The Case of the Missing Cleric

Published February 23, 2011 5:54pm ET



Press TV, Iran’s state-owned English-language news network, is reporting that amid all the turmoil now unfolding in Libya the famous Lebanese cleric and founder of the Amal movement, Moussa Sadr, may be alive.

Sadr, the Iranian-born scion of one of Shia Islam’s most famous families (he’s the subject of Fouad Ajami’s classic The Vanished Imam: Musa Al Sadr and the Shia of Lebanon, one of his cousins is Moqtada Sadr, leader of Iraq’s Mahdi army), went missing in Libya in 1978 under mysterious circumstances. The working assumption, however, is that Qaddafi had him killed.

Trusted reporting.Unlimited access.

Subscribe for full access to Washington Examiner coverage, expert political analysis, and subscriber-only journalism.

Get Unlimited Access

Already a member? Log in

Cancel anytime.