‘Truth drug’ fails to get Libbi talking
Daily Times Monitor
LAHORE: Intelligence officials who have been questioning Abu Faraj al-Libbi, the senior Al Qaeda suspect arrested last week, cast doubt over claims by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz that the interrogation process was “proceeding well.”
The officials said al-Libbi, believed to be Al Qaeda’s number three, has defied efforts to make him reveal valuable information about its senior hierarchy, despite coming under “physical pressure” to do so.
Over a dozen Al Qaeda targets were also arrested last week thanks to information stored on al-Libbi’s satellite telephone. However, both American and Pakistani intelligence officials’ hopes to get the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawihiri were dashed.
One senior intelligence official said, “So far he has not told us anything solid that could lead to the high-value targets. It is too early to judge whether he is a hard nut to crack or simply that he doesn’t know more than he has told us.”
Al-Libbi had been beaten and injected with the so-called “truth drug”, sodium pentothal, said the official. “They have tried all possible methods, from the third degree to injecting him with a truth serum but it is hard to break him,” he said. The officials hope that al-Libbi (28) will tell them about Al Qaeda’s forthcoming attacks, funding and sophisticated coded communications network.
Pakistan has ruled out his immediate extradition to the United States and denies that American agents are present at his questioning.
However a government minister said that British intelligence officials may be allowed to join the interrogation. “This would be done once we exhaust him completely and are satisfied that he is not preparing to commit a terror act in our country,” the minister said.
The Pakistanis believe that al-Libbi was behind President Pervez Musharraf and PM Aziz’s assassination attempts. He is also believed to have been in charge of running Al Qaeda “sleeper cells” in America and Britain. Three UK-based militants are believed to have travelled from London to Pakistan for talks with al-Libbi about future attacks in Britain.
He was on the run for more than three years before he was captured in the North West Frontier Province after trying to flee security forces on a motorbike. His choice of hideouts had become increasingly limited. He suffers from the skin condition vitiligo, which results in the loss of skin colour and which can become chronic in hot weather.
Although al-Libbi preferred to hide in big cities such as Karachi, where he could live in relative anonymity, the heat and humidity forced him to return to the tribal areas where a large number of security forces are present. |
