Politics & Government

SEAL Mom: Lack of FBI Presence in Benghazi ‘Absolutely Unacceptable’

The mother of Tyrone Woods, who was killed in the Sept. 11 attack on the Libyan consulate in Benghazi, said the FBI's failure to investigate is "absolutely unacceptable."

Cheryl Croft Bennett, mother of one of four people killed in an attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya has critized the FBI for failing to make their way to the city where the attack took place, Foreign Policy Magazine reported.

"Apparently they have made it to Tripoli but haven't been allowed to enter Benghazi. Meanwhile, the diplomatic outpost where Tyrone and Glen [Doherty] died, was not and is not secured. Absolutely unacceptable," Bennett said on her Facebook page.

Tyrone Woods, an Iraq and Afghanistan War veteran, former Navy SEAL, husband and father of three, was killed during an attack in Benghazi Sept. 11.

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Exactly what happened in the Sept. 11 attack is still unclear.

The original claim was that the attack was a reaction to an anti-Muslim video and eariler protests in Cairo, but on Friday a spokesman for the Director of National Intelligence Shawn Turner said it was a "deliberate and organized attack by extremists."

It is still unclear if any particular individual or group exercised control over the attack, but "some of those involved were linked to groups affiliated with, or sympathetic with Al Qaeda."

"We continue to make progress, but there remain many unanswered questions," the statement said.

According to CNN, after evacuating staff and the body of Sean Smith from the consulate, Woods was part of a security team in a separate building protecting consulate staff.

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The news organization was told by military officials that the attack on the annex in which Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods were killed included rocket propelled grenades and mortars.

Following a private funeral held Sept. 20 in a chapel at Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado, Woods received full military honors at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetary.

His mother was part of a family contingency that met Woods' remains at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland days after the attack. They were joined by President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"While squeezing Secretary Clinton's hand and choking back tears, I told her that what worried me was that my son died possibly thinking that he had failed in the mission he was to carry out, that of protecting Ambassador Stevens and the people in the compound," she said.

"Looking me firmly in the eye, she told me that my son did not fail. She called him a hero and that if not for him, the 30 people inside the consulate would not have made it out. He was doing his job, fighting for his life, putting others ahead of his own safety, but then that was his job, which he did well."


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