Ex-Mossad chief's 'off the cuff remark' prompted CIA to send emergency team to Pakistan

An "off the cuff-remark" by a former chief of Mossad, Israeli Intelligence agency, prompted the American CIA to send an emergency team to Pakistan to learn if a major conflict between India and Pakistan was imminent in 90s.

In a recent interview with a magazine and in his book "Head of the Mossad", Shabtai Shavit has shared his views on a variety of issues.

According to Shavit, In 1990, during a meeting with chief of CIA's analysis department at a restaurant in the Israeli capital he made the remarks about India-Pakistan issues.

As he exchanged views and intelligence information on a range of subjects with the CIA man, he said "if the human race confronted another use of a nuclear weapon, he would not be surprised if it would be as part of a conflict between those two nuclear powers".

When the CIA official desperately probed for what secret information Shavite had that led him to this explosive conclusion, the then chief of Mossad downplayed his comment and said "he was not basing it on anything in particular beyond his own general knowledge of power and state conflict, and the general lower philosophical concern that some of those nations’ leaders placed on the value of the human life of common people".

But the CIA expert didn't believe him and upon returning to Washington, an emergency team was sent to Pakistan "to learn if a major conflict was imminent and what secret information Israel might have that Shavit had hinted at, but was refusing to share".

According to a Israeli newspaper, the bottom line of his  latest interview and the book is that Shavit never again spoke off-the-cuff about serious issues with foreign intelligence agents following the incident.