On September 11, 2012, the diplomatic mission in Benghazi came under attack, US Ambassador to Lybia John Christopher Stevens and three other American citizens died while several were wounded. One of the Americans killed in the line of duty was the former Navy SEAL Glen Doherty.
Introduction
Glen Doherty was a security and surveillance contractor working for the CIA, and it was supposed to be his last assignment. He worked for the CIA’s Global Response staff in Libya on September 11, 2012, when the call for help came. He was in Tripoli while the call for help came from the diplomatic mission in Benghazi — a “consulate” in name only.
Last words and call for help
“Greg, Greg, we are under attack,” were the last words from Ambassador John Christopher Stevens to his deputy Greg Hicks over the phone from the Benghazi office shortly after the attack began around 9:30 p.m.
“If you don’t get here, we are going to die,” the radio operator at the tactical operations center in Benghazi pronounced on the radio from the improvised consulate.
Quick-reaction force (QRF)
Glen Doherty was part of the quick reaction force consisting of eight US military or former military that left Tripoli in a rush to help rescue Stevens and his colleagues at the consulate. His task was the same as the task of the 21 CIA personnel at the CIA annex one mile from where Ambassador Chris Stevens and the others came under attack.
The quick reaction force sent to Benghazi left Tripoli at about midnight after chartering a local plane for the rescue. Tripoli had no US air assets, and the team had to go independently. Doherty and the rest of the group sent to help arrived at the CIA annex at 5:15 a.m. after being delayed for several hours at the Benghazi airport by the Libyan security forces.
The CIA annex, a fortress-like compound with several buildings, is where the American citizens in Benghazi had retreated. The body of State Department official Sean Smith had been brought after the initial attack. At the time, Chris Stevens was still missing.
Immediately upon arrival, Glen Doherty joined Tyrone Woods, another highly trained former Navy SEAL, on the roof of one of the buildings at the CIA annex. Within minutes, mortars were fired on their position, leaving Doherty and Woods killed.
Glen Doherty’s Legacy
In the video broadcast by Fox News, Glen Doherty was shown in the compilation video made by his friends from the outtakes of an NBC series that he worked on in 2009. The Wanted series was a reality show that involved looking for war criminals worldwide.
Glen Doherty provided security and surveillance for the show’s production team as it chased, in one case, a well-known financier of the 9/11 attacks through the streets of Hamburg. He talks about the car chases and how he managed to stay awake on stake-outs and discusses his impressions of his friends Adam, Roger, and Scott, whom he protected on those shoots. The video compilation is being shown with the permission of Doherty’s mother, Barbara, to provide insight into who Glen Doherty was and why the nation should honor his service.
Glen Doherty’s Libya assignment was supposed to be his last for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He had been offered a more suitable job in the private sector that would have allowed him to get out of the line of fire. Glen told his future employer that he had one last job to do. That job was in Libya. On September 11, 2012, his last assignment was in Benghazi.
