Mohamed ElBaradei: “If he [Mubarak] wants to save his skin, he better leave.”

Robert Fisk meets with ElBaradei in Cairo and writes in The Independent:

ElBaradei is surprisingly mild when he speaks of Mubarak the man. He last saw him two years ago. “I would go to see him when I returned from a UN mission or a holiday. I always received a friendly reception. It was a very cordial relationship. It was one-to-one, just us, and there was no formality. I would tell him what I thought of this or that problem, what might be done. He doesn't really have advisers who have the guts to tell him the truth.”

Much good did ElBaradei's advice do. He is outraged by the arson and looting. When I ask if state security policemen were behind the arson – which is used by Mubarak, Obama and Clinton to “tag” those who demand Mubarak's departure with violence – the mouse shows its teeth. “They [the police] were, we are now hearing about documents which show that some of these uniformed officers have taken off their uniforms and gone about looting. And everybody says that they have been ordered to do this by the regime or the ministry of interior or whatever. And if this is true, then this is the most sinister of criminal acts. We have to verify this. But for sure, many of these bands of thugs and looters are from part of the secret police.”

And then suddenly, in that high voice, eyes glittering behind pebbling spectacles, the mouse becomes a tiger. “When a regime withdraws the police entirely from the streets of Cairo, when thugs are part of the secret police, trying to give the impression that without Mubarak the country will go into chaos, this is a criminal act. Somebody has to be accountable. And now, as you can hear in the streets, people are not saying Mubarak should go, they are now saying he should be put on trial. If he wants to save his skin, he better leave.”

More here.