The lead FBI investigator in the Lockerbie bombing will speak in the Life Sciences Building on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
The speech from Richard A. Marquise will deal mostly with the forensic science that went into the Lockerbie investigation. Marquise may also touch on other issues, such as the recent controversy over the release of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, said Michael Sponsler, a Syracuse University chemistry professor who arranged the lecture.
Marquise, a former FBI special agent, led the Pan Am 103 Task Force for the entire investigation, work that won him an U.S. attorney general's commendation. On Dec. 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 259 onboard and 11 people on the ground. Thirty-five SU students traveling home from a semester aboard died in the attack.
In 2006, Marquise wrote a book about his time as the investigator of the Lockerbie bombings called "Scotborn: Evidence and the Lockerbie Investigation." Marquise now works as a consultant for the Institute for Intergovernmental Research, a criminal justice think tank based in Tallahassee, Fla.
Marquise will also speak in a private seminar Friday called "International Terrorism: Threat in the U.S. and Proactive Measures," according to SU's Humanities Center website.
Sponsler invited Marquise to SU to speak last year. When Marquise agreed, Sponsler suggested he speak as part of the Syracuse Symposium, Sponsler said.
The symposium is a fall semester showcase of speakers, performances and exhibits. Each year the symposium revolves around a central theme. This year, the theme is "Conflict: Peace and War." In previous years, the themes have been ideas such as "Light" and "Migration." The Humanities Center at SU is running the symposium for its third year.
Because of the Lockerbie bombing's place in SU's history, some students view Marquise's talk as an opportunity for them to gain more knowledge about an event that deeply affected the campus community.
"It's a huge part of our culture here with Remembrance Week, and I think it would be good for more people to learn about it," said, Emmery Brakke, a sophomore in the Bandier Program for Music and the Entertainment Industries.
Victoria Wolk, a sophomore magazine journalism major, said she feels even though the bombing plays a large role in SU history, few students know enough about it, and Thursday's event allows students to hear about the tragedy from an expert's perspective.
"A lot of students, especially those who are involved in Remembrance Week, should want to hear what he has to say," Wolk said.
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In January, it will be fifty years since that great American statesman, Dwight D Eisenhower, addressed the American nation in his farewell address; a speech which has transpired to be uncannily prophetic in its vision.
In it, he soberly cautioned, ” In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”
A couple of years later John F Kennedy, addressing university students and the wider nation said, on the subject of peace, “And that is the most important topic on earth: peace. What kind of peace do I mean and what kind of a peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, and the kind that enables men and nations to grow, and to hope, and build a better life for their children -- not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women, not merely peace in our time but peace in all time.”
It may be pertinent to ask in 2010, is our government, including the military-industrial complex, serving our people to the best of their ability to attain that peace, which still eludes us, or serving their own misplaced needs, as warned by those giants of the last century.
What happened at Lockerbie, in a growing number of peoples' minds, is not the clean-cut version of events as recorded and defended by others to a fault – some think the service of misplaced needs took place. There is more to be known.
John F Kennedy also said in that address, “University is a place where those who hate ignorance may strive to know, where those who perceive truth may strive to make others see.”
The baton for truth, however ugly that truth may turn out to be, is passing to a younger generation.