US Teacher's Widow: I Forgive Benghazi Killers

The widow of a US teacher shot to death in Benghazi tells Anderson Cooper that she forgives his killers. "I don't want any revenge. I just really want them to know that I do love them and I forgive them, and Ronnie would want this," Anita Smith says in a CNN interview. "I just want them to know that God loves them and can forgive them for this." She continued: "That's how I honestly feel. It may sound crazy. It's God's spirit that's putting this inside me."

Ronnie, she says, "wanted to shine the light and the love of Jesus to the Libyan people. He didn't want any attention onto himself." In a letter to the Libyan people, Smith notes that the couple went to Libya "because we saw the suffering of the Libyan people, but we also saw your hope, and we wanted to partner with you to build a better future ... We came to bless you, but you have blessed us much more." As for her husband, "I hear people speaking with hate, anger, and blame over Ronnie's death, but that's not what Ronnie would want." The US believes militant organization Ansar al-Sharia was behind the attack, CNN notes. (More Ronnie Smith stories.)