'Wipe my a**': After saying India would win a war, ex-CIA officer claims he sent PTI a blistering reply
John Kiriakou triggered a fresh political storm after revealing that Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) tried to pressure him into apologising for publicly stating that India would defeat Pakistan in a conventional military conflict
- Nov 21, 2025,
- Updated Nov 21, 2025 1:22 PM IST
Former CIA officer John Kiriakou has triggered a fresh political storm after revealing that Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) tried to pressure him into apologising for publicly stating that India would defeat Pakistan in a conventional military conflict. Instead of backing down, Kiriakou says he fired back with an obscenity-laced response — and never heard from the party again.
Kiriakou, who spent 15 years with the CIA, including as chief of counterterrorism operations in Pakistan after 9/11, said PTI sent him a formal letter demanding an apology for his October comments. Speaking to ANI earlier, he had stated that, "Nothing, literally nothing good will come of an actual war between India and Pakistan because the Pakistanis will lose. It's as simple as that. They'll lose… I'm just talking about a conventional war."
His remarks set off a wave of online abuse from Pakistani users. The situation escalated when, according to him, a letter arrived from PTI president Chaudhry Parvez Elahi condemning his statement “in the strongest possible terms” and demanding “an immediate apology… to his excellency the former prime minister [Imran Khan], to the members of the party, and to the people of Pakistan.”
Recounting the episode on a YouTube podcast with Julian Dorey, Kiriakou said the letter did not intimidate him. “I said, in a conventional conflict, India would beat Pakistan because it has five times the people. The death threats… I've lost count of how many death threats I received,” he said.
His lawyer reportedly advised him to ignore and discard the letter. But Kiriakou said he did the opposite.
“So my lawyer is like, just throw it away… So I didn't throw it away. I sent him an email and I said, ‘In regards to your demand for an apology, I wipe my a with your demands for an apology.’ And I hit send… and I haven't heard back from them,”** he said in the podcast uploaded on November 18.
Who is John Kiriakou?
Kiriakou has long written about Pakistan’s internal security establishment and West Asia. He insists his assessment was analytical, not political. He said India’s responses, from the 2016 surgical strikes to Balakot in 2019, show a country that refuses to let “strategic patience” be mistaken for weakness.
Former CIA officer John Kiriakou has triggered a fresh political storm after revealing that Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) tried to pressure him into apologising for publicly stating that India would defeat Pakistan in a conventional military conflict. Instead of backing down, Kiriakou says he fired back with an obscenity-laced response — and never heard from the party again.
Kiriakou, who spent 15 years with the CIA, including as chief of counterterrorism operations in Pakistan after 9/11, said PTI sent him a formal letter demanding an apology for his October comments. Speaking to ANI earlier, he had stated that, "Nothing, literally nothing good will come of an actual war between India and Pakistan because the Pakistanis will lose. It's as simple as that. They'll lose… I'm just talking about a conventional war."
His remarks set off a wave of online abuse from Pakistani users. The situation escalated when, according to him, a letter arrived from PTI president Chaudhry Parvez Elahi condemning his statement “in the strongest possible terms” and demanding “an immediate apology… to his excellency the former prime minister [Imran Khan], to the members of the party, and to the people of Pakistan.”
Recounting the episode on a YouTube podcast with Julian Dorey, Kiriakou said the letter did not intimidate him. “I said, in a conventional conflict, India would beat Pakistan because it has five times the people. The death threats… I've lost count of how many death threats I received,” he said.
His lawyer reportedly advised him to ignore and discard the letter. But Kiriakou said he did the opposite.
“So my lawyer is like, just throw it away… So I didn't throw it away. I sent him an email and I said, ‘In regards to your demand for an apology, I wipe my a with your demands for an apology.’ And I hit send… and I haven't heard back from them,”** he said in the podcast uploaded on November 18.
Who is John Kiriakou?
Kiriakou has long written about Pakistan’s internal security establishment and West Asia. He insists his assessment was analytical, not political. He said India’s responses, from the 2016 surgical strikes to Balakot in 2019, show a country that refuses to let “strategic patience” be mistaken for weakness.