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• n  someone who claims to speak the truth
  a bold asserter

• Except in this case, the asserter was Colonel Muammar Gaddafi himself.
• The converse case of an appeal to authority is an ad hominem attack: to imply that a claim is false because the asserter lacks authority or is otherwise objectionable in some way.

• declarer
• affirmer
• asseverator
• avower