2 Blackwater Guards among CIA Base Victims

Two of the CIA workers killed in Afghanistan were private contractors with the security company formerly known as Blackwater.

An obituary released Wednesday for 35-year-old Jeremy Wise said he was a former Navy SEAL who was working with the company now known as Xe. MindyLou Paresi said in an interview with The News Tribune of Tacoma, Washington, that her husband, 46-year-old Dane Clark Paresi, was also a Xe contractor who was killed.

MindyLou Paresi was at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Tuesday after meeting the flag-draped coffins of her husband and the other fallen operatives, reports CBS affiliate KIRO in Seattle. A small private ceremony Monday was attended by CIA Director Leon Panetta, other agency and national security officials, and friends and family.

"We are devastated, we are broken, but we are also very proud of him," MindyLou Paresi said in a phone interview with KIRO. "All of the agents are national heroes because they were there to do a job, a very large job. What it was I do not know exactly, but they were heroes fighting the war against terror."

Xe spokesman Mark Corallo declined to confirm whether the men worked for the North Carolina-based company. A former U.S. intelligence officials has said that a suicide bomber killed eight people inside a CIA base in Afghanistan, including four CIA officers, three contracted security guards and a Jordanian intelligence officer.

Questions remain about why the bomber was not searched for weapons or explosives prior to his meeting with CIA officers, which is standard protocol even for visiting dignitaries, said a senior foreign government official and more than a dozen former CIA officers.

Also unclear is why so many people were present for the debriefing. For physical security reasons and to protect the identities of both informants and CIA officers, debriefings are generally conducted with two or three people.

KIRO reports that MindyLou Paresi said she was told her husband was at the meeting inside the military compound and suspected something was wrong. When he approached, the informant detonated his explosives. She said her husband was right next to the bomber, the closest person to the blast.

"He saved many people, unfortunately seven of them did die," she said, noting that others were wounded. "It could have been worse."