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Family of Benghazi victim seeks damages

Glen Doherty, a CIA contractor, died during a 2012 attack by militants.

    by By Denise Lavoie, Associated Press, Inquirer
    Published 

BOSTON - The family of a CIA contractor killed in Benghazi, Libya, has filed claims seeking $2 million in damages from the CIA and State Department, alleging there was inadequate security at the U.S. diplomatic post and CIA compound when it came under attack by militants in 2012.

The family of Glen Doherty, led by his mother, Barbara Doherty, filed a claim with the two government agencies last week seeking $1 million for wrongful death. Doherty's friend and executor of his estate, Sean Lake, filed a separate claim seeking a little over $1 million.

Doherty, a former Navy SEAL, grew up in Winchester, Mass., and was 42 when he died. He was among four Americans killed in Benghazi, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya, when militants stormed the diplomatic post on the night of Sept. 11, 2012, and later fired on a nearby CIA compound.

Separately, Doherty's family and Lake filed a lawsuit in state court in California last week over a death benefit on a policy Doherty was required to take out as a CIA contractor who performed security work overseas in hazardous areas. The lawsuit seeking unspecified damages claims that the broker was negligent because its staff failed to tell Doherty that the policy was essentially worthless to him: It would only pay a death benefit if he had a dependent such as a wife or child, but Doherty was divorced with no children.

Dean Boyd, a spokesman for the CIA, said the agency would have no comment. The State Department also declined to comment.

Michael Mortenson, a California attorney representing the Doherty family and Lake, said that under federal law, the claims for damages are required before a lawsuit against the government can be filed. Mortenson said that if the claims are denied, they may file a lawsuit within six months.

Doherty's family argues that both locations that came under attack in Libya lacked adequate security resources and personnel despite repeated requests for more. Doherty was killed by mortar rounds that hit the roof of the CIA annex.