The Kingdom Come

This photo taken on Sept. 11, 2012 shows a vehicle and the surrounding area engulfed in flames after it was set on fire inside the U.S. mission compound in Benghazi, Libya. (Getty Images)

Geraldo Rivera said Friday that his sources tell him the U.S. was involved in a secret mission in Libya to arm the Syrian rebels, which was the reason for the initial secrecy about the attack in Benghazi.

Rivera said on “Fox & Friends” that Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney may have been briefed by then-CIA Director David Petraeus “to suggest that there was a secret mission going on there, that we can’t go there, we can’t talk about it.”

“I believe, and my sources tell me, they were there to round up those shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, they were going to hand those missiles over to the Turks and the Turks were going to give them to the rebels in Syria,” Rivera said. “It was like Iran-Contra, I think it merits gigantic investigation, it will all become clear.”

ABC News reported Thursday that the Republican National Committee actually created a Benghazi attack ad, but shelved it after objections from the Romney campaign.

Glenn Beck in October was one of the first to raise the theory that the U.S. could have been running weapons to Syrian rebels, which he said would be “Fast and Furious times 1,000.”

–

​Related:

• This Is the Scathing Benghazi Ad the RNC Created Last Year But Never Ran
• ABC Releases Big Benghazi Report: Talking Points Changed 12 Times, ‘Dramatically Edited by Administration,’ and Scrubbed of Terror References
• Started as a ‘Routine Day’: The Full, Unbelievable & Detailed Timeline Given by One Benghazi Whistleblower

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The White House and the Internal Revenue Service have apologized for the extra scrutiny of conservative political groups by the IRS during the 2012 presidential election, but "their apology is not accepted," one tea party leader said Friday.

Pope Francis stood shoulder-to-shoulder Friday with the embattled Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church when he became only the second Pope to receive the Egyptian church's leader at the Vatican in more than 1500 years.

Republican lawmakers are stepping up the pressure on House Speaker John Boehner to create a select committee to investigate the Benghazi attack in Libya following testimony Wednesday that appeared to contradict some administration claims about what happened.

NSA Headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland. (Photo: Wikimedia)

Much of the National Security Agency is under a shroud of secrecy, but a recently released document is giving us some insight into how its cyber spies were trained to use search engines and other online tools.

The more than 600-page document — Untangling the Web: A Guide to Internet Research — was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request made through MuckRock, according to Wired. It should be noted that the guide is from several years ago, and much of the Internet, search engines and online security have continued to evolve since.  NSA expressly also states on the cover of the book that the opinions of its authors, whose names are redacted, does not represent NSA’s official position.

(Image: NSA.gov)

Before being released through FIOA, the book published by NSA’s Center for Digital Content was only to be used by the “original recipient” who could make copies to distribute “only within the recipient’s agency or organization.”

Many chapters are rather basic, but some tech sites are calling out a more interesting chapter titled “Google Hacking,” which delves into how to find information on the Web that was never intended to be published.

“‘Google (or search engine) hacking’ involves using publicly available search engines to access publicly available information that almost certainly was not intended for public distribution,” the authors wrote. “In short, it’s using clever but legal techniques.”

This type of information includes:

• Personal or financial information
• User IDs, computer or account logins, passwords
• Private, confidential or proprietary company data
• Sensitive government information
• Vulnerabilities in websites and servers that could facilitate breaking into the site

“Normally, one would have to be actively looking for this type of information,” Untangled states. “Of course, many documents Google hackers find using these techniques are not sensitive and indeed are intended for public Internet. Only a tiny fraction of the over eight billion pages in the Google index were not meant to be made available to the public.”

Wired has more of an explanation on what this chapter detailed:

Say you’re a cyberspy for the NSA and you want sensitive inside information on companies in South Africa. What do you do?

Search for confidential Excel spreadsheets the company inadvertently posted online by typing “filetype:xls site:za confidential” into Google, the book notes.

Want to find spreadsheets full of passwords in Russia? Type “filetype:xls site:ru login.” Even on websites written in non-English languages the terms “login,” “userid,” and “password” are generally written in English, the authors helpfully point out.

Misconfigured web servers “that list the contents of directories not intended to be on the web often offer a rich load of information to Google hackers,” the authors write, then offer a command to exploit these vulnerabilities — intitle: “index of” site:kr password.

The authors assure readers once again that nothing they are revealing is “anything that is not already widely known and used on the Internet by both legitimate and illicit Google hackers.”

Although perhaps a tad outdated, as the Verge pointed out, “it’s a fascinating look at what the NSA was thinking back in 2007.”

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Republican leaders are reviving the debate over Obamacare's death panel by refusing to recommend appointees with the goal of impeding its implementation.

By:  Penny Starr

read more

CBS Philadelphia: Your teenager's next high may not come from a drug purchased on the street, but from one picked in the backyard. They're beautiful and delicate looking flowers that also happen to be deadly. In a growing and disturbing trend, young adults are using these flowers to get a high and hallucinate. Part of the Datura plant family, they grow everywhere, flourishing in parks, yards and next to schools.

NEW YORK, NY – MAY 08: The cast of ‘Duck Dynasty’ attends the A+E Networks 2013 Upfront on May 8, 2013 in New York City. redit: Getty Images for A+E Networks

If you’ve checked your Facebook or email this week, you might have been treated to a surprising story of how “Ducky Dynasty” patriarch Phil Robertson has been fighting the network that airs his show regarding frequent uses of prayer and guns. Mainly, the story says that Phil has taken a stand against A&E in order to keep the two topics in the show.

But while the story may endear fans to Phil and the clan even more, information we’ve uncovered says the entire thing just isn’t true.

First, here’s a copy of one of the variations of the rumor that’s circulating on Facebook:

(Source: Facebook)

That’s a pretty loaded statement. To have a show’s star speak out agaisnt his own network is a big deal. And especially when it comes to faith and guns, two hot-button issues. Still, given Phil’s outspoken nature, it’s not out of the question.

So what’s the truth?

There’s nothing to it, family member and Phil’s oldest (and non-bearded ) son Alan Robertson tells TheBlaze.

“The rumor that A&E told the Robertsons to tone down guns and prayer is not true,” Alan said in an email to TheBlaze, adding the description of “false” to the chatter. “We continue to partner with A&E to make a great tv show that reflects our family’s values.”

And it seems Phil himself has weighed in according to another of the show’s stars. On Thursday, Missy Robertson — wife of bearded brother Jase — tweeted a response to a question from someone asking about the controversy. According to the tweet, she asked Phil about it and he said “not to my knowledge.”

#bbpBox_332581593329852418 a { text-decoration:none; color:#0084B4; }#bbpBox_332581593329852418 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }Phil just said "Not to my knowledge." @benny_smith09: true A&E ask Phil not to pray show cause of liberals & atheists complained to them?May 9, 2013 3:43pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite@MissyDuckWifeMissy Robertson

That seems pretty clear. And as Phil would say, the family seems “happy, happy, happy” with the way things are going.

In other news, Willie Robertson announced earlier this week on his Twitter account that the show will officially be returning for a fourth season:

#bbpBox_331917495625723904 a { text-decoration:none; color:#F04709; }#bbpBox_331917495625723904 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }In NY city with A & E, so yes, we're baaack! Season 4 is coming, Jack!May 7, 2013 7:44pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite@williebosshogWillie Robertson

Author’s note: TheBlaze will be reviewing Phil Robertson’s newest book this weekend, “Happy, Happy, Happy: My Life and Legacy as the Duck Commander.” Stay tuned for the write-up next week.

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Gov. Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama . (Associated Press)

UPDATE 2:03 p.m. ET – The story has taken yet another weird turn. The IRS in an attempt to explain itself released the following statement [emphases added]:

Between 2010 and 2012, the IRS saw the number of applications for section 501(c)(4) status double. As a result, local career employees in Cincinnati sought to centralize work and assign cases to designated employees in an effort to promote consistency and quality. This approach has worked in other areas.

However, the IRS recognizes we should have done a better job of handling the influx of advocacy applications. While centralizing cases for consistency made sense, the way we initially centralized them did not. Mistakes were made initially, but they were in no way due to any political or partisan rationale.

We fixed the situation last year and have made significant progress in moving the centralized cases through our system. To date, more than half of the cases have been approved or withdrawn.  It is important to recognize that all centralized applications received the same, even-handed treatment, and the majority of cases centralized were not based on a specific name.

In addition, new procedures also were implemented last year to ensure that these mistakes won’t be made in the future. The IRS also stresses that our employees – all career civil servants — will continue to be guided by tax law and not partisan issues.

However, this clearly contradicts Lerner’s earlier claim that the IRS looked for groups that included the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their applications for tax-exempt status.

So what’s really going on?

If this was just some sort of bureaucratic hiccup (as the IRS statement claims it was), then what, exactly, was Lerner talking about? Also, you can’t say that this was entirely “nonpartisan” when Lerner  — a top ranking official — specifically stated that they were flagging groups that used “patriot” and “tea party” in their applications.

Someone needs to get their story straight.

UPDATE 1:43 p.m. ET – In case you were wondering why the IRS hadn’t mentioned or addressed this issue until today, here’s your “answer”:

#bbpBox_332905213600096256 a { text-decoration:none; color:#1F98C7; }#bbpBox_332905213600096256 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }IRS says no apology before today because no one ever asked.May 10, 2013 1:09pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite@ktumultyKaren Tumulty

UPDATE 1:38 p.m. ET – House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Subcommittee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio.) on Friday issued the following statement:

The fact that Americans were targeted by the IRS because of their political beliefs is unconscionable. The Committee will aggressively follow up on the IG report and hold responsible officials accountable for this political retaliation.

UPDATE 1:28 p.m. ET — The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Friday released the following statement:

Even the appearance of playing partisan politics with the tax code is about as constitutionally troubling as it gets. With the recent push to grant federal agencies broad new powers to mandate donor disclosure for advocacy groups on both the left and the right, there must be clear checks in place to prevent this from ever happening again.

UPDATE 1:16 p.m. ET — The IRS spokeswoman has clarified what she meant when she responded to questions about disciplinary action:

#bbpBox_332905640953516032 a { text-decoration:none; color:#1F98C7; }#bbpBox_332905640953516032 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }IRS clarifies: when they said "no" to question about disciplinary action, meant they aren't going to answer that question.May 10, 2013 1:11pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite@ktumultyKaren Tumulty

UPDATE 1:07 p.m. ET — An IRS spokeswoman said Friday that no disciplinary action has been taken against agency employees. She added that about 200 employees at the Cincinnati office were involved in the process.

Also, Lerner in her remarks noted that 75 of the 300 groups targeted for additional reviews were conservative. She claims none of them lost their tax-exempt status.

When asked later about this number, the IRS spokeswoman referred to the 75 conservative groups as “a quarter” of the total. When it was noted that this was incorrect, she replied: “I’m not good at math.”

UPDATE 12:30 p.m. ET – Shortly after Lerner’s comments made national headlines, Jenny Beth Martin, National Coordinator for Tea Party Patriots, issued the following statement:

The IRS has demonstrated the most disturbing, illegal and outrageous abuse of government power. This deliberate targeting and harassment of tea party groups reaches a new low in illegal government activity and overreach. It is suspicious that the activity of these “low-level workers” was unknown to IRS leadership at the time it occurred.

President Obama must also apologize for his administration ignoring repeated complaints by these broad grassroots organizations of harassment by the IRS in 2012, and make concrete and transparent steps today to ensure this never happens again. We reject a simple apology that does nothing to alleviate the danger of this happening again. Only immediate and public actions on the part of the IRS and the president will suffice.

We demand the immediate resignation of all complicit in this activity and insist Congress investigate.

–

The Internal Revenue Service “inappropriately flagged” conservative political groups during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status, a top IRS official said Friday.

Organizations were singled out because they included the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their applications for tax-exempt status, said Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups.

In some cases, groups were asked for their list of donors, which violates IRS policy in most cases, she said.

“That was wrong. That was absolutely incorrect, it was insensitive and it was inappropriate. That’s not how we go about selecting cases for further review,” Lerner said at a conference sponsored by the American Bar Association.

“The IRS would like to apologize for that,” she added.

It’s important to remember that IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman — a Bush appointee whose 6-year term ended in November — told Congress in March 2012 that the IRS was not targeting groups based on their political views.

“There’s absolutely no targeting. This is the kind of back and forth that happens to people” who apply for tax-exempt status, Shulman told a House Ways and Means subcommittee.

But after her talk, Lerner seemed to defend Shulman’s comments, telling an Associated Press reporter that no high level IRS officials knew about the practice. She did not say when they found out.

“It’s the line people that did it without talking to managers,” Lerner said. “They’re IRS workers, they’re revenue agents.”

Lerner stressed during her talk that the practice was not motivated by political bias.

But that’s not how many conservative groups saw it.

TheBlaze in February 2012 received emails from several Tea Party groups alleging partisan and almost thuggish behavior on the part of the IRS.

Ohio Liberty Council Corp. President Tom Zawistokowski, for example, posted a letter on the group’s website detailing their extraordinary experiences with the IRS.  Zawistokowski writes:

My own Portage County TEA Party has been waiting for over a year just to get a response from the IRS so we can file our 2010 tax return! In the attached PDF I share with you, the “Additional Information Requested” of the Ohio Liberty Council from our June 30th, 2010 application which we just received on January 30, 2012. Yes, they took a year and a half to respond to our application and they are giving us two weeks to respond back. As you will see, this is no simple request.

Here’s what the IRS demanded of the group:

A hard copy printout of the website – A PDF file emailed to the IRS will not suffice (and this is the high-tech Administration)

List all Social Media outlets being used (Facebook, Twitter, etc) and include hard copy printouts of every posting

A narrative description of every activity of your organization since June 30, 2010 (filing date) – And they do not want a mere description of the event, but full details – including; who conducted it, their qualifications, who was allowed to take part in the activities and how they were selected, was there a fee? (how much)

The IRS also wants to know about the members of the group and their roles and more, asking specifically for the “name, address, and corporate federal ID of all organizations that are members of our organization”

[...]

Public events are also under scrutiny with the IRS demanding to know the time, location and content schedule of each event.

Copies of any and all handouts must be included.

Names and credentials of all instructors and copies of any workshop materials used.

All speakers must be identified and copies of every speech must be included.

By March, several Republican senators and The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) were starting to ask questions about the IRS’ treatment of Tea Party groups.

“This appears to be a coordinated attempt to intimidate Tea Party organizations by demanding information that is outside the scope of legitimate inquiry and violates the First Amendment,” said ACLJ Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow in a statement, adding that the IRS asked questions that violate groups’ association rights.

“These organizations have followed the law and applied for tax exempt status for their activities as Americans have done for decades,” the statement notes.

Later, 12 GOP senators sent a letter to IRS Commissioner Douglas Schulman questioning the nature of the relationship between the IRS and Tea Party groups.

“It is critical that the public have confidence that federal tax compliance efforts are pursued in a fair, even-handed, and transparent manner – without regard to politics of any kind,” wrote the Senators, referring specifically to the Kentucky 9/12 Project’s claim of IRS intimidation.

“It is imperative that organizations applying for tax-exempt status are able to rely on a consistent and foreseeable review structure from the IRS.

“Any significant changes to the IRS review process should be implemented only after appropriate notice and opportunity for comment from the public and affected parties,” the letter adds.

The letter was spearheaded by Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch and Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, joined by Senators Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), John Cornyn (Texas), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), John Thune (R-S.D.), and Rand Paul (R-Ky.).

More than a year later, Lerner’s comments show that the harassed conservative grassroots groups — and their defenders — were actually on to something.

–

Follow Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) on Twitter

The Associated Press contributed to this story. This post has been updated.

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UPDATE 4:36 p.m. ET –Bloomberg LP has responded to the scandal. From the Associated Press:

Financial data and news company Bloomberg LP said Friday that it had cut off its journalists’ access to client log-in data on the company’s ubiquitous trading information terminals …

A person familiar with the matter said Goldman Sachs became concerned about outside access after a Bloomberg reporter, investigating what she thought was the departure of a Goldman employee, told the securities firm that the employee had not logged into a Bloomberg terminal for a number of weeks.

The person was not authorized to speak publicly and did so on condition of anonymity.

A Bloomberg spokeswoman said that “limited customer relationship data” had long been available to its reporters, but decided to disable it after receiving the complaint.

–

Goldman Sachs executives claim Bloomberg LP reporters have been using the company’s widely used Bloomberg Terminal computer system to “keep tabs on some employees of the Wall Street bank,” the New York Post reports.

But before we go any further, here’s a quick explanation of Wall Street’s favorite computer service [via Investopedia]:

Bloomberg terminals are one of the main product offerings from Bloomberg L.P. and it is one of the most heavily used and highly regarded professional investment systems to be created for the financial marketplace. Institutional investors are the typical customers of this product, since the relatively high ongoing cost makes it unfeasible for individual investors with relatively small amounts of capital to purchase.

As you can see, most of Wall Street relies on Bloomberg’s service – but it apparently comes at a risk.

Bloomberg terminal. (Business Insider)

“The ability to snoop on Bloomberg terminal users came to light recently when Goldman officials learned that at least one reporter at the news service had access to a wide array of information about customer usage,” the report reads.

“In one instance, a Bloomberg reporter asked a Goldman executive if a partner at the bank had recently left the firm — noting casually that he hadn’t logged into his Bloomberg terminal in some time,” it adds.

Goldman’s top brass, according to the Post’s sources, discovered that Bloomberg reporters could use the terminals to see which of the bank’s employees had logged in and how many times.

Obviously, this raises serious questions about the firm’s security and whether any of its proprietary information has been compromised.

“You can basically see how many times someone has looked up news stories or if they used their messaging functions,” said one Goldman insider.

“It made us think, ‘Well, what else does [Bloomberg] have access to?,’ ” the insider said.

Goldman Sachs executives have reportedly met with Bloomberg management to discuss the issue.

Bloomberg terminals. (Wiki Commons).

“Some Goldman traders are still skittish about how much of their terminal usage can be gleaned by Bloomberg — despite assurances from the news and data service that within 24 hours of being alerted by Goldman it pulled the plug on the function that allowed its reporters to snoop,” the report notes.

If they did, how were Bloomberg reports gaining access to Goldman information? The Post explains:

Bloomberg reporters’ ability to access the special so-called customer relationship management (CRM) information features was a holdover from that ’90s era when reporters also worked with the news organizations sales efforts.

“Limited customer relationship data has long been available to our journalists, and has never included clients’ security-level data, position data, trading data or messages,” said Bloomberg spokesman Ty Trippet.

“In light of [Goldman’s] concern as well as a general heightened sensitivity to data access, we decided to disable journalist access to this customer relationship information for all clients,” he noted.

Bloomberg LP was founded in 1983 by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. It costs roughly $20,000 a year for a Wall Street firm to rent a terminal, meaning the business news groups brings in on average more than $6 billion in annual revenues.

Although Mayor Bloomberg no longer oversees the day-to-day operations of the business, but he still owns it:

Michael Bloomberg. (Associated Press)

As of this writing, the business news group has taken no disciplinary action.

–

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Featured image Getty Images.

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The chances of the Mexican border being secure by the time immigration reform comes into effect are around 10,000 to 1, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz has asserted.

(LONDON GUARDIAN) The Prince of Wales has criticised “corporate lobbyists” and climate change sceptics for turning the earth into a “dying patient”, in his most outspoken attack yet on the world’s failure to tackle global warming, made shortly before he is to take over from the Queen at the forthcoming meeting of the Commonwealth.

His intervention was reinforced by Lord Stern of Brentford, author of the 2006 report on the economics of climate change, who called sceptics and lobbyists “forces of darkness” who would be “driven back”.

Prince Charles attacked businesses who failed to care for the environment, and compared the current generation to a doctor taking care of a critically ill patient.

Hundreds of thousands of New York City immigrants could get the right to vote in local elections under a proposal before lawmakers. A City Council hearing is scheduled for Thursday on a plan to allow people who are in the country legally, but aren't citizens, to vote. Advocates estimate that could be more than 800,000 people. Many U.S. states once let noncitizens vote, though policies changed by the 1930s. Some Maryland cities now allow it, and the idea has been floated in New York's City Council for years.

(Image: Shutterstock.com)

A more than 800-page bill for immigration reform, which the Senate has begun debating, carries a measure privacy advocates worry could lead to the creation of a biometric database of every adult in the United States.

The section in the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act called “Identity Authentication Mechanism,” which describes a “photo tool,” is what has some on alert.

The section states that an employer hoping to hire an individual would need to verify the identity of the said person “using the photo tool.” Such a tool would be developed and maintained by the Secretary of State allowing employers to “match the photo on a covered identity document provided to the employer to a photo maintained by a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services database.”

Wired has the perspective of privacy advocates regarding this measure:

But privacy advocates fear the inevitable mission creep, ending with the proof of self being required at polling places, to rent a house, buy a gun, open a bank account, acquire credit, board a plane or even attend a sporting event or log on the internet. Think of it as a government version of Foursquare, with Big Brother cataloging every check-in.

“It starts to change the relationship between the citizen and state, you do have to get permission to do things,” said Chris Calabrese, a congressional lobbyist with the American Civil Liberties Union. “More fundamentally, it could be the start of keeping a record of all things.”

[...]

David Bier, an analyst with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, agrees with the ACLU’s fears.

“The most worrying aspect is that this creates a principle of permission basically to do certain activities and it can be used to restrict activities,” he said. “It’s like a national ID system without the card.”

This isn’t the first time this year the biometric data measure has been discussed. Back in January when the framework was endorsed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), those believing the system could infringe upon civil liberties began voicing their discontent as well.

Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) (C) confers with Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) (L) during Senate Judiciary Committee’s markup for the immigration reform bill on Capitol Hill May 9, 2013 in Washington, DC. The 18 members of the committee have proposed in excess of 300 amendments to the 844 page piece of legislation that would, if passed, create a path to U.S. citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Also pictured is Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) (R). (Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

USA Today also reported earlier this week that an amendment was proposed by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) that would require biometric data be collected on foreigners leaving the country, a measure Homeland Security tried rather unsuccessfully to institute as a program at airports since 9/11. The amendment would require such a biometric exit data system be established at 10 of the U.S.’s core airports within two years of enactment. After five years, a study on the effectiveness of the system would then allow the appropriate program to be instituted at all 30 airports flying internationally.

“Biometric data provides the government with certainty that travelers (and not just their travel documents) have or have not left the country,” Hatch’s office stated.

USA Today went on to explain that the reason the exit data system hasn’t taken off in the past is due to its expense.

Earlier this year, TheBlaze reported that the Pentagon was already working with a company to create a biometric scanning attachment for smartphones.

–

Related:

• Could High-Tech I.D. Cards Trip Up Immigration Reform?
• Christian Leaders Weigh in on Immigration Reform — Their Views Might Surprise You
• Reform vs. Isolationism: Immigration Debate Heats Up
• Top Conservative Lobbying Group Endorses Rubio Immigration Plan
• Biden Says Gun Control Takes Back Seat to Immigration Reform

Featured image via Shutterstock.com.

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Read more stories from TheBlaze

Top GOP Senator Says Obama Could Be Impeached Over ‘Most Egregious Cover-Up in American History’

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Celebrated Chinese film director, Zhang Yimou, who designed the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics, is being investigated over claims he fathered more children than allowed by law. Zhang allegedly fathered up to seven children with four women. If that's true, he could be fined nearly $27 million because the fines are based on the offender's income, according to a report in the online edition of the government-run People's Daily.

Image source: ABC News

ABC News has obtained a Benghazi attack ad that was created by the Republican National Committee but never aired during the 2012 campaign.

The 40-second spot starts with part of Hillary Clinton’s famous “3 a.m. phone call” ad from the 2008 campaign.

“The call came on September 11, 2012,” words say over images of the burning diplomatic mission in Benghazi. The screen goes black, then: “Security requests denied. Four Americans dead. And an administration whose story is still changing.” What sounds like gunfire and shouting is heard, then a single shot. “The call came. Americans deserve answers.”

ABC reported that RNC leadership approved the ad, but that it was shelved last-minute because of “objections from the Romney campaign, which was concerned the ad would distract from Romney’s efforts to focus on the economy.”

On Friday, Republican strategist Karl Rove’s American Crossroads released its own video specifically attacking then-Secretary of State Clinton’s handling of the attack.

It highlights testimony from Gregory Hicks, who was the deputy chief of mission in Libya at the time, and came forward as a whistleblower to the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday. Hicks recounted briefing Clinton at 2 a.m. about the assault, and then his shock upon seeing Clinton and United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice blame an anti-Islam video.

“Why did she blame a video? And was she part of a coverup?” the narrator says.

The video then goes to Clinton’s “What difference at this point does it make?” blowup during her congressional testimony earlier this year.

“The difference is a coverup, and four American lives that deserve the truth,” the narrator says.

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​Related:

• ABC Releases Big Benghazi Report: Talking Points Changed 12 Times, ‘Dramatically Edited by Administration,’ and Scrubbed of Terror References
• This Could Be the Weirdest Exchange from Wednesday’s Benghazi Hearing
• Here Are the 5 Key Things to Take Away From Wednesday’s Benghazi Hearing
• Benghazi Whistleblower: I Was ‘Demoted’ After Questioning Susan Rice’s Talking Points
• Benghazi Witness on Stand-Down Order: ‘First Time in My Career That a Diplomat Has More Balls Than Somebody in the Military’
• Started as a ‘Routine Day’: The Full, Unbelievable & Detailed Timeline Given by One Benghazi Whistleblower
• ​On TheBlaze Blog:​ Video: The RNC Benghazi attack ad that never ran

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