The United States could have eliminated Pakistan’s nuclear godfather, AQ Khan, but chose not to and the reason may shock you. Former CIA officer John Kiriakou revealed that Saudi Arabia intervened to protect the world’s most dangerous nuclear smuggler, forcing America to back down.

In an interview with ANI, Kiriakou, who spent 15 years in the CIA as chief of counterterrorism operations in Pakistan, said “If we had taken the Israeli approach, we would have just killed him. He was easy enough to find. We knew where he lived. We knew how he spent his day.”

So why didn’t they? Kiriakou explained, “He also had the support of the Saudi government. And the Saudis came to us and said, ‘please leave him alone. We like AQ Khan. We’re working with AQ Khan. We’re close to the Pakistanis…Just leave him alone.’”

Kiriakou claimed that “This was a mistake that the US government made, not confronting AQ Khan head-on.” While Israel eliminates nuclear threats without hesitation, America chose Saudi diplomacy over stopping history’s most prolific nuclear proliferator.

Did Pentagon Control Pakistan’s Nukes?

Kiriakou revealed another stunning claim. When stationed in Pakistan in 2002, he was told “unofficially that the Pentagon controlled the Pakistani nuclear arsenal. That Musharraf had turned control over to the United States.”

But the story later changed. “The Pakistanis in the intervening years…have come to say that is absolutely not true. The United States has nothing to do with the Pakistani nuclear arsenal; Pakistani generals are the ones who control it,” he said.

Who Is John Kiriakou?

John Kiriakou is a Former CIA officer and in 2007, he blew the whistle on the CIA’s torture program in a nationally televised interview, confirming that the CIA was torturing prisoners. Though charges were dropped, he spent 23 months in prison. He insists he has “no regrets, no remorse” and that he “did the right thing.”