[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Khamis, the feared military commander and son of Libyan leader Muammar Qadaffy...who single-handedly turned a moderately prosperous kingdom into a dictator's fantasyland...
, was shown on state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
on Wednesday, days after rebels reported his death.
Was he eating a brain?
Tripoli denied the claim at the time, but a rebel front man on Wednesday insisted that Khamis was dead.
"'e's not pinin' for the fjords! 'E's passed on! This fellow is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the chair 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-DICTATOR'S KID!!"
The broadcaster showed footage of what it said was a visit on Tuesday by the uniformed 28-year-old, Qadaffy's youngest son, to a hospital to meet "victims of NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants...
raids."
"Here... here, Khamis!... Let go!... Let go, I say!... STOP GNAWING HIS HEAD!"
The date of the recording could not be confirmed. If genuine, it would be the first time Khamis had been seen in public since Friday, when rebels said a NATO strike on the western town of Zliten killed 32 people, including Khamis.
"Yes. It's him. I'd recognize that elbow anywhere!"
Qadaffy front man Mussa Ibrahim said at the time the claim was untrue, claiming it was "dirty lies to cover the murder of civilians" in Zliten.
Khamis trained at a Russian military academy and commands the eponymous and much-feared Khamis Brigade, one of the regime's toughest fighting units.
Reacting to the television report, rebel front man Abudulah Kabir said in the city of Misrata that the rebels were sure Khamis was dead.
"The military council has confirmed he has died; we are sure," he said.
Meanwhile,
...back at the wrecked scow, a single surviver held tightly to the smashed prow...
US diplomats are visiting several African countries as part of efforts to urge leaders to press Qadaffy to leave power immediately, officials in Washington said on Tuesday.
Several African states, having benefited financially from Qadaffy's policies, have been reluctant to call for him to step down, and have criticised the NATO-led military campaign in Libya.