Former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer John Kiriakou has revealed that former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) recently sought an apology from him over his claim that New Delhi would win a conventional war against Islamabad, but he gave them a crude reply, saying he would use their letter as a toilet paper.
In a YouTube podcast with Julian Dorey that was uploaded on November 18, the whistleblower said Khan's PTI had condemned his remarks "in the strongest possible terms", demanding an apology from him to former Pakistan prime minister. Though his lawyers advised him to ignore the letter, Kiriakou said he replied to it, saying he would wipe his a** with it.
"I said, in a conventional conflict, India would beat Pakistan because it has five times the people. The death threats... I've lost count of how many death threats I received. And then the best of all—like my lawyer is like, got to keep a low profile, just be aware of your surroundings," the former CIA official told Dorey.
"I wipe my a** with your demands for an apology," Kiriakou recalled. "I hit send ... and I haven't heard back from them."
What were Kiriakou's exact remark?
In an interview with news agency ANI in October, Kiriakou had said that Pakistan will "lose any conventional war" with India. Kiriakou, who was posted in Pakistan after the 9/11 attacks, had also said that New Delhi will no longer tolerate the nuclear blackmailing by Islamabad, but pointed out that nothing good will come out of a war between the two nations.
"Nothing, literally nothing good will come of an actual war between India and Pakistan because the Pakistanis will lose. It's as simple as that. They'll lose. And I'm not talking about nuclear weapons -- I'm talking just about a conventional war. And so there is no benefit to constantly provoking Indians," Kiriakou had said.
Kiriakou had worked for the CIA for 15 years before he became a whistleblower in 2007. In his career as a CIA operative, Kiriakou had played a crucial role in al-Qaeda's Abu Zubaydah. He also spent 23 months in jail for exposing CIA's alleged 'torture programme'.
