Al Arabya is reporting that Mommar Quaddafi, whom we've always referred to here as Quaddafi Duck, murderous repressive sociopath (and winner of the "Most Bizarrely-Dressed World Leader" award for twenty years running), has been reported dead in his home town of Sirte, Libya, where he had retreated when all but a few die-hard retainers feld for the safety of the West, leaving the Duck to die in the Führerbunker -- whoops; sorry. Got my historical despots confused for a moment.
Sirte had been surrounded and pummeled by forces of the new Libyan government for weeks, finally coming down to one, single neighborhood which wouldn't surrender. Early this morning (PDST) in Sirte, The Duck and a small group of soldiers attempted to break out of the neighborhood and in the ensuing firefight Quaddafi was killed.
Someone on the scene took a short cellphone video of the crowd surrounding and dragging The Duck's body. Al-Jazeera was showing it unedited in the beginning, then began showing it with Quaddafi's body blurred until it reached a single frame (shown below) where he could be recognized.
Also, it must have been taken almost immediately after the gun battle and his death; in the video, Quaddafi's arm and hand fall back as he was being rolled over, without any apparent stiffness in finger or wrist joints: Rigor begins to set in almost immediately after death, and it begins in the extremities.
AlJazeera Shows Cell Phone Video Of Crowd Defiling The Duck, Mussolini-Style
(Screenshot: Al-Jazeera online)
The Duck is dead. And thousands of shoulder-launched missiles (things which can easily be used against, well, airliners, for god's sake) and other weapons have fallen into the hands of Nobody Knows Who. The possible blowback from Quaddafi's fall and exit is anyone's guess.
There is, however, much rejoicing in Tripoli and elsewhere in Libya, and in the Arab world, at the End Of The Duck. The Libyan people endured decades of repression and bizarre costumes -- so, for a while, no one should harsh the Buzz that comes from the collapse of a dictator and the end of a long season of fear.
MEHR: Additional videos of The Duck's final moments have surfaced.
As a former law-enforcement-related Dog, seeing anyone killed by a mob without benefit of Due Process is repugnant, no matter how much I may understand the emotions behind it. As a human being, seeing any kind of violence happen, at all, disturbs me. The videos are visceral, brief, but manifestly ugly on a very profound level.
The leader deserved a trial; the man deserved just enough cold, common politeness to get him into a jail cell. Well... Sow the Wind; Reap the Whirlwind. You can do anything in this life you want -- absolutely anything; so long as you understand this: You have to pull whatever freight comes with it.
I think The Duck (like so many of us do, with relatively less serious consequences), had convinced himself that he was somehow immune from that.
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