Parents of two of the Americans killed in Benghazi, Libya, last year testified today before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Before these parents testified, however, most of the Democrats on the committee had left the room, refusing to even listen to these grieving parents. Only two Democratic members remained in the room.

Patricia Smith, mother of slain U.S. Foreign Service information officer Sean Smith, testified that she met with President Obama, Vice President Biden, and then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton the day the four Americans’ bodies were returned to American soil. Smith says that the three and other senior administration officials lied to her about the cause of the attack.

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“I was told a few things,” Smith told the remaining members of the committee, “and they were all lies. Obama, and Hillary, and Panetta, and Biden, and Susan [Rice] all came up to me at the casket ceremony. Every one of them came up to, gave me a big hug. And I asked them ‘What happened? Please tell me.’ And every one of them says, ‘It was the video.’ And we all know that it wasn’t the video. Even at at time they knew it wasn’t the video. So they all lied to me.”

Smith also said that all of the officials said that they would “check up” on what happened and get back to her. To date, she has heard from none of them.

“I don’t count,” Smith said, “the people of America don’t count. The only thing that counts is their own selves, and their own jobs.”

Charles Woods, father of slain Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods, also testified. In his soft-spoken voice, Woods also leveled grave criticisms at the Obama administration.

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“It’s been over a year since four brave Americans were tragically killed in Benghazi,” Woods said. “And after one year we know very few answers. We’ve been asking for the last year. We don’t know much more than we did a year ago.

“Two of my heroes while growing up were John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King,” Woods said. “Rev. King made the statement, that ‘Justice delayed is justice denied.’ It’s been over a year. We have no justice. We have very few truthful answers that have been provided.”



Smith and Woods were killed on the night of September 11, 2012 ,at a U.S. State Department facility in Benghazi, Libya. Ambassador Chris Stevens and SEAL Glen Doherty died in the attack as well. The Obama administration, including the president himself, Clinton and his then U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, blamed the attack on a crudely made YouTube video for about two weeks following the attack. But moments into the attack, officials in Washington had been told that it was a military-style, terrorist assault. To this day, no one has been held accountable for the deception or for the stand-down order that was reportedly given to military who may have been able to respond in time to save American lives. The president’s whereabouts and actions on the night of attack also remain a mystery.

To date, more than a year after the attack, despite President Obama’s vow to bring those responsible for the attack to justice, not a single attacker has been arrested.