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Obama: 4 killed in Libya were patriots

President Barack Obama watches while transfer cases are placed into hearses during the Transfer of Remains Ceremony marking the return to the United States of the remains of the four Americans killed this week in Benghazi, Libya, at Joint Base Andrews near Washington, DC on September 14, 2012. UPI/Molly Riley/Pool
1 of 3 | President Barack Obama watches while transfer cases are placed into hearses during the Transfer of Remains Ceremony marking the return to the United States of the remains of the four Americans killed this week in Benghazi, Libya, at Joint Base Andrews near Washington, DC on September 14, 2012. UPI/Molly Riley/Pool | License Photo

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Four men killed at a U.S. consulate embodied the "American ideal," President Obama said in a ceremony Friday as their bodies returned to the United States.

The president, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden and other administration officials attended a transfer of remains ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington.

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Obama, in brief remarks, praised Chris Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya; Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, former Navy SEALs working for a private contractor; and Sean Smith, an Air Force veteran working for the State Department.

"Four Americans, four patriots -- they loved this country and they chose to serve it, and served it well. They had a mission and they believed in it. They knew the danger and they accepted it," Obama said. "They didn't simply embrace the American ideal, they lived it. They embodied it -- the courage, the hope and, yes, the idealism, that fundamental American belief that we can leave this world a little better than before."

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