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.
