Just say no to Gadhafi

Friday, Aug. 28, 2009 | 2:07 a.m.

New Jersey leaders, including its governor and congressional delegation, could not be more right as they voice outrage at Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s bizarre plan to set up a tent and camp out in their state next month.

We say bizarre not because we object to people keeping the traditions of their heritage alive. Gadhafi is descended from desert-dwelling Bedouins and often follows their tradition of living in tents, even on foreign trips.

His request is bizarre because just last week he staged a hero’s welcome for Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi upon the convicted terrorist’s return to Libya.

Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence official, was convicted of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie. All 259 people aboard were killed, as were 11 people on the ground.

Thirty-eight of the victims were from New Jersey.

Even Gadhafi should realize how insulting it would be to the American people for him to camp anywhere on U.S. soil.

Gadhafi is scheduled to speak next month to the United Nations General Assembly. As a head of state, protocol dictates that he can do this. But nothing says the United States must approve his plan to camp out on property in Englewood, N.J., owned by Libya’s mission to the U.N.

It was an outrage that Scotland released Megrahi, who was only eight years into his 27-year (minimum) prison sentence. Scottish officials said they did so because he had been diagnosed with incurable prostate cancer.

It would also be an outrage if Gadhafi were allowed to travel anywhere beyond a few blocks of the United Nations building. Despite his overtures to the civilized world in recent years, Gadhafi’s name remains synonymous with some of the worst terrorist acts ever committed.

Gadhafi’s original plan for his U.N. visit had been to set up his tent compound in New York City’s Central Park, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg said no. The State Department should say the same thing in regard to his New Jersey plans.