Highlights:
- Ex-CIA officer John Kiriakou claims PTI demanded an apology for India–Pakistan war remarks
- Says he replied that he’d “wipe his a**” with their letter
- His comments followed India’s decisive actions during the four-day mini-war
- Kiriakou insists India would “easily win” a conventional war
- Former CIA analyst received online abuse and death threats after his assessment
Kiriakou, who spent 15 years with the CIA, including serving as chief of counterterrorism operations in Pakistan after the 9/11 attacks, disclosed a podcast conversation with Julian Dorey. His remarks stem from comments he made after the four-day India–Pakistan mini-war earlier this year, in which he stated that India would decisively defeat Pakistan in a conventional conflict.
His original statement on India and Pakistan’s military strength
Speaking to news agency ANI in October, Kiriakou said there was “nothing good” that could come from an actual war between the two neighbours because Pakistan would inevitably lose. He explained that this assessment was strictly based on conventional military capability, not nuclear considerations.
“Nothing, literally nothing good will come of an actual war between India and Pakistan because the Pakistanis will lose,” he had said. “I'm not talking about nuclear weapons. I'm just talking about a conventional war.”
His comments followed a period of heightened tensions, with India carrying out targeted strikes against Pakistani military assets after the ISI-backed Pahalgam terror attack. Kiriakou argued that from the 2016 surgical strikes to the 2019 Balakot airstrike, India had demonstrated it would no longer allow its “strategic patience” to be misread as weakness.
Online abuse, death threats, and the PTI letter
Following his assessment, Kiriakou said he was bombarded with threats and harassment online, primarily from Pakistani users. Then came a formal letter from PTI president Chaudhry Parvez Elahi, condemning his remarks in the “strongest possible terms” and demanding he issue an immediate apology to Imran Khan, the party, and the people of Pakistan.
Kiriakou told Dorey that while his lawyer advised him to ignore the letter and quietly discard it, he chose a different path.
His blunt reply
Instead of backing down, Kiriakou sent back an email that read:
“In regards to your demand for an apology, I wipe my a with your demands.”
He said he clicked send—and never received a response from PTI again.
Kiriakou defends his assessment
The former CIA officer emphasised that his remarks were not political but analytical, based on manpower, capability, and historical military performance. He stressed that Pakistan should stop provoking India, a nation he described as “far stronger and far less tolerant of terror than before.”
Kiriakou’s explosive revelation has reignited debate around India–Pakistan military dynamics and exposed the extent to which his comments rattled Pakistan’s political establishment.
