Kashmir
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Kashmir is a subject John Kiriakou says the media generally avoids, and which he approaches from having served in Pakistan. His observation about its asymmetry: "Kashmir is always front and center in the mind of every Pakistani, less so in the mind of every Indian, but the Indians essentially control Kashmir."

Where his sympathies lie

Kiriakou states his position without hedging: "my sympathies really are with the Pakistanis on this."

The basis is a broken procedural promise. A deal negotiated in the 1940s by the great powers and the nascent United Nations provided for a referendum in which "everybody was going to have a say and a vote." What happened instead, in his account: "the Indians just grabbed everything and have said, you know, tough luck ever since."

What the CIA told both sides

He also reports a diplomatic effort that went nowhere. As recently as 2002, "the US government in the form of the CIA has gone to both sides and said, you know, please just walk away from this, it'll be better for everybody, for both India and Pakistan, better for the world, better for the region."

The outcome: "neither side would walk away."

The interview that ended his South Asian media appearances

Asked about Kashmir on an Indian news programme, Kiriakou gave the answer above, the referendum, the seizure, his sympathy for Pakistan. "They cut that out of the final show." That edit is the reason "I no longer do Indian and Pakistani media."

What they did air was his answer to the follow-up: who would win a war. His reply came in two parts, both are nuclear powers, "so nobody would win"; and absent nuclear weapons, "India has five times the population that Pakistan has. And just by sheer force of population, the Indians would win."

Stripped of the context that preceded it, the effect was immediate: "the death threats started again from Pakistan."

The letter to his home

The escalation that followed is what he finds most striking. Imran Khan's political party director sent him a letter demanding he apologise to the Pakistani people and to Khan personally. The detail Kiriakou flags is the address: "How he got my home address, I have no idea."

His reaction to the demand, "It's like, what, are you nuts?", rests on what he had actually said: "All I said was India has five times the number of people, and if there were to be a conventional conflict, the Indians would probably win."

See also

- John Kiriakou
- Imran Khan
- Pakistan station, 2002
- India
