AMINIMMIMMINummosurr Arts F Intertainme Jewish Book Fair Behind The Headlines Book Fair authors provide in-depth analyses of top news stories. The Price Of Terror have disappeared had the crash occurred over an ocean, most of he adage that timing them were recovered from the fall is everything certainly on land — although in rings true for Book deplorable condition. 1.:..a.s . s.o5 tocka,..ate kr. Fair's opening-night 4.W. The book's unique cover jacket speaker, Allan Gerson, who co- is chilling in itself, listing all of authored a just-published book the passengers according to the with the word "terror" in its title. plane's seating chart, accompa- The bombing of Pam Allan. Gerson: nied by many of their pictures. American Airlines Flight 103 "We never intended The American victims were over Lockerbie, Scotland, on that our story should mostly young, even the business Dec. 21, 1988, killed 270 peo- serve as an object executives in first class. They ple, mostly Americans. At that lesson in the face of included families on holiday, time, it was the largest-ever mass I Allan Gerson another national soldiers stationed overseas and terrorist attack on American and Jar, tragedy, but surely it Syracuse University students civilians. Adler has something to returning from a semester Two years ago, Gerson of teach us." abroad. Washington, D.C., and Jerry The book relates how, during Adler, of New York City, began 12 years of international detective inside a Toshiba cassette player in an writing their book with an eye to pub- work, the bombing was traced to Libya. inconspicuous suitcase checked aboard lication in early 2002. the flight in Malta. The timer went off It was seen, most probably, as a retalia- But after the Sept. 11 terrorist after stops in Frankfurt and London, a tion for the U.S. bombing of Tripoli in attacks and the resulting anthrax 1986, when Col. Muammar Qaddafi's scares, the book — The Price of Terror: half-hour after takeoff on the plane's adopted daughter was killed — way to New York. One Bomb. One Plane. 270 Lives. The although the U.S. raid may have been The explosion tore open the fuselage History-Making Struggle for Justice After in retaliation for the 1983 suicide-truck and spilled many of the 243 passengers Pan Am 103 (HarperCollins; $25.95) bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks and a crew of 16 into the 50-degree- — was rushed into print. in Lebanon, killing 241. below-zero cold from 31,000 feet in Meanwhile, Gerson embarked on a A former chief counsel to the U.S. the air. Those left in the plane fell and whirlwind publicity tour of 20 Mission to the United Nations and a crashed in a span of two minutes, hit- American cities, including an upcom- former senior Justice Department ting the ground at 400 miles an hour. ing visit to this year's Book Fair, where lawyer, Gerson is now research profes- Despite hundreds of square miles of he replaces attorney Robert Shapiro on sor of International Relations at George uninhabited fields, the wreckage landed Saturday, Nov. 10. Washington University. He has been on houses in Lockerbie, killing 11 more. Gerson, an attorney who is an expert Whereas the bodies most likely would working on a civil lawsuit against Libya on terrorism and international law, linked up with Adler, a senior editor at Newsweek magazine, and co-wrote the story of the quest for justice by families of the victims of Pan Am 103. The authors detail years of investiga- these stories, you see that there are tions and legal maneuvering, and tell effrey Toobin, legal analyst for both large, important facts that most how the Pan Am families combined ABC News, has no doubt that people never knew and relationships with relatives of victims in the 1995 George Bush won the 2000 between people and events that are Oklahoma City Federal Building presidential election because never clear until you look back," says bombing to produce legislation that Jewish voters in Palm Beach mistaken- Toobin, also a staff writer at the New helps give accountability to private cit- ly voted for Patrick Buchanan, the Yorker. izens. third-party candidate widely regarded An important part of the book has to Readers may find it emotionally dif- as anti-Semitic. do with the author's appraisal of basic ficult getting through the first few The layout of the Palm Beach ballot differences between the Republican chapters, which provide a gripping, was part of the general controversy and Democratic parties, and he asserts vivid account of the explosion and its surrounding Florida election practices, they become very apparent with a close aftermath — and the heartbreaking which are probed in Toobin's latest look at the recount controversies. notification of the families, who had book, Too Close to Call (Random "Republicans are tougher, smarter in to cope with lawyers invading their House: $25.95). The new release takes many respects, more ruthless and will- driveways with business cards and law- up the issues and the people closely ing to do more to win, while the suit rate sheets. tied to the 36-day battle to decide the Democrats care a great deal about pub- A 12-ounce Czech-made plastic presidential race. lic opinion and what they call `biparti- explosive known as Semtex was hidden "When you go back and look at On.e borrth.t3:Ita p ane, 2.70 byes. History-Making Struggfx Atta'r Pan Alit 1(i3 for eight years on behalf of 20 families; it will finally go to trial in January. (In previous legal action, various families sued Pan Am, which went out of busi- ness a few years after the bombing.) "Justice requires accountability," Gerson declared in an interview. "The families of these victims can't rest until they achieve justice for their relatives, no matter how long it takes. "It's similar to what survivors of the Holocaust went through. When peo- ple die like this, it's up to the relatives to do what they can. They want some kind of closure." The U.S. and its allies imposed eco- nomic sanctions against Libya for Pan Am 103, but there was no military retaliation. Libya was forced to turn over two men for a criminal trial, which recently resulted in the conviction of Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, sentenced by a Netherlands court to life in prison. Al Amin Khalifa Fhima, a Libyan Arab Airways employee, was freed because "it was difficult to get hard evidence against him. "It was too circumstantial," said Gerson. Attorney Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard Law School professor, is preparing Megrahi's appeal. "That's Dershowitz's right; he feels the American justice system should work this way," Gerson said. Gerson can't determine exactly how many Jews were aboard Pan Am Flight 103, but the relatives of some of them have been strong activists in the result- ing legal battles. Suse Lowenstein of Long Island is a native of Germany, a sculptor and the wife of a Jew, Peter Lowenstein. Their son, Alexander, was a Syracuse `Too Close To Call' IT • d 11/2 2001 94 TOO C LOS E 10 CA L L - Jeffrey Toobin: "Law and politics have increasingly merged in our • , society. sanship,' which often winds up as one- sided surrender," says the author. His three earlier books address other high-interest news events. Toobin also wrote A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought Down a President, The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J.