[There was a video here]

Confronted with rumors that he'd fled Libya for Venezuela, embattled and increasingly violent Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi released a short, 40-second video to Libyan state television, in which he denounces the reporting of the "dogs in the media" while sitting inside a van outside his home, and holding an umbrella. It appears to be his CalArts senior thesis project?

Qaddafi long ago mastered the '70s Dylan/"coked beyond belief in weird hats" look, but (besides the umbrellas) it's the shaky camerawork, authentically grainy film stock, and the long, meditative take of Qaddafi's palace that really makes this one special. Here's his full statement, translated by CNN, line breaks added by us:

I want to have
some rest, because
I was talking to the young
man at Green Square, and

I want to stay
the night with them but
then it started raining.

I want to show
them that
I am in Tripoli, not
in Venezuela. Don't believe

those dogs in
the media.

[video via CNN]