Mullen denies any secret letter from Zardari

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Mullen denies any secret letter from Zardari

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Admiral (r) Michael Mullen rejected news that he received a secret letter from President Zardari.

09 November,2011 11:57 pm

Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz alleged, in his op-ed in the Financial Times, that Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari had offered to replace Pakistans military and intelligence leadership and cut ties with militant groups in the wake of Osama bin Ladens killing in Abbottabad.Ijaz also alleged that Zardari communicated this offer by sending a top secret memo on May 10 through Ijaz himself, to be hand-delivered to Adm. Michael Mullen, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a key official managing the U.S.-Pakistan relationship. The details of the memo and the machinations Ijaz describes paint a picture of a Zardari government scrambling to save itself from an impending military coup following the raid on bin Ladens compound, and asking for U.S. support to prevent that coup before it started.Mullen, now retired, denied this week having ever dealt with Ijaz in comments given to The Cable through his spokesman at the time, Capt. John Kirby.Adm. Mullen does not know Mr. Ijaz and has no recollection of receiving any correspondence from him, Kirby told The Cable. I cannot say definitively that correspondence did not come from him -- the admiral received many missives as chairman from many people every day, some official, some not. But he does not recall one from this individual. And in any case, he did not take any action with respect to our relationship with Pakistan based on any such correspondence ... preferring to work at the relationship directly through [Pakistani Army Chief of Staff] Gen. [Ashfaq Parvez] Kayani and inside the interagency process.Mullens denial represents the first official U.S. comment on the Ijaz memo, which since Oct. 10 has mushroomed into a huge controversy in Pakistan. Several parts of Pakistans civilian government denied that Ijazs memorandum ever existed. On Oct. 30, Zardari spokesman Farhatullah Babar called Ijazs op-ed a fantasy article and criticized the FT for running it in the first place.