Friday, September 14, 2012

Remains of Libya victims come home

Updated at 2:55 p.m. ET

(CBS/AP) ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, Md. - President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden honored Friday the return to the United States of the four Americans who died in this week's attack on a U.S. consulate in Libya.

Mr. Obama and Biden joined Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta to express condolences to the victims' families in a private waiting area at the Andrews Air Force Base terminal.

"They didn't simply embrace the American ideal - they lived it," Mr. Obama told the audience in attendance.

"Today we honor four Americans who gave their lives for our country and our values," Clinton said.

Mr. Obama and his fellow dignitaries were at Andrews to witness the transfer of remains ceremony for Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others killed Tuesday in Benghazi.

Also killed were Americans Sean Smith, Glen A. Doherty and Tyrone S. Woods. Doherty and Woods were former Navy SEALS.

CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes reports eight busloads of people from the State Department traveled to the ceremony.

U.S. officials are investigating whether the assault was a coordinated terrorist attack that took advantage of protests in the Arab world over an anti-Muslim video.