Where’s Moussa Koussa, Flying Rodent asks. Here, apparently, is Moussa Koussa…

Libya’s former foreign minister Moussa Koussa has obtained a Jordanian passport and is planning to move to Amman from Qatar, Arabic daily al-Arab al-Youm reports.

Koussa, showing he had little faith in the Gaddafi regime’s survival, fled Libya soon after the conflict between the rebel forces and the former Libyan government broke out and came to the UK in March.

While not much has been known about his whereabouts, he had recently been located in Qatar, where he reportedly spent a few months.

This man, whose hands are doubtless stained with the blood of Libyans, was met as if he was the second coming of Rudolf Hess. Commentators wrote that he was the alleged “mastermind” of the Lockerbie bombing, and demanded his arrest. Then, suddenly, he was allowed to leave, and despite the complaints of families of the people he’d been said to have killed he’s been enjoying freedom ever since. As people wonder if the rebels’ killing of Gaddafi is indicative of their approach to justice, it’s worth noting that Koussa’s release seems emblematic of the Western powers’ relationship with the same. And with the truth.

As for Libya, well – I find the killing of Gaddafi repugnant but it needn’t be a sign of what’s to come. (The Italians butchered Il Duce and they’ve done okay.) I’ll also grant, again, that my pessimism with regards to the effectiveness of the NATO-backed rebels’ military strength was terribly presumptuous and, perhaps, suggestive of an irrational cynicism. But I’m not sure that it was. Until the rebels pass the stage of lynch mobs and neurotic vigilantism its hard to feel optimistic about the institution of the rule of law. And while its new establishment pays tribute to Sharia law and denigrates secularism it’s hard to optimistic about that legislation. (Naturally, I hope that, er – hopes are fulfilled.) But I’m sceptical. That is, after all, why they’re hopes. A lot of societies have deposed their tyrants. Fewer have succeeded in establishing something much better.

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