• Source:JND
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A fresh political storm has erupted after former CIA officer John Kiriakou publicly alleged that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) attempted to pressure him into apologising for remarks he made about India’s conventional military advantage over Pakistan. Kiriakou said he dismissed the demand in an email that he admitted was intentionally crude, adding that he never heard back from the party.

Kiriakou, who spent nearly 15 years with the CIA, including a critical assignment in Pakistan as chief of counterterrorism operations after 9/11, had earlier said during the four-day India–Pakistan mini-war that India would win decisively in a conventional conflict. Earlier while speaking to ANI, he stated that “nothing good will come of an actual war because the Pakistanis will lose… I’m not talking about nuclear weapons, just conventional capability.”

Ex-CIA Officer Received Death Threats

His comments, widely circulated online, triggered significant backlash from Pakistani users. According to him, the scale of threats escalated quickly. He said he “lost count” of the number of death threats he received after the interview, which he maintains was strictly an analytical assessment based on manpower and military capacity.

The situation intensified when Kiriakou received a letter from PTI President Chaudhry Parvez Elahi, who has been leading the party since March 2023. The letter “condemned” his remarks “in the strongest possible terms” and demanded an immediate apology addressed to former Prime Minister Imran Khan, the party leadership and the people of Pakistan.

‘I Wipe My A** With Your Demands’: Kiriakou’s Email Response

During a podcast conversation with Julian Dorey, Kiriakou described how he reacted after receiving the letter. He said his lawyer recommended ignoring the message and discarding it quietly. Instead, he replied with a short email that he acknowledged was intentionally abrasive.“My lawyer said, ‘Just throw it away.’ I didn’t. I sent an email saying, ‘In regard to your demand for an apology, I wipe my a* with your demands,’”* he said. The former CIA officer added that PTI never replied after receiving his message.

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Earlier while depicting India's prowess, Kiriakou told ANI that India’s military responses over the past decade, from the 2016 surgical strikes to the 2019 Balakot operation show a country that is no longer willing to allow provocations to go unanswered. He argued that Pakistan’s approach of “constant provocation” is increasingly risky, as India’s threshold has lowered in recent years.

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He emphasised that his view was logical rather than political, noting India’s larger population, larger standing army and significantly higher defence capacity.Kiriakou has written extensively on intelligence operations in South Asia and West Asia. His disclosures in the podcast have renewed online debate in both countries, with supporters praising his blunt assessment and critics accusing him of unnecessary provocation

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