Stuart H. Newberger

This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

This book is a fascinating look at attempts to get justice for victims of terrorist attacks. The author of this book is a lawyer who took on the case of the destruction of UTA flight 772, on behalf of the families of victims and of the owner of the airplane. The book discussed other cases as well, and the author showed how previous terrorism cases and settlements impacted his own case. If you are at all interested in international law and its impact on politics, the situation in the Middle East, or the handling of international terrorism, this book will be well worth your time.… (más)

Published by British publishing hourse "One World Publications" that has collections such as "Makers of the Muslim world" and "Radical Histories of the Middle East", Stuart H. Newberger's book has good companionship for his North African and international narrative that combines legal, judicial and criminal intrigue. This publisher has exciting titles: from "Beshir Agha, Chief Eunuch of the Ottoman Imperial Harem" by Jane Hathaway to "Nasser Hero of the Arab Nation" by Joel Gordon.
Thinking of Nasser, one of the central figures around which this book is composed is Colonel Gaddafi who like Nasser was a middle-rank officer whom 17 years after Nasser had deposed his Monarch.

Of Gaddafi himself and what brought him on the international scene, little is said. Though this revolutionary leader's subsequent deeds are an easy target for Karl Marx comments on Hegel in his "Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon": Marx said "Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. " Gaddafi's trajectory mirrors at first that of Nasser when assuming all powers in 1969, he carefully cultivates his image of a modern, yet pious young leader who did not clash, like his illustrious mentor, with the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood equivalent.

His path ends abruptly in August 2011, as the Author recalls in his book's epilogue called "Memorial" when Gaddafi fled in an armed convoy that was headed for the vast interior desert "where he had retreated on many occasions for security and comfort. But the desert could not longer protect him from the wrath of his own people or the accuracy of NATO military jets. With his convoy caught in an attack from the air, the man who had addressed the United Nations in triumph and taken on the world's powers was forced to hide in the drainage pipe of a construction site as his last remaining bodyguards attempted in vain to fend off rebel fighters. Overpowered and then captured, the rebels began to beat and stab Gaddafi without mercy"

Septimus Severus, Emperor of Rome, himself born in Leptis Magna, Libya, could have said of Colonel Gaddafi: "Arx tarpeia Capitoli proxima."

Though this Libyan history is threaded throughout the book, the author, a Washington-based international Attorney, summarizes for the reader his and that of his clients' 18-year struggle to obtain a U.S. judgement attributing direct responsibility to the Libyan State for the bombing of flight UTA 772 on Sept. 19, 1989. He describes the flight from N'Djamena Chad to Paris, France in great details rendered all the more precise by the fact that this Author had access to the investigative files of the French Judge who instructed the proceedings. This narrative is captivating as it takes the reader from the medieval meanders of the French Court of Law, to the subdued corridors of Foggy Bottom's Office of the Legal Advisor and to corporate offices in Taiwan and Hamburg Germany, that manufactured and sold to Libya the "temporizing devices" used to activate the explosives that destroyed the aircraft while it flew over the Tenere Desert.

Without giving the plot's ending to leave to the reader the care of the discovery of this book's own surprising conclusion, we can reveal that it provides a personal account of Mr. Newberger's role in these tragic events that would enhance any study in diplomacy, negotiations and lawyering. It also calls the reader to decide if multiple overlapping judicial institutions can effectively deal with State sponsored terrorism. Do the United Nations through its International Court of Justice in The Hague, or national justice systems such as the French or USA court systems provide efficient and timely ways with which to administer justice once the guilty parties are found and responsibility is proven?

The Author has his own opinions about the functioning of these often interlapping/underlapping administrations. He also describes very well how financial, diplomatic or political spheres weigh in to provide last minute Realpolik compromises.
He argues that these compromises made in the name of the State's economic, or sovereign interests are at time frustrating and profoundly unsatisfactory for the victims of terrorism. Even if a talented lawyer and a determined Federal Judge succeed in overcoming the obstacles of Sovereign immunity.

Whether they were concocted by the "pliant Chirac", President of France, or under the exonerating President G.W. Bush, these Gentlemen's Agreements that had aimed to have at the same time and Gaddafi and libya reintegrate the Community of Nations, may leave a sense of an unfinished process.
The reader will have many more questions after reading this book. What about terrorism victims of non-State actors. Think Islamic State which unlike Libya is not recognized by the international community. What will be left for them? To sue Facebook or Twitter? The later companies were later exonerated by the Courts. Though there is no doubt that IS, unlike Gadaffi, claims responsibility for its terrorist acts.

This book would have benefited from an index and more context on the history of Libya even though the reader understands it is more biographical than a political sciences or legal analysis.
The Author can be proud of a Federal judgment that attributed liability to the victims of "The Forgotten Flight:" including on behalf of the owner of the aircraft leasing company that operated the UTA flight to the Libyan State.

However, if petrol and other natural resources are pointed to as catalysts for the Realpolitik compromises that made payment to victims possible, instead of protracted litigation, one may wonder after reading Stuart H. Newberger's work what kind of behind the scene dealings were necessary for Italy's Prime Minister Berlusconi to sign in 2008, a 5 billion dollars payout to the Gadaffi regime.
This compromise was purportedly made to compensate Libyans for colonial era damages.
This deal was at that time celebrated by the media announcing that Gaddafi was proud that $200 million per year would be invested by Italy in Libya over 25 years.

This was not to be.

Compromises they were and compromised were the leaders of the West who rehabilitated Gadaffi in the Community of world leaders, allowing him to plant his bullet-proof tent in the gardens of their Presidential palaces regardless of the way he was then treating his political opponents.… (más)

A book is out there from Stuart H Newberger, who’s an international lawyer who represented victims of the terrorist plot hatched by Colonel Gaddafi that brought down French Airlines Flight 772. His book The Forgotten Flight: Terrorism, Diplomacy and the Pursuit of Justice tells the riveting story of how he fought for justice for seven of the 170 people killed in one of the deadliest acts of terrorism in history. This real-life legal battle asks how we can bring leaders of sovereign nations to account for their crimes.
Stuart Newberger details how French investigators slowly and methodically developed and cracked the case. It takes us inside the courtroom to witness the arduous process of suing the country of Libyan. In this age of world conductivity and globalization, The Forgotten Flight provides a fascinating look into the pursuit of justice when it is across international borders. This legal thriller is a very detailed account of one part of the war on terror and how lawyers skilled in this part of the international legal arena can and will make the difference. If you say you’re interested in how to bring down terrorists other than bombing them then tracing the clues of the money, people and weapons used are here in this book. The rule of law must prevail in domestic and international terrorism and our struggle is to find and maintain that legal balance.… (más)

The author does his best to recount the history of a legal challenge to wrest justice in an almost forgotten case of international terrorism—the 1989 destruction of a French airliner over Africa with an explosive device carried aboard by a Libyan agent. Newberger, the lead attorney, like Sisyphus, is doomed to roll the merits of the case near the summit of justice only to see it roll back when a legal victory is trumped by diplomacy trumped, in turn, by economic interest in Libyan oil resources. The feeling of frustration on the part of the legal team, the families of the victims and those suffering only economic loss is palpable.
Except for lawyers, the history of a legal case, however epic in scope and artfully told, is apt to be yawn inducing but Newberger injects sufficient detail of interest to the general reader to overcome courtroom stuffiness. He draws parallels of his case with the better known Lockerbie terrorist downing of an aircraft bound for the US, also an act of a Libyan agent, as well as details of the French forensic investigation that uncovered the Libyan connection. Describing the ambience of a Parisian café and the musty clutter of the French investigator’s office is a little over the top however.… (más)