We blogged last week about the scheduled December 14 Top Secret/Closed hearing at the SFRC  on the attacks in Benghazi.  The names of the witnesses were not posted online. We wondered if this was the joint Pickering-Mullen appearance on the ARB report. It wasn’t.

FP’s The Cable reported that the briefing was attended by SFRC Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) and presumptive ranking Republican Bob Corker (R-TN).  The other participants were:

• Director of National Intelligence James Clapper
• Under Secretary of State for Management Patrick Kennedy
• Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Matthew Olsen
• Maj. Gen. Darryl Roberson, vice director for operations on the Joint Chiefs of Staff
• Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict Gary Reid
• Jenny Ley, deputy assistant director at the FBI

Given that there was reportedly a CIA operation there, isn’t it odd that there was no rep from the CIA in the briefing?  Don’t understand this.  Oh, is the agency’s absence or presence at the briefing also a secret?