Former United States national security advisor James Logan Jones said that he had no reason to believe that Pakistan former ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani had any role in the creation of the controversial memo. Jones also said he did not consider the memo sent by Mansoor Ijaz as credible, giving a new twist to the Memogate controversy.
Jones, who is also a retired US Marines Corps General, further said that he believed that the memo was written by Mansoor Ijaz himself and believed that former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, also had the same opinion about the memo's credibility.
"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. Jones have made these observations in an affidavit sent to Advocate Asma Jahangir, counsel for Husain Haqqani, for its submission in the Supreme Court with regard to hearing of the petition on the issue of Memogate scandal.
Jones said in his assumption the memo was written by Ijaz since the memo essentially put into writing the language he (Ijaz) had used in their telephone conversation earlier. The former US official again stated in the affidavit that he did not recall whether Ijaz claimed that ambassador 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 maintained.
He also said that the sending of the memo to him struck him as highly unusual that the "highest authority" in Pakistan government would use 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," Jones reiterated his stance.
Jones said a few days before May 9, 2011 he received a phone call from Ijaz as he (Jones) already knew him in personal capacity since 2006. During the call, he said, Ijaz mentioned that he had a message from the "highest authority" in Pakistan government which he (Ijaz) asked him (Jones) to relay to the then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen.
"At no time during the call do I remember Mr Ijaz mentioning ambassador Haqani, and he gave me no reason to believe that he was acting at the direction of ambassador Haqani, with his participation, or that ambassador Haqqani had knowledge of the call or the contents of the message," Jones stated in his affidavit and added that he asked Ijaz that he would not forward an oral message of this type to Admiral Mullen and that if he wanted anything forwarded, that would have to be in writing.
Jones said, "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 further said that the substance of the memo was similar in nature to the phone call he had with 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," Jones added.
"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," he said and added that 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 the memo and emailed the memo to Admiral Mullen on May 10, 2011.