Panel discussion on lessons of the Pan Am 103 tragedy to be held Oct. 23

Panel discussion on lessons of the Pan Am 103 tragedy to be held Oct. 23October 20, 2008Kelly Homan Rodoskikahoman@syr.edu

The collective efforts of those affected by the bombing of Pan Am 103 on Dec. 21, 1988, drastically changed the way the United States handles victim compensation. The lessons learned in tort litigation, foreign relations, government regulation and media coverage are all part of the legacy of the Lockerbie tragedy.

In a discussion, “Pan Am 103: Lessons Since Lockerbie,” a distinguished panel of guests will walk the audience through those lessons. The panel discussion will be held on Thursday, Oct. 23, at 4 p.m. in Maxwell Auditorium; it is free and open to the public with parking available in the SU pay lots. The discussion will be moderated by William Banks, professor of law and director of the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism (INSCT), and is part of Syracuse University’s commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the tragedy.

The panelists will include: James Kreindler, a member of the Plaintiffs’ Committee in the Pan Am 103 families’ suit against Libya; Jonathan Dienst, an Emmy-award winning reporter who covers justice and law enforcement issues for News 4 New York on subjects like terrorism, white-collar cases and political corruption; Mark Zaid, an attorney who specializes in litigation and lobbying matters relating to national security, federal employment, foreign sovereign and diplomatic immunity, international torts and crimes, international transactions, the Constitution, and the Freedom of Information/Privacy Act; Steve Perles, an attorney whose practice has included Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act litigation involving claims against or in defense of foreign governments before U.S. federal courts and administrative agencies; and Robert Monetti, former president of the Victims of Pan Am Flight 103 Inc. and VPAF103 representative to the FAA Aviation Security Advisory Committee. Monetti’s son, Richard, then a 20- year-old SU student, was one of the 270 victims of the Pan Am Flight 103 Lockerbie disaster.

The panel is sponsored by the Syracuse University Pan Am 103 20th Anniversary Commemoration Committee, the Institute for the Study of the Judiciary, Politics and the Media, INSCT, Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs, the Campbell Public Affairs Institute and the Student Association on Terrorism and Security Analysis (SATSA). For more information on the panel discussion, call Kelly Rodoski at 443-3784.