MENENDEZ JOINS CALL FOR STATE DEPARTMENT TO KEEP GADHAFI OUT OF N.J.

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) is urging the State Department to help keep Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi out of New Jersey when he visits the United Nations General Assembly meeting in September. In a letter to Secretary of State Clinton, Menendez requested that Gadhafi be issued a visa that restricts him to the U. N. Headquarters District in New York City.

Gadhafi recently helped arrange for the release of the man convicted in the bombing Pan Am Flight 103 and helped give him a hero's welcome in Libya. The Libyan government owns a mansion in Englewood where it has been speculated that Gadhafi would stay.

PDF of letter to Clinton: http://menendez.senate.gov/pdf/08252009SecClintonltrreGadhafivisittoUN.pdf

Text of letter:

August 25, 2009

The Honorable Hillary Clinton

Secretary of State

U.S. Department of State

Washington, DC 20520

Dear Madam Secretary:

I write to you regarding Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's visit to the United Nations (U.N.). I am extremely concerned, as are many of my constituents in New Jersey, about media reports that Moammar Gadhafi intends to set up a tent on the front lawn of a house owned by the Libyan Mission in Englewood, New Jersey when he attends the United Nations General Assembly meeting in September.

I write on behalf of these constituents who reside in New Jersey, and I strongly urge the Department of State to limit Mr. Gadhafi's visa to the United Nations Headquarters District in New York City. Given recent events and the "welcome celebrations" that were thrown for convicted terrorist Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, I believe that it is only appropriate that Mr. Gadhafi's visit to the United States be limited solely to the U.N. and only for official U.N. business.

Thank you for your consideration of this matter and I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Robert Menendez

United States Senator

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