Sep 25, 2009 3:45 pm US/Eastern
Qaddafi Tent Taken Down, Again, At NY Trump Estate
BEDFORD, N.Y. (CBS) ―
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Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi.
STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images
Moammar Gadhafi's Bedouin-style tent, which brought a camel-themed tapestry and four days of consternation to a leafy New York suburb, was last seen Friday being bundled into a U-Haul.
But a new tent was pitched for the Libyan leader at his next destination, in South America.
The New York tent had been dismantled as ordered by the Town of Bedford, but since the Libyan leader's attendants had disregarded a previous order, they may have taken it down simply because Gadhafi didn't need it anymore. The public relations firm representing Gadhafi said he and most of his delegation would be leaving the country Friday.
"That would be welcome news," said Bedford Town Supervisor Lee Roberts.
The Libyan, long unwelcome in the United States, is expected by Saturday at a meeting of African and South American leaders on Margarita Island in Venezuela. President Hugo Chavez said Thursday that Gadhafi was more than welcome to pitch his tent there, and by Friday one had been erected near the pool of a resort hotel.
Gadhafi has shown a penchant for conducting state business in tents, having pitched them in Moscow, Paris and Rome, among other destinations. But for his trip this week to the United Nations General Assembly meeting, he tried and failed to make camp in Manhattan's Central Park and in Englewood, N.J.
When his tent was spotted Tuesday in the terraced courtyard of a stone manor house on property owned by Donald Trump, it didn't go over well, and not just because it didn't fit in with the architecture.
Gadhafi has been vilified as a friend of terrorists, and for the effusive welcome-home reception he gave Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the Libyan convicted of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Al-Megrahi was recently freed from prison in Scotland because he's dying of prostate cancer.
Trump hinted he'd been tricked into renting his land, politicians declared Gadhafi unwelcome and Bedford issued a stop-work order, saying the tent violated various zoning and housing codes.
The white cloth tent, which was lined with a tapestry featuring camels and palms, came down the next day, just after the town threatened Trump with a lawsuit. But it was up again Thursday to the astonishment of town attorney Joel Sachs, who brought two police officers with him to the scene, served criminal summonses on various parties and said he'd get a state court injunction if the tent wasn't down by Friday.
It was down. A building inspector reported to Sachs that workers were packing it into a U-Haul truck before noon.
Sachs said that meant he wouldn't need an injunction, but the criminal summonses stand. They are answerable next week in Town Court and could result in fines of $1,000 a day, he said.
Khalifa Khalifa, a Libyan official, stood in front of the tent Thursday night and insisted it was legal. He said it was meant to honor the Libyan leader, although Gadhafi apparently never made it to Bedford.
"The tent is a symbol for the country and the president. It goes up everywhere they go," he said.
Long unpopular in America, the Libyan leader is now particularly unwelcome after he gave an effusive welcome-home reception for Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the Libyan convicted of the bombing Pan Am Flight 103. Al-Megrahi was recently freed from prison because he's dying of prostate cancer.
For Trump, questions persisted.
Did he know he might be handing over the use of his lush, 213-acre Seven Springs estate to Gadhafi? Or was the mogul unwittingly renting some upscale digs on his suburban lawn 33 miles north of the United Nations?
Neither explanation would fly on Trump's former hit reality show "The Apprentice," said Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, an author who helped kill plans for Qaddafi to set up a tent on the grounds of a Libyan compound next door to Boteach's home in Englewood, N.J.
Trump "would say `You're a loser, and you're fired," Boteach said.
Trump returned a reporter's call Wednesday but refused to answer questions on the record.
In a statement about the dismantling of the tent, he did not name "the tenant." On Tuesday, the Trump Organization hinted he had been hornswoggled when he agreed to rent his prime acreage.
"We have business partners and associates all over the world," it said. "The property was leased on a short-term basis to Middle Eastern partners, who may or may not have a relationship to Mr. Qaddafi. We are looking into the matter."
Rhona Graff, a Trump vice president, said Wednesday she had nothing to add about the deal.
"It's a very sensitive, very delicate matter," she said. "I want to make sure I'm 100 percent correct before I get anything to you."
She did not immediately respond to e-mailed questions about what Trump knew and how he felt about a Qaddafi tent on his land.
Qaddafi, who stayed at the city's Libyan Mission after arriving Tuesday, addressed the General Assembly on Wednesday, castigating the Security Council by saying, "It should not be called the Security Council, it should be called the 'terror council."'
Calls to the mission were unreturned or went unanswered Wednesday.
Demonstrators were kept well away. Among them was Boteach, an author and frequent TV commentator.
"It's very disheartening to hear that Donald Trump has seemingly opened his doors to Qaddafi," he said.
"To me, he's a terrorist," said Bedford resident Cheryl McDermott, who knew two victims on Pan Am Flight 103, destroyed by a Libyan bomber over Lockerbie, Scotland. The bomber was sent home to a hero's welcome last summer, renewing anger against Qaddafi.
"He's not wanted, we don't want him here, I think he needs to go back," she said.
(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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