Under a newly revealed program to provide "enhanced death benefits," the CIA provided $400,000 to the family of Glen Doherty, a contractor that worked for the agency when he was killed in the 2012 Benghazi attack. The program will be providing compensation to those working with Agency who were killed on duty since the early 1980s.
Doherty was killed in the September 11th, 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya. He was among the four Americans killed in that attack, as reported by ABC News. Doherty, a former Navy SEAL, had a life insurance, but it only covered a spouse and children, neither of which he had.
Then his family began persuading the government to expand Doherty's benefits to his family as well. The efforts have gained support from Congress members. The Congress then designed legislation to make sure families of people who died while working against terrorism overseas with the agency would receive financial benefits.
The agency elaborated that the "enhanced death benefits" would be available for employees and contractors who were "killed overseas in the performance of duty and as a result of acts of terrorism." This program would apply to employees and contractors working dating back to the Beirut bombing incident in 1983 until recent events.
The new policy circumvents the existing law dated back to 1941 that stated death benefits would only be paid out to those with surviving spouses or children. The CIA has now secured funds to pay death benefits to families who are survivors of unmarried and childless employees and contractors killed while combating terrorism overseas.
In the case of the Doherty family's death benefit itself, the process began in December 2014 when the CIA first told the family that it would grant the benefits, as reported by The New York Times. However, a series of disagreements over the funding led to delays on Capitol Hill.
The CIA did not reveal how many families would qualify to claim the enhanced death benefits, but a source said the change would affect several dozen families. The mother, Barbara Doherty, was pleased with the change, calling the expanded benefit "symbolic justice," as quoted by Daily Journal.
In a new enhanced death benefit policy, the CIA would start paying out death benefits to surviving families of unmarried employees and contractors killed in an act to work against terrorism with the agency. It's a response to the work of the Doherty family, which had been demanding the benefit for Glen Doherty, killed in 2012 in an attack in Benghazi, Libya.
