The father of a former Navy SEAL killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, says he learned the details of his son’s bravery not from the Obama administration, but in an email from an American whose life was saved by his son.
Tyrone Woods, 41, was found “slumped over his machine gun, which was caked with blood,” Charles Woods, the former SEAL’s father, said during a telephone interview from his home in Hawaii.
“He had continued to fire until he had no blood left and was unable to fire anymore,” Mr. Woods said.
He did not identify the email’s sender but said he later spoke with the person who “told me how Ty died.”
Washington politics has largely shifted attention from what actually happened nearly three months ago in the Benghazi attack, in which U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, former SEAL Glen Doherty and State Department officer Sean Smith also were slain.
Republicans have accused the Obama administration of attributing the attack to spontaneous protests over a U.S.-made anti-Islam video, and not terrorists, in order to maintain the president’s foreign policy image before Election Day.
The White House and congressional Democrats have accused Republicans of exploiting the situation for political gain.
For family members such as Mr. Woods, the need to know what occurred in Benghazi is as real today as it was the moment they learned that their loved ones had perished.
Some are angry at the Obama administration, and even the most politically neutral among them say they are dispirited by the way the incident has been spun by Democrats, Republicans and news media.
‘Deserve far better’
“The frustration is that all of the energy is focused on who to blame within our own government,” said Kate Quigley, sister of Glen Doherty, who was 42 when he died in Benghazi.
“There’s been so much finger-pointing back and forth, and somebody like Glen was completely bipartisan in his job. What he did was try to save American lives, whether he was protecting Republicans or Democrats, that did not matter,” Mrs. Quigley said in a telephone interview from her home in Marblehead, Mass.
“As a family, we decided early on not to get involved in the politics of it,” Mrs. Quigley said. “We’re not looking to lay blame at the hands of the U.S. government. When it comes to blame, in our eyes, we’re fully putting that on the shoulders of the terrorists who planned and executed the attack.
“If Glen were here, he’d be the first one to reach across party lines and redirect the attention to where it needs to go, which is stopping these individuals and making sure all of our consulates and embassies are safe,” she said.
Mrs. Quigley said her family is frustrated with how “the press continues to refer to the individuals of the attack as four dead Americans, without really looking at who these individuals are.”
View Entire Story© Copyright 2013 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
Guy Taylor rejoined The Washington Times in 2011 as the State Department correspondent.
As a freelance journalist, Taylor’s work was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and the Fund For Investigative Journalism, and his stories appeared in a variety publications, from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to Salon, Reason, Prospect Magazine of London, the Daily Star of Beirut, the ...
'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
From raising children to identifying educational and service options for your children, Speaking of Family is where you can write...
Born in 1930 in rural Missouri, Charles Vandegriffe, Sr., brings his time and place to the Communities.
In a world that is increasingly complex, we need to seek greater awareness of the blending of cultures and America's changing role in a global community.
Benghazi: The anatomy of a scandal
13 Photos
Vietnam Memorial adds four names
18 Photos
Cinco de Mayo on the Mall
11 Photos
