Benghazi Victim’s Sister: Go After the Terrorists Already
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John Riedy Photography(WASHINGTON) — The sister of one of the Americans killed in the Sept. 11 attack on the American diplomatic facility in Benghazi said now that the State Department seems to be done assigning blame for various failures leading up to the assault, the U.S. government should take action against the people who actually perpetrated the attack.
“There’s been a lot of finger pointing within our own government,” Kate Quigley, the sister of former Navy SEAL Glen Doherty, told ABC News. “I would love to see that energy start to shift to finding those individuals [attackers] … I won’t be satisfied until I know who did it, where they are and what’s happening to them.”
Quigley said she is pleased with the State Department’s recent internal investigation into the deadly Sept. 11 incident that claimed the life of her brother and that of three other Americans including Ambassador Christopher Stevens. The report blamed a “systemic failure” by the State Department to address the security needs of the Benghazi facility, but did not cite any individual dereliction of duty. Still, four State Department officials have been “relieved from their duties,” a spokesperson for the department said, and are on administrative leave.
While the State Department report provides the most detailed timeline of the attack to date, it does not go into who may have been behind it, saying “the key questions surrounding the identity, actions and motivations of the perpetrators remain to be determined by the ongoing criminal investigation.”
Quigley said she’s frustrated that even privately, more than three months after the attack, the government hasn’t told her family anything more.
“The company line is, ‘It’s under investigation and when the investigation is complete there will be a full sit down briefing,’” she said. “I haven’t heard any conversation about that at all.”
Glen Doherty was killed alongside fellow former SEAL Tyrone Woods on the roof of a U.S. government annex as the two fought off attackers, according to the State Department report. Doherty was reportedly part of a reaction team sent from Tripoli to help the besieged diplomats. The report said everyone on the ground “performed with courage and readiness to risk their lives to protect their colleagues, in a near impossible situation.”
Just weeks before his death, Doherty told ABC News in an exclusive interview that he was working in Libya on an intelligence mission related to the State Department’s effort to round up dangerous shoulder-fired rocket launchers that had been looted during the revolution there last year. He has since been identified publicly as a private contractor with the CIA.
After his death, Doherty’s family and friends set up an education foundation in the fallen SEAL’s name that aims to provide scholarships and grants for children of current or former special operations personnel. The foundation’s website says it’s meant to “pay forward Glen’s love for learning and his passion for igniting the spirit through adventure.”
Quigley said that the foundation is obviously just a few months old, but she’s excited for what 2013 may bring.
“We know we can do good with a little bit of money and a lot of good with a lot of money,” she joked.
A spokesperson for the FBI, which is conducting the criminal investigation into the attack, did not immediately return request for comment for this report.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio