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In "company town" of Tripoli, loyalty to Qaddafi

Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi Getty

There is a cruel sameness to the people who came to us as we went from neighborhood to neighborhood in Tripoli. Without exception, everyone we encountered toed the company line: "Allah, Qaddafi, Libya." The camera elicited horn honks and shouts from car windows.

"Qaddafi! Qaddafi!" they'd chant.

Tripoli is a company town. And the company is Qaddafi and sons. You are either with the company plan or -- at enormous risk -- you are against it.

It's hard to find a dissenter as you walk down the street. "Qaddafi is our father" is a common refrain. The rumors of the demise of the cult of personality are greatly exaggerated. Qaddafi looms large here -- big enough that masses of people are more than willing to publicly demonstrate their loyalty to the old revolutionary. They have their reasons.

Compared to the rest of Africa, and even other parts of the Middle East, Libyans have it pretty good. Everyone has a home and a car. Want to get married? The colonel has promised 20-year, interest-free loans. Because the violence has spiked inflation, every family has been promised another 500 dinars a month. That's worth a couple of hundred dollars. Qaddafi may seem crazy but he is no fool. Money still talks.

Harry Smith on reporting from Libya

But people in restive neighborhoods have been disappearing off the streets of Tripoli. The fear factor is very high. After Friday prayers at the big mosque near Green Square, we spoke with worshippers who were doing their best to slip away from an angry pro-Qaddafi mob that had formed to make sure there would not be another protest.

"We're scared," one said. "Tell the truth," said another. The looks on their faces told me everything. Lingering too long with a reporter could mean a visit from the authorities. Qaddafi's mob ran up the steps of the mosque. Just as a large group was emerging from the sanctuary chanting "Hooreyah. Hooreyah. Freedom. Freedom," the mob shoved and kicked them back inside. The doors slammed shut. Mission accomplished.

While in Tripoli we had a number of conversations with ranking regime supporters. It was as if they were stuck in a bad movie. The energy and fervor with which they spoke about Qaddafi was out of sync with the times. Think old Soviet Union or old Cuba. On a government junket to inspect the supposed millions of doses of hallucinogens that according to Qaddafi were "smuggled into the country to corrupt Libya's youth" we found they were nothing more than pain pills manufactured in India.

I saw one of our government contacts later and said, "You know this is BS." He said, "Ok, I grant you the pills are an exaggeration. But, the rest of what I'm telling you is true." Got it.

What is impossible to judge is how deep Qaddafi's support in Tripoli truly is.

On the surface, it is impressive. But should a crack form in the veneer one wonders if it would soon become a crater, swallowing up the regime and all who cling to it.

Harry Smith is a CBS News senior correspondent. He also serves as a substitute anchor and correspondent for the "CBS Evening News," "CBS News Face The Nation" and "CBS News Sunday Morning." He has won numerous awards, including several Emmys and an Edward R. Murrow award.

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