Former CIA officer John Kiriakou recently revealed that Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party had tried to force him to apologise publicly for earlier saying that India would win a conventional military conflict with Pakistan.
However, Kiriakou boldly responded to the scores of death threats he had received, against advice from his lawyer—which has gone viral since his recent appearance on the Julian Dorey Podcast.
The death threats followed his interview with ANI about a month ago, in which he had pointed out that there was no use in Pakistan's constant quarrels with India, and that nothing good would come out of a "conventional war" between the two, as the "Pakistanis would lose".
After waves of online backlash from Pakistanis, he explained that he later received a letter from the PTI that condemned his actions in the "strongest possible terms".
The letter also demanded "an immediate apology" to former Islamabad PM Imran Khan, as well as the people of Pakistan.
"I wipe my a** with your demands for an apology," Kiriakou replied, despite his lawyer telling him to ignore the letter.
"I hit send ... and I haven't heard back from them."
The former chief of counterterrorism operations was stationed in Pakistan just after the devastating 9/11 attacks in the US. Over a 15-year career with the top investigative agency, he was also famed for blowing the whistle on the CIA's torture tactics reportedly used in their enhanced interrogation techniques.
Kiriakou also declared that he would never again do any more interviews with Indian or Pakistani news outlets, going on to describe how he felt the issue was blown out of proportion.
He also claimed that India and Pakistan hated each other because they were "exactly alike", going into detail about the history of the Indian subcontinent.