No Benefit In Fighting India: Ex-CIA Officer Who Led Counterterrorism Operations in Pakistan
Ex-CIA officer John Kiriakou says Pakistan gains nothing from fighting India, warning of defeat in any conventional war.
Former CIA officer John Kiriakou, who led U.S. counterterrorism operations in Pakistan for 15 years, asserted that Pakistan would lose any conventional war with India and must recognise that "nothing good" emerges from perpetual provocation. Speaking to ANI, Kiriakou urged Islamabad to abandon its confrontational policy, stating, "There is no benefit to constantly provoking Indians."
He dismissed nuclear escalation, emphasising India's overwhelming conventional superiority—a view shaped by his on-ground experience during heightened tensions post the 2001 Parliament attack, when the U.S. evacuated civilians from Islamabad fearing war amid Operation Parakram. Kiriakou revealed the Pentagon briefly controlled Pakistan's nuclear arsenal under Pervez Musharraf, who "turned control over to the US" to prevent rogue use, underscoring Washington's leverage during the early War on Terror.
Kiriakou admitted the CIA prioritised Al-Qaeda and Afghanistan over India's security concerns, sidelining evidence like the 2002 Lahore raid linking Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) to Al-Qaeda via seized training manuals. "The relationship is bigger than India-Pakistan," he explained, noting the White House downplayed the connection to secure drone bases in Balochistan. This pragmatic blindness enabled Pakistan's "dual life"—cooperating on counterterrorism while sponsoring anti-India groups.
He also disclosed that the U.S. spared nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan at Saudi Arabia's behest, despite knowing his proliferation network and daily routine. "If we had taken the Israeli approach, we would have just killed him," Kiriakou said, revealing Riyadh's influence in shielding Khan due to shared interests.
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The revelations contextualise India's post-2016 evolution: surgical strikes after Uri, the Balakot airstrikes in 2019, and Operation Sindoor following the April 2025 Pahalgam attack that killed 26 civilians. New Delhi's rejection of Pakistan's nuclear blackmail—evident in Islamabad's ceasefire pleas after failed city strikes—validates Kiriakou's assessment of conventional imbalance.
As a 2007 whistleblower who exposed CIA torture and served 23 months in prison, Kiriakou expressed "no regrets," framing his disclosures as corrective to historical oversights. His insights, amid renewed India-Pakistan friction, reinforce calls for Islamabad to pivot toward economic integration over militarised rivalry, lest it repeat self-defeating cycles in a multipolar South Asia.
