Former CIA officer John Kiriakou claimed that the United States “essentially purchased” former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf through millions in aid, with Musharraf handing control of the country’s nuclear arsenal to the Pentagon.
‘Pentagon controlled the Pakistani nuclear arsenal’
In an interview with ANI, he claimed, “When I was stationed in Pakistan in 2002, I was told unofficially that the Pentagon controlled the Pakistani nuclear arsenal, that Musharraf had turned control over to the United States because he was afraid of exactly what you just described [This was nuclear weapons going into the hands of terrorists].”
He added that Pakistan has always denied this. “The Pakistanis have said that it is not true. The United States has nothing to do with the Pakistani nuclear arsenal; that Pakistani generals are the ones who control it,” he went on to say.
‘We essentially just purchased Musharraf’
He also made a bold claim that the United States “essentially purchased” the former Pakistan President, as it is easy to “work with dictators”.
“Our relations with the Pakistani government were very, very good. It was General Pervez Musharraf at the time,” he told ANI, before adding, “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.”
Kiriakou stressed, “And so we essentially just purchased Musharraf.”
He added that the US gave Pakistan “millions and millions of dollars” in aid, and that he would let Washington do whatever it wanted.
“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. Yes. But Musharraf also had his own people that he needed to deal with,” Kiriakou further claimed.
On Pakistan’s ‘dual life’
He also said that Pakistan pretended to counter terrorism while committing terror against India. “He had to keep the military happy. And the military didn’t care about al-Qaeda. They cared about India,” he said.
The ex-CIA officer went on to claim, “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 counter-terrorism while committing terror against India.”
(With inputs from ANI interview)