The Victims of Terrorism: An Assessment of Their Influence and ...

22 The Victims of TerrorismVPAF 103’s image as the more conciliatory group, actively seeking to persuade the governmentto drop the sanctions.Lessons Learned: 9/11 and the Advent of a New Era for Victims’ GroupsOn the eve of the first anniversary of the Pan Am 103 bombing, an article in USA Todayfeaturing VPAF 103 stated, “[T]he families’ close ties and perseverance are unusual, if notunprecedented, among victims groups” (Hall and Sharn, 1989). A tragedy had brought a groupof strangers together under unusual circumstances and forced them to unite in their searchfor answers and accountability. Despite the divisiveness and often bitter recrimination thatcame to mar the cooperative spirit upon which the families once embarked, the impact of thisfirst major terrorism victims’ group was palpable more than a decade later. “PA 103,” anotherUSA Today article published in 2003 observed, “transformed ordinary Americans into tenaciousadvocates and charted new territory in international law and diplomacy. It brought aboutimprovements in airline security, helped sensitize a callous U.S. government and created thefirst institutions to deal with terrorism victims” (Slavin, 2003).Pan Am 103 also provided a template, which inspired some 9/11 families to take actionand form groups as had been done in the past, but with greater effectiveness. The four JerseyGirls cited Bob Monetti as one of their initial sources of inspiration. Monetti, whose son diedon board Pan Am 103, met the women at a local bereavement group shortly after the 9/11attacks. He stressed to the widows the importance of taking immediate action and not losinganother minute. “You’re not getting any answers,” he reportedly told them. “It’s time for a[major] rally” (Jacobs, 2002). Heeding Monetti’s advice, the women began to mobilize a broadband of supporters and feel their way around official Washington, successfully learning its insand outs and how to achieve the greatest impact and influence possible. Beverly Eckert alsoviews Monetti, “who early on raised the issue as to why there was no commission investigating9/11, as being an instigator for 9/11 families to push for a commission” (Eckert, 2006).Taking inspiration from the Pan Am groups and their leaders, the 9/11 victims’ groupsreached a level of influence, stature, and authority that was unprecedented. There are a numberof reasons for their greater success. The most obvious one is that 10 times more people lost theirlives on 9/11 than on board Pan Am 103, leaving behind far more victims to form groups. Thehorrific death toll thus worked in the victims’ favor and, although the government postponedboth the formation of an independent commission and, later, the adoption of its recommendations,the large number of victims eventually made it impossible to avoid taking action orignore the widows and widowers, children, and parents of the deceased.Another factor in the greater success of the 9/11 victims’ groups is that information technologyin 2001 was so much more advanced than it was in the late 1980s. Some of the Pan Amgroups were formed before the widespread public use of the Internet. Others might have takenadvantage of the new technology but were either reluctant or unable to exploit its potential.Failing to create Web sites as the technology became more readily available, these groups lostthe opportunity to build more effective means of communication both internally and in termsof effective outreach. Only VPAF 103 has any kind of Internet presence, and this is an unso-