Former CIA officer John Kiriakou has alleged the United States “purchased” former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf by pumping millions of dollars into the country and that Musharraf handed over control of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal to Washington, in a recent interview with ANI.
What Does Kiriakou State?
Kiriakou, who served 15 years in the CIA as an analyst and later in counterterrorism, stated Washington had “very good relations” with Musharraf. “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 the media.
He said the United States provided “millions and millions and millions of dollars” in military and economic aid, met Musharraf “several times a week,” and the general “would let us do whatever we wanted to do.” Kiriakou added Musharraf “had his own people that he needed to deal with.”
On nuclear control, Kiriakou stated that while stationed in Pakistan in 2002, he 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 (nuclear weapons falling into terrorist hands).”
More Into The Statement
Kiriakou accused Musharraf of a double game: publicly cooperating with the US while tolerating attacks against India to placate Pakistan’s military and extremist elements. “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,” Kiriakou said. He noted, “India-Pakistan were on the brink of war in 2002. December 2001 was when the Parliament attack also happened. During that time.”
Kiriakou also criticised former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s exile lifestyle, recalling a visit to her “$5 million palace on the Gulf” in Dubai and her quip: “So help me God, if he came home with another Bentley, I’m going to kill him!” He identified her husband, Asif Ali Zardari: “She lives in a $5 million house and he has a collection of Bentleys.” Kiriakou repeated the allegations.
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