MEMO-GATE

Mullen Recalls Secret Memo

Pakistani ambassador offers to resign.

Husain Haqqani, Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S., has offered to resign amid a political scandal involving a secret memo to U.S. Adm. Mike Mullen. Following Osama bin Laden’s death in May, a Pakistani-American businessman wrote a memo to Admiral Mullen—per Haqqani’s instruction—insisting that President Asif Ali Zardari was planning to “replace Pakistan’s powerful military and intelligence leadership and cut ties with militants,” according to Foreign Policy. The businessman, Mansoor Ijaz, wrote about the memo in a Financial Times op-ed back in May, saying it was Zardari’s attempt to gain American protection against a potential coup from an embarrassed military. Following the op-ed, Mullen denied receiving such a memo but recently admitted its existence.