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It is a rule of thumb in any Middle Eastern country that the more pictures of the leader you see, the less political freedom there is.

In Tripoli, Colonel Gaddafi is everywhere. He stares down from every traffic roundabout and every official building.

Ever flamboyant, sometimes he is in colourful African robes, sometimes in Bedouin head-dress (and usually with his own idiosyncratic interpretation of these styles). Occasionally he sports the large mirrored sun-glasses favoured by comic-strip dictators and 1970s porn stars.