Libyan officials posed as Dutch diplomats to try to find Colonel Gaddafi a place to stay this week on his first visit to the US.
The envoys, including one calling himself Ronald, approached a property agent on the Upper East Side of New York to inquire about renting the Barclay Mansion, a six-storey townhouse on East 78th Street.
Jason Haber, who has a master’s degree from Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, realised the ruse and the deal did not go through.
“When someone says they are representing the Dutch, you accept that at face value,” Mr Haber told The Times. “After a few conversations, the accents did not match. When the e-mails started it became quite clear. The e-mails had a Libyan Embassy address.”
Colonel Gaddafi, the world’s longest-serving leader, was due to arrive in New York last night for his first visit to the annual UN General Assembly.
After 11 years of UN sanctions, Libya now holds a seat on the 15-nation Security Council and the presidency of the 192-nation General Assembly. Colonel Gaddafi is also the head of the African Union.
His rehabilitation on the international scene has been dented by Britain’s release of the Lockerbie bomber, Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi. The outcry with which the release was met in America has made it difficult for Colonel Gaddafi to find a place to stay.
The Libyan leader originally asked to pitch his customary Beduin tent in Central Park but was turned down by city authorities. He then considered staying at a Libyan-owned mansion in the New Jersey suburb of Englewood, prompting a local uprising that forced him to abandon the plan.
Libyan officials tried unsuccessfully to find a hotel with a garden near the UN so that he could pitch camp. Colonel Gaddafi then made arrangements to stay at the Pierre Hotel but was reportedly disinvited when guests complained.
Mr Haber said that the "Dutch" diplomats approached him over the Labor Day holiday weekend this month about his listing at East 78th Street. They wanted to rent the entire townhouse for four or five days, without saying who would be staying.
The property, which comprises three apartments, is owned by a family who bought it last year for $18.5 million. The triplex on the first three floors was available for $28,000 a month. “All the conversations were very abrupt. They were very rude. Everything was, ‘Right away! Right now!’,” Mr Haber said. “They would say things like, ‘Call this person. Do it now. Tell them you can do whatever he wants’. They wanted things like the whole building staged with furniture.”
Mr Haber said that he never presented the proposal to the owners because the Libyans wanted all three apartments, which were not available.
The agent said: “Any goodwill Gaddafi got post-9/11 in the United States was thrown out the window when Megrahi was released from the Scottish prison.”
Colonel Gaddafi is now having to stay at the Libyan diplomatic mission in East 48th Street, which is usually an office. It does not have a sizeable garden.
Source:Times online
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