Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi wants to pitch his tent at a Libyan-owned estate in Englewood, NJ. But the residents want nothing to do with the man who gave a hero’s welcome to the Lockerbie bomber.
Plans to set up a tent and allow him to stay at a Libyan-owned estate in the upscale community of Englewood, New Jersey, located 12 miles north of Manhattan, were attacked Monday by neighborhood residents and public officials, particularly after the hero’s welcome Libya extended last week to the lone man convicted in the 1988 bombing of Pan American Flight 103.
Why is Gadhafi coming to America? To address the UN next month. Last year Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, this year the Gadhafi—who’s next? Idi Amin is dead, but I’m sure that they could find someone equally as evil.
Even Shmuley Boteach doesn’t want him there.
Shmuley Boteach, an orthodox Jewish rabbi, family counselor and star of the mainstream television series “Shalom in the Home,” lives next door to the Libyan estate.
He was initially supportive of the idea of Gadhafi coming to the US, but that changed after the release of al-Megrahi.
“I don’t want him as a neighbor,” said Boteach. “The events of the past few days have changed everything. Gadhafi has shown his true colors.”
The fight has been joined by Senator Frank Lautenberg. But I’m going to make a prediction: The State Department is going to allow the dictator in NJ, even though when the estate was bought, then-mayor (and now Congressman) Steve Rothman fought having the dictator stay there.
Rothman was mayor of Englewood 26 years ago when the city learned the Libyan Mission to the United Nations had purchased the Palisade Avenue estate. He said local officials worked out a deal with the US State Department limiting its use to the recreational activities by the ambassador and his family. Gadhafi was expressly forbidden to live there, he said.
Adding insult to injury, the Libyans pay no property taxes to the town, either. So if the dictator does stay, Englewood will be paying for the extra police that will be needed to protect him.
Soon after the purchase, Libya sought to be exempt from local property taxes, prompting a long court battle with the city. A federal appeals court in Philadelphia ruled in favor of Libya in 1985. Englewood officials estimate that the estate would have generated more than $1 million in property taxes by now.
I can’t believe I’ve found yet another reason to loathe the UN. I didn’t know that their ambassadors could purchase property in the U.S. and not pay taxes. It’s just us citizen schlubs who have to do things like that.
I’ve got a simple slogan for the people of Englewood: Libyan, go home.
What if Englewood just didn’t assign the extra police to protect him? Make the Libyans leave or pay for private security.
It was Libyan security men who a couple of decades ago opened fire with automatic weapons from the embassy in London, killing a British policewoman on duty outside. Whatever the tax situation it would be best not to depend on such people for security there.
Perhaps the Mayor should tell the Libyans that he cannot guarantee Moammar’s safety there in view of the justifiable outrage among American citizens over Libyan terrorism and arrogance, and that he will not allow Libyan security due to its known penchant for recklessly shooting with automatic weapons. Thus he’ll have to pitch his tent elsewhere.
He can probably find a nice place to pitch the tent on George Soros’ estate on Long Island. Sir Mark Malloch Brown is no longer renting one of Soros’ houses there, I believe, so there should be room enough.
Senator Lautenberg should contact the Englewood mayor and use “Kelo†eminent domain authority to transfer Kaddafi’s property to the Victims of Pan Am 103 memorial committee.
Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005) was a case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States involving the use of eminent domain to transfer land from one private owner to another to further economic development. The case arose from the condemnation by New London, Connecticut, of privately owned real property so that it could be used as part of a comprehensive redevelopment plan. The Court held in a 5–4 decision that the general benefits a community enjoyed from economic growth qualified such redevelopment plans as a permissible “public use†under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment.
That should tie up Kaddafi’s plans for a New Jersey tent party.