# Gadhafi plans to visit St. John's



## Nfld Sapper (25 Sep 2009)

Gadhafi plans to visit St. John's
Last Updated: Thursday, September 24, 2009 | 11:05 PM NT 
CBC News  






Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is scheduled to visit St. John's next week. (Richard Drew/Associated Press)﻿ 

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi will visit Newfoundland next week, ﻿the Prime Minister's Office confirmed Thursday, but he can expect a chilly reception and a reprimand from Canada.

Gadhafi is making a one-day stopover in St. John's on his way back to Libya from New York after his visit to the United Nations General Assembly, where he gave a 90-minute speech Wednesday.

"This is not an official visit to Canada," a written statement from PMO spokesman Dimitri Soudas said.

"Prime Minister [Stephen] Harper has asked Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon to go to St. John's and meet the Libyan leader," Soudas wrote.

"Minister Cannon will voice Canada's strong disapproval over the hero's welcome organized for Abdelbasset Al Maghrahi, the man responsible for the Lockerbie terrorist bombing. It constituted an insult to all the victims who died, including Canadians."

Late Thursday afternoon, Cannon told Radio-Canada reporters that that the federal government wants to make its position on Gadhafi's visit clear.

"The incidents that took place years ago had Canadians losing their lives," he said. " In no way shape or form does this government support terrorism, and we denounce it at every opportunity and that's what we will be doing."

Newfoundland and Labrador government officials say no one from the province will welcome Gadhafi.

"We don't have any comment, and no provincial officials will be meeting with him," an official in Premier Danny Williams's office told CBC News on Thursday.

St. John's Mayor Dennis O'Keefe says he has no plans to meet with Gadhafi either, but he says Libya's leader won't be alone while he's in Newfoundland.

O'Keefe says he's heard that Gadhafi will be in the city with a delegation of 130 people.

"They are going to be dispersed around different hotels, and Col. Gadhafi would be looking for a separate site on which he wants to pitch a Bedouin tent," said O'Keefe.

Led successful coup at 27
The Libyan Embassy in Ottawa would neither confirm nor deny that Gadhafi will stop in the province, adding it will have more information later.

At 27 years old, Gadhafi led a successful coup in 1969 against King Idris I, abolished the 1951 constitution and took power along with a 12-member revolutionary command council.

In 1988, a bomb exploded aboard a Pan American 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people. The following year, Libya handed over two suspects in the Lockerbie bombing for a trial in the Netherlands by Scottish judges. Lamen Khalifa Fhimah was acquitted, while Al Maghrahi was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 2001.

Al Maghrahi, who is said to be dying, was recently released from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds and flown back to Libya.


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## CougarKing (25 Sep 2009)

Great. Will he bring his tent with him this time?   :


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## dapaterson (25 Sep 2009)

I can imagine his debrief when he gets back home:

"They made me wear a rain hat, then drink some really vile liquor, and then kiss a dead, rotting fish.  And people call _*me*_ crazy!"


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## Nfld Sapper (25 Sep 2009)

All right then our deception plans is working 

 ;D


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## FDO (25 Sep 2009)

Maybe he heard about the George St. Festival and wants to see for himself. Or maybe


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## Blackadder1916 (25 Sep 2009)

On first hearing of this story, my immediate thought was it must be some new "Newfie joke". . .  Did you hear the one about the arab who pitched a beduoin tent in St. John's . . . 

Though it is unlikely that there will be any official reception if this loon does come to town, I imagine (hope) that any "welcoming" speech would probably include something along the lines of (in traditional Newfoundland vernacular) "suck me ar*e, bye".


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## X-mo-1979 (25 Sep 2009)

Danny is buying weapons.lol
Did you see the this hour episode where "Danny "was announcing he had a nuke in under the whitebourne mary browns lmfao.


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## kratz (25 Sep 2009)

With the RCMP's history of pepper spray and taser use on foreigner's at airports, I'm not certain they are a good choice for Moammar Gadhafi's security detail.  [/end sarcasm]

from CBC.ca



> RCMP to oversee security for Gadhafi's N.L visit
> Last Updated: Friday, September 25, 2009 | 5:27 PM NT
> 
> The RCMP say they'll control security during Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's visit to St. John's, N.L., next week.
> ...



more at link


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## kkwd (25 Sep 2009)

Is  Geoff Stirling going to play host to him?


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## AndyRad (25 Sep 2009)

it seems that we  take in the best of the best. but then no offense to the neufs (we do have as many here in alberta as there) why cant he just fly direct from New York to Cairo or somewhere more welcomed.


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## Nfld Sapper (26 Sep 2009)

AndyRad said:
			
		

> it seems that we  take in the best of the best. but then no offense to the neufs (we do have as many here in alberta as there) why cant he just fly direct from New York to Cairo or somewhere more welcomed.



 :stop:

If you are going to use the term, at least spell it right.

 :clubinhand:


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## Shec (26 Sep 2009)

So I guess gadhafi's arrival means swineflu has hit Nfld. Sorry to learn that.


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## AndyRad (26 Sep 2009)

@ sapper.... My Apologies., where are my manners i believe its spelled " Newf(ie)"


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## Edward Campbell (26 Sep 2009)

And now, according to CBC News the visit if off. Maybe because John Crosbie would not let _Goofy_ Gadhafi pitch his tent on the Government House lawn.


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## kratz (26 Sep 2009)

from CTV.ca

To add to E.R. Campbell's post, my earlier post the RCMP's security duties for their distinguished guest and their history of pepper spray and tasers was a joke. It was not meant to warn Gadhafi away.  :-X


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## dapaterson (26 Sep 2009)

E.R. Campbell said:
			
		

> And now, according to CBC News the visit if off. Maybe because John Crosbie would not let _Goofy_ Gadhafi pitch his tent on the Government House lawn.



I think our friend Mo should have gone west, not east.  With past provincial politicians as Bill van der Zam and Flyin' Phil, he'd be a lone voice of reason.


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