Islamabad: Days after Pakistan government dismissed his claim about having sent a secret message to US officials on behalf of President Asif Ali Zardari, businessman Mansoor Ijaz has said his contacts indeed delivered the missive to former American military chief Admiral Mike Mullen.
In an article in the Financial Times on October 10, Ijaz had detailed his role in Zardari’s purported efforts to reach out to the Obama administration to prevent army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani from staging a coup in the wake of the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
The claims were dismissed by the Foreign Office. Earlier this week, Mullen’s spokesman Capt John Kirby had said the Admiral had not received any letter from Ijaz. Kirby said Mullen did “not know Mr Ijaz and has no recollection of receiving any correspondence from him”.
In response to the official denials, Ijaz issued a fresh statement on Friday giving details of correspondence between him and Pakistani officials, including emails, SMS messages and phone calls, regarding the letter and memorandum that was purportedly delivered to Mullen. Kirby had said that Mullen did not recall receiving any letter from Ijaz.
But Ijaz said in his statement: “I never said I delivered anything to Admiral Mullen. What I wrote was – the memo was delivered to Adm Mullen at 1400 hrs on May 10… We have proof that Admiral Mullen received the memorandum and acknowledged it to the person who delivered it to him.”
Ijaz confirmed Kirby’s claim that Mullen did not know him.
“It is true that I do not know Admiral Mullen and have never met him. But the person I asked to take the memorandum to him – that person knew him about as well as anyone can. And that person knows me pretty well too,” Ijaz said.
In his statement, Ijaz did not say whether he was directly contacted by Zardari or was acting on the President’s instructions.
Ijaz said there could be no doubt a memorandum was drafted and transmitted to Mullen with the approval at the highest political level in Pakistan.
“… the Admiral received it with certainty from a source whom he trusted and who also trusted me. It was a source the admiral would not and, according to e-mail traffic in my possession, did not ignore,” he said. He further stated there could be no doubt proof exists of Mullen acknowledging receipt of the memorandum. “Whether he chose to do anything with the memorandum or not, I cannot know and do not care — my responsibility was to see that the memo got into his hands safely,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dawn newspaper quoted diplomatic sources in Washington as raising new objections to Ijaz’s statement, noting that the Pakistanis were saying they never sent the message while the Americans were saying that they did not receive it.
“If Mansoor Ijaz delivered a secret message, why did he publicise it unless he is part of some trap for the democratic Pakistani government?” the source asked. (PTI)