Poof

Muhammad Zouhair Al-Siddiq, one of the key witnesses in the Hariri assassination case, has apparently disappeared, notes Bernard Kouchner. Siddiq was apparently under house arrest in Paris. I suppose that the French prison system generally cajoles its inmates into staying with croissants and tea.

That said, the Siddiq disappearance points to a larger danger facing the Hariri investigation: there is no indication that the UN detectives are any closer at building a case against the assassins than they were two years ago. The utter blandness of the Bellemare report was not disappointing because it failed to give the March 14 forces some sort of confidence boost, but because sooner or later this information will find its way into a courtroom and will have to convince an nonpartisan panel of judges. Now, they have also lost a key witness. So it goes.