According to transcripts released by the US Court of Appeals, Abdallah Higazy confessed to a crime he did not commit because the FBI threatened his family with torture in Egypt. According to Andrew Sullivan, âthe Court tried to keep this part of the judgment classified, yanking it from the official site after mistakenly posting it – but not till the interrogation details were exposed. Higazy’s false confession – that he was using a radio transmitter in his hotel room to converse with terrorists in airplanes – was rendered moot by the owner of the transmitter, an airline pilot who had also stayed in the room, subsequently claiming it from the hotel as his own. But that didn’t stop the threat of torture. And that didn’t stop the conviction.â (Atlantic, âThe Daily Dishâ)
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=179526