Articles
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, July 2009, page 67
Bulletin Board
Upcoming Events, Awards & Obituaries
Compiled by Matt Horton
Upcoming Events
The 46th Annual Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) Convention will be held July 3 to 6 at the Washington, DC Convention Center, 801 Mount Vernon Pl. NW, Washington, DC 20001. For more information, or to register, call (317) 839-8157 or visit <www.isna.net>.
The Siraj Center for Holy Land Studies Palestinian Summer Celebration 2009 will be held July 14 to Aug. 16 in Bethlehem, Palestine. The program provides an opportunity to “learn Arabic and study Palestinian history at Bethlehem University, spend time with local families and volunteer with a community organization.” For more information, or to register, call +972-2-274-8590 or visit <www.sirajcenter.org>.
Pax Christi USA’s National Catholic Conference on Peacemaking, entitled “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution,” will be held July 16 to 19 at the Wyndham O’Hare Hotel in Chicago, IL. For more information, or to register, contact Staci Striegel at (814) 453-4955 ext. 228 or visit <http://www.paxchristiusa.org/NationalConference2009.asp>.
The Sabeel International Young Adult Conference will be held July 22 to Aug. 2 in Palestine. For more information, or to register, call +972-2-532-7136 or visit <www.sabeel.org>.
Awards
Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, has been awarded the fifth annual Miss Hall’s School Woman of Distinction Award. The award, established by a grant to Miss Hall’s School of Pittsfield, MA in memory of Dr. Ruth Ratner Miller, was presented to Esfandiari at New York University’s Helen and Martin Kimmel Center for University Life.
Obituaries
Naji Jaber, 64, died March 30 after a long battle with cancer. Born in the historic Syrian city of Shahba, he became an actor in the 1960s and rose to prominence as part of a comedic duo alongside Duraid Lahham. Lahham played Ghawwar and Jaber played Abu Antar in dozens of films, plays and television programs. Jaber’s older brother, Mahmoud, also a prominent Syrian actor, died of cancer in July 2008.
Cherif Ali Guellal, 76, died of leukemia April 7 at an Algiers hospital. He was born in Constantine, Algeria to Ali, a medical doctor, and Fatima, a leader in the resistance to French colonialism who, like many of his other family members, had been imprisoned and tortured by the colonial regime. After graduating from the University of Aix-en-Provence, France in 1956, Guellal joined the Algerian provisional government in exile and built international support for the revolution from India and Egypt. When Algeria won its independence in 1962, he briefly served as a top lieutenant to Algeria’s first president, Ahmed Ben Bella, before his appointment in 1963 as post-colonial Algeria’s first ambassador to the United States. Guellal remained ambassador after a 1965 coup led by military leader Houari Boumedienne deposed President Ben Bella. When Algeria cut ties with Washington after the 1967 Six-Day War, Guellal continued to serve as an unofficial diplomat. He also represented Sonatrach, Algeria’s state-owned energy company, during the 1970s oil crisis, and consulted for businesses seeking to deepen their ties to the Arab world. During his years in Washington, when he was a popular guest at social and diplomatic events, Guellal was involved with Yolande Betbeze Fox, the rebellious and dynamic Alabama-born Miss America of 1951 and widow of a film executive. Though they never married, Guellal and Fox lived as common-law spouses and Guellal helped to raise Fox’s daughter, Dolly. Both survive him, as do three brothers and a granddaughter.
Kevin J. Barry, 66, died of colon cancer April 24 at his home in Chantilly, VA. Born in New York, he graduated from the Cathedral College of the Immaculate Conception in Brooklyn and briefly studied to become a priest before joining the Coast Guard in 1966, serving as an operation officer and navigator on several cutters. After receiving his J.D. from the College of William and Mary’s school of law in 1975, Barry eventually was promoted to chief trial judge and appellate judge for the Coast Guard Court of Criminal Appeals, then chief of legislation at the Coast Guard’s Washington, DC headquarters. The recipient of many awards, including the Judge Advocates Association Lifetime Achievement Award (2004) and the Bar Association of the District of Columbia's Lawyer of the Year Award (2007), Barry gained attention in 2002 when he spoke out against the government’s use of military commissions, which he viewed as a potentially unjust means to try terror suspects. He instead favored the use of court-procedures, the provision of independent appellate review and other safeguards for fairness.
William “Bill” B. Moffitt, 60, died at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, DC April 24 after suffering a stroke. Born in the Bronx, New York, he graduated from the prestigious Brooklyn Technical High School in 1967 and received his B.A. from the University of Oklahoma in 1971. In 1975 he earned his J.D. from American University’s Washington College of Law, passing the bar exam three months prior to his graduation. Over his 34-year career, Moffitt practiced criminal, civil and constitutional law. He defended former United Way president William Aramony against embezzlement charges and successfully negotiated a life sentence plea for Terry Williams, who had been on Virginia’s death row longer than any inmate in the state’s history. Following 9/11, Moffitt was the lead defense attorney in two of the government’s PATRIOT Act test cases, one of which was U.S. v. Dr. Sami Al-Arian. Along with Linda Moreno, Moffitt achieved an acquittal on most of the charges against Dr. Al-Arian and the defense team was able to negotiate a plea agreement protecting Dr. Al-Arian from further prosecution. Unfortunately, due to zealous prosecution by Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg of the Eastern District of Virginia, Moffitt did not live to see his client and friend once again become a free man. In U.S. v. Dr. Abdelhaleem Ashqar, Moffitt earned an acquittal of Dr. Ashqar of a RICO conspiracy charge. At the time of his death he was a partner of Moffitt & Brodnax in Alexandria, VA, and active in numerous professional organizations. Committed to training other lawyers, he gave dozens of Continuing Legal Education (CLE) lectures and conference presentations across the U.S. and Canada. Moffitt was regularly featured in the media as a criminal justice expert, and wrote a monthly editorial column in The Champion magazine. He testified before the U.N. Human Rights Commission on Race and the American Criminal Justice System, and before the Senate Judiciary Committee during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings. Prolific in the courtroom, Moffitt was named one of Washington’s Top Lawyers by Washingtonian magazine, and one of America’s “Top Black Lawyers” by Black Enterprise magazine. He is survived by his wife, Edna Lee; daughter, Pilar; mother, Victorine L. Moffitt; sister, Michelle Simon; brother, Wilford Adkins; niece, Kelly Adams; and nephews, Kristopher and Keir Simon.
