I’ve just returned from the center of Tripoli, Libya, after a drive around town. Like all journalists here, my team and I were driven and accompanied by government employees, but they did take us precisely where I asked to go.

What we found was normal traffic in the streets, people walking, or at cafes and restaurants. At just about every bank we saw, there were long lines of men and women waiting for the cash handouts that Col. Moammar Gadhafi had just announced.

The leader was giving each family 500 dinars, the equivalent of about $450. For most people here, that covers salary for a month or two.

As we walked up with our cameras to talk to them, many burst into pro-Gadhafi chants once they realized we were visiting journalists. They were friendly, although some complained to the government minder with us that they had been waiting in line for hours and still had not received their handouts. There were also lines at local bakeries.

We went to Green Square, the site of Gadhafi’s most recent speech atop the ramparts of the old city. That’s when he accused anti-government protestors of having taken hallucinogenic pills.

One woman we talked to at the Square today repeated that charge, and said she had been educated in America. She told us that Libyans are happy with Gadhafi as their leader, and that their country is a happy and peaceful one.

Another English-speaking man told us that while “the tension is still so thick you could cut it with a knife,” things had died down since this time last week, when, he acknowledged, the sound of gunfire could be heard in Tripoli.

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