Allan Gerson
Allan Gerson (June 19, 1945 - December 1, 2019) was an American attorney, based in Washington DC, with a practice focused on international law, and government accountability. He was known for bringing Libya's Muammar Qaddafi to compensate the families of the victims of the bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which was the largest terror attack against the United States prior to 9/11.[1] Together with attorney Mark Zaid he helped pass the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act [2] to change the laws of sovereign immunity and enable suits against foreign sovereignties who participated in financing or planning terrorist activity..[1] He led families of 9/11 victims "to file suit against various ''interests'' associated with the government of Saudi Arabia, alleging that they helped finance Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network".[3]
Born in a refugee camp in Uzbekistan in 1945 after WWII, Mr. Gerson, a child of Holocaust survivors,[4] immigrated illegally to the United States under a false identity. He later came to identify himself as a "dreamer."[5] In addition to being a private practice lawyer, he was an author, a professor at George Mason University, a prosecutor of Nazi war criminals in the OSI of the United States Department of Justice[4] and deputy assistant attorney general under President Ronald Reagan. He also was a photographer, with work collected at the International Photography Hall of Fame Museum in St. Louis.[6]
His books include "The Price of Terror: The History-Making Struggle for Justice After Pan Am 103" (2001, co-authored by Jerry Adler),[7] "Privatizing Peace: From Conflict to Security" (2002, co-authored by Nat J. Colletta), "The Kirkpatrick Mission: Diplomacy Without Apology, America at the United Nations 1981-1985" (1991), "Israel, The West Bank and International Law" (1978), and his memoir, published post-humously, "Lies That Matter: A federal prosecutor and child of Holocaust survivors, tasked with stripping US citizenship from aged Nazi collaborators, finds himself caught in the middle" (2021) [8].
References
[edit]- ^ a b Hagerty, James R. (2019-12-04). "Allan Gerson Made Libya Pay for Pan Am 103 Bombing". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2024-12-23.
- ^ Chang, Ailsa (2019-12-03). "Allan Gerson, Attorney Who Helped Victims Of International Terrorism, Dies At 74". NPR. Retrieved 2024-12-24.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Shenon, Philip (2002-08-15). "Sept. 11 Families to Sue Saudi-Linked 'Interests'". The New York Times. Retrieved 2024-12-24.
- ^ a b Seelye, Katharine Q. (2019-12-04). "Allan Gerson, Who Sought Justice for Terror Victims, Dies at 74 (Published 2019)". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2024-08-09. Retrieved 2024-12-23.
- ^ Gerson, Allan (2017-09-22). "I was brought here illegally in 1950. I'm lucky I wasn't deported". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2024-12-23.
- ^ Smith, Harrison (2019-12-02). "Allan Gerson, lawyer who sought justice for Lockerbie bombing victims, dies at 74". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2024-12-23.
- ^ Bernstein, Richard (2001-12-28). "A Road Map to Coping With Disaster, Legally". The New York Times. Retrieved 2024-12-24.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Green, Martin (2021). "Lies That Matter: A Federal Prosecutor and Child of Holocaust Survivors, Tasked with Stripping US Citizenship from Aged Nazi Collaborators, Finds Himself Caught in the Middle | Jewish Book Council". www.jewishbookcouncil.org. Retrieved 2024-12-23.
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