Home

Although Muammar al-Qaddafi will not stay in Englewood when he visits the U.S. later this month, politicians, New Jersey citizens, and family members of victims of the 1988 bombing of the Pan Am 103 "Lockerbie" bombing are still concerned about his visit.

On Aug. 30, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach held a rally in his front yard with Englewood mayor Michael Wildes to demonstrate against the Libyan leader, widely suspected of having a hand in the Lockerbie bombing and whose country is on the U.S.'s list of states that sponsor terrorism.

Scottish parliament voted to reject its government's decision to release Abdel Baset al-Megrahi Sept. 1 in light of evidence that suggests that the prisoner's release was part of an oil deal between the United Kingdom and Lybia. The bomber, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, was released from prison Aug. 20 on compassionate grounds as he is purportedly suffering from cancer, returning home to a hero's welcome that did not resonate well with the international community.

The rally attracted politicos like Gov. Jon Corzine, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), and Rep. Steve Rothman (D-N.J.), who came to express their outrage at Qaddafi's plans.

"It is not acceptable to accommodate terrorism in any form," Corzine said at the rally. "That is not morally right, [and] it is not politically right."

The ruling that Qaddafi cannot stay in Englewood stems from the 1983 Foreign Missions Act, which then-Englewood mayor Rothman originally used to keep Qaddafi from using the newly purchased property. A letter from the State Department issued under this legislation said no Libyan can stay in the house other than the Libyan ambassador to the U.N., his wife, and children; and one maintenance person, according to Rothman.

"That restriction has lasted since June 1983," Rothman said.

Rothman said that once he heard about Qaddafi's visit, he immediately called the White House, the State Department, and representatives of the Libyan government to work out a way to bar Qaddafi from using the house.

"I told them that this community would not permit the Libyan dictator, that murdering thug who has American blood on his hands, to come to Englewood today," Rothman said. "Twenty-seven years ago, when I spoke to the State Department, there was no Lockerbie bombing; it had not occurred yet. But even then I knew that Muammar Qaddafi was a murdering thug, financier of international terror."

Wildes, who said Qaddafi "can't be trusted" to stay away from Englewood, issued a stop-work order on maintenance done to the property, which he said was being done with insufficient permits and encroached on Boteach's property.

"Our city engineer, our code, our zoning enforcement, everybody is on the same page with this effort," Wildes said. "We don't know if it's being used illicitly as a safe house or otherwise. I do not trust their word. I do not trust their presence. I do not trust them at all."

An immigration lawyer, Wildes told The Jewish State that Qaddafi's visit must restrict him to the international zone surrounding the United Nations in Manhattan, where all foreign leaders are legally allowed to visit, in order to ensure that he will not come to Englewood.

"If the visa has a restriction in it and the project is stopped until they straighten out... their zoning ordinances and everything, then we are in a position to go on with our lives," Wildes said. "In the interim, though, unfortunately, we would need to put the pressure on the State Department because what we have is the Libyan president, who is not to be trusted."

Boteach expressed concerns that Libyan security surveillance could pick up on his family's business. He had already run into problems with construction workers on the Qaddafi mansion; eight trees on Boteach's property were cut down and a metal fence removed to accommodate for renovations to the house, including a tent on the grounds that Qaddafi, a Bedouin, would stay in.

"I don't want a terrorist living next door to me," Boteach said about Qaddafi, who is also suspected of financing the 1972 killing of Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich and the Palestine Liberation Organization during the intifadas in addition to the Lockerbie bombing.

Also present at the rally were Kathleen and Jack Flynn, whose son, J.P., was killed in the Lockerbie bombing. The Flynns watched the trial, either in the Netherlands or on closed-circuit TV in New York. "We watched all the evidence; yes, Mr. Megrahi was guilty," Jack said. "Many of the meetings were held in Qaddafi's offices. It was so obvious that he was behind this. This wasn't a terrorist sitting in a corner."

"I certainly think that we're in touch with our congressmen and people in the Senate, and we're trying to make them understand that this is something that really shouldn't happen -- that he should be in a small area in New York," Kathleen told The Jewish State. "I think giving the magnitude of the crime that was committed; obviously, he is not welcome in New Jersey."

Lautenberg, whose nephew canceled his seat on the flight one week before its departure and who was appointed by former President George H.W. Bush to a committee that oversaw the Pan Am 103 investigation, vowed to bring legislation to the Senate that would keep Qaddafi contained in the international zone of Manhattan.

"We don't want Qaddafi in New Jersey; we prefer he doesn't even come to this country," Lautenberg said. "He has the right, as all people in leadership, scoundrels although they may be, to be in the international zone. And beyond that, we don't want to welcome him here to add further pain and insult to the families that have already paid an extreme price."