Former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) John Kiriakou has dropped a bombshell and claimed that the United States (US) once controlled the nuclear arsenal of Pakistan. Kiriakou, who worked with the CIA for 15 years, said the US even provided millions of aid to Pakistan in order to "purchase" the cooperation of former President Pervez Musharraf.
"When I was stationed in Pakistan in 2002, I was told unofficially that the Pentagon controlled the Pakistani nuclear arsenal because Musharraf was afraid of what could happen. But in recent years, Pakistanis have denied this. If Pakistani generals are in control, I would be very worried about who is in charge politically," he told news agency ANI in an interview.
'US loves working with dictators'
In his interview, Kiriakou said Musharraf allowed the US to do "whatever" it wanted to do. He also criticised the US policy of "selective morality in foreign" issues, pointing out that Washington "loves to work with dictators".
"Let's be honest here. The United States loves working with dictators. Because then you don't have to worry about public opinion and you don't have to worry about the media anymore. And so we essentially just purchased Musharraf. We gave millions and millions and millions of dollars in aid, whether it was military aid or economic development aid," he said.
'Saudis wanted us to leave AQ Khan alone'
During the interview with ANI, Kiriakou also discussed the nuclear proliferation and the Saudi interference in the Abdul Qadeer Khan episode. He said Saudi Arabia had told the US back then to "leave AQ Khan alone", adding that the US policy for Riyadh is simple - "we buy their oil and they buy our weapons".
Further talking about Riyadh's relationship with Islamabad, Kiriakou said nearly the "entire Saudi military is Pakistanis". He said it is the Pakistanis who "protect Saudi Arabia on the ground".
"If we had taken the Israeli approach, we would have just killed him. He was easy enough to find. But he had the support of the Saudi government. The Saudis came to us and said, please leave him alone," he said.
