How to encourage the others

Lord Malloch Brown has inverted Voltaire’s maxim on the execution of Admiral Byng: treat Moussa Koussa well to encourage the others. Most of this morning’s papers expect further defections from the Gaddafi regime ‘within days’. These defections are expected to come from Gaddafi’s civil administration; the Colonel’s military and security arms remain fiercely loyal. The Foreign Office refuses to give a ‘running commentary’ on events, but the confidence of its officials is ill-disguised.

It is increasingly apparent that Tripoli is spiralling into desperation and that the fetid regime is fracturing. The Guardian reports that an aide of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, Mohammad Ismail, has been in London. Details are scarce but rumours suggest that he was tabling terms for a possible ceasefire before establishing an interim government of national unity, or, more prosaically, seeking terms to save the Gaddafi family. 

In the meantime, the British government must make do with Moussa Koussa. Scottish legal authorities are pushing for access to Koussa, who reputedly has ‘electrifying’ information about the Lockerbie bombing.