Fox News has been hyping the statements of an anonymous source who has contradicted the account of both the Obama administration and independent findings about the attack on a U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. Now two separate statements by experts in Foreign Policy are casting more doubt about the claims of Fox's source.

Fox's flagship show Special Report ran a series of reports that highlighted an anonymous source who claims to have knowledge about the Benghazi attacks. In one segment, the source claimed that the Obama administration had forces available to aid the victims of the attack, but chose not to utilize them, a claim contradicted not only by the State Department, but by the Accountability Review Board, an independent panel convened to investigate whether there was a breach of duty during and after the attack.

But in a post on Foreign Policy magazine's website, national security journalist Tom Ricks, who previously accused Fox News of “operating as a wing of the Republican Party” on the Benghazi issue, published two accounts from experts who strongly questioned Fox's Benghazi source. Ricks reported that he's hearing Fox doesn't have a scoop with its Benghazi source, and quoted Retired Special Forces Col. David Maxwell stating:

Whistle blower my a**. If this guy is a real special operator (and I have my doubts) I wonder if he realizes what an embarrassment he is to the community. What he offers is pure speculation and not based on any real facts as I have heard and appears to be coming from his fourth point of contact. He comes across as just another conspiracy theorist who is taking Fox News for a ride.

In a separate article, U.S. Marine Corps officer and special operations team leader Billy Birdzell called Fox's source “a clown” and criticized news outlets for “not using Google” before promoting him. Birdzell explained how forces in the area, including the force training in Croatia that Fox's source discussed, would have needed far more time to reach Benghazi than they had.