Obamagate timeline 2009-2014

This is a timeline. For updated events see Obamagate timeline. For a detailed
presentation, see Barack Hussein Obama and Barack Obama Controversies.

The Obamagate scandal refers to several scandals during President Barack Obama tenure, notably the misuse of government agencies, media manipulation, illegal wiretaping, and domestic spying on American citizens to harass political opponents and critics.

Circa reported "As his presidency drew to a close, Barack Obama’s top aides routinely reviewed intelligence reports gleaned from the National Security Agency’s incidental intercepts of Americans abroad, taking advantage of rules their boss relaxed starting in 2011 to help the government better fight terrorism, espionage by foreign enemies and hacking threats. ...Among those cleared to request and consume unmasked NSA-based intelligence reports about U.S. citizens were Obama’s national security adviser Susan Rice, his CIA Director John Brennan and then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch."

The abuses came to light when Mark Levin cited mainstream press reporting of Obama administration leaks about government agencies spying on the presidential campaign of Donald Trump and surrogates, including then U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions, who is presently the Attorney General of the United States.

Obama and CIA Director John Brennan meet in the White House to discuss the Torturegate coverup. Brennan had been heavily involved in the CIA's torture program, and when the Congress investigated, the CIA spied on and hacked into its Senate overseers computers who were investigating the CIA's use of torture. Brennan needed Obama's assurance the Justice Dept. would not prosecute himself or anyone else involved in the torture program.

2009

January 2009

• 21 January. Obama inaugurated 44th president.

February 2009

• 6 February. Italian government ratifies historic Friendship Agreement with Libya. Under its terms, Italy would pay $5 billion to Libya as compensation for its former colonial occupation. In exchange, Libya would take measures to combat illegal immigration coming from its shores.

March 2009

• 13 March. Hillary Clinton invites Vladimir Putin to Clinton Foundation event.

April 2009

• April. Unmasked name of Rep. Jane Harmon leaked to the press. NSA incidentally recorded phone conversations with pro-Israel lobbyists who were under investigation for espionage. Story broken by Congressional Quarterly’s Jeff Stein.

June 2009

• June. After being in power for 40 years, for the first time, Mumammar Gaddafi is invented and travels to Rome to visit with Prime Minister Berlusconi, under the terms of the new Italian-Libyan Friendship Agreement.

August 2009

• August. Responsibility for interrogations of terror suspects shifted away from the CIA, and the White House assumes direct control. John Brennan, a holdover from the Bush torture program, placed in charge. Unlike executive departments and agencies such as the FBI, CIA, or Department of Justice, the National Security Council is on the personal staff of the president, is not subject to Congressional oversight, and functions outside of public view. This arrangement was based on the model of Iran Contra headed by Col. Oliver North of the NSC. The American Civil Liberties Union called attention to this before Obama appointed the NSC staff to serve an operational role. The Tower Commission Report specifically criticized a major abuse in the Iran Contra affair was the President using his personal staff to carry out operations.

September 2009

.4 September. Mike Levine of Fox News reports:

"In October 2008, 27-year-old college student Shirwa Ahmed of Minneapolis became "the first known American suicide bomber" when he blew himself up in Somalia, killing dozens, according to the FBI. Since then at least four more men from Minneapolis have been killed in Somalia, according to their families.
A grand jury in Minneapolis has been investigating the case for several months, and three men have already pleaded guilty to terror-related charges, including providing material support to terrorists. The indictments said the men traveled to Somalia "so that they could fight jihad" there."

In January of 2011 Holder's Justice Dept. obtains a warrant against Levine to compel him to reveal his source. The case raises significant First and Sixth Amendments issues.

• 21 September. FBI Director Robert Mueller personally selected by Sec. of Star Hillary Clinton to hand deliver 10 grams of highly enriched uranium to Moscow.

• Fall. Operation Fast and Furious conceived locally in Phoenix ATF office.

October 2009

• 26 October. State Department's routine International Religious Freedom Report for 2009 said of Libya under Gaddafi:

The Government tolerates most minority religions but strongly opposes militant forms of Islam, which it views as a security threat... There were no reports of forced religious conversion ...There were no reports of societal abuses or discrimination based on religious affiliation, belief, or practice.

• 27 October. State Dept. cable from Italy says of Italian Prime Minister Sivio Berlusconi "a growing list of scandals, adverse court decisions and health issues have weakened him; and led some erstwhile Berlusconi allies to begin hedging their bets on his political longevity... Berlusconi's frequent late nights and penchant for partying hard mean he does not get sufficient rest." The same cable also says that: "Separately, on October 21, Northern League leader Umberto Bossi, commenting on Berlusconi's troubles, told the Ambassador that organized crime figures had probably set the trap for Berlusconi on some of the sex scandals." When Berlusconi accused Washington of "provoking" Moscow by recognizing the independence of Kosovo, a Serbian province, an Italian official visited the US Embassy. A cable from the embassy said the official "took back a terse message to the [Italian Foreign Minister] that such comments risk substantial and lasting damage to Italy's credibility in Washington....Berlusconi was losing credibility for Italy as a reliable partner, which he could ill afford to do," the cable added.

December 2009

• 17 December. Obama administration prosecutes FBI contractor Shamai Leibowitz for leaking documents to the media in April 2009. Leibowitz says he leaked because he felt FBI practices were “an abuse of power and a violation of the law” which he reported to his superiors at the FBI “who did nothing about them.”

2010

January 2010

• 21 January. Citizens United overturned.

• 26 January. Operation Fast and Furious organized in Washington as a joint Strike Force with agents from ATF, FBI, DEA, and the ICE run through the U.S. Attorney's office rather than the ATF. Designation as a Strike Force allowed it to use sophisticated surveillance techniques such as federal wiretaps, which would require court orders and interaction from Justice Department (DOJ) officials in Washington, D.C. since federal law requires certain individuals to review evidence and certify the necessity of such techniques. ATF agents were prevented from making arrests by federal prosecutors with Eric Holder's office. Wiretaps were employed of suspected straw-buyers.

• 27 January. Obama insults the Supreme Court in his State of the Union address over the Citizens United ruling.

• 31 January. Villas de Salvárcar massacre, Juárez, Mexico. A birthday party attended by high school students was intruded upon by a group of 20 La Línea drug cartel hitmen. 15 teenagers were killed and 12 received injuries. The brutality of the crime outraged people both in and outside Mexico. The weapons used came from President Obama's Fast and Furious program.

March 2010

• March. IRS employees in Cincinnati instructed from Washington to scrutinize tax-exempt applications using the words "Tea Party" or "Patriots" in the name.

April 2010

• 15 April. Obama administration pursues espionage charges against NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake. Charges were later dropped and Drake pled guilty to a misdemeanor. The judge called the government’s conduct in the case “unconscionable.”

Sen. Diane Feinstein, Chair of the Intelligence Committee entrusted with oversight of CIA was hacked by Brennan's CIA looking into Brennan and CIA use of torture. This egregious abuse of power by the Obama Executive branch was papered over by the Democrats in the administration and Senate by having Brennan offer Feinstein an apology. No one was prosecuted. No one went to jail. No reforms were initiated or proposed in Congress.

• April. Obama Attn. Gen. Eric Holder renews a subpoena of New York Times reporter James Risen in a leak investigation. Risen and a colleague reported on warrantless wiretaps. The coverage won Risen and colleague a Pulitzer Prize for “carefully sourced stories on secret domestic eavesdropping that stirred a national debate.” The Justice Dept. opened an investigation into the wiretap stories. John Brennan played a key role in the illegal wiretap program, overseeing the production of what personnel in the program called the “scary memos” intended to justify the domestic spying exposed by Risen. Brennan later admitted that he relied on information from CIA’s torture program rather than domestic spying, which was used as a cover. In a frontpage May 13, 2004 story the torture program was exposed with Risen as the lead reporter.

May 2010

• 28 May. Justice Dept. applies for a warrant to obtain Google email information of Fox News reporter James Rosen without telling Rosen.

• May. Sixty documents disappear from the computers of the Senate Intelligence Oversight Torture Review investigation. Chairwoman Feinstein said that CIA personnel at first denied that the documents were missing, then blamed the IT contractors, then informed her it was at the behest of the White House.

June 2010

• June. Operation Fast and Furious suspects have purchased 1,608 firearms thus far at a cost of over $1 million at Phoenix-area gun shops. ATF is aware of 179 of those weapons being found at crime scenes in Mexico, and 130 in the United States. As guns traced to Fast and Furious began turning up at violent crime scenes in Mexico, ATF agents stationed in Mexico voice opposition to the program.

• 9 June. Obama administration announces $900 million in aid to a designated terror organization in Gaza.

Pay day: Bill Clinton in Moscow to pick $500,000 bribe for his wife Hillary Clinton's approval of the Russian purchase of an American uranium mining company.

• 29 June. Bill Clinton received $500,000 for a Moscow speech to Renaissance Capital in a pay-to-play bribery scam arranged by Sec. of State Hillary Clinton for State Dept. approval of Russian purchase of Uranium One, an America. Clinton was thanked personally by Russian President Vladimir Putin after the speech.

July 2010

• July. One of the nineteen guns Mexican authorities said they found at the hideout of Joaquin Guzman aka El Chapo, after his January 2016 capture, was associated with the Fast and Furious operation. The Justice Department confirmed that the .50-caliber rifle was bought in July 2010 in a straw purchase by someone not known to the ATF at the time.

• Catherine Engelbrecht of Texas filed with the IRS seeking tax exempt status for her organizations, King Street Patriots and True the Vote. FBI makes 6 contacts with the family or the nonprofit entities over the next 18 months, including harassment from ATF and OSHA as well.

August 2010

• 16 August. Def. Sec. Robert Gates announces intention to resign.
• August. The IRS distributes its first BOLO (Be on the Lookout) list to examiners nationwide. The criteria on the BOLO list were Tea Party organizations applying for section 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status.

September 2010

• 21 September. Internal email entitled “Obama Leak Investigations” at “global intelligence” company Stratfor claims Obama’s then-White House adviser John Brennan is targeting journalists.

"Brennan is behind the witch hunts of investigative journalists learning information from inside the beltway sources,” writes one Stratfor official to another. The email continues: “Note — There is specific tasker from the [White House] to go after anyone printing materials negative to the Obama agenda (oh my.) Even the FBI is shocked. The Wonder Boys must be in meltdown mode…”

“The Wonder Boys” reportedly refers to the National Security Agency (NSA).

October 2010

• 26 October. In a campaign speech, Obama promises to "punish our enemies and reward our friends."

November 2010

• 2 November. Republicans sweep Midterms. GOP gained 63 seats in the House and took control, the largest for any midterm election since 1938 in the Great Depression. All 63 seats came from wins over Democrats who voted on a straight partyline for Obamacare. The GOP also gained six seats in the U.S. Senate. In state legislatures the GOP gained 680 seats. to break the previous majority record set by Democrats in the immediate post-Watergate Scandal Midterms of 1974. Republicans controlled 26 state legislatures, compared to 15 still by Democrats, and 29 of 50 Governorships. Obama referred to this outcome as his "shellacking".

• Sarkozy and Cameron sign Lancaster House Treaties to "develop co-operation between British and French Armed Forces, the sharing and pooling of materials and equipment including through mutual interdependence, the building of joint facilities, mutual access to each other’s defence markets, and industrial and technological co-operation."

• Berlusconi sex scandal breaks; Berlusconi responds, "It is better to be fond of beautiful girls than to be gay." The statement is offensive to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and numerous others in mass media.

• 7 November. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi targeted in a number of press and news articles alleging deviant sex lifestyle.

• 23 November. Hillary Clinton suggests murdering Julian Assange.

• 28 November. Wikileaks begins publishing classified information from Bradley Manning revealing, among other matters, that the US is extensively spying on the United Nations.

December 2010

• 14 December. US Border Patrol agent Brian Terry and others were patrolling Peck Canyon, Santa Cruz County, Arizona 11 miles from the Mexican border. The group came across five suspected illegal immigrants. When they fired non-lethal beanbag guns, the suspects responded with live fire. Agent Terry was killed. Four of the suspects were apprehended and two AK-47 type weapons. The Eric Holder's office was immediately notified of the shooting incident by email. The weapons were traced within hours to a purchase involved in the Fast and Furious operation.

2011

It is clear in reading Hillary Clinton's emails that, in the glow of the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, Hillary embraced the call to spike the football and clearly was planning to use Libya as evidence of her leadership and skill that qualified her to become President.

The attack on US diplomats and CIA officers in Benghazi on 11 September 2012 however, destroyed that dream. The dream became a nightmare and Hillary scrambled to pretend that she was not the mover-and-shaker that destabilized Libya and made it a safe haven for ISIS, uncorking the bottle for the European migrant crisis.

January 2011

• 11 January. IRS begins 3-day on-site audit of the Engelbrechts business and personal tax returns. Catherine Engelbrecht of Texas had applied for tax exempt status for True the Vote 6 months earlier.

• 25 January. First public disclosures about Operation Fast and Furious. Obama and Holder's Justice Dept. denies that guns had been deliberately allowed to walk into Mexico. Altogether, about 2,000 firearms were bought by straw purchasers during Fast and Furious. These included AK-47 variants, Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifles, .38 caliber revolvers, and FN Five-sevens. 389 had been recovered in the US and 276 had been recovered in Mexico. The rest remained on the streets, unaccounted for. The total number of recovered firearms was 710. Most of the guns went to the Sinaloa drug cartel, while others made their way to El Teo and La Familia Michoacana crime organizations.

• 27 January. Acting on a whistleblower tip, Grassley wrote a letter to the ATF Acting Director requesting information about the ATF-sanctioned sale of hundreds of firearms to straw purchasers. The letter mentioned a number of allegations that walked guns were used in the fight that killed Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. A second letter from Grassley on January 31 accused the ATF of targeting whistleblowers.

• January. Justice Dept. persuades a federal grand jury in Washington DC to subpoena Mike Levine of Fox News to learn confidential sources after reporting that several Somali-Americans were secretly indicted in Minneapolis for joining an al Qaeda-linked group in Somalia.

February 2011

• 2 February. Sen. Grassley’s investigators interview a whistleblower.
• 4 February. Office of the Deputy Attorney General, the US Attorney's Office in Phoenix, and ATF Headquarters, Ronald Weich sends a response to Sen. Grassley regarding his two January letters. Weich said claims "...that (the) ATF ‘sanctioned’ or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser who then transported them to Mexico [are] false. ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation to Mexico.”

• 11 February. CBS’ Sharyl Attkisson breaks news about “Fast and Furious” on The CBS Evening News.

• 15 February. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jaime Zapata killed on Texas-Mexican border. The gun used to kill Zapata was purchased in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, Texas, outside the area of responsibility for the ATF Phoenix field division which conducted Fast and Furious, and then smuggled into Mexico. Congressional investigators have stated the purchaser was known by the ATF to be a straw purchaser months before he purchased the gun used to kill Zapata, leading investigators to suspect the Obama administration was conducting a Texas-based operation similar to Fast and Furious. Another of the guns involved in the Zapata shooting traced to the "Baytown Crew", shows that guns were allowed to walk during surveillance that began June 7, 2010. On August 20, 2010, a purchaser received a rifle later recovered in the Zapata ambush and sent it with nine others to Mexico. The warrant for the purchasers arrest was issued February 14, 2011, the day before Zapata was shot. On January 30, 2012, the purchaser of one of the guns in Zapata's killing, who claimed to be working with Los Zetas cartel in illegally exporting at least 44 weapons purchased through straw buyers, was sentenced to 100 months in prison.

• Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi indicted on sex charges.

• 23 February. Italian Foreign Minister expressed concern that the amount of Libyan refugees trying to reach Italy might reach between 200,000 and 300,000 people.

• 25 February. Hillary Rodham Clinton announces the suspension of operations of the Libyan embassy in Washington.

• 26 February. Hillary Clinton directs efforts to remove all US embassy personnel from Tripoli and orders the closing of the embassy.

• Hillary Clinton makes a series of calls to her foreign counterparts to help secure passage of UNSC 1970, imposing sanctions on Muamma Gaddafi and his family and refers Gaddafi and aides to the ICC.

• 27 February. Transitional National Council announces in the city of Benghazi its purpose is to act as the "political face of the revolution." Spokesman made clear that the Libyan Transitional National Council was not a provisional government and added that the newly formed council was not in contact with foreign governments and did not want them to intervene. He later said that an airstrike purportedly sanctioned by the UNSC 1973 would not be considered a foreign intervention. Vladimir Putin later reported Russian abstention from UNSC 1973 in private talks with Hillary Clinton in no way sanctioned NATO use of aggressive force.

• 28 February. Hillary Clinton travels to Geneva, Switzerland for consultations with European partners on Libya. She gives a major address in which she says: "It is time for Qadhafi to go." Works to secure the suspension of Libya from membership in the Human Rights Council.

• Eric Holder requests that the Justice's Dept.'s Office of the Inspector General begin an investigation of Operation Fast and Furious.

March 2011

• Early March. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appoints Special Envoy Chris Stevens to handle US operations in Benghazi.

• 4 March. CBS News’ Attkisson exclusively interviews sitting ATF special agent John Dodson. He gives a firsthand account contradicting government denials regarding Fast and Furious.

• 11 March. The President of the Mexican Chamber of Deputies, in response to reports that the Obama administration was knowingly and willfully allowing the sale and transfer of weapons across the Mexican border announces "This is a serious violation of international law.

• 13 March. Secretary Clinton travels to Paris for a series of meetings with foreign ministers from the Group of Eight countries. Bernard-Henri Levy is also in attendence to do introductions to the rebel group leaders. She meets with Libyan Transitional National Council leader Mahmoud Jibril and consults with other foreign counterparts on further UN Security Council action. She secretly adds that aggressive action and not just a no-fly zone will be adequate.

• 14-16 March. Sec. Clinton participates in a series of high-level video- and teleconferences. She is a leading voice for strong UNSC action in the name of a NATO "civilian protection" mission. A majority of NATO member states refuse to participate. This was not why the NATO alliance was founded or continues to exist.

• Clinton meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov whose country's veto of UNSC 1973 could derail any planned intervention. Lavrov was intentially misled to believe that giving NATO a free hand in Libya could be had in exchange for a Russian free hand in Georgia and the Crimea.

• 15 March. Clinton speaks with Obama by phone as a “strong advocate” for U.S. intervention. Obama, who had been weighing arguments from a divided NSC for days, sides with Clinton.

• 17 March. Clinton secures a deal with Russia to abstain from vetoing UNSC Resolution 1973, supposedly granting authorization to a few NATO members “to take all necessary measures to enforce compliance with the ban on flights” and “pure no-fly zone". Only 12 of NATO's 28 members participate, changing NATOs ostensibly defensive nature, founded on the premise that an attack on one is an attack against all, to an offensive mercenary force for hire in the service of private interests and politicians' quests for approval ratings.

• The resolution passes 10-0, with Russia, China, Germany, Brazil and India abstaining. It authorizes a “pure no-fly zone."

• 19 March. Sarkozy convenes meeting in the Westin Hotel to solicit agreement for the immediate deployment of military aircraft to stop Gaddafi's efforts to put down the rebellion in Benghazi, and the establishment of a US no-fly zone in the country.

• Before the meeting is over, French fighter planes attack Gaddafi forces outside Benghazi. Italian and Russian participants protest the French government's insistence on convening the meeting before agreeing to air strikes, and then launching strikes before the meeting was over.

• Vladimir Putin later charges Obama and cohorts "violated the UN Security Council resolution on Libya, when instead of imposing the so-called no-fly zone over it they started bombing it too."

• The early attack so upset Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who recently signed a Friendship Pact with Libya, he warned of cutting access to Italian air bases vital to French, British, and American warplanes.

Hillary Clinton used sexual blackmail to advance her entire career.

• The Washington Post says, “It nearly broke up the coalition,” according to an eyewitness. "Yet the rift was quickly patched, thanks to a frenzied lobbying effort that kept the coalition from unraveling in its opening hours. 'That,' the source said, 'was Hillary.'... She spent hours on the phone and in person with Berlusconi."

**29 October 2013. At a Goldman Sachs summit Hillary recounts, "Leaders who shall remain nameless, who were characterized as vain, egotistical, power hungry, corrupt. And we knew they were. This was not fiction. And I had to go and say, you know, our ambassadors, they get carried away, they want to all be literary people. They go off on tangents. What can I say. I had grown men cry. I mean, literally." Then, in a mocking Italian accent, "I am a friend of America, and you say these things about me."

• Washington Post later reports Berlusconi "eventually provided air bases as staging grounds for attacks."

• French officials claim that meeting participants were informed of the operation. The strikes clearly had been planned and coordinated with the knowledge of the United States and UK.

• That night, the first U.S. air strikes halt the advance of Gaddafi's forces on Benghazi and target Libya's air defenses. Members of Libya's Christian Coptic community are later decapitated en masse once Secretary Clinton and President Obama's objectives are met.

• 21 March. Obama announces US forces commenced operations in Libya two days earlier, on March 19, "to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe." Sec. Robert Gates warned establishment of a no-fly zone meant attacking Libya. National Security Advisor Tom Donilon and Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough opposed attacking Libya; but Hillary Clinton "won the bureaucratic battle to use Department of Defense resources to achieve what's essentially the State Department's objective... and Obama let it happen".

President Obama armed al-Qaeda rebels who later migrated to Syria to form the Islamic State.(Photo:Reuters).

• United Nations Charter, Article 2(4), prohibits the “threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence” of a member state, and many observers object that Obama's actions violate this prohibition.

• Congressional Research Services advises that a no-fly zone imposed against a state that has not carried out an attack on its neighbors may consider the imposition an “armed attack.” CRS warns that even if a no-fly zone does not constitute an armed attack, "that state, and other members of the international community, might consider them a violation of the prohibition of the 'threat or use of force,' as well as of the customary duty of non-intervention in the affairs of other sovereign states."

• NATO's Supreme Allied Commander James Stavridis told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee days before President Obama publicly admitted to intervention that US intelligence community knew of al Qaeda and Hezbollah elements among Libyan rebels.

• 22 March. Obama appears on Univision to deny that neither he nor Eric Holder authorized Operation Fast and Furious.

• 23 March. Video of Berlusconi 'bunga bunga party' hits American cable news.

• 24 March. Clinton engages with Sarkozy, Cameron, and others to secure the transition of command and control of the "civilian protection mission" to NATO. She announces the transition in a statement.

• 26 March. A report from Rep. Dennis Kucinich corroborates the claim of Franco Bechis in Italy that "plans to spark the Benghazi rebellion were initiated by French intelligence services in November 2010."

• 18-30 March. Hillary Clinton engages with UAE, Qatar, and Jordan to seek their participation in coalition operations. Over the course of several days, all three devote aircraft to the mission.

• 29 March. Clinton travels to London for a conference on Libya, where Clinton is a driving force behind the creation of a Contact Group comprising 20-plus countries to coordinate efforts to "protect civilians" and plan for a post-Gaddafi Libya. She is instrumental in setting up a rotating chair system to ensure regional buy-in.

• Russia and China accuse US of exceeding UNSC 1973 mandate.

• Spring. Obama intel officials capture and record private communications between Rep. Kucinich, and a Libyan official.

April 2011

• 14 April. According to a Hillary staff email, Sec. of State Clinton travels to Berlin for NATO meetings. Clinton is the driving force behind NATO adopting a communiqué that calls for Gaddafi's departure as a political objective, and lays out three clear military objectives: (1) end of attacks and threat of attacks on civilians; (2) the removal of Gaddafi forces; (3) [redacted from original]. Germans refuse to go along.

• 15 April. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the Berlin conference accuses Obama administration of exceeding UNSC 1973 mandate and the agreements at the Paris summit. What started out as a mission to “protect civilians and enforce a no-fly zone,” has transformed into an effort at "regime change" without having a clear understanding as to the nature of the rebel opposition.

• 22 April. Amber Lyon reports on CNN violent put down of Bahrain uprising.

• April. A large cache of weapons, 40 traced to Operation Fast and Furious was found in the home of a prominent Sinaloa Cartel member in Juarez, Mexico. Also found were military-grade weapons difficult to obtain legally in the US, such as an anti-aircraft machine gun and grenade launcher.

May 2011

• 3 May. Eric Holder testifies to the House Judiciary Committee that he did not know who approved Operation Fast and Furious, but that it was being investigated. He also states that he "probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks." a claim which would later be questioned

• 5 May. Sec. Hillary Clinton travels to Rome for a Contact Group meeting. The Contact Group establishes a coordination system and a temporary financial mechanism to funnel money to the National Transitional Council.

• 20 May. Washington Post reports Obama ignored the legal deadline set in the 1973 law that required him to obtain Congressional approval for U.S. military operations in Libya. Under the Nixon-era War Powers Resolution, the president must obtain Congressional authorization of military action within 60 days, or else begin withdrawing forces.

• 29 May. Four Mexican Federal Police helicopters attack a drug cartel compound, where they were met with heavy fire, including from a .50 caliber rifle. This rifle has been linked to Operation Fast and Furious.

• May. White House recruits democratic operative Eric Schultz to promote fake news reporting on Fast and Furious and to counter House Oversight Committee’s investigative work. Schultz previously worked for Sen. Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton.

June 2011

• 8 June. Sec. Of State Clinton travels to Abu Dhabi for another Contact Group meeting and holds a series of intense discussions with jihadi and rebel leaders.

• 12 June. Clinton travels to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for consultations and a speech before the African Union, pressing the case for a "democratic transition" in Libya.

Eric Holder was the point man for many of the Obama administrations early nefarious activities. He resigned under a cloud.

• 14 June. Preliminary joint staff report released by Rep. Darrell Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley. Among the findings: agents were told to stand down rather than interdict weapons, they complained about the strategy and were ignored, and Fast and Furious led to increased violence and death in Mexico. Agents were panicked, certain that "someone was going to die". Some speculate the deliberate​ escalation of violence and gun deaths was a White House Obama administration strategy to influence public opinion in favor of gun control. Chairman Issa continues hearings in June and July where ATF officials based in Phoenix and Mexico, and at headquarters in Washington, testify before the committee. ATF agent John Dodson stated that he and other agents were ordered to observe the activities of gun smugglers but not to intervene. He testifies:

Over the course of the next 10 months that I was involved in this operation, we monitored as they purchased hand guns, AK-47 variants, and .50 caliber rifles almost daily. Rather than conduct any enforcement actions, we took notes, we recorded observations, we tracked movements of these individuals for a short time after their purchases, but nothing more. Knowing all the while, just days after these purchases, the guns that we saw these individuals buy would begin turning up at crime scenes in the United States and Mexico, we still did nothing. ...
I cannot begin to think of how the risk of letting guns fall into the hands of known criminals could possibly advance any legitimate law enforcement interest.

• 28 June. Obama US Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke secretly leaks sensitive government information to Fox News, to discredit ATF whistleblower John Dodson in the Fast and Furious case. Burke is former chief of staff to former Arizona Governor and then Homeland Security Sec. Janet Napolitano.

• June. Terminology on the BOLO list is increased to include additional names (Patriots and 9/12 Project) as well as specific policy positions such as government spending, government debt, or taxes; or involved advocating or lobbying to "make America a better place to live"; or criticized how the country is being run; or advocated education about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights; or focused on challenging the Affordable Care Act known as Obamacare.

• Late June. Clinton meets with House Democrats and Senate Republicans to persuade them not to de-fund the Libya operation.

July 2011

• 12 July. Obama administrations targets Iraqis with new visa and background checks after terrorists residing in Bowling Green, Kentucky were discovered.

• 15 July. Hillary Clinton travels to Istanbul and announces that the US recognizes the Transitional National Council as the legitimate government of Libya. She also secures recognition of the TNC from the other members of the Contact Group.

• 18 July. Clinton sends Sec. of State for the Near East Jeffrey Feltman, U.S. ambassador to Libya Gene Cretz, and a senior director at the National Security Council Derek Chollet, to meet with Gaddafi envoys in Tunis "to deliver a clear and firm message that the only way to move forward, is for Gaddafi to step down". Libyan representatives are confused as to thinking the US had been an ally in fighting the radical Islamic jihadis the Obama administration now was supporting to overthrow Gaddafi.

• Former Clinton administration State Dept. Spokesman Jamie Rubin, husband of CNN’s Christiane Amanpour emails Hillary:

"Again, congratulations are in order...It is a pleasure to see the State Department again leading the administration on this. Syria, too...

...the White House doesn’t seem like it cares very much. In general, the NSC seems uncomfortable with creative applications of American power and influence. And we all know the military and the Pentagon resist limited military operations, especially airpower-only engagements. So, it must be you and your colleagues at State. Well done. . . .

... even a small success like the one that is coming in Libya will turn around the steady decline in American influence in the region and around the world. I suspect that you know this, but European elites, Gulf elites, East Europeans and many others regard the Administration as weak.

• 26 July. A second joint staff report was released by House and Senate investigatory committees.

• Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News reports during a Congressional hearing on Operation Fast and Furious, ATF Special Agent Bill Newell tells Congress he discussed approval of the case with a White House National Security staffer as early as September 2010. Attkisson is later put under surveillance by the Obama administration.

August 2011

• Early August. Hillary Clinton works to construct a $1.5 billion assets package to be approved by the UNSC and sent to the Libyan Transitional National Council (TNC). That package is working through its last hurdles.

• After military chief Abdel Fattah Younes is killed, Hillary's office sends a personal message to TNC head Jalil to press for a responsible investigation and a careful and inclusive approach to creating a new executive council.

• Early August. Clinton secures written pledges from the TNC to a supposed "pluralistic democratic transition". Clinton continues to consult with European and Arab colleagues on the evolving situation.

• 21 August. Jihadis enter Tripoli.

• 22 August. Sidney Blumenthal emails Hillary:

First, brava! This is a historic moment and you will be credited for realizing it. When Qaddafi himself is finally removed, you should of course make a public statement before the cameras wherever you are, even in the driveway of your vacation house. You must go on camera. You must establish yourself in the historical record at this moment. The most important phrase is: ‘successful strategy.’

Just a few points:

• The US has pursued a successful strategy in Libya... This was the right course, based on our interests and principles...

• Do not skimp on the reasons in the US interest...The US has demonstrated its principled belief in the rule of law and acted on...By acting in Libya we have helped advance the cause of democracy and freedom...We have put Assad on notice that the sands of time have run out for him as well. Our successful strategy in Libya stands as a warning that our strategy will work again. Etc.

• Be aware that some may attempt to justify the flamingly stupid ‘leading from behind’ phrase, junior types on the NSC imagining their cleverness. To refute this passive construction on US policy and help remove it as an albatross from the administration as it enters the election year, do not be defensive but rather simply explain that the US had a clear strategy from the start, stuck with it and has succeeded.

• Then you can say whatever on future policy — but only after asserting the historic success and explaining the reasons why.

• This is a very big moment historically and for you. History will tell your part in it. You are vindicated. But don’t wait, help Clio now.” (Blumenthal’s reference to “Clio” is to the Greek muse of history.)

• Jake Sullivan writes "Secretary Clinton's leadership on Libya" memorandum:

[Secretary Clinton] has been a critical voice on Libya in administration deliberations, at NATO, and in contact group meetings — as well as the public face of the U.S. effort in Libya. She was instrumental in securing the authorization, building the coalition, and tightening the noose around Qadhafi and his regime.

• August. US Attorney Dennis Burke resigns while under investigation for improper leak to smear ATF whistleblower John Dodson. The Inspector General later confirms the leak.

September 2011

• 3 September. Hillary Clinton directs Jake Sullivan and her staff to document the case of Hillary’s “brilliance” in providing leadership for the destabilization of Libya.

• 6 September. David Petraeus become CIA Director, relieving Michael Morell as acting Director. Morell is immediately hired by David Rhodes, brother of Obama NSC staffer Ben Rhodes as CBS News National Security expert to spin Obama administration talk8ng points.

• 7 September. bloomberg.com/news publishes:

Hillary Clinton Deserves Credit for U.S. Role in Libya:

View By the Editors –

The unsung hero of the Libya drama in the U.S. is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Clinton’s actions were critical for several reasons. Most important, she overcame Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s caution about using military force in Libya and his reluctance to support an operation led by France and Britain. ...

Despite the unusual arrangement in which the U.S. was a supporter rather than a leader of NATO’s military operation, she defended intervention before a skeptical Congress and performed the hard slog of daily diplomacy ...

...the decision to support NATO military action in Libya is probably the Obama administration’s most important achievement in international affairs. Although ... the country is a long way from having a stable, representative government...

History will surely judge that, by intervening on the side of the rebellion, the West — primarily the governments of France, the U.K. and the U.S. — made a unique and invaluable contribution ... That said, the Obama administration’s decision-making process remains opaque. ...

...by breaking with Gates, Clinton tipped the balance within the administration in favor of action. Without her strong argument ... Washington probably would not have acted. The president’s national security adviser, Tom Donilon, was declaring freedom in Libya to be outside the U.S. national interest, and both military and civilian officials in the Pentagon were reluctant to endorse or even opposed U.S. intervention. But Clinton’s push... appears to have been decisive.

...Congress not only opposed sending in ground troops but mostly opposed any U.S. involvement. Obama wisely resisted.

“For better or worse, the Libya model is not likely to be repeated anytime soon. This is not, as some say, because NATO will never again intervene in a situation like Libya’s. After the Kosovo war, many also said NATO would never again act against a dictator to save lives.

...Think about the conditions: ... a rebel army on the ground sought democratic change and espoused Western values; the UN at least loosely endorsed NATO air operations; ...Given those circumstances, it is still hard to explain why there were determined opponents, primarily in the Republican Party, to this mission in the first place.

Throughout most of Obama’s term in office, only a few administration officials have commanded respect and political power on national security matters: Clinton, Gates and General David Petraeus, the most decorated and admired officer of recent times. With Gates now gone and Petraeus in a non-policy role as director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Clinton’s power will only increase as the president’s re-election campaign heats up. We hope she recognizes her opportunity and uses it well.

• 10 September. Blumenthal emails Hillary, "Per our conversation. Jamie [Rubin] writes editorial... Sid", and includes text of Rubin's Bloomberg editorial.

• 11 September. Mexican government states that an undisclosed number of guns found at about 170 crime scenes were linked to Operation Fast and Furious. House Oversight Committee on Government Operstions estimates that more than 200 Mexicans were killed by guns linked to the White House program.

• 19 September. Mexican officials state they still have not been informed by the Obama administration about Operation Fast and Furious, neither has the administration offered apologizies for allowing the illegal transfer of guns across the border.

• Chihuahua state prosecutor Patricia Gonzalez, who worked closely with the US for years, said, "The basic ineptitude of these officials [who ordered the Fast and Furious operation] caused the death of my brother and surely thousands more victims." Her brother had been kidnapped, tortured and killed by cartel hit men in October 2010. Later, two AK-47 rifles found among the several weapons recovered after a gunfight between police and cartel members were traced to the Fast and Furious program.

• 23 September. Amber Lyon reports on CNN the lethal use of tear gas in Bahrain.

• September. White House operative Eric Schultz invites Attkisson and several other national journalists to off the record background briefing about Fast and Furious documents subpoenaed by Congress. Later, on the phone, Shultz screams and cusses at Attkisson as she asks questions raised by the Fast and Furious documents.

October 2011

• 3 October. Obama administration secretly changes longstanding policy. The change creates a “loophole” that Sen. Ron Wyden of the Intelligence Committee later says allows the NSA to conduct “backdoor searches” or “incidental collection” of US citizens’ domestic communications.

• CBS News airs Sharyl Attkisson’s report on newly uncovered memos contradicting Attn. Gen. Eric Holders’ denials about Fast and Furious.

• 4 October. In an internal email, Attn. Gen. Eric Holder’s top press aide Tracy Schmaler emails White House operative Eric Schultz calling Attkisson “out of control.” Schultz replies, “Her piece was really bad for the AG.”

• 6 October. Mexican newspaper Reforma accuses the Obama administration of violating Mexican sovereignty. "In sum, the gringo government has been sending weapons to Mexico in a premeditated and systematic manner, knowing that their destinations were Mexican criminal organizations."

• 30 October. Hillary tells Washington Post, in a piece entitled Hillary’s War, “we set into motion a policy that was on the right side of history, on the right side of our values, on the right side of our strategic interests in the region.”

• October. Documents showing that Eric Holder's office had been sent briefings on Operation Fast and Furious as early as July 2010, prompted questions about his May 2011 statement that he had known about it for only a few weeks.

November 2011

• 8 November. Attorney General Eric Holder stated for the first time in Congressional testimony that "gunwalking" was used in Operation Fast and Furious. He stated that his office had inaccurately described the program in previous letters sent to Congress, but that this was unintentional. He said he and other top officials had been unaware that the "gunwalking" was used. "Those things were not brought to my attention, and my staff, I think, made the correct decision in that regard."

• November. Ex-US Attorney Burke admitted to leaking sensitive documents about ATF agent and whistleblower Dodson. Sen. Grassley expressed concern that the Justice Dept. was using Burke as the fallguy to protect higher officials and vowed to continue his probe.

• CIA Director Gen. David Petraeus, who’s married, allegedly begins an affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell. The FBI would later say it “stumbled” upon evidence of the affair incidentally during an unspecified, much broader investigation.

December 2011

• 2 December. Justice Dept. formally withdraws its reply to Sen. Grassley from February 4, 2011, denying gunwalking due to inaccuracies.

2012

By 2012 Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both were running for president, Obama for re-election in 2012, Hillary to succeed him in 2016. Removing dictators in the Arab Spring was intended to give the impetus to both. But the Benghazi fiasco of September derailed Hillary's chances of remaining on in the State Department in Obama's second term, exposing covert operations, and slowed the progress of overthrowing Assad.

Nevertheless, Hillary established an important donor base in the Middle East who had provided funds for the removal of Assad and Gadaffi, then had a stake in seeing Hillary's election in 2016 through contributions to the Clinton Foundation.

The failure of the quick removal of Assad, along with Obama's complete disengagement of US troops from Iraq earlier, led to the unanticipated rise of the Islamic State in 2014, which further highlighted the failure of the Obama-Clinton foreign policy, and weakened Hillary's 2016 prospects.

February 2012

Jake Sullivan to Hillary Clinton: Al Qaeda is on our side.

• 12 February. Deputy Assistant to President Barack Obama, emails Sec. Clinton to notify her "[Al Qaeda] is on our side in Syria. Otherwise, things have basically turned out as expected;" the only legal basis Obama has for the use force (2001 AUMF) is to destroy Al Qaeda and associated groups.

• 13 February. Remote hackers secretly download new spy software proprietary to a federal agency onto Sharyl Attkisson’s CBS work computer. The software was secretly attached to a legitimate Hotmail email and downloaded in the background after a pop-up ad appeared.

• February. Catherine Engelbrecht of Texas receives third request for information from the IRS for True the Vote; King Street Patriots receives its first request. The questionaires had “hundreds of questions — hundreds and hundreds of questions. ”The IRS requested every Facebook post and Tweet she had ever written. She received questions about her family, whether she’d ever run for political office, and which organizations she had spoken to. The same day the Engelbrechts received the questions from the IRS, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) showed up to inspect their machine shop for the production of firearms, which they do not manufacture. The inspection took all day.

• IRS abuses hit the media for the first time but attract little attention.

March 2012

• 22 March. IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman testifies before the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight that there was "absolutely no targeting" by the IRS of conservative and/or Tea Party organizations.

April 2012

• 2 April. After a sixteen-month court battle, Justice Dept. withdraws subpeoana for Mike Levin related to the Minneapolis Somali case. Justice Dept. admits it was an abuse of power to intimidate witnesses to give testimony. As in the Risen case of the New York Times, it is easier for prosecutors to coerce testimony from a journalist by threats of imprisonment in order to convict a leaker, rather than put government eavesdroppers on the witness stand who gathered the actual evidence first hand with a duly authorized warrant. The government's fear is, too much information about sources and methods could leak out under cross examination of an accuser who is a simply a technician tasked with surveillance, if the accused's due process rights under the Sixth Amendment—the right to face one's accusers, were honored.

• 7 April. Justice Dept. publicly announces vast expansion of cyber related efforts to address alleged “national security-related cyber issues.” FBI announces same program 12 April.

• 19 April. National Organization for Marriage Human Rights Campaign announced that IRS disclosed copies of their tax returns to Obama political allies. IRS later admitted to theft of government property and paid damages for illegal disclosure to unauthorized persons of a citizen's confidential information.

• 23 April. [week of 22-29]. 18328 Wikileaks Hillary Clinton email archive. NEW IRAN AND SYRIA 2.DOC. Lays out justification and strategy for the anti-Assad campaign.

• 27 April. Lackland Airforce Base, San Antonio TX, used to house undocumented immigrants caught at the southern border. Many illegals say, "Obama said it was ok to come."

May 2012

• 3 May. Chairman Issa releases a memorandum to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform including a draft resolution to hold Eric Holder in contempt. Issa describes the connection between Operation Fast and Furious and the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) program since at least January 2009 when President Obama took office, which would involve multiple executive agencies including the ATF, DOJ, DEA, FBI, ICE, and DHS. The memo questions how, why, or if oversight by high level Justice Department officials did not occur in such an important case. He further describes the tragic death of Brian Terry, the whistleblowers and their mistreatment, and the damage the operation had to US-Mexico relations.

• 11 May. The Wall Street Journal publishes an article entitled, The President's Hit List. "Idaho businessman Frank VanderSloot has become the target of a smear campaign since it was disclosed earlier this year that he had donated $1 million to a super PAC supporting Mr. Romney. President Obama's campaign website teed him up in April as one of eight "less than reputable" Romney donors and a "bitter foe of the gay rights movement." One sin: His wife donated to an anti-gay-marriage campaign, of the kind that have passed in 30 or so states. Now we learn that little more than a week after that Presidential posting, a former Democratic Senate staffer called the courthouse in Mr. VanderSloot's home town of Idaho Falls seeking his divorce records. Ms. Strassel traced the operative, Michael Wolf, to a Washington, D.C. outfit called Fusion GPS that says it is "a commercial research firm."

• Fusion GPS is run by a former Wall Street Journal reporter, Glenn Simpson, who wouldn't say who is paying him for this high-minded slumming but said in an email that Mr. VanderSloot was a "legitimate" target because of "his record on gay issues." FusionGPS is the same oufit that later produces the Steele dossier.

• 12 May. The Associated Press publishes a story based on leaks of FISA information about a CIA operation which foiled a terrorist plot to detonate an explosive device on a commercial airline. Justice Dept. secretly seizes personal and phone records Associated Press journalists from Verizon for the monthes of April and May 2012 in a leak investigation.

• Michelle Obama refers to Kenya as Barack Obama's homeland in public speech.

June 2012

• 4 June. Inspector General informs Treasury Department general counsel he will be investigating the IRS's targeting of conservative groups.

• 19 June. Hillary Clinton opposes Russian sanctions and supports collusion with Putin.

• 20 June. President Obama invokes executive privilege over Operation Fast and Furious documents.

• House Oversight and Government Reform Committee votes to recommend to the full Congress that Attorney General Eric Holder be held in contempt. At issue were 1,300 pages of documents that had been subpoenaed eight months earlier.

• Chairman Issa says that Obama's claim of executive privilege is a cover-up and obstruction of a congressional investigation. Chairman Issa states the Justice Dept. identified "140,000 pages of documents and communications responsive to the committee's subpoena".

• 22 June. Judicial Watch files FOIA request with Justice Dept. for materials denied House Oversight Committee by Obama's claim of executive priviege.

• 28 June. Attorney General Eric Holder held in contempt by full Congress over his failure to submit documents to Oversight Committee in the Fast and Furious scandal. This is the first time Congress has ever taken such a dramatic step against a sitting Cabinet official. Ordinarily the Justice Dept. would prosecute cases of contempt of Congress.

• June. Holder secretly initiates investigations into AP and the New York Times regarding government leaks.

July 2012

• July. Justice Dept. designates US Attorneys’ offices as “force multipliers” in further stepped-up cyber efforts in the name of national security.

• Hackers remotely “refresh” ongoing surveillance of Attkisson’s CBS News laptop.

• Occupational Safety and Health Administration pays a visit to Engelbrecht Manufacturing and inspects the premises minutely fing minor infractions. OSHA fines totaled $25,000.

• Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) inquiry begins.

• Summer. FBI 'incidentally' stumbles across emails revealing CIA Dir. Petraeus’ affair with his biographer Broadwell. FBI Dir. Robert Mueller is notified of the affair on a date the government will not disclose. The FBI later says it interviewed Petraeus and Broadwell, and concluded national security hasn’t been breached. The FBI keeps all of this information secret.

• In late summer, on a date the government won’t reveal, the FBI notifies Attn. Gen. Holder of the Petraeus affair.

August 2012

• 1 August. Huff Post reports Obama issued a secret Presidential Finding earlier in the year authorising transfer of captured weapons from Libya to Syria. Amb. Christopher Stevens put in charge of the covert operation. The aim is to arm jihadist groups which transformed themselves into the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria to overthrow Bashar al Assad.

• 29 August. Trump tweets, "What a coincidence--Michelle Obama called Kenya @BarackObama's "homeland" in 2008 http://bit.ly/U8uNH0"

September 2012

• 11 September. Benghazi massacre on the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Amb. Stevens was specifically in Benghazi to oversee and facilitate transfer of captured weapons from the Gadaffi regime to groups in Syria which ultimately became the Islamic State. Few people had knowledge of this program beyond Stevens, Clinton, and Obama. Once the mission was completed, Stevens was expendable.

• Some Obama officials become frustrated with CIA Dir. Petraeus as he opposes efforts to edit out mentions of terrorism from the public Benghazi talking points. Petraeus deputy Mike Morell is given authority over the edits, and aligns with Hillary Clinton’s State Department against Petraeus’s desires.

• 14 September. The Benghazi "talking points" were born out of a request from Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. CIA Dir. David Petraeus had just given a classified briefing to Ruppersberger and other Intelligence Committee members. A source who was present said that following the briefing, "Ruppersberger wanted to know 'what can I say on TV'?"

• Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes emailed that there would be a Deputies meeting the next morning to work out the issues.

• The administration's "Dream Team" to write the talking points to fool Congress on Benghazi. The "Dream Team" consisted of: Maj. Gen. Darryl Roberson, Vice Dir. of Operations, Joint Staff; Matt Olson, Dir. of the National Counterterrorism Center; Andy McCabe, Asst. Dir. of Counterterrorism for the FBI, later involved in the Hillary Clinton email coverup investigation; and Linda Weissgold from CIA Office of Terrorism Analysis (OTA).

• Linda Weissgold testified she changed one such talking point to say that extremists in Benghazi with ties to al Qaeda were involved in “protests,” despite the fact that no such protests had occurred on the day of the attack.

• The final version called the attacks "demonstrations" that "evolved" after being "spontaneously inspired" by protest at the US Embassy in Cairo. All mentions of terrorism, al Qaeda and previous warnings given by the CIA had been excised.

• 16 September. Susan Rice appears on 5 Sunday talk shows to put out a fake news narrative​ that the Benghazi massacre was a "spontaneous demonstration" rather than a terrorist attack. The presidential election is less than two months away, and the White House is fearful of upsetting President Obama's chance of winning by giving the public the truth.

• September. Sen. Barbara Boxer writes to Thomas Perez, then the assistant attorney general for civil rights, now DNC chair. “As you know, an organization called ‘True the Vote,’ which is an offshoot of the Tea Party, is leading a voter suppression campaign in many states...this type of intimidation must stop."

October 2012

• 1 October. Univision reports that the guns used in the January 2010 Villas de Salvárcar massacre originated from Obama's Operation Fast and Furious. The head of the La Linea drug cartel who ordered the executions in a plea agreement with Mexican prosecutors later admitted that he participated in the murder of U.S. consulate employee Arthur Redelfs and his wife and a car bombing that killed four Mexican police officers. The drug boss was linked to "1,500 murders since 2008," according to the plea document.

• 2 October. Sec. Hillary Clinton announces her selection of appointees to an Accountability Review Board (ARB), which will conduct an internal review and whitewash of the Benghazi massacre. The board begins work the same week. Clinton ultimately will never be interviewed by the Accountability investigators.

• Amber Lyon reports on her firing from CNN for reporting on Bahrain, and CNN's censorship of Bahrain's suppression of the Shia uprising there.

• 3 October. Sec. Hillary Clinton responds to question at press conference, "I believe that our diplomats, our leaders, and the American people deserve a rigorous, serious, careful process."

• 15 October. Hillary Clinton first acknowledges that the State Dept. considered using outside assets to rescue Amb. Stevens and those under siege in Benghazi, but decided against it: "Well we considered everything and, um, we did as you know send additional assets from Tripoli. But it was a fast moving, very difficult assault to try to figure out. As you know, the assault on the post ended, there was a gap of time, then the assault on the annex, um, so everybody who had any responsibility was scrambling very hard to figure out what more could be done." Clinton said they did not send assets from outside Libya "partly because of the difficulties of trying to do that...but I think all of this will be examined in the Accountability Review Board because after all we have this independent board to sort through everything." The Accountability Review Board never spoke with Clinton.

• 16 October. President Obama issues top secret presidential directive on ordering intelligence officials to draw up a list of overseas targets for cyberattacks. According to The Guardian, the directive also “contemplates the possible use of cyber actions inside the US.”

• 19 October. In the weeks before his murder, Amb. Stevens sent the State Dept. several requests for increased security for diplomats in Libya, CBS News' Attkisson reports.

• 20 October. Attkisson reports no outside US military help was sent to Benghazi despite the presence of a major naval air base in Sigonella, Italy, less than one hour's flight away.

• 23 October. Sharyl Attkisson obtains some of the Obama administrations's first internal emergency alerts sent during the Benghazi attack. As the assault began, at 4:05 p.m. ET on September 11, an alert from the State Dept. Operations Center was issued to various government emergency watch lists including the White House Situation Room, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the FBI. Entitled "US Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi Under Attack," the alert reports "approximately 20 armed people fired shots; explosions have been heard as well. Ambassador Stevens, who is currently in Benghazi, and four COM (Chief of Mission/embassy) personnel are in the compound safe haven."

• Another alert an hour later reports: "the firing... has stopped...A response team is on site attempting to locate COM personnel."

• At 6:07 p.m. ET, an alert was sent with the subject heading "Ansar al-Sharia Claims Responsibilty for Benghazi Attack." The US Embassy in Tripoli, says the alert, reports the group "claimed responsibility on Facebook and Twitter and has called for an attack on Embassy Tripoli." That alert was sent around midnight in Benghazi, hours before the wave of mortar attacks against the CIA Benghazi annex began.

• October. CBS begins airing Attkisson’s Benghazi stories which rely on whistleblowers and numerous government-linked confidential sources. These sources report that the Executive Branch is clamping down on leaks to reporters regarding the Benghazi massacre.

• Justice Dept. continues its stepped-up National Security Division cyber efforts, holding specialized training at DOJ headquarters for the National Security Cyber Specialists (NSCS) network and the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS).

• As CIA Dir. Petraeus’s interagency relationships deteriorate over his refusal to go along with White House and State Dept. Benghazi talking points, unnamed FBI agents reach out to Republicans in Congress to tell about Petraeus’s affair. They eventually land at the office of Republican majority leader Eric Cantor. With the presidential elections about a week away, Cantor stays mum on the Petraeus rumors and instead contacts the FBI about them.

• The FBI interviews Petraeus and Broadwell a second time.

• Rep. Elijah Cummings attacked True the Vote in a letter. He wrote that “some have suggested that your true goal is not voter integrity, but voter suppression against thousands of legitimate voters who traditionally vote for Democratic candidates.” He added that: “If these efforts are intentional, politically motivated, and widespread across multiple states, they could amount to a criminal conspiracy to deny legitimate voters their constitutional rights.” He also decried True the Vote on MSNBC and CNN. Catherine Engelbrecht says she believes that because she worked against voter fraud, she was targeted. The Engelbrecht continue receiving harassment by the Obama administration and after three years their non profit status remains unapproved.

November 2012

• 1 November. CBS News' Sharyl Attkisson reports that the Obama administration did not convene an emergency meeting of the Counterterrorism Security Group during the Benghazi attack. Attkisson also reports on a draft letter obtained by ForeignPolicy.com, written the very day of the Benghazi attack, that someone on the US team in Benghazi spotted a member of the local police photographing the inside of the US mission. The letter, intended for the head of the Libyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Benghazi, called for an investigation. Another draft letter written two days before complained of an inadequate local police presence around the compound, requested ahead of Amb. Chris Stevens' arrival.

• 2 November. FBI questions Obama’s vice chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff James Cartwright in a leak investigation regarding material in a book written by a New York Times reporter. Cartwright denies being the source, but later admits he was, and is convicted in the case.

• 6 November. Obama elected to second term. His opponent Mitt Romney does not allege any improper surveillance of Romney's campaign. Republicans retain control of House Oversight Committee investigating IRS abuse.

• Officials claim this day is the first time Dir. of National Intelligence Clapper is notified about the Petraeus affair by an unspecified official at the Justice Dept. Clapper calls Petraeus and urges him to resign.

• 7-9 November. Attn. Gen. Eric Holder hosts a national training conference at Justice Dept. headquarters for the expanded efforts of DOJ’s National Security Cyber Specialists (NSCS).

• Obama administration says somebody notifies somebody at the White House about the Petraeus affair on Nov. 7. The President is reportedly looped in for the first time on Nov. 8.

• 8 November. Senate Intelligence Committee schedules closed hearing on the Benghazi attack November 15. Among those called to testify are CIA Dir. Gen. David Petraeus.

• 9 November. CIA Dir. Gen. Petraeus resigns under threat of prosecution by Eric Holder's Justice Dept.

• 11 November. Shulman steps down as IRS Commissioner.

• 13 November. FBI initiates a body of cyber security case investigations that would later relate to Attkisson’s computer intrusions.

• 16 November. Gen. Petraeus gives closed-door briefings to Congress on the Benghazi attack, and when exactly U.S. officials knew there were terrorists involved. After the hearing, members emerge saying CIA talking points on the attack were altered.

Obama, Clinton, and Rice, three of a half dozen or so main plotters.

• 19 November. Dana Milbank of the Wahington Post writes, "President Obama had a rare “bring-it-on” moment...'If Senator McCain and Senator Graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me...For them to go after the U.N. ambassador . . . and to besmirch her reputation, is outrageous.' ... Obama’s over-the-top defense of Rice was surprising...She is ill-equipped to be the nation’s top diplomat....The Russian business daily Kommersant quoted an anonymous Russian foreign ministry official as saying that Rice, who quarreled with Russia over Syria, is “too ambitious and aggressive,” and her appointment would make it “more difficult for Moscow to work with Washington.” ...in her much-criticized TV performance, she was reciting talking points given to her by the intelligence agencies. But that’s the trouble. Rice stuck with her points even though they had been contradicted by the president of the Libyan National Assembly, who, on CBS’s Face the Nation just before Rice, said there was “no doubt” that the attack on Americans in Benghazi “was preplanned.” Rice rebutted the Libyan official, arguing — falsely, it turned out — that there was no evidence of such planning. True, Rice was following orders from the White House, which she does well. But the nation’s top diplomat needs to show more sensitivity and independence — traits Clinton has demonstrated in abundance. Obama can do better at State than Susan Rice.

• A spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said, "The talking points about the intelligence assessment that Amb. Rice used were produced by the intelligence community. Officials determined that the unclassified points should use the broader term 'extremists' when referring to those responsible for the attack."

• 27 November. Susan Rice meets with Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham on Capitol Hill to explain her initial remarks on the Benghazi attack. Graham said afterword he was "more disturbed now than I was before," and McCain said he was "significantly troubled by many of the answers that we got and some that we didn't get."

• 29 November. Washington Post reports Susan Rice's net worth at $20 million. Rice is a career civil servant.

December 2012

• 14 December. President Obama signs the Magnitsky Act. John McCain is a chief sponsor. Russian parliament retaliates banning Americans from adopting Russian children. European Union stymied, under pressure from the US to pass similar legislation, but with much closer social and economic ties to Russia, fails to act. The incident is seen by some as a provocation for a new, brewing Cold War.

• 22 December. Egyptian magazine Rose El-Youssef publishes expose of 6 highly placed Muslim Brotherhood operatives in Obama White House.
• 27 December. Sens. Ron Wyden and Mark Udall, publicly warn of the “back-door search loophole” or "incidental" collection of innocent Americans. Udall says,

As it is written, there is nothing to prohibit the intelligence community from searching through a pile of communications, which may have been incidentally or accidentally been collected without a warrant, to deliberately search for the phone calls or e-mails of specific Americans.

• December. Two intelligence-connected sources separately suggest to Attkisson that she’s likely under government surveillance due to her reporting. One source tells her the government has pushed the envelope like never before and that the public would be shocked to “learn the extent that the government is conducting surveillance of private citizens.”

2013

One of the focal points of the Snowden documents is not so much the technical marvels of intelligence collectors, rather the existence of, and extent to which intelligence agencies worldwide share information through cooperative sharing agreements (also known as 'shell game eavesdropping' or 'third party relationships'). While the programs are billed as efforts to fight terrorism, international drug cartels, money laundering, and safeguard national security, they exist and function only on the basis of circumventing national laws in the respective countries whose agencies cooperate in the efforts.

US Government document from 2010 part of the Snowden leaks and sharing agreements with the UK. The Five Eyes program of the English speaking world (United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand) use social media for “propaganda,” “deception,” “mass messaging,” “pushing stories”, and "discrediting” the intelligence agencies' enemies with false information spread online.

Fort Meade, MD, for instance, home of the NSA which has the technical ability to monitor and spy on any American with an Obama phone or flat screen TV in their living room, cannot do so without probable cause or a warrant. So two employees of the UK's GCHQ in residence standby at the ready to man the helm and perform the operation legally under the guise of international intelligence sharing and national security.

While the United States possessed greater capacity and resources in surveillance technology, the United Kingdom was less scrupulous in violating privacy rights and civil rights, and more aggressive in cyber attacks and the use of fake news to discredit and harass their political enemies, including domestic opponents. Under Obama, the marriage of passive surveillance and active cyber warfare against political opponents accelerated, with both the UK and US extending cooperative agreements and technology to other third party agencies globally.

January 2013

• 21 January. Obama re-inaugurated for second term.

• 23 January. Obama administration prosecutes CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou for leaks to a reporter. Kiriakou blew the whistle on the CIA torture program. Kiriakou the first CIA officer convicted of providing classified information to a reporter.

• 29 January. FBI press release on convictions of two Bowling Green terrorists. “Using our growing suite of investigative and intelligence capabilities, FBI agents and analysts assigned to our Bowling Green Office were able to neutralize a potential threat." The FBI is the only federal agency able to match fingerprints on an exploded IED found in Iraq with a person residing in Bowling Green, KY.

March 2013

• 5 March. CBS News' Sharyl Attkisson reports some of the first revelations on "who changed the Benghazi talking points." One source who reviewed the documents said removal of the word "al Qaeda" from the talking points was initiated by one of the "press shops." The source said press officers from the Defense Intelligence Agency, the White House and the FBI were "looped in" from the start and that some of them expressed concerns in writing that the media would ask follow up questions if certain words or phrases were used. The source added that the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and then-Deputy CIA Director Michael Morell were included in these emails. A DNI spokesman acknowledged that press officers from his agency and other agencies were looped in and took part in the talking points exchanges, but he said "no press officers suggested the edits of the specific words 'al Qaeda.'"

• 7 March. Senate confirms John Brennan as CIA Director. Brennan is now in charge of writing the CIA's response to torture allegations in the Senate Intelligence Oversight Torture report which implicates Brennan.

• 12 March. In public testimony before the Senate Intelligence Oversight Committee Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden asked Obama Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper, "Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions, or hundreds of millions, of Americans?" Clapper replied, “No sir. Not wittingly."

• 14 March. CBS News reports Libyan and US investigators have been questioning a suspect long affiliated with the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), and is believed to have connections to other Islamist radicals. LIGF is one of the main terror groups the Obama administration funded.

• March. CIA awards a $600 million contract to Amazon Web Services for a computing cloud system which would allow all 17 agencies of the US intelligence community to coordinate and share information. The General Accounting Office found the deal violated the open bidding process, but a federal court stood by CIA's action.

April 2013

• 12 April. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court secretly approves the latest FBI request to continue obtaining daily telephone records of millions of Verizon customers. The judge orders Verizon to turn over the information to the National Security Agency (NSA). This directly contradicts Clapper’s March 12 testimony to Congress.

• 17 April. CBS News' Sharyl Attkisson reports that the House Oversight Committee sent letters to the three federal agencies—the CIA, the Defense Department and the State Department—in response to new whistleblower revelations on the Benghazi attacks. The letters instruct how whistleblowers are to be able to share sensitive or classified information with their own attorneys, and ask for each agency's official description of the legal steps that process must follow. The letters also state that additional witnesses may be "compelled by subpoena to give testimony."

• 23 April. Five House Committees issue interim report on Benghazi attacks naming Sec.of State Hillary Clinton and other Obama administration officials responsible for reducing security levels at the consulate, contradicting testimony Hillary Clinton gave under oath before Congress. The report issued by the Armed Services, Judiciary, Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and Oversight and Government Reform Committees reaches three major conclusions:

• First, Clinton approved security reductions at the consulate, pointing to an April 2012 State Dept. cable bearing her signature. The cable was a formal request from then-Amb.Cretz for more security. In her testimony before Congress in January, Clinton said, "With specific security requests they didn't come to me. I had no knowledge of them."

• The report charges that White House and senior State Dept. officials attempted to protect the State Dept. from criticism by altering accurate talking points drafted by Gen. Petraeus and the intelligence community. The report says that, after a Sept. 15, 2012 meeting, administration officials removed references to the likely participation of Islamic extremists.

• The report contradicts Obama administration claims that the talking points were altered to protect classified information. None of the emails reviewed ever mentioned a concern about classified information.

• 30 April. Attorney for a whistleblower on the Sept. 11, 2012 attacks on the US consulate in Benghazi says the Obama administration is impeding her clients and others' efforts to speak.

• April. A secret memo later exposed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden discusses how the US, along with Brirish intelligence, is collecting information “directly from the servers of …Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple.”

• Foundation for Open Society Macedonia (FOSM) is awarded 18 USAID grants by the US State Dept.; FOSM is a Soros-run foundation. Recipients of grants in Macedonia are known as 'Soros army'. Soros is later accused of wanting to destroy Macedonia, its name, language, and identity." Obama and Soros have been accused of interfering in Macedonia's democratic process.

May 2013

• 5 May. Excerpts of an interview investigators conducted with Gregory Hicks, the no. 2 U.S. diplomat in Libya who was in Tripoli during the Benghazi attack are leaked to CBS News. The US diplomat contradicted the Obama White House version.

I never reported a demonstration; I reported an attack on the consulate. Chris [Stevens] last report, if you want to say his final report - is, 'Greg, we are under attack.'...I've never been as embarrassed in my life, in my career, as on that day" (that Susan Rice appeared on talk shows calling the attack the result of a demonstration,) The net impact of what has transpired is, [Rice,] the spokesperson of the most powerful country in the world, has basically said that the president of Libya is either a liar or doesn't know what he's talking about. ....My jaw hit the floor as I watched this."

• 6 May. CBS News' Sharyl Attkisson reports more details from private testimony in which a team of Special Operation Forces prepared to fly from Tripoli to Benghazi during the Sept. 11, 2012 attacks was forbidden from doing so by US Special Operations Command Africa. Investigators heard that if the US had quickly sent military aircraft over Benghazi, it might have saved American lives. The US Souda Bay Naval Base is an hour's flight from Libya.

• 8 May. Three US officials stationed in Libya the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack deliver accounts of the events and their aftermath. They renew criticism against the Obama administration for issuing stand-down orders to Special Operations Forces who were ready to assist.

• 10 May. Brennan meets with Obama in the White House to discuss CIA's response to the Torture Report.

• A senior administration official tells CBS News' that reports State Dept. officials helped make final edits to the false information supplied to Congress about the Benghazi attacks -- the same false information Susan Rice lied about in her television appearances on Sept. 16, 2012 were "just false."

• IRS admits to targeting Republican Tea Party groups for harassment, including pretenses for prosecution leading up to the 2012 election.

• 11 May. CBS News' Sharyl Attkisson reports details of approximately 100 interagency government emails, sent on Sept. 14 and Sept. 15, 2012 regarding the content of the talking points to be used by Susan Rice on the Sunday shows about the Benghazi attacks. The talking points were revised numerous times.

• 13 May. The AP announced telephone records for 20 of their reporters had been subpoenaed by the Justice Department. News sources reported the US Attorney's office for the District of Columbia was conducting a criminal investigation into publication of a foiled May 2012 terrorist plot. While journalists are protected, leakers in the government are subject to prosecution. The Justice Dept. subpoenaed the phone records of AP from Verizon and other service providers. The AP claimed these acts were a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into news-gathering. The "intrusion" is the frightening off of government sources, the bread and butter of the Washington news gathering industry. CEO Gary Pruitt of AP stated: "These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP's newsgathering operations and disclose information about AP's activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know;" a "conceivable right to know" would be a hunt for leakers of FISA information within the administration.
• Obama states publicly he first heard of IRS targeting conservatives only days before "from the news."

• 14 May. Inspector General issues initial report of IRS abuse; FBI begins investigation.
• Boston Herald publishes frontpage story on Obamagate scandal.

• 15 May. White House releases some 100 pages of internal emails showing how CIA talking points originally referenced al Qaeda's links to the Benghazi attack. After revisions the al Qaeda references were removed.

• 17 May. Fox News learns that the Justice Dept. secretly labeled reporter James Rosen a possible “criminal co-conspirator” and “flight-risk” in obtaining warrants to monitor Rosen’s State Department movements, phone records and emails in a leak investigation that started in 2011.

• New York Times reports Obama lied about when he first knew of IRS targeting conservative groups.

• 22 May. IRS Commissioner pleads the 5th Amendment against self-incrimination during opening statement before Congressional oversight committee.

June 2013

• 6 June. Asked at a hearing if the Justice Dept. spies on members of Congress, Attn. Gen. Holder refuses to answer.

• The UK Guardian reveals NSA unlimited metadata collection under FISA protection. Data collection on 4 million of Verizon customers are collected daily.

• 7 June. Guardian reveals NSA tapping through back doors into US internet companies such as Apple, Google and Facebook with a program called Prism [GCHQ counterpart = Tempora].

• An 18-page memo shows Obama ordering intelligence officials to draw up a list of overseas targets for cyberattacks.

• Obama defends NSA wiretapping.

• The Guardian story, soon to be known as the Snowden leaks, is more evidence Obama Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper misled Congress and public about the true nature and extent of domestic intelligence gathering in his 12 March sworn testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

• 8 June. Documents reveal the NSA's Boundless Informant program, which gives the agency near real-time ability to understand how much intelligence coverage there is on certain areas through use of a "heat map."

• 9 June. Edward Snowden steps forward as source of NSA leaks published in The Guardian. Introducing himself Snowden says,

“I, sitting at my desk, certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge, to even the president if I had a personal e-mail.

It’s getting to the point you don’t have to have done anything wrong. You simply have to eventually fall under suspicion from somebody, even by a wrong call, and then they can use the system to go back in time and scrutinize every decision you have ever made.”

Training materials provided by Snowden for XKeyscore propgram detail how analysts can use it and other systems to mine enormous NSA databases by filling in a simple on-screen form giving only a broad justification for the search. The request is not reviewed by a court or any NSA personnel before it is processed. The program covers "nearly everything a typical user does on the internet", including the content of emails, websites visited and searches, as well as their metadata. Under US law, the NSA is required to obtain an individualized FISA warrant only if the target of their surveillance is a 'US person', though no such warrant is required for intercepting the communications of Americans with foreign targets. But XKeyscore provides the technological capability, if not the legal authority, to target even US persons for extensive electronic surveillance without a warrant provided that some identifying information, such as their email or IP address, is known.

• 10 June. Wall Street Journal reports FISA Court has rejected only 11 of 33,900 warrant requests in the 33 years the law has been in existence.

• 12 June. IRS suspends use of the BOLO list.

• 13 June. Snowden reveals NSA was hacking computers in Hong Kong and mainland China, few of which were military systems.

• 16 June. Snowden reveals intelligence sharing on Britain's GCHQ (its intelligence agency) intercepting phone and internet communications of foreign politicians attending two G-20 meetings in London in 2009.

• 20 June. Bonuses paid to two former IRS Commissioners who oversaw the abuse of Tea Partiers, the one who initiated the program and the 'fall guy' who resigned over it, were paid an extra $42,000 and $100,000, respectively.

• Snowden leaks top-secret procedures steps the NSA must take to target and collect data from "non-US persons" and how it must minimize, or mask, data collected on US citizens.

• 21 June. Snowden leaks how Britain's GCHQ taps fiber-optic cables to collect and store global email messages, Facebook posts, internet histories, and calls, and then shares the data with the NSA.

• 27 June. CIA responds to Torture Report, attacks Committee; Sen. Mark Udall issues a statement alleging intelligence officials leaked "inaccurate information" critical of the Committee report. Udall states that the CIA and the White House "repeatedly rejected requests to discuss the Committee's report."

• June. FBI secretly opens a case on Sharyl Attkisson’s computer intrusions under the auspices of 'national security.' FBI contacts CBS without Attkisson’s knowledge, but fails to contact or interview Attkisson. FBI later ignores multiple FOIA request and other documents.

• News of the FBI case involving Attkisson’s computer intrusions is circulated internally to the Justice Dept.’s national cyber security group, and grouped with a set of cases opened on 20 November, shortly after the president's re-election in 2012.

July 2013

• 1 July. Daniel Ellsberg calls for Congressional probe of “abuses of American intelligence agencies” and to “restore the protections in the Bill of Rights."

• 10 July. Washington Post publishes a new slide detailing NSA's "Upstream" program of collecting communications from tech companies through fiber-optic cables to then feed into its Prism database.

• 18 July. Platte River Networks hired by Clinton machine to scrub Clinton servers.

• 31 July. NSA analysts, using the XKeyscore program, can search through enormous databases of emails, online chats, and browsing histories of targets.

• July. In an undated letter from DNI Clapper posted on Sen. Wyden's website the final week of July, Clapper acknowledged that NSA analysts have exceeded even legal limits as interpreted by the NSA in domestic surveillance. Acknowledging what he called "a number of compliance problems", Clapper attributed them to "human error" or "highly sophisticated technology issues" rather than "bad faith". Sen. Wyden responded on the Senate floor: "These violations are more serious than those stated by the intelligence community, and are troubling."

• Manning convicted.

August 2013

• 1 August. The US government paid Britain's GCHQ roughly $155 million over three years to gain access and influence over its spying programs.

• 2 August. Seven of the world's leading telecommunications companies provide GCHQ with secret, unlimited access to their network of undersea cables.

• 5 August. Reuters runs an article on how the NSA shares information, collected under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, with other agencies to frame criminal cases against American citizens using a process called "parallel construction" to manufacture probable cause, violating a person's due process rights.

• 6 August. Armed Coast Guard agents under the Department of Homeland Security raid the home of reporter Audrey Hudson with a warrant for her husband’s firearms. As they searched the house, they read Hudson her Miranda rights and confiscat documents that contained “confidential notes, draft articles, and other newsgathering materials” belonging to Hudson, including the identities of whistleblowers at the Department of Homeland Security. Hudson sues and later receives a settlement from the government.

• 7 August. CBS News publicly announces confirmation of Attkisson’s computer intrusions. “Attkisson’s computer was accessed by an unauthorized, external, unknown party on multiple occasions late in 2012…This party also used sophisticated methods to remove all possible indications of unauthorized activity, and alter system times to cause further confusion."

• 9 August. Internal NSA document reveals an agency "loophole" that allows a secret backdoor for the agency to search its databases for US citizens' emails and phone calls without a warrant.

• 13 August. Ghouta chemical attack. Islamic State of Iraq and Syria uses chemical weapons on civilians in a Damascus suburb. Obama blames Assad regime.

• 23 August. 2011 NSA minimization procedures submitted to the FISA Court.

• 29 August. NSA found to be paying hundreds of millions of dollars each year to US companies for access to their networks.

September 2013

• 5 September. Joint investigation by ProPublica, The New York Times, and The Guardian finds the NSA is winning its war against internet encryption with supercomputers, technical know-how, and court orders.

• 7 September. NSA has the ability to access user data for most major smartphones on the market, including Apple iPhones, BlackBerrys, and Google Android phones.

• 9 September. Daily Caller publishes article detailing how the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF), a supposed independent lobbying group asking Congress for money to support anti-Assad forces was receiving funding from the State Department. Elizabeth O'Bagy is SETF political director.

• 27 September. UN declares Assad regime has surrendered all it chemical weapons.

October 2013

• 7 October. Reports indicate, "Top US and Saudi Officials responsible for Chemical Weapons in Syria." "Evidence leads directly to the White House, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey, CIA Director John Brennan, Saudi Intelligence Chief Prince Bandar, and Saudi Arabia´s Interior Ministry. The Strategic Situation, leading up to the Use of Chemical Substances in the Eastern Ghouta Suburb of Damascus on 21 August 2013." Seymour Hersh later reports Hillary Clinton approved sending captured Libyan stocks of sarin gas to Syrian rebels and jihadis.

• 14 October. NSA collected more than 250 million email contact lists from services such as Yahoo and Gmail.

• 23 October. NSA tapped the mobile phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

• 27 October. Der Spiegel reports Obama personally approved wiretapping German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cell phone conversations.

• October. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com purchases the Washington Post for less than half of his ongoing contract for cloud service with the CIA. The Institute for Public Accuracy releases a statement condemning the move. Washington Post begins promoting Hillary Clinton as their preferred candidate for President in 2016.

November 2013

• 1 November. Snowden leaks reveal Britain's GCHQ and other European spy agencies work together to conduct mass surveillance. The files also make clear that GCHQ played a leading role in advising its European counterparts how to work around national laws intended to restrict the surveillance power of intelligence agencies. The Guardian article reports,

It is clear from the Snowden documents that GCHQ has become Europe's intelligence hub in the internet age, and not just because of its success in creating a legally permissive environment for its operations. Britain's location as the European gateway for many transatlantic cables, and its privileged relationship with the NSA has made GCHQ an essential partner for European agencies. The documents show British officials frequently lobbying the NSA on sharing of data with the Europeans and haggling over its security classification so it can be more widely disseminated. In the intelligence world, far more than it managed in diplomacy, Britain has made itself an indispensable bridge between America and Europe's spies.

• 20 November. UK government struck a secret deal with the NSA to share phone, internet, and email records of UK citizens.

• ABC News reports on terror suspects arrested in Bowling Green, KY.

• 22 November. NSA strategy document reveals the agency's goal to acquire data from "anyone, anytime, anywhere" and expand its already broad legal powers.

2014

January 2014

• 6 January. Sen. Mark Udall writes to President Obama asking the President to compel the CIA to comply with Congressional Oversight requests, and "a public statement from the White House committing to the fullest possible declassification of the Committee's study." CIA refuses to comply.

• Bernie Sanders pleads for leniency for Edward Snowden.

• 17 January. At some point during the dispute between Brennan and the Oversight Committee, the CIA Inspector General filed a "crimes report" with the US Justice Department about the CIA spying on the Senate; in retaliation, the CIA's general counsel filed a "crimes report" alleging Senate staffers pilfered copies of the Panetta review.

• Obama makes a speech at US Justice Dept. about his new directive allowing internet and telephone service providers to disclose to the public FISA court rulings and NSA requests for surveillance in aggregate volume. (Note: in National Security parlance an NSA request = FISA court order).

• 23 January. Sen. Bernie Sanders asks the NSA if it spies on members of Congress. The NSA replies that Congress is afforded “the same privacy protections as all US persons.”

• 27 January. GCHQ program called Squeaky Dolphin monitors YouTube, Facebook, and Blogger for "broad real-time monitoring of online activity."

February 2014

• 18 February. NSA and UK's GCHQ reportedly monitored traffic to the WikiLeaks website and considered a move to monitor communications going to or from WikiLeaks and the Pirate Bay.

• Ukrainian coup begins.

• 24 February. UK's GCHQ conducts covert operations to disrupt and shape online discourse.

• 28 February. UK's GCHQ, using a program called Optic Nerve, intercepted and stored webcam images from millions of Yahoo users, then passed them on to the NSA's XKeyscore database.

March 2014

• 4 March McClatchy reports on CIA spying on its Congressional oversighters. Sen. Mark Udall again writes the President: "As you are aware, the CIA has recently taken unprecedented action against the committee in relation to the internal CIA review and I find these actions to be incredibly troubling for the committee's oversight responsibilities and for our democracy," he writes. "It is essential that the committee be able to do its oversight work – consistent with our constitutional principle of the separation of powers – without the CIA posing impediments or obstacles as it is today."

Ben Rhodes is the Assistant to the President for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting, and Deputy National Security Advisor to Susan Rice. Rhodes is also the brother of David Rhodes, President of CBS News.

• 10 March. Award-winning News Anchor Sharyl Attkisson resigns from CBS alleging the network was spiking news stories that were unflattering to Barack Obama. In her Best Seller, Stonewalled: One Reporter's Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama's Washington, Attkisson tells how her work and personal computers had been hacked for more than two years after she began filing stories about the Benghazi massacre. CBS News investigated and found evidence of multiple unauthorized accesses by a third party in late 2012. The hackers were identified by independent experts as a US Government intelligence agency. In March 2015, Attkisson and her family initiated suit against Eric Holder, Patrick R. Donahoe and unnamed agents of the US Department of Justice, the US Postal Service and the United States claiming to have been subjected to illegal surveillance activities.

• 11 March. Senate Democrat Intelligence Committee Chair Diane Feinstein takes to the Senate floor to accuse the Obama CIA of violating "the Fourth Amendment, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, as well as Executive Order 12333, which prohibits the C.I.A. from conducting domestic searches or surveillance," and "breaching a constitutional boundary" of intimidation and spying on the US Senate.

• 13 March. Document reveals that, while many foreign governments share information with NSA, few senior officials outside of the intelligence or defense sphere have any knowledge of it.

• 20 March. Majority Leader Harry Reid backs investigation into Obama CIA hacking of the Senate Intelligence Oversight Committee's computers, and notifies Brennan and Attn. Gen. Eric Holder that the Capital Police will investigate charges that the CIA accessed the Intelligence Oversight Committee’s computer network.

April 2014

• 4 April. NSA and UK's GCHQ discuss various methods of deception, use of propaganda, mass messaging, and pushing stories on social media sites.

• 14 April. 276 African Christian schoolgirls are kidnapped by Boko Haram. The girls are to be auction off by Muslim extremists as sex slaves. The administration was asked repeatedly in 2011 to designate the group as a terrorist organization so that counterterrorism agencies would have legal authority to counter it.

• Rather than Special Operations Forces, the White House response was to send Michelle Obama out to encourage people to tweet about the horrific crime on social media at #BringBackOurGirls.

• In May 2012, Justice Dept. official Lisa Monaco wrote to Sec. Clinton asking to designate Boko Haram as a terrorist organization. The following month, Gen. Carter Ham, the chief of U.S. Africa Command, said that Boko Haram provided a ‘safe haven’ for al Qaeda in North Africa, and was likely sharing explosives and funds with the group. The group had already bombed the United Nations headquarters in Abuja. Clinton refused, despite requests coming from the U.S. Justice Dept, the FBI, the CIA, and numerous Senators and Congressmen. Obama and Clinton had already armed al Qaeda in North Africa, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, and Ansar al Shariah to destabilize the Gadaffi and Assad regimes.

• 16 April. Forbes reports CIA Dir. John Brennen's visit to Ukraine.

• 30 April. James Clapper fires Defense Intelligence Agency Chief Mike Flynn for warning of radical Islamic jihadists.

• Snowden reveals GCHQ asked NSA for "unsupervised access" to NSA's databases.

June 2014

• 9 June. Islamic State captures Mosul; Obama calls ISIS "the Junior Varsity team."
• 13 June. IRS notified House Republican investigators that it had lost emails from January 2009 to April 2011. The emails were under subpoena. NSA megadata collection makes the loss of data impossible.
• 19 June. IRS said that a damaged hard drive containing the missing emails had been disposed of more than two years prior. Legal commentators raised questions how the IRS handled these federal records. A National Archives and Records Administration spokesperson said: "The Office of the Chief Records Officer for the U.S. Government has contacted the IRS to explore specifics of the situation.
• 27 June. Intelligence Community Directive ICD 732 issued requiring a damage assessment be conducted whenever there is 'an actual or suspected unauthorized disclosure or compromise of classified national intelligence that may cause damage to U.S. national security.'" Despite Dir. Comey's finding Hillary Clinton's server did indeed contain classified information, no such damage assessment was ever made following Wikileaks disclosure of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's emails.

July 2014

• 9 July. House Republicans released an April 13, 2013 email from the Commissioner in which she cautioned colleagues to "be cautious about what we say in emails," citing congressional inquiries. Congressional investigators said this email suggested that the Commissioner tried to hide evidence.
• 31 July. CIA admits to hacking into Oversighter's computers and spying on the Senate. Brennan lied to Congress. Democratic Sen. Mark Udall calls for Director Brennan's resignation.

August 2014

• 5 August. Public release of the Senate Torture Report is put on hold when the Senate objects to CIA trying to redact evidence that the agency misled congressional investigators, a key finding of the report. The report is already nearly one full year overdue.

• 17 August. Hillary email to Presidentisl Counselor John Podesta acknowledges the governments of Saudi Arabia and Qatar are “providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL.”

• 29 August. Project on Government Oversight sends letter to President Obama and members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board to voice concerns over Executive Order 12333, the primary authority under which the NSA gathers foreign intelligence. Unlike a FISA warrant, the EO provides the government with the latitude to conduct sweeping surveillance on US and non-US persons without judicial review as long as the monitoring is necessary to protect US interests from "foreign security threats," an umbrella term that likely permits the surveillance of any foreign person.

September 2014

• 5 September. IRS says it lost additional emails of five workers under congressional investigation. These five workers include two people based in Cincinnati who worked on Tea Party cases.

• 6 September. Trump tweets, "Attention all hackers: You are hacking everything else so please hack Obama's college records (destroyed?) and check "place of birth"

• 23 September. Federal judge rules Justice Dept. must comply with FOIA request by Judicial Watch for documents withheld from Congress on Fast and Furious under Obama's claim of executive privilege. Operation Fast and Furious was a Justice Department/Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) “gun-running” operation in which the Obama administration allowed guns to go to Mexican drug cartels in hopes that they would end up at crime scenes, thereby advancing Obama's gun-control agenda. The number of deaths due to violence associated with Mexican drug trafficking cartels grew exponentially during the years Obama's Fast and Furious program was operational.

Year	Mexican drug related gun murders skyrocket during Obama's Fast and Furious campaign
2006	62
2007	2,837
2008	6,844
2009	11,753
2010	19,546
2011	24,068
2012	18,061 (by October 31, 2012)
2013	23,640 killed in 2013 (through to March 2014)

• 25 September. Eric Holder announces his resignation as Attorney General.

October 2014

• 15 October. New York Times reports the United States discovered the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. American troops repeatedly encountered, and on at least six occasions were wounded by, chemical weapons. American troops reported finding roughly 5,000 chemical warheads, shells or aviation bombs. "Troops and officers were instructed to be silent or give deceptive accounts of what they had found," Times reporter C.J. Chivers writes. Sarin was found. Information on the presence and dangers of chemical agents was not shared inside the armed forces, which left supervising officers and medical personnel unprepared to deal with their discovery. The Times documents a number of incidents in which Americans were made ill by chemical agents, given inadequate treatment, and told not to discuss their experiences. At least one large stash of the weapons now has come into the control of ISIS forces.>

November 2014

• 4 November. Midterm elections. Republicans take control of the Senate, 54-46. Overall, the elections resulted in the largest Republican majority in the entire country in nearly a century, 247 House members, 31 governorships, and 68 state legislative chambers. GOP gains in the House were the largest majority since 1928, as well as the largest number of state legislatures since 1928.
• 22 November. A spokesman for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee's Republican majority stated that TIGTA investigators told Congress that they had recovered up to 30,000 emails to and from a past Commissioner.

December 2014

• 23 December. House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa's staff releases a report that found that "[t]he IRS's inability to keep politics out of objective decisions about interpretation of the tax code damaged its primary function: an apolitical tax collector that Americans can trust to treat them fairly."

• December. Eric Holder withdraws subpeaona of 60 Minutes producer Richard Bonin.

2015

January 2015

• January. The new Republican Senate requested that the White House produce all communications it has had with the IRS since 2010.
• 17 January. Feinstein slams CIA's internal review of hacking and interference with Congressional Oversight, the Panetta review, as a whitewash.
• 29 January. Washington Times publishes audio recordings of wiretaps from 2011 of Congressman Dennis Kucinich and other Pentagon officials refuting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's claim a genocide was about to take place in Libya and US intervention was needed.

February 2015

Libya was an ally of the US against the jihadis until Obama armed the jihadis to overthrew the government. One of their first acts was the mass beheading of Christians.

• 12 February. 21 Coptic Christians mass beheaded in Libya after Obama liberated the country for "humanitarian" purposes.

• 19 February. White House summit on violent extremism opens with Muslim call to prayer.

• 22 February. British Secretive Court rules NSA-UK sharing of bulk metadata before December 2014 was illegal, however, after the Snowden leaks, now that the practice is publicly known, US-UK intelligence metadata sharing is legal. Legal intelligence sharing with foreign agencies is a convenient way for law enforcement in both countries to circumvent constitutional restrictions and obtain information without probable cause or a search warrant. Under a reciprocal agreement, the US can ask the UK to spy on a US citizen or vice-versa (as in the case of Lady Diana Spencer) as a national security prerogative. The UK doesn't need a warrant in the US, nor the US in the UK, and a person's civil rights may be "legally" violated under this loophole. The practice was originated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938 by Executive Order allowing British intelligence to wiretap American citizens that Britain feared were monitoring ships leaving harbor in New York and New Jersey, making them vulnerable to U-boats.

March 2015

• 15 March. Five days after the New York Times broke the story about Secretary Clinton’s use of private email for official business, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe met with Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, a longtime, close associate of the Clintons—along with his wife, Dr. McCabe. McAuliffe recruited Dr. McCabe, who had not previously run for any political office, to be the Democratic candidate for a Virginia state senate seat. Dr. McCabe agreed, and Governor McAuliffe’s political action committee subsequently gave nearly $500,000 to her campaign while the FBI’s investigation of Secretary Clinton was ongoing. The Virginia Democratic Party, over which Mr. McAuliffe exerts considerable control, also donated over $200,000 to Dr. McCabe’s campaign.

April 2015

• 8 April. Full list of mainstream media anchors, reporters, journalists, and interviewers sent out for dinner at John Podesta's house. Hillary Clinton declares candidacy four days later.

• Spring. Obama administration finishes secret negotiations on Iran nuclear deal that will return billions of dollars in frozen assets to the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism in return for promises from that country. It’s later reported that Obama intel officials secretly recorded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private discussions about the Iran deal, which he opposes.

• New York Times reports “since 2009, six current or former government employees and two government contractors have been indicted or prosecuted under the Espionage Act for leaking information to the public. There were only three such prosecutions under all previous U.S. presidents combined since 1917” when the law was created.

• Longtime Democratic operative Mary Anne Marsh says Obama investigation into Trump and associates begins in Spring of 2015.

May 2015

• May. Former CIA employee Jeffrey Sterling convicted on espionage charges for leaks to New York Times reporter James Risen. The Nation says of the case,

standard media narratives about Risen and Sterling have skipped over deep patterns of government retaliation against recalcitrant journalists and whistleblowers. Those patterns are undermining press freedom, precluding the informed consent of the governed and hiding crucial aspects of US foreign policy. The recent announcement of Eric Holder’s resignation as attorney general has come after nearly five years of the Obama administration extending and intensifying the use of the Justice Department for retribution against investigative journalism and whistleblowing.

June 2015

• 4 June. Facebook Chief Operations Officer Sheryl Sandberg emails John Podesta, "I still want HRC to win badly. I am still here to help as I can."
• 8 June. New York Times publishes leak that thwarts efforts to locate Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
• 28 June. Tony Podesta relays invitation to John Podesta to attend “Spirit Cooking dinner” from Marina Abramovic. Abramovic is the author of “Spirit Cooking with Essential Aphrodisiac Recipes” using “ingredients” such as “fresh breast milk with fresh sperm milk.” Another recipe calls for “fresh morning urine." Tony Podesta heads a lobbying firm with close ties to the Democratic party and the Obama administration.

• June. Obama receives first briefing on Trump per Mary Anne Marsh on Justice with Judge Jeanine, 31 March 2017.

August 2015

• 7 August. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg emails Hillary Clinton campaign manager John Podesta, "I enjoyed spending time with you yesterday and our conversation gave me a lot to think about...I hope it’s okay if I reach out as my thinking develops to get your ideas and reactions. If there are any other folks you think I should talk to, please let me know. Thanks again. I look forward to continuing our conversation."
• 15 August. National Review publishes Planned Parenthood’s Commissioned Video Review Proves the Authenticity of Its Employees’ Ghoulish Statements. Planned Parenthood had been accused of harvesting body-parts from late term abortion victims. FusionGPS, the same firm that later produces the Steele dossier, hired to refute charges.

September 2015

• 29 September. Evelyn Farkas resigns from Pentagon. Farkas serves on the Atlantic Council alongside Dmitri Alperovitch, co-founder of CrowdStrike.

• September. FusionGPS begins covert opposition research paper on Donald Trump - becomes the Steele dossier.

October 2015

• 21 October. Wikileaks reveals John Brennan also used private email server.

"October. U.S. Attorney’s office in New York lets Natalie Veselnitskaya into the US from Russia on a grant of immigration parole until early January 2016. Veselnitskaya is representing Prevezon Holdings Ltd. and Russian businessman Denis Katsyv in a civil asset forfeiture case.

November 2015

• 17 November. Bloomberg reports "In a call with senior Obama administration officials Tuesday evening, several governors demanded they be given access to information about Syrian refugees about to be resettled by the federal government in their states. Top White House officials refused." A reported 85,000 have been resettled in the United States.

December 2015

• 29 December. Wall Street Journal reports that the Obama administration 'incidentally' collected private communications by members of Congress while it spied on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In sweeping up “private conversations with U.S. lawmakers and American-Jewish groups… raised fears [of]—an ‘Oh-sh*t moment,’ one senior U.S. official said—that the executive branch would be accused of spying on Congress.”

• 31 December. E.W. Priestap Named Assistant Director of the FBI Counterintelligence Division.

See also

• Benghazigate timeline
• Obama war crimes
• Barack Hussein Obama's unlawful acts
• Obama's second term agenda
• Clinton scandal

External links

• sharylattkisson.com
• Attkisson v Holder complaint
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