Ex-Pentagon official Michel Rubin weighs in on India-Canada row in interview to Republic

In an exclusive interview with Republic Media Network, the ex-Pentagon official Michael Rubin on Tuesday weighed into the India-Canada standoff, saying that the US intelligence referenced by the Canadian PM Justin Trudeau about India's alleged links to the killing of the Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar  "is not as definitive as it’s somehow being made to play." 

"It’s not what Canada has based its accusations on," Rubin clarified. "The US only provided context, that just would have easily been the gang warfare that resulted in the death of Ripudaman Singh Malik [murdered on July 14] in which Nijjar was complicit," the ex-Pentagon official noted in the televised interview with Republic TV's senior editor Shawan Sen. "When it came to the actual accusations against India, that was wholly on the Canadian security services," Rubin said, adding that there’s no indication from US intelligence that the [US government] was drawing the same conclusion.

Ex-Pentagon official: 'US foreign policy like a gambler' on Ambassador visit to PoK

On question if the US was leaving India high and dry given the Ambassador to Pakistan Donald Blome’s visits to Gilgit-Baltistan in Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir (PoK) in a show of diplomacy, and Canada being US’ oldest ally since WWII, Rubin said US foreign policy is often 'like a gambler', and US administration wants to put its money by seeing what the other cards are. “It never works," he asserted. 

That said, the ex-Pentagon official continued, when it comes to the US Ambassador to Pakistan’s ‘ill-advised’ trip, “I don’t believe that it was directed by Washington." He continues that "it’s only the stupidity of one man not understanding the sensitivity."

When George Shultz was the US Secretary of State during the Reagan administration, said Rubin, every Ambassador nominee was brought into the office and American interests were put first. "If the ambassadors pointed to Pakistan or Canada or to Bhutan or China, as they were heading off there, he [Regan] would dress them down, he underscored. "He’d say never forget your country United States [and its policies]. This is a case of of ambassadors intending to have good relations within the countries that they serve," Rubin said. 

Trudeau 'useful idiot for Pak's ISI': Rubin

Justin Trudeau “has been a useful idiot for the ISI of Pakistan, and Canada and its Khalistanis are abusing the magnanimity and generosity of the Western system" ex-Pentagon official said about Canadian allegations against India about the murder of Nijjar. "But even as the US plays ‘catch up’ with Trudeau government, it's not readily siding with them. Many in the US intelligence community, and frankly within the Canadian system itself, believe Trudeau has gone too far," said Rubin.

“But now he [Justin Trudeau] is just trying to save his face. The US-India relationship is not what we’re willing to sacrifice to save face of a Canadian PM who’s superficial and is on his way out to defeat in Canada," the ex Pentagon official Rubin told Republic TV. 

On the question of the Biden administration’s next move on siding with either Canada or India amid the diplomatic row, Rubin noted that while there’s very little that Biden, Obama, Trump, and Bush administration collectively agree on, the US-India relationship is one. "And so the White House will be aghast at any pressure to separate the US from India on this issue," he iterated.

Rubin also focused on what he described as the 'derangement syndrome' that many progressive lawmakers in the US Congress have against Prime Minister Modi as well as the ‘Hinduphobia’ saying that such narratives will prove to be very dangerous if they get out of control. US Congress will be key in turning the foreign policy consensus into a political football, for instance, the way it has with Israel and Saudi Arabia, Rubin stressed. "Soon the White House may feel that the pressure to weigh into the matter 'is off them,' for example as was the case in botched Afghanistan withdrawal, or Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict," he said. 

On the citing of the ‘Five Eyes’ intel in linking India’s connection to the murder of Nijjar, the ex-Pentagon official stressed that the intel is shared on the basis of trust and the Alliance must not have been named by the Trudeau government, condemning the exposure. “There’s a lot of anger at Justin Trudeau even in the Canadian Intelligence Service. I won’t be surprised if we have four eyes as people will stop trusting Canada on this. What they have in regard to the intelligence to hold India accountable is much less than what Trudeau has talked about," he said.