Qaddafi asks for a tent full of women

STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP/Getty Images

[Please read editor’s note at the end.] 

Libyan leader Muammar el-Qaddafi, who’s currently visiting France, has erected a heated, Bedouin-style tent in which to receive visitors due to his claustrophobia. And it’s not just government officials he seeks to meet. On his way to France he said:

I want my tent to be erected near Elysee Palace. I want to meet 200 attractive French women there.

His tent has ended up in the garden of Baron Gustave de Rothschild’s former mansion. No word on whether any beauties have showed up.

[NOTE: An astute Passport reader alerted us that the aforementioned quote attributed to Qaddafi may actually come from the French satirical newspaper Le Canard Enchaîné because an International Herald Tribune article attributes a similar statement to Le Canard Enchaîné. The Turkish newspaper Sabah, upon which this blog post was based, attributes the quote to a news program on France’s Canal Plus TV channel. Passport attempted to contact Le Canard Enchaîné to verify the veracity of the quote, but the newspaper has not responded to us.]

[NOTE 2 (Dec. 18, 2007): Qaddafi is reported to travel with a posse of 200 female bodyguards called the Amazonian Guard, a few of whose members can be seen in this photo. Thus, Qaddafi may have been requesting 200 bodyguards, not beauties.]