Misrata under the terror of Gaddafi snipers

Gaddafi siege renders Ajdabia families homless

Mo Nabbous, citizen journalist & hero of the Libyan revolution: "A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle"

Will Obama let down Libya as Bush did Iraq 1991? هل يخذل أوباما ليبيا مثلما خذل بوش الأب العراق سنة ١٩٩١

Gaddafi: My fall will jeopardize Israel security القذافي: سقوط النظام في ليبيا خطر على أمن إسرائيل

Journalist Memouna Hintermann: "Gaddafi is a thug"

According to respected French journalist, Gaddafi made attempts to violate her during a 1984 interview

Alex Crawford: Witness to Gaddafi Crimes in Zawiya

Inside Gaddafi's Twisted Mind

Take whatever Moammar Gaddafi says about almost anything, pick a counter-argument and chances are you won't be far off from the truth. Perhaps the most bizarre claim by the Libyan dictator is that he actually does not exercise any power in Libya. To any neutral observer, this would resonate as a clear contradiction to reality that can only speak for itself. Then there is his claim that he does not care to follow international media. This can hardly be believed from a megalomaniac who actually thrives on media attention and who is described in US cables published by Wikileaks as "an avid consumer of TV and print media". What Gaddafi seems to be arguing here is that these media reporting atrocities committed by his regime, should simply not be listened to. Gaddafi is also well aware of the damaging news circulated by international media on his shady bank accounts abroad. In one of his recent ramblings, he indirectly dispelled these allegations by reminding his listeners that his official monthly salary is a mere $350. If this was ever the case, he would obviously not even afford his flamboyant robes and bizarre costumes not to mention the large sums he and his sons afford to throw away around them here and there. Throughout his rule, Gaddafi has been raising false slogans, at times calling for Arab unity and at other times calling for African unity. All along, he has been consistently undermining his own slogans, nourishing tribalism inside Libya and stirring trouble within the Arab World, the African continent and beyond.

In his recent series of self-styled speeches, Gaddafi also kept blaming the current unrest on drugged kids, elements from Al-Qaida and criminals escaping from prisons. His reference to drugs and to Al-Qaida is of course meant to undermine and discredit the genuine popular revolution against his long heavy-handed rule. At the same time, he was sending a message to the West that they should still see in him a potentially reliable anti-terrorist ally, As for escaping criminals, who could make better use of that than the dictator himself? Here was a classical trick used before him by ex-dictators Ben Ali in Tunisia and Mubarak in Egypt to discredit popular revolts there. It would thus be a no brainer that Gaddafi would himself rush to use such tactics and he apparently ordered that during the early days of the unrest.

Another aspect of Gaddafi's twisted mind is his attitude towards women. His legendary use of female Amazonian bodyguards and a “voluptuous” Ukranian nurse is by now common knowledge. So is his hosting of young Italian models during a 2009 visit to Italy and later the special trips he arranged for them to Libya. According to the Sunday Times, the dictator's name is romantically linked in a court case with the queen mother of a traditional Ugandan kingdom, whom he visited many times. In 2007, during a visit to France by Gaddafi, he was publicly denounced as a “racaille” or thug by a respected French journalist, Memouna Hintermann, who bravely revealed her personal story on how Gaddafi had attempted to rape her during an interview setup in his military barracks during his war in Tchad.

Gaddafi is also known to suffer from a large dose of paranoia. Last week, rebuking Libyans for having taken to the streets against him, he declared himself as "a synonym for glory". This came as he was unleashing his heavily armed thugs and mercenaries to massacre his own people and to finish off what ever remains of a country he worked hard to destroy for over four long decades. To add insult to injury, Gaddafi appears to rejoice in his image of a vicious dictator. When he was orchestrating televised public hangings of political activists in the seventies and eighties, he referred to them as "street cats". Later, as he targeted political opponents in exile, he called them "stray dogs". Today, as freedom fighters rise to challenge his rule, he is now referring to them as rats. By all accounts, behind this vicious facade, there are signs of a trembling and much worried dictator who sees his end near and is using excess terror to hide his fear and cowardliness. As the popular uprising intensifies and more of his cronies and supporters leave his sinking ship, time seems to be running out for Gaddafi and the Libyan people may soon be the ones cornering a fleeing rat.

Gaddafi's son caged by Al-Jazeera

Gaddafi, A Pathetic Liar

As Gaddafi addressed his seemingly fake and bored audience to celebrate his day of “People’s Authority”, there seemed to be little to celebrate. In less than two weeks of confrontations with mostly unarmed civilians, Gaddafi's regime has already lost control of more than three quarters of his empire. A quick scan of headlines carried by his official mouthpiece paper today, could only find cables of support for the “Brother Leader” from the likes of Lesotho, the infamous Equatorial Guinea and the” Malian People’s movement”, alias “Mercenaries”. Another headline cites the forming of a new committee for the “Rescue of Benghazi”, an implicit acknowledgement that the regime has now lost control of this second most important city. As winds of change are sweeping the Libyan shores and inner desert, Gaddafi finds himself holed up in Tripoli, one of his last few bastions and is doing his best to put on an “all is fine” face, stay afloat and salvage what he could.

To those who have followed the dictator closely over the years, it does not come as a surprise to hear him deny facts and distort others about current unrest in Libya. He is well known to be a master of deception and a pathetic liar. To discredit the spontaneous and successful revolt against his brutal regime, he accused it of being part of a conspiracy by Al-Qaeda. In a bid to cling to power and appeal to some in the West, he has been playing this scare card over and over, but hardly anybody is buying. Quoting National Public Radio sources, the battle for Benghazi for example was won by town citizens and unlikely heroes. Fathi Terbil was a lawyer championing the case of 1200 political prisoners massacred by Gaddafi in 1996. His arrest by authorities sparked recent events in Benghazi. Abdul Abdely was a military pilot who was ordered by the Libyan dictator to bomb rebel targets in the East, while a gun was held on his head by a co-pilot. He took a personal risk and parachuted instead, aborting the mission. Mahdi Ziu was an oil company manager and a father of two. His wife reported that during recent confrontations with the military, he often came home with his clothes smeared in blood from carrying the dying and wounded comrades. On Feb. 20, he loaded his KIA with propane cylinders and rammed it into the fortified gate of the local military base, paving the way for the liberation of the city. Gaddafi is also an accomplished liar. Despite the fact that he has been an absolute ruler for over forty years, he continues to deny that and claims that he is just a normal everyday citizen. On the lighter side, he is also known to invent silly facts, such as his claim that Shakespeare was originally an Arab by the name of "Sheikh Zubair" who had emigrated to England.

It was in 1977, when Gaddafi first sold his genie idea of a “People Authority” and a “Jamahiriya” system to Libyans, claiming he was no longer president. He declared that “People in Libya would from now on be their own masters, rule themselves by themselves and live in perpetual Paradise”. However, it did not take long for Libyans to realize that this was a big lie. In his bid to monopolize power, Gaddafi abolished the constitution, orchestrated campaigns of publicly televised hangings and systematically banned all forms of political expression. He then went on to dismantle all elements of good government, promoting corruption and intentionally destroying vital services such as education and health. To discourage potential revolt, Gaddafi worked hard on weakening and eventually disbanding most of the regular army. Instead, for his own security, he depended on informants, revolutionary committees, special forces and bands of paramilitary mercenaries. Practically each of his sons has an army of his own. Every town has been kept in check by one or more of Gaddafi’s well-equipped battalions, known as “Katibas”. Meanwhile, being notoriously megalomaniac and paranoid by nature, he embarked on a bizarre personality cult campaign, plundering the country’s oil money and bestowing on himself titles ranging from “Brother Leader” to “King of Kings”. Thanks to instant communication, eccentricities of the Libyan dictator have now become common knowledge and a source of jokes not only in Libya but around the world.

Gaddafi Hit "Zenga Zenga"