Former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou has alleged that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the party led by former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan, threatened him after he publicly stated that India would prevail in a conventional war with Pakistan.
Speaking on the Julian Dorey Podcast, Kiriakou said he received “death threats” and a strongly worded letter from PTI, demanding that he retract and apologise for his comments. He claimed he responded bluntly, adding that he would use their apology demand “to wipe my a**”.
The controversy dates back to an interview in October, when Kiriakou told ANI that “nothing good” could come from an India–Pakistan war, warning that Pakistan would inevitably be defeated, and that his argument had nothing to do with the use of nuclear weapons.
“Nothing, literally nothing good will come of an actual war between India and Pakistan because the Pakistanis will lose,” he said at the time.
The Pakistanis sent a letter demanding an apology from CIA officer John Kiriakou for his statement, that India would beat Pakistan in conventional war. He responded by “wiping his ass with the letter sent by Pakistanis”. pic.twitter.com/loF6jL20SV
— Rohit Sharma 🇺🇸🇮🇳 (@DcWalaDesi) November 20, 2025
His remarks prompted widespread online backlash, with many Pakistanis accusing him of bias and hostility toward Islamabad.
Threats, emails and a defiant reply
According to Kiriakou, the most serious reaction came in the form of an email signed by senior PTI leader Chaudhry Parvez Elahi, the former chief minister of Punjab province and president of the party since March 2023. He said the letter condemned his comments “in the strongest possible terms”, demanding “an immediate apology” to Imran Khan, party members and “the people of Pakistan”.
Despite his lawyer’s advice to ignore the message, Kiriakou said he sent an email back using explicit language and has heard nothing further from the party.
Who is John Kiriakou?
Kiriakou spent 15 years with the CIA, playing a key role in post-9/11 counterterrorism operations. He notably led a 2002 operation that resulted in the capture of Abu Zubaydah, a senior al-Qaeda operative.
