Recent terrorist activities have spawned a multitude of tangential problems, a number of which center on delivering justice to victims.
A dozen students congregated Monday night in the lounge of the Huntsman Program Office off Locust Walk to hear a talk by Stuart Newberger, a partner in the Washington, D.C.-based international law firm of Crowell & Moring LLP. Students gathered to hear from Newberger, who has represented victims of terrorist attacks in numerous nationally prominent cases.
"I walked in and when I heard the topic, I decided to stay until I got bored," Huntsman Program sophomore Julian Lautersztain said. "I never did."
Newberger prefaced his informal talk with a caveat.
"I am going to talk not as a lawyer, but as someone who works in an area with many disciplines," he said.
He elaborated on this point, saying that in his work he is at once "a diplomat, a lawyer and a therapist."
In his speech, Newberger focused on Congress' 1996 addition of a "terrorism exception" to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. The exception holds that American citizens who are victims of state-sponsored terrorism can sue the country responsible in American courts, so long as that country is identified as a "terrorist state" by the U.S. State Department.
To illustrate the meaning of this congressional decision, Newberger told the group about a $100 million lawsuit he brought against Iran. His client, Terry Anderson -- a journalist kidnapped in 1985 by the radical terrorist group Hezbollah -- was held for more than six years in Lebanon. The Iranian government, however, was widely believed to have sponsored the terrorists.
Newberger also mentioned a lawsuit he brought against the Libyan government and its leader, Col. Moammar Ghadafi, for their part in the 1989 bombing of a French airliner that killed seven Americans.
Newberger then drew a distinction between Libya and Iran when it came to international litigation. He explained that, while Libya defends its terrorism cases with vigor, Iran usually puts up no defense. Iran, or the "Islamic Exxon" as Newberger calls it, chooses instead to focus on protecting its oil and gas interests. Newberger said that this behavior suggests that U.N. economic sanctions could still be an "effective tool in affecting how countries behave."
Newberger made the claim that these lawsuits are sending a message to terrorist states that terrorism is expensive.
"Applying the rule of law to terrorists can make a difference in the world," he said.
He also discussed the trouble with today's terrorism cases, stating that American victims of al Qaeda attacks have no government to sue. Newberger is currently petitioning Congress to allow American victims of al Qaeda attacks overseas to be beneficiaries of the 9/11 Compensation Fund.
Students were impressed and lingered long after the talk and Chinese food dinner to ask questions. "The speech showed me that the specter of international terrorism is something that concerns all of us," Huntsman Program sophomore David Kingston said.
