ABSTRACT
By February 6, 1989, frustration and anger of American relatives over the lack of response from the State Department and the administrations of President Ronald Reagan and newly inaugurated George Bush had reached crisis proportions. The families were particularly incensed by the December 5, 1988, warning to the US embassy in Helsinki, which had been shared with the diplomatic community in Moscow but not with those who boarded Pan Am 103. About 100 relatives gathered at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City ready to face media summoned on their behalf by the National Victims Center. An organizational meeting for relatives was scheduled for Sunday, February 19, at a Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, restaurant called the Crow's Nest. Before the meeting, about 15 or 20 gathered at the home of Wendy Giebler, whose husband William had been killed in the bombing just nine months after their wedding.
