LAHORE: Former US national security adviser James Logan Jones gave a new twist to the memo controversy on Friday when he said he did not consider the letter sent by Mansoor Ijaz as credible and he had no reason to believe that former ambassador Husain Haqqani had any role in preparing it.
Mr Jones, a retired US Marines Corps general, said he believed that the memo had been written by Mr Ijaz himself and also that former chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, had the same opinion about the its credibility.
He said this in an affidavit sent in response to a request by Asma Jahangir, counsel for Mr Haqqani, for submission in the Supreme Court with regard to hearing of the memo case. He said this affidavit might be used on his behalf with respect to an investigation under way in Pakistan.
Mr Jones said he had received a phone call a few days before May 9 from Mr Ijaz, with whom he had an acquaintance since 2006.
During the call, he said, Mr Ijaz mentioned that he had a message from the “highest authority” in Pakistan government that he asked Mr Jones to relay to the then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“At no time during the call do I remember Mr Ijaz mentioning ambassador Haqqani, and he gave me no reason to believe that he was acting at the direction of ambassador Haqqani, with his participation, or that ambassador Haqqani had knowledge of the call or the contents of the message,” he said.
According to Mr Jones, he told Mr Ijaz that he would not forward an oral message of this type to Admiral Mullen and that if he wanted anything forwarded, it would have to be in writing.
“On May 9, 2011, I received an email from Mr Ijaz attaching an unsigned memo. The email was sent to my personal email address by Mr Ijaz and was not marked classified or restricted.”
He said the substance of the memo was similar in nature to the phone call he had had with Mr Ijaz a day or two earlier. “Mr Ijaz again stated that the memo was authorised by the ‘highest authority’ within the Pakistan government and asked me to deliver the memo to Admiral Mullen.”
He said, however, that he assumed the memo was written by Mr Ijaz since it essentially put into writing the words he had used in their telephone conversation earlier.
The former US official said he did not recall whether Mr Ijaz had claimed that Mr Haqqani had anything to do with the creation of the memo. “I have no reason to believe that ambassador Haqqani had any role in the creation of the memo nor that he had any prior knowledge of the memo.”
He said the sending of the memo to him had struck him as highly unusual in that the highest authority in Pakistan government would use Mr Ijaz, a private citizen and part-time journalist living in Europe, as a conduit for this communication.
“My personal opinion was that the memo was probably not credible.”
He said: “As I was in the private sector and nor working for the US government in any capacity at the time I received the memo, I felt obligated to forward it, as requested, to Admiral Mullen.”
Admiral Mullen, in his official capacity, was better able to make a judgement as to the memo’s credibility and determine any future course of action with regard to it, he added.
Mr Jones said he had emailed the memo to Admiral Mullen on May 10.
“It is my understanding from Admiral Mullen’s public statement on the matter that he received the memo, did not find it credible, and did not take any action,” he concluded.
8:27 AM
Posted in: NATIONAL
