Finally the days appear to be numbered for one of the most successful and polished PR machines in Africa.

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has ruled with an iron fist for 42 years backed by one of the most sophisticated communications set ups of any dictator. At one time or another he's been the spiritual head of the African 'nation', leader of the the Arab brotherhood and champion of the Palestinian cause.

He is Lazarus of the desert surviving more assassination attempts than Fidel Castro and transforming his image from the one time 'Mad Dog of Libya' a lynchpin of the so called axis of evil, into a shining light of rehabilitation since giving up his weapons of mass destruction and joining the fight against Islamist extremists. Coughing up a few million in compensation for admitting responsibility for the 1986 Lockerbie bombing finally bringing him back into the international fold.

But the rise and fall and rise again of the the Colonel is on a downward spirall and this time there will be no turn around of his image which is now beyond reprieve.

As his regime crumbles around him one of the biggest PR cons of his reign has emerged

At the time he held up his own adopted daughter, Hana, as an innocent victim of the US bombing of Libya in 1984. The angelic image of the dead child was beamed around the world as evidence of American imperialist aggression. It would appear during the current chaos news has emerged that she is still very much alive.

But his flair for the outrageous fabrication of the truth has not diminished over the years. As the grip of the rebels tightened around the capital Tripoli, he would appear to have passed on his talent for disregardful manipulation of the truth to his son and heir apparent Saif. He appeared on television minutes after it had been reported by the International Court of Justice that he'd been captured proclaiming that victory would soon be theirs.

But for all his outlandish uniforms, proclamations of invincibility and predictions of a final victory over his enemies the emperors clothes have finally been cast.

Even his most die hard supporters are finally accepting that his hollow words mean little when staring down the barrel of a gun.