Daijiworld Media Network – New Delhi

New Delhi, Oct 25: Former CIA officer John Kiriakou has stated that Pakistan would lose any conventional war with India, recalling that the US intelligence community anticipated a potential conflict between the two nuclear-armed nations after the 2001 Parliament attacks.

Speaking to news agency ANI, Kiriakou, who served in the CIA for 15 years and led counterterrorism operations in Pakistan, said Islamabad needs to understand that it stands to gain “nothing, literally nothing” from a war with India. “I’m not talking about nuclear weapons. I’m talking just about a conventional war. There is no benefit to constantly provoking Indians,” he added.

He cited India’s decisive responses over the years, including surgical strikes in 2016, Balakot strikes in 2019, and Operation Sindoor after the Pahalgam attack in April this year, which killed 26 civilians. New Delhi has also consistently warned Pakistan against using nuclear blackmail.

Kiriakou recalled that in 2002, amid tensions during Operation Parakram, the US anticipated escalation to war and began evacuating its civilians from Islamabad. He claimed that during his posting, he was unofficially informed that the Pentagon controlled Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, with former President Pervez Musharraf having handed control over to the US.

On Pakistan’s nuclear program, Kiriakou revealed that the US could have targeted Abdul Qadeer Khan, the architect of Pakistan’s atomic bomb, but refrained at the request of Saudi Arabia. “If we had taken the Israeli approach, we would have just killed him. But the Saudis came to us and said, ‘Please leave him alone. We like AQ Khan. We’re working with AQ Khan. Just leave him alone,’” he recounted.

Kiriakou, who became a whistleblower in 2007 exposing the CIA’s torture programme, served 23 months in jail. Charges against him were later dropped, and he stated he has “no regrets, no remorse.”