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Libyan foreign minister Musa Kusa: a rat jumps ship

Libya’s foreign minister, Musa Kusa, has defected. I suggested this might be in the works in a story last week:

“Persuading Gadhafi’s most trusted loyalists to move against him requires high-placed contacts inside Gadhafi’s regime. The United States may have one in Libya’s foreign minister, Musa Kusa.

“Kusa is known among Libyan exiles as the ‘envoy of death’ because of his role in the assassination of Libyan dissidents abroad during the more than 20 years he served as intelligence chief. He has been linked by the CIA to the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, and to the bombing of UTA flight 772 over Niger the following year.

“But Kusa, who was educated in the U.S., co-operated closely with the CIA in its efforts to track down Islamist terrorists after the 9/11 attacks. His meetings with American and British intelligence operatives began the re conciliation process between Gadhafi and the West in 2003, when Gadhafi agreed to end Libya’s nuclear weapons program. Kusa also told the CIA about Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan’s nuclear smuggling network.

“British Foreign Minister William Hague has spoken with Kusa at least twice since February. And it is notable that, despite all the blood on his hands, Kusa is not among regime officials targeted by UN sanctions.”

 

 

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