NEW DELHI: Former
CIA officer John Kiriakou has said that
Pakistan "cannot win a conventional war against India" and needs to realise that nothing good will come out of fighting with India.
In an interview with ANI, Kiriakou, who served 15 years in the CIA, including as chief of counterterrorism operations in Pakistan said, "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."
He added that Islamabad must "come to a policy conclusion" that provoking India only hurts its own interests.
India has repeatedly maintained that it will not tolerate Pakistan’s nuclear blackmail and will respond firmly to any act of terrorism. Over the years, New Delhi has demonstrated this stance through decisive military actions — from the surgical strikes on terror launchpads across the LoC in 2016, to the Balakot airstrikes in 2019, and most recently, Operation Sindoor in May this year.
'We basically purchased Musharraf'Kiriakou claimed that during his tenure, the US pumped "millions and millions of dollars" into Pakistan under then-President Pervez Musharraf, effectively "buying" his cooperation.
"Our relations with the Pakistani government were very, very good. It was General Pervez Musharraf at the time. And look, 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," he told ANI.
"We gave millions and millions and millions of dollars in aid, whether it was military aid or economic development aid. And we would meet with Musharraf regularly, several times a week. And essentially he would let us do whatever we wanted to do," he added.
According to him, Musharraf just kept the military 'happy,' and pretended to side with the US on counterterrorism while carrying out terrorist activities against India.
"He had to keep the military happy. And the military didn't care about Al-Qaeda. They cared about India. And so in order to keep the military happy and keep some of the extremists happy, he had to allow them to continue this dual life of pretending to cooperate with the Americans on counterterrorism while committing terror against India," he revealed.
'US paid millions to Pakistan’s ISI'Kiriakou alleged that Washington effectively "bought" Pakistan’s intelligence and military establishment with cash.
"The US threw millions of dollars at Pakistan under Musharraf. We paid tens of millions in cash to Pakistan’s ISI" he said, adding that corruption ran deep in the country while "leaders like
Benazir Bhutto lived lavishly abroad as common people starved."
'Pakistan committed terrorism in India — and nobody stopped it'Kiriakou said Pakistan’s support for terrorism against India was an "open secret" even during the 2001 Parliament attack and 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Reflecting on the 2008 Mumbai attacks, he said, "I don't think this is Al-Qaeda. I think this is the Pakistani-supported Kashmiri groups. That turned out to be exactly the case. The bigger story was that Pakistan was committing terrorism in India and nobody did anything about it."
'Pentagon once controlled Pakistan’s nukes'Recounting his time in Pakistan in 2002, Kiriakou said he was told unofficially that the Pentagon had control over Islamabad’s nuclear arsenal at the time. "Musharraf had turned control over to the United States. But over the last 23 years, Pakistan has insisted that’s not true — that their generals control the nukes," he said.
However, he expressed concern about who truly holds power in Pakistan today, saying that political instability and the military’s influence make the country "dangerously unpredictable."
'US-Saudi ties are transactional — oil for weapons'Kiriakou on the US-Saudi relationship bluntly said that, "Our foreign policy in Saudi Arabia really is as simple as we buy their oil and they buy our weapons. That's it." According to him, "almost the entire Saudi military is Pakistanis. It's the Pakistanis that protect Saudi Arabia on the ground."
Reflecting on global shifts, Kiriakou also noted that, "We’re sitting on an ocean of oil. We don’t need the Saudis anymore. They’re hedging their bets, improving ties with China and India. The world is transforming before our eyes."
Kiriakou, who famously blew the whistle on the CIA’s torture program in 2007, said he spent 23 months in prison but remains unapologetic. He said he has "no regrets, no remorse" and "did the right thing".
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