Pat Smith, mother of Sean Smith, a State Department official, who died in last month’s attack in Libya, talked to CNN last night about how she wasn’t getting the details she wanted about her son’s death:
ANDERSON COOPER: So you’re still waiting to hear from somebody about what happened to your son? About what they know? Or even what they don’t know.
SMITH: Right. Right. Officially yes. I told them, please don’t give me any baloney that comes through with this political stuff. I don’t want political stuff. You can keep your political, just tell me the truth. What happened. And I still don’t know. In fact, today I just heard something more that he died of smoke inhalation.
COOPER: So you don’t even know the cause of death?
SMITH: I don’t even know if that’s true or not. No, I don’t. I don’t know where. I look at TV and I see bloody hand prints on walls, thinking, my God, is that my son’s? I don’t know if he was shot. I don’t know — I don’t know. They haven’t told me anything. They are still studying it. And the things that they are telling me are just outright lies. That Susan Rise, what — she talked to me personally and she said, she said, this is the way it was. It was — it was because of this film that came out.
COOPER: So she told you personally that she thought it was a result of that video of the protest?
SMITH: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. In fact all of them did. All of them did. Leon Panetta actually took my face in his hands like this and he said, trust me. I will tell you what happened. And so far, he’s told me nothing. Nothing at all. And I want to know. COOPER: It’s important for you to know all the details no matter how horrible.
SMITH: Yes.
COOPER: Or no matter how tough they are to hear.
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