The CIA has revamped the way the agency pays death benefits to the families of contractors, in turn allowing relatives of a former Navy SEAL killed in the 2012 Benghazi terror attack to reap nearly $500,000 from the federal government.
Attorneys for the mother of Glen Doherty, a SEAL-turned-CIA contractor who was killed with three other Americans during the Sept. 11, 2012, attack, said the agency confirmed that the policy change will allow his relatives to finally receive benefits.
Doherty, 42, carried both disability and life insurance at the time of his death, but a provision under the 1941 Defense Base Act had up until now prevented the government from paying out benefits in instances where the deceased isn’t survived by a spouse or children. Doherty died single and childless, and his mother and sister have lobbied in the years since to have the provision lifted once and for all.
The CIA said Wednesday it will unilaterally offer “enhanced death benefits” for employees and contractors “killed overseas in the performance of duty and as a result of acts of terrorism” dating back to 1983, ABC News reported.
K&L Gates, a law firm representing the Dohertys, told ABC News that the sudden policy change will allow “dozens of families” to receive benefits, including relatives of the slain CIA contractor.
“More than three-and-a-half years after the Benghazi attack which took his life, our family has finally received the symbolic justice all families of such American heroes deserve,” his mother, Barbara Doherty, said in a statement issued by her lawyers.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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