CIA to pay $400K in benefits to Benghazi victim’s family

The CIA is granting death benefits to the family of an American killed in the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya.

CIA contractor Glen Doherty’s family will receive $400,000 because of the policy change, according to K&L Gates, the law firm that worked on the case for the last three years.

{mosads}”I am glad the agency made this decision so the Doherty family and others who have lost loved ones in service to and sacrifice for our country will finally receive the recognition and honor they deserve,” Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), the head of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, said in a statement.

Doherty was one of four Americans killed when a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi came under fire in 2012, an episode that has been rigorously scrutinized in Washington.

Under the previous policy, Doherty’s family was not eligible to receive life insurance benefits from the CIA because he did not have a spouse or dependents. His family protested the policy and pushed agency officials to change it. Lawmakers in the House and Senate last year introduced legislation aiming to support the Massachusetts native’s relatives, but it stalled.

The CIA began notifying family members of the change “recently,” an agency spokesman said in a statement.

“The benefits are available to survivors of federal employees killed overseas in the performance of duty and as a result of acts of terrorism,” added the spokesman, Dean Boyd.

Members of the House Intelligence Committee “strongly approved of this change,” added the panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), on Thursday.

“As a longtime supporter of providing death benefits to the families of those struck down in the service of our country, I was proud to support it,” he said. “If any legislative action is necessary to help solidify the change, we stand ready to do what’s necessary.”

The change will apply retroactively to April 18, 1983, the date that the U.S. Embassy in Beirut was bombed, killing 63 people including 17 Americans. Dozens of families will qualify for benefits in addition to Doherty’s, K&L Gates predicted.