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N.J. residents tell Gadhafi he's not welcome

ENGLEWOOD, N.J. - More than 200 people gathered yesterday to show Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi that he's not welcome in their North Jersey community, including several who lost relatives in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

ENGLEWOOD, N.J. - More than 200 people gathered yesterday to show Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi that he's not welcome in their North Jersey community, including several who lost relatives in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

Gov. Corzine was among those at the event in Englewood, where the Libyan government has been renovating a five-acre estate ahead of Gadhafi's first U.S. visit, scheduled for next month. Gadhafi had been expected to pitch a ceremonial Bedouin-style tent on the grounds, but his representatives announced Friday that he would stay in Manhattan, where he will address the United Nations General Assembly, after rumors of his visit to New Jersey sparked an uproar last week.

"This is a community that's still in pain," Corzine said. "To not have him here is a victory."

Corzine called the Pan Am bombing, widely believed to be the work of Libyan intelligence, a precursor to 9/11. New Jersey and New York suffered heavily in both attacks. The Pan Am attack claimed 259 lives on the plane and 11 on the ground, and the 97 residents of New York and New Jersey killed represented more than half of the 189 Americans on the plane.

Gadhafi celebrates his 40th year as ruler of the oil-rich North African kingdom today.

Kara Weipz of Mount Laurel said relatives of the people whom Lockerbie bomber Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi killed were less enthusiastic about forgiving Libya's past sins than their governments were. Her 20-year-old brother, Richard Monetti, was aboard Pan Am Flight 103. Weipz wants the U.S. State Department to issue Gadhafi a restricted visa.

"He should not be welcomed to the U.S for anything but U.N. business," Weipz said. "I don't think he should be able to go sightseeing in New York, visit New Jersey, anything."

Nicole DiCocco, spokeswoman for the Libyan embassy in Washington, declined to comment yesterday.

U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman, and Englewood Mayor Michael Wildes also spoke at the rally.

"This man is directly tied to one of the most heinous acts of terror ever committed against citizens of the United States," Lautenberg said. "There was no way New Jersey would stand down."

In London yesterday, Justice Secretary Jack Straw denied a news report that the British government allowed the Lockerbie bomber to be covered by a prisoner-transfer agreement with Libya because a major oil deal was being negotiated.

Straw called the Sunday Times report "simply untrue."

Gadhafi's visit to the United Nations is expected to be the culmination of a yearlong effort to repair his international image, which has included denouncing terrorism. That effort was undermined last week when the Libyans secured the release of Megrahi from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds because he's dying of cancer. A cheering crowd at the Tripoli airport greeted Megrahi, who was accompanied by Gadhafi's son Saif al-Islam Gadhafi.

The younger Gadhafi disputed suggestions it was a hero's welcome in an article in the New York Times, offering his sympathies to the families of the Lockerbie victims.