” that more potential and self-proclaimed “whistle-blowers” might come forward after three of them – career State Department foreign service employees – testified last week before the House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee.

“We have had people come forward because of the (hearing) and say we would also like to talk," the Michigan Republican told “Fox News Sunday.” "I do think we're going to see more whistle-blowers. Certainly my committee has been contacted; I think other committees as well."

Rogers’ remarks came as Thomas Pickering, the former U.S. ambassador who helped write a report on security at a U.S. outpost in Benghazi, Libya, defended his assessment but absolved Clinton.

"We knew where the responsibility rested," Pickering told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”  “They've tried to point a finger at people more senior than where we found the decisions were made.”

Pickering said he and retired Adm. Mike Mullen had to work within the legal scope of the investigation and that they “knew and understood” Clinton’s role based upon “talking to other people at meetings.”

Four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, were killed in the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks on the U.S. outpost.

Congressional Republicans have since led efforts to learn whether the Obama administration provided adequate security and if the explanation of events was altered as part of a possible political cover-up.

Among the lingering questions are whether Clinton was involved in changing the CIA memo about how the attacks started, or was she at least partially responsible for the apparent lack of adequate security.

The Accountability and Review Board, led by Pickering and Mullen, did not question Clinton at length about the attacks but concluded the decisions about the consulate were made well below the secretary's level.

However, Pickering's defense of the panel's conclusions Sunday appeared to do little to quiet Republicans' calls for more accountability for the attacks, which killed Stevens, Information Officer Sean Smith, and two embassy security personnel, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, both former Navy SEALs.

Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House oversight committee, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” he would like to interview under oath Pickering and Mullen, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein told NBC that Congress' review seems aimed at discrediting Clinton and her potential 2016 presidential bid.

Pickering and Mullen's report was released in December and found that "systematic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels" of the State Department meant that security was "inadequate for Benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place."

The House oversight committee hearing last week included testimony from Gregory Hicks, a former deputy chief of mission to Libya.

Hicks, a self-proclaimed whistle-blower, detailed his phone conversations from Tripoli with Stevens, who died during the two nighttime attacks.

Hicks and two other State Department witnesses criticized the Pickering and Mullen review. Their complaints centered on a report they consider incomplete, with individuals who weren't interviewed and a focus on the assistant secretary level and lower.

The hours-long hearing produced no major revelation but renewed interest in the attacks that happened during the lead-up to the November 2012 presidential election.

Five days after the attacks, in the final weeks of President Obama’s re-election bid, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice went on Sunday talk shows and said the attacks were “spontaneous” and sparked by protests elsewhere in the Middle East over an anti-Islamic video.

However, new reports show the original CIA memo on the incident was scrubbed of the mention of “Islamic militants” and early intelligence about Al Qaeda in the region.

The series of emails that circulated between the State Department and the CIA led to weakened -- and, in some cases, wrong -- language that Rice used to describe the assault.

Issa also said he will on Monday request private testimonies from Pickering and Mullen and that his oversight panel has not been provided sufficient details on the State Department review.

Pickering, who was sitting next to Issa during “Meet the Press,” said he wanted to appear at the Republican-led hearing Wednesday but was blocked.

Issa said Democrats could have invited their own witnesses, such as Pickering, but did not.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on Sunday renewed congressional Republicans’ call for a House select committee on Benghazi -- like the one used to investigate Watergate -- and called the Obama administration’s handling of the terror attacks “a cover-up.”

"I would call it a cover-up in the extent that there was willful removal of information, which was obvious,” McCain said on ABC’s “This Week.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Whistle-Blower: Talking Points Hurt FBI Investigation of Benghazi Attack

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Republican Rep. Darrell Issa said Wednesday, as the oversight committee he chairs launched into a high-profile hearing on the Benghazi attacks, that the whistle-blowers giving their version of events are "actual experts" on what happened -- who could challenge the administration's narrative. 

As the hearing began, one whistle-blower questioned Wednesday why more military assets were not deployed sooner during the Benghazi terror attack. 

Mark Thompson, a former Marine and official with the State Department's Counterterrorism Bureau, said he was rebuffed by the White House when he asked for a specialized team -- known as a FEST team -- to be deployed. This is a unit made of special operations personnel, diplomatic security, intelligence and other officers. 

Suggesting that some were hesitant to deploy because they were unsure what was happening, "One definition of a crisis is you do not know what's going to happen in two hours," he said.

Thompson spoke at the start of a major hearing where three whistle-blowers are testifying and expected to shed new light on that deadly assault. 

Issa, chairman of the oversight committee holding the hearing, called them "actual experts on what really happened before, during and after the Benghazi attacks," who "deserve to be heard." 

The three witnesses are Greg Hicks, deputy chief of mission in Libya who became top U.S. diplomat in the country after Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed in the terror attack; Eric Nordstrom, a diplomatic security officer who was formerly the regional security officer in Libya; and Thompson. 

"I am a career public servant," Hicks said. "Until the aftermath of Benghazi, I loved every day of my job." 

Nordstrom choked up as he began to testify Wednesday.  

The administration has parried Republican allegations lately by arguing that the attack is old news, that the State Department already has investigated it and that Republicans are engaged in a political witch hunt. 

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., top Democrat on the oversight committee, also said Wednesday that Republicans are using the witnesses' statements for "political purposes." He said he's glad the whistle-blowers are testifying and would ensure they are protected, but pre-emptively challenged some of their claims -- including the claim that U.S. military could have responded sooner to the site of the attack. 

But a series of carefully timed leaks on the whistle-blowers' testimony indicates House Republicans could have the goods to at least merit a second look at the administration narrative. 

"The question is, where's the accountability for lying to the American people?" Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told Fox News. "The American people were lied to." 

The witnesses are expected to cover a breadth of material in their testimony Wednesday. Lawmakers have questioned to what extent security requests were ignored before the attack, whether the military could have done more to respond the night of the attack and whether talking points were intentionally changed for political reasons after the attack to downplay terrorism. The witnesses could address all three areas on Wednesday. 

The Obama administration has adamantly denied several of the latest charges, including a claim that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a key aide tried to cut the department's own counterterrorism bureau out of the chain of reporting and decision-making on Sept. 11. The administration also denied that the whistle-blowers in question were intimidated -- while behind the scenes questioning the credibility of the witnesses. 

A "fact sheet" released by the department ahead of the hearing reiterated its denials. The statement also said the department has "demonstrated an unprecedented degree of cooperation with the Congress" on Libya, and rejected claims that the military was in a position to help that night but was told to stand down. Citing its internal review, the statement noted the review "found no evidence of any undue delays in decision making or denial of support from Washington or from the military combatant commanders."

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'ABSURD' CLAIM? Ayers: Radical Bombings Not Same as Boston Attack

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  William Ayers was a co-founder of Weather Underground, and still defends the terror group's bombing attacks.AP

Bill Ayers, the 1960's radical who went on to become a college professor and associate of President Obama, said Saturday the bombings he helped the Weather Underground carry out to protest the Vietnam War bear no resemblance to the deadly Boston Marathon attack - and glossed over the fact that his group's bombs killed three fellow terrorists and have been linked to the murder of a San Francisco police officer.

“How different is the shooting in Connecticut from shooting at a hunting range?” Ayers told a reporter who asked him to compare the incidents after Ayers spoke at a commemoration of the 1970 incident at Kent State University, where Ohio National Guard members killed four students during a protest. “Just because they use the same thing, there’s no relationship at all.”

“Mr. Ayers’ latest rant is beneath contempt or comment.”

- Brian Rogers, spokesman for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

Ayers went on to accuse Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who spent five years in a POW camp, of murdering civilians in the war, lament the deaths of two fellow Weather Underground members – skipping over the fact that they blew themselves up while trying to make bombs – and painted his actions as a heroic bid to end U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Ayers was the keynote speaker at the event, which drew an estimated 350 people on the university’s Commons, according to the Akron Beacon Journal. But it was after Ayers made his prepared remarks that he bristled over a possible comparison of terrorist acts separated by more than four decades.

“To conflate a group of fundamentalist people [in Boston] who are nihilistic in some way with a group of people who spent their lives trying to oppose the murder of 6,000 people a week … and still the killing went on. And still the killing went on. What would you have done?” Ayers said. “There’s no equivalence [with Boston]. Property damage. That’s what we did.”

John Murtagh, who was 9 years old when his father, a New York judge, presided over the trial of members of the Black Panther Party accused of a plot to bomb New York landmarks and department stores, blames the Weather Underground for setting three gasoline-filled firebombs at his boyhood home while the family slept. Two were placed at the front door and the third under the gas tank of the family car.

The bombs only managed to damage the car and destroy a snowman the little boy had built a few days earlier, but Murtagh, now an attorney, said the Weather Underground’s intentions were to kill, whether they succeeded or not.

“The notion that Bill Ayers and the Weather Underground were about property damage – like they were egging cars on Halloween -- is absurd,” Murtagh said. “The only difference between Bill Ayers and the Tsarnaev brothers is that [Ayers] was incompetent, apparently.”

It was not clear if Ayers sees the difference between bombings he and his associates carried out and the April 15 attack by brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as one of intent or outcome. Although no one was killed in the bombings of NYPD headquarters, the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol building between 1970 and 1972, Ayers’ then-girlfriend Diana Oughton, pal Terry Robbins and fellow Weather Underground member Ted Gold were all killed when a bomb they were making in a Greenwich Village townhouse exploded. That bomb, which was packed with nails similar to the pressure cooker bombs used to kill three and injure more than 200 at the Boston Marathon, was intended for use on newly drafted soldiers at Fort Dix, according to authorities.

“No one knows for sure but I think they were. And had they carried it out it would have been a catastrophe,” Ayers said. “But they didn’t and it didn’t happen. But what did happen is, on that same day John McCain murdered civilians. Do we have any responsibility for that? Should there be any reconciliation for that? Should he tell the truth about it?”

Brian Rogers, communications director for McCain, the five-term senator and former Navy aviator who spent more than half a decade as a prisoner of war after being shot down over Vietnam, refused to respond to Ayers’ comments.

“Mr. Ayers’ latest rant is beneath contempt or comment,” Rogers told FoxNews.com.

Larry Grathwohl, the FBI informant who infiltrated the terrorist group and later wrote the 1976 book “Bringing Down America,” said he Ayers told him personally that fellow Weather Underground member and future wife Bernadine Dohrn set the bomb that killed San Francisco Park Police Sgt. Brian McDonnell in 1970.

“Bill Ayers told me in Buffalo that we weren’t doing enough bombings and strategic sabotages,” Grathwohl told FoxNews.com. “He complained that it was a sad situation when [Dohrn] had to plan and place the bomb at the San Francisco Park Police station.”

Grathwohl said the bomb used in San Francisco and the ones that killed the three Weather Underground members when it exploded prematurely were all packed with roofing nails and fence staples and designed to kill as many people as possible.

Ayers retired in 2010 from his post as a professor of education at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Prior to his career in academia, he was a fugitive for years for his role with the Weather Underground until surrendering in 1980. Charges against him were dropped because of government misconduct. His ties to President Obama have been in dispute since becoming a campaign issue during the 2008 presidential race, though it is known he served with Obama on a Chicago charity's board.

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'I'M NOT SCARED:' Florida Teen Plans to Surf Again After Shark Attack

Published May 06, 2013

FoxNews.com

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  May 5, 2013: Michael Adler talks about his ordeal from his hospital bed at Holmes Regional Medical Center.wsvn

A Florida teenager is recovering after he was bitten on the foot and ankle by a shark while surfing over the weekend.

WSVN reports 15-year-old Michael Adler of Fort Lauderdale was surfing with friends in Melbourne Saturday when he was thrown off his surfboard by a strong wave. As he struggled to regain his footing, he says the murky water prevented him from seeing the shark.

"It felt like I'd stepped in coral and a bunch of rocks," Adler told WSVN. "I wasn't sure it was a shark when it first happened."

Adler made his way back to shore and a military member helped him with a makeshift tourniquet until paramedics arrived.

"He had 20 holes on top of his foot," Dr. Mark Munro, who treated Adler at Holmes Regional Medical Center, told WSVN. "One larger one was three inches long, and that's the one that went to the top of his foot down to the bone of the ankle joint."

Adler says he is eager to surf again, despite the attack.

"Now I know I'm not gonna get bit again so I'm not scared," he told WSVN. "I mean, how many people get bitten by a shark, twice?"

Click for more from WSVN. 

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VIDEO SHOWS ATTACK: Egypt Police Allow Deadly Strike on Coptic Cathedral

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Newly-emerged video appears to show Egyptian police standing idly by - and even helping attackers during a deadly assault earlier this month on a Coptic cathedral where Christians were mourning five men killed in an earlier clash with Muslims.

The video shot April 7 and first obtained by MidEast Christian News, shows a men shooting guns, wielding machetes and hurling stones and possibly Molotov cocktails as mourners carry caskets out of St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in the Abbassia District of Cairo as uniformed police watch, unmoving. At one point, a police officer appears to help a gunman take aim at a courtyard full of mourners who had spilled out of the church. The attack left two Copts dead and another 84 people injured, including 11 police officers.

"There is a general feeling among citizens about the absence of law and the prestige of the state."

- Report on religious vilence in Egypt

When it was over, the only arrests made were of four Copts. Christians, who were already outraged over a three-day attack that began April 4 attack in Khosous which saw the four men killed and homes, a nursery and a church burned, said the events show how elusive justice is for Christians, who make up about 10 percent of the nation's population.

"Two Copts were killed during the attack on the Cathedral; four more died in Khosous, yet not one of their attackers has been arrested," said Andrew Johnston, advocacy director for Christian Solidarity Worldwide. “These arrests come at a time when the Coptic community in Egypt is still coming to terms with an unprecedented attack on the headquarters of the Coptic Orthodox Church and the violence in Khosous. Such discrepancies in the discharge of justice contribute to impunity, and can only foster more sectarianism.”

Tensions between Egypt's Christians and the majority Sunni Muslims have grown dramatically since President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in 2011 and replaced by the Muslim Brotherhood-led government of Mohammed Morsi.

"There is a general feeling among citizens about the absence of law and the prestige of the state," said a report released Wednesday by the Egyptian National Council for Human Rights. "Such a feeling could push the citizens to the violence and sectarianism without fearing from any deterrence, " reads a passage from the report.

"The recent incident proved the shrinking of the role of the state to control the actions of the individuals especially those people who think that they talk on the behalf of God," the report continued. "There is a need for implementing the law strictly to treat such incidents.”

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BREAKING NEWS: Rep Says Boston Bombers Talked of Attempting NY Attack

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    CIA, FBI both tipped off by Russia about elder bomb suspect

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    Why did Boston bomb suspect slip past the watch list?

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    Giuliani Warns of 'institutionalized political correctness'

The CIA had Tamerlan Tsarnaev's name put into a terror watchlist after being contacted by Russian authorities in 2011, sources told Fox News -- raising more questions about why the Boston bomber's trip to Russia the following year didn't raise more red flags. 

Sources say the Russians contacted the FBI once in March 2011, and several months later they contacted the CIA about Tsarnaev. 

In October 2011, the CIA sent information to many federal agencies and to "the watchlisting system" about him, the sources say. That step ultimately put him on the vast TIDE database of people potentially tied to terrorism cases.

The FBI has said previously that it was told Tsarnaev was a "follower of radical Islam" and was preparing to travel to a foreign country to join unspecified underground groups. The FBI said that it responded by interviewing Tsarnaev and family members, but found no terrorism activity. 

In early 2012, Tsarnaev would travel to Russia for six months. The nature of that trip is still unclear. 

Two top Republican senators are now calling for a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on the Boston Marathon bombings, as lawmakers question whether enough was done to prevent the attack.

Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Kelly Ayotte, R-NH, requested the hearing Wednesday, saying "it has become increasingly apparent that more questions need to be answered regarding the failure to prevent this tragedy." 

The senators cited the reporting by Fox News and others that Russian officials contacted the U.S. government at least twice in 2011 with concerns about Tsarnaev, the Chechen who two years later would carry out last week's deadly bombing of the Boston Marathon, as an example of an instance that merits further investigation.

"In a string of apparent intelligence-sharing lapses, Tamerlan Tsarnaev was able to slip through the cracks and carry out this devastating attack," the senators said. 

Authorities suspect Tsarnaev, 26, and his younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, of using improvised explosives to kill and maim runners and spectators near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Three people were killed and more than 200 injured in the April 15 attack.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed days later in a shootout with police. His 19-year-old brother escaped but was captured alive Friday night and now faces a charge of use of a weapon of mass destruction that could carry the death penalty.

The brothers immigrated to the United States about a decade ago with their family. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev became a U.S. citizen last year, but Tamerlan had not yet earned citizenship.

Senators, after being briefed on the case Tuesday, said the U.S. government had "multiple contacts" with Russia about the older Boston bombing suspect, but those lawmakers wouldn't offer any more details.

Fox News was told the FBI tried to determine if Tsarnaev had any ties to terrorism, but those efforts apparently proved inconclusive.

"We did everything we could," one FBI source said, and their assessment was based on the "totality of the evidence."

The FBI insists, despite suggestions to the contrary, that it was contacted only once by the Russians about Tsarnaev.

Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., said Wednesday that the U.S. made three inquiries with Russia about Tsarnaev and got no response. 

Lawmakers and investigators are taking a close look at Tsarnaev's trip to Russia in January 2012. His father says his son stayed with him in Dagestan.

Despite violence there, Anzor Tsarnaev said Sunday that his son did not want to leave and had thoughts on how he could go into business. But the father said he encouraged him to go back to the U.S. and try to get citizenship. Tamerlan Tsarnaev returned to the U.S. in July.

His mother said that he was questioned upon arrival at the airport in New York.

"And he told me on the phone, 'Imagine, mama, they were asking me such interesting questions as if I were some strange and scary man: Where did you go? What did you do there?'" Zubeidat Tsarnaeva recalled her son telling her at the time.

Fox News' Mike Levine and Catherine Herridge and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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ATTACK ON RELIGION?Army Email Pins Christian Ministries as 'Hate Groups'

By Todd Starnes

A U.S. Army officer sent an email to dozens of subordinates listing the American Family Association and Family Research Council as “domestic hate groups” because they oppose homosexuality — and warned officers to monitor soldiers who might be supporters of the groups.

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“Just want to ensure everyone is somewhat educated on some of the groups out there that do not share our Army Values,” read an email from Lt. Col.  Jack Rich to three dozen subordinates at Fort Campbell in Kentucky. “When we see behaviors that are inconsistent with Army Values – don’t just walk by – do the right thing and address the concern before it becomes a problem.”

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, told Fox News he was disturbed by the contents of the email.

“It’s very disturbing to see where the Obama Administration is taking the military and using it as a laboratory for social experimentation  — and also as an instrument to fundamentally change the culture,” he said. “The message is very clear – if you are a Christian who believes in the Bible, who believes in transcendent truth, there is no place for you in the military.”

The Army denied there is any attack on Christians or those who hold religious beliefs.

“The notion that the Army is taking an anti-religion or anti-Christian stance is contrary to any of our policies, doctrines and regulations,” said George Wright, Army spokesman at the Pentagon. “Any belief that the Army is out to label religious groups in a negative manner is without warrant.”

Wright said they are checking into the origin of the email. At this point it’s unclear who ordered the email to be sent and why.

The 14-page email documented groups the military considers to be anti-gay, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim. Among the other groups mentioned are Neo-Nazis, Racist Skinheads, White Nationalists and the Ku Klux Klan.

The Family Research Council and the American Family Association were listed as being anti-gay.

“The religious right in America has employed a variety of strategies in its efforts to beat back the increasingly confident gay rights movement,” the officer wrote. “One of those has been defamation.”

The officer accused the “Christian Right” of “engaging in the crudest type of name-calling, describing LGBT people as ‘perverts” with ‘filthy habits’ who seek to snatch the children of straight parents and ‘convert’ them to gay sex,” he wrote.

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Last week, Fox News reported that an Army training instructor told a Reserve unit based in Pennsylvania that Evangelical Christianity and Catholicism were examples of religious extremism. The Army categorized that episode as an isolated incident.

Ron Crews, executive director of the Chaplain Alliance, told Fox News that the latest revelation is proof of a much larger problem within military leadership.

“We’re concerned that this is more than an isolated incident,” he said. “We’d like answers. Is there a policy in the military concerning people of faith?”

Crews said that soldiers have religious liberty – and they should not be punished for being members of respected religious groups.

“This is part of a trend that is concerning us,” he said. “Several in the military have this belief that evangelicals and people who hold to traditional values seem to be a problem and need to be monitored.”

Perkins, a Marine Corps veteran, said it’s clear that “Army Values” have indeed changed.

“And it’s the values of Evangelicals and Catholics,” Perkins said. “It’s not the values of the vast majority of those serving in our nation’s military. I think it’s the values of this administration trying to superimpose upon our military.”

Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Jerry Boykin, now an executive vice president of the FRC, told Fox News that all Americans should be concerned about the contents of the email.

“If this is the action of a single Army lieutenant colonel, it needs to be investigated,” he said. “On the other hand, if what he reflects is a shifting policy or attitude of the Army or DOD, then I think it is a much bigger issue.”

Boykin served more than 36 years in the military before retiring in 2007. Since 2008 he said he’s seen withering attacks on religious liberty.

Among the incidents:

• A War Games scenario at Fort Leavenworth that identified Christian groups and Evangelical groups as being potential threats;
• A 2009 Dept. of Homeland Security memorandum that identified future threats to national security coming from Evangelicals and pro-life groups;
• A West Point study released by the U.S. Military Academy’s Combating Terrorism Center that linked pro-lifers to terrorism;
• Evangelical leader Franklin Graham was uninvited from the Pentagon’s National Day of Prayer service because of his comments about Islam;
• Christian prayers were banned at the funeral services for veterans at Houston’s National Cemetery;
• Bibles were banned at Walter Reed Army Medical Center – a decision that was later rescinded;
• Christian crosses and a steeple were removed from a chapel in Afghanistan because the military said the icons disrespected other religions;
• Catholic chaplains were told not to read a letter to parishioners from their archbishop related to Obamcare mandates. The Secretary of the Army feared the letter could be viewed as a call for civil disobedience.

But Boykin called the newly-uncovered email the most “egregious” attack.

“That kind of rhetoric is isolating the institution of the military from a large sector of the American population,” he said. “This is an attack not only on the Christian faith, but on fundamental, traditional American values.”

Crews said the military is getting their information on domestic hate groups from the Southern Poverty Law Center. And the email written by the lieutenant colonel referenced the organization.

“This is disturbing that the military would use this list composed by the Southern Poverty Law Center when these organizations that are highly esteemed and respected in the evangelical community,” he said.

The Chaplain Alliance filed a Freedom of Information Act request – asking if the SPLC list had been widely distributed in the military or if had been used in a formal manner.

The response they got from the Dept. of Defense left Crews troubled.

“They told us they had no record of the SPLC list being used,” he said – even though the email clearly proves otherwise.

“This is part of a trend that is concerning us,” he said. “We believe it is more widespread than the military is acknowledging. We keep getting calls from military personnel telling us of their issues.”

David Jeremiah, the pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church, was among the first to publicly support the FRC and AFA and denounce the attack.

“For it to be coming from a left wing political group is one thing, but for it to be coming from our own government is unconscionable to me,” he told Fox News.

Shadow Mountain is an evangelical mega-church near San Diego – attended by many military families. Jeremiah said he suspects there is a significant disconnect between the Pentagon and the rank and file troops.

“There are so many good and godly people in the military who would be appalled to think that their leaders would be saying things like this,” he said. “The attempt on the part of the social engineers of our day to secularize our culture is in full swing. Everything they can do to remove God, the Bible and morality from the marketplace is being done – not subtly but overtly.”

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GOP Leaders Meet on Benghazi, Vow Coordinated Inquiry Into Attack

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House Speaker John Boehner convened a special meeting on the Benghazi, Libya, terrorist attack Thursday, bringing in the chairmen of the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Government Oversight committees, as well as Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, John McCain of Arizona and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Fox News has learned.

While the three House Committees are conducting independent investigations of the deadly Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Government Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa, Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce and Intelligence Chairman Mike Rogers agreed to now pool their findings in a single report that should be complete in "weeks not months."

"There were some members who wanted to have a conversation to kind of compare notes on what we know and what we don't know. And frankly, there's a lot that we still don't know," Boehner said. "It was a friendly exchange of information and some decisions about a way forward."

After the meeting, Rogers, R-Mich., told Fox News the members are taking a fact-based approach, and in the process, they are finding "anomalies" that still need to be addressed more than six months after the attack, in which Ambassador Chris Stevens and there other Americans were killed.

"We want to make sure that we have a full story of what happened, and where there are conflicting stories, we are going to work to de-conflict them," Rogers said. "I think the report will shed light on those decisions, including senior leadership that may have been involved or may not have been involved."

Asked if questions remained about President Obama's involvement in the U.S. response on the night of the Benghazi attack, Rogers responded, "or lack of involvement that evening."

The ranking Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee, Dutch Ruppersburger, was not at the Thursday meeting, but he told Fox he has no problem with Republican efforts to dig into the Benghazi terrorist attack to fulfill their oversight responsibility.

"Let's get over the politics. There are many issues that we are dealing with. And bring closure to this, but if we don't have all the evidence then we need to continue to look at it," Ruppersburger said.

With gaps in the timeline, lawmakers say they want to question the survivors, as well as government employees and contractors in the military and intelligence community.

"There are people who are there, there are people who are decision makers in the intelligence community, in the State Department, in the Department of Defense, and there are people who still want to communicate things. And we want to make sure all those folks have an opportunity to have that discussion," Rogers said.

In recent letters to the State Department and CIA, Ayotte, McCain and Graham asked for the Benghazi survivors to be made available for congressional investigators to question. Graham told Fox News, in an interview with Bret Baier, that he'd spoken to survivors who claimed they had been told not to talk.

"I've had contact with some of the survivors. Their story is chilling. They feel afraid to tell it. It's important they come forward to tell their story," Graham said. "Some are back working for the government. Some are still injured. The bottom line is they feel that they can't come forth. They've been told to be quiet."

The State Department has been non-committal about making its employees and contractors who were in Benghazi available to investigators. An agency spokesperson said in a statement, “The CIA respects requests from Congress and we will provide a response through the appropriate oversight committees.”

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Silenced? Senator Claims SurvivorsOf Benghazi Attack Told to 'Be Quiet'

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Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, in an interview with Fox News, alleged that the injured survivors of the Benghazi terror attack have been "told to be quiet" and feel they can't come forward to tell their stories -- escalating his push for more information about survivors who have never been publicly identified. 

The White House is denying any attempt to exert pressure on them. 

"I'm sure that the White House is not preventing anyone from speaking," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said, when asked about the survivors. 

But Graham told Fox News that "the bottom line is they feel that they can't come forth, they've been told to be quiet." 

"We cannot let this administration or any other administration get away with hiding from the American people and Congress, people who were there in real time to tell the story," Graham said. 

Watch the full interview with Sen. Graham on Fox News' "Special Report with Bret Baier" at 6 p.m. ET. 

Graham continued to voice concern about the inaccurate or incomplete accounts that came from the Obama administration in the days following the attack. He is among a handful of Republican lawmakers pressing for access to and more information about the survivors. 

A congressional source tells Fox News that Hill staffers investigating the attack believe about 37 personnel were in Benghazi on behalf of the State Department and CIA on Sept. 11. With the deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others, about 33 people were evacuated. Of them, a State Department official confirmed there were three diplomatic security agents and one contractor who were injured in the assault - one seriously. 

A diplomatic security source told Fox News the State Department diplomatic security agent who was in the most serious condition suffered a severe head injury during the second wave of the attack at the annex. 

This agent was described as the likely State Department employee visited at Walter Reed Medical Center by Secretary of State John Kerry in January. 

While not denying the details, the State Department official offered no comment on the nature of the injuries or whether the agent was visited by Kerry or Hillary Clinton before she left office. 

Leading Republicans in the Senate and House have been calling on the State Department to identify the injured and make them available to congressional investigators. So far, they say their calls have gone unanswered. 

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said the administration has provided "zero" documents on the matter and has not provided names of those attacked. 

Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., has gathered about 60 signatures in support of a select committee to investigate the Benghazi terrorist attack. Wolf has said the committee is the most thorough and efficient approach to resolving the lingering underlying questions rather than the competing and overlapping committee jurisdictions. 

Wolf, along with Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., and leading Senate Republicans Graham, John McCain of Arizona, and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire have pressed the State Department for answers. 

Rohrabacher, R-Calif., on Friday said the administration is "covering up something." 

Fox News' Bret Baier and Catherine Herridge contributed to this report.

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FUNDING TERROR: Hamas Attack Victims Sue Bank Handling Killers' $$

It was nearly 10 years ago when Steve Averbach, a New Jersey-born Israeli police officer, realized a fellow passenger on a Jerusalem bus was a suicide bomber disguised as an Orthodox Jew and made a decision that saved potentially dozens of lives -- and changed his forever.

Averbach drew his gun, but before he had the chance to shoot the man exploded his bomb, killing seven people and injuring 20 more. The then 37-year-old father of four had prevented the Hamas-linked bomber from getting to the densely populated city center where the body count would almost certainly have been much higher. But Averbach was left a quadriplegic, and died in June 2010, having suffered deteriorating health as a result of his injuries.

Last week, a Brooklyn federal judge ruled that Averbach's family, and the American survivors and the families of dozens of other victims of Hamas attacks that took place between 2002 and 2004 in Israel, can sue Credit Lyonnais, the French banking giant that handled money for a Palestinian charity it allegedly knew was directly linked to Hamas. Averbach's mother, Maida, who lives in New Jersey, said she plans to attend the civil trial, which is expected to begin this year in Brooklyn.

“... we stand for the proposition that people who help those who target, buses, cafes, and so forth, have to be written out of the social contract.”

- Attorney Gary Osen

“My husband and I were very pleased when we heard the judge’s decision," Averbach said. "We’re really hoping that the trial goes forward and all these people that have been subjected to what has happened in the past will find justice. [Steve] would feel it was time, about time.”

The landmark ruling by Eastern District Judge Dora Irizarry came after attorneys for the plaintiffs argued that Credit Lyonnais  knew the account they facilitated for the Committee for Palestinian Welfare and Relief was a front for Hamas and that the funds transmitted from the account contributed toward funding 15 specific acts of terror in Israel that caused the death and injury of the plaintiffs.

Irizarry determined that in 14 of the 15 cases in question, there was sufficient evidence to directly connect Hamas with the atrocities, stating, "A reasonable jury could conclude that the sizable amount of money sent from defendant to Hamas front organizations was a substantial reason that Hamas was able to perpetrate the terrorist attacks at issue."

The attacks included some of the most notorious in Israeli history. Among them were five bus bombings that killed a total of 73 people and maimed hundreds more; the bombing of the Park Hotel in Netanya on Passover Seder night that killed 30 people; the bombing of the Frank Sinatra cafe at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem that killed nine; and the bombing of a social club in Rishon LeZion that killed 15. Hamas claimed sole responsibility or shared responsibility with other Islamist terror groups in all 14 cases.

In the other case – a mortar attack that killed a 24-year-old woman – the judge decided there was insufficient proof that Hamas was indeed the perpetrators.

Irizarry found that Credit Lyonnais had recorded its concerns over the funding of the charity's account as early as 1997, and had made its concerns known again in both 2001 and 2002 to the French Financial Security Unit. But the bank allowed the account to remain open into 2003.

“They [the banks] like to think this is nuanced and that this is a gray area, but the truth of the matter is that we stand for the proposition that people who help those who target, buses, cafes, and so forth, have to be written out of the social contract,” attorney Gary Osen, who has represented several of the plaintiffs in the case against Credit Lyonnais for almost a decade, told the Washington-based Investigative Project on Terror. “Unfortunately, in our view, Credit Lyonnais and others were more concerned with their own business lives and more concerned with their own legal exposure; everything but the practical consequences of putting millions of dollars into the hands of Hamas.”

Attorney Stephen Landes, who has won a number of high-profile cases against supporters of terrorism, told FoxNews.com such legal holdings have helped stop banks from turning a blind eye to clients who use their services to collect and disburse money for terror attacks.

“The judge understands that banks play an important role in the financing of terrorism," Landes said. "Banks -- if they have any brains -- are now much more vigilant than in the past about providing financial services to terrorist organizations.”

Maida Averbach said the long battle to get justice for her son and others like him is well worth fighting.

“There are many other families who have sadly been dealt similarly tragic blows," she said. "We have our responsibility to the family, especially to those who are left behind and for whom a horrendous change of life has occurred. Unfortunately though, it won’t result in the return of our loved ones.”

Paul Alster is an Israel-based journalist who blogs at www.paulalster.comand can be followed on Twitter @paul_alster

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Masked thugs attack Spurs fans

Violent attack ... Spurs fans were set upon at a bar in the French city of Lyon. Source: Paul Hirst / AP

Lyon have apologised to Tottenham following a violent attack on a number of their fans that left three Spurs supporters in a local hospital.

Around 50 masked thugs, some of whom were reportedly making fascist salutes, attacked a group of 150 Spurs fans who had gathered in the Smoking Dog pub in Lyon before their Europa League second leg tie.

Tottenham scored a late equaliser to secure progression against the French side in that match.

Eyewitnesses say the group of attackers smashed doors and threw cast-iron chairs, wooden objects, and a lit flare into the pub, which is popular among ex-pats in the French city.

The French club have responded with a statement, saying: "Olympique Lyonnais deplore the incidents overnight in the Saint-Jean district between the supporters of Tottenham and the 'pseudo' supporters of Lyon who absolutely do not represent the club.

"Olympique Lyonnais apologises to Tottenham and its supporters, for the inadmissible acts which degrade the image of the town of Lyon.

"Olympique Lyonnais call on the French justice system to impose severe sanctions for these reprehensible acts."

Tottenham confirmed that three of their fans sustained 'minor injuries' in the attack, and that a number of arrests had been made.
It is the second time that Tottenham fans have been targeted in the last three months after they were ambushed inside a pub in Rome on the eve of their game against Lazio.

A Tottenham spokesman said earlier: "Club officials attended an incident last night in Lyon. A group of around 50 people confronted fans.

"Spurs officials and stewards will be in the city throughout the day, along with matchday French police ahead of kick-off."

Dave Eales, landlord of the pub, said: "At 10.18 the pub was rammed with Tottenham fans watching the Champions League on the television. The front of the pub, which is made up of reinforced glass, was attacked by 20-25 people.

"They threw projectiles through the windows. There was a stand-off. They didn't get in to the bar. Then it calmed down. Then they came back a second time and it all started again.

"There were three injured Tottenham fans taken away by ambulance. One of them had a head injury. I'm not sure how bad it was."

Spurs fan and journalist Aidan Radnege, who was in the bar at the time of the attack, said: "They came in making Nazi salutes. It was frightening. Rome was fresh in everyone's minds. Everyone realised this was serious."

Read more: www1.skysports.com/football/news/11675/8513790/Lyon-deplore-Wednesday-s-violent-attack-on-Tottenham-supporters

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CYBER WARFARE:Hackers Hit Apple DevicesIn Widest Known Attack

The same hackers that hit Facebook’s computers on Friday infected the computers of some Apple employees, the company acknowledged Tuesday.

The incident, the widest known cyberattack against Apple-made computers to date, occurred when the Apple employees browsed to a special website that had been infected with malware custom-written for the Macintosh platform, Reuters reported.

'We identified a small number of systems within Apple that were infected and isolated them from our network.'

- Apple statement

"Apple has identified malware which infected a limited number of Mac systems through a vulnerability in the Java plug-in for browsers. The malware was employed in an attack against Apple and other companies, and was spread through a website for software developers," the company said in a statement.

"We identified a small number of systems within Apple that were infected and isolated them from our network. There is no evidence that any data left Apple," it continued.

According to TheVerge.com, Apple will release a software tool today to protect customers against the malware used in the attack.

Apple said it was working closely with law enforcement to find the culprits, but the spokesman would not elaborate further. The Federal Bureau of Investigation declined to comment.

Facebook acknowledged that its servers had been hacked late Friday evening, apparently by the same group. According to the social-networking giant, intruders did not steal any sensitive information about Facebook's more than 1 billion users.

The attack on Apple is an unwelcome entry for the high-tech company into the ranks of the hacked, a source familiar with the incident told Reuters.

"This is the first really big attack on Macs," said the source, who declined to be identified because the person was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. "Apple has more on its hands than the attack on itself."

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