'Memogate' figure in tawdry video

Pakistan

'Memogate' figure in tawdry video

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Mansoor Ijazs cameo appearance in Stupidisco video causes commotion.

19 January,2012 11:29 am

A scandal over a secret memo to Washington that could bring down the Pakistani president, took a strange turn Wednesday when a music video surfaced featuring the chief accuser acting as a commentator for women’s wrestling featuring nudity.Opponents of Mansoor Ijaz, an American of Pakistani origin, said the clip damaged his credibility ahead of his scheduled appearance at a Supreme Court commission.It was unclear why the wrestling video, which was made in 2004 and has been viewed for years on the Internet, came to light only now. Ijaz’s role was apparently spotted by a blogger late Tuesday and spread quickly through social media.Ijaz told The Associated Press he thought the video’s emergence was part of an effort by Haqqani to discredit him ahead of his testimony but conceded he had no evidence of this. He confirmed that the video was not a hoax.Ijaz appears in two versions of the same video for “Stupidisco,” a house music track by Italian producer Junior Jack that was a club hit in 2004.Ijaz’s scenes and dialogue feature in both versions shown in 30 second wrestling clip but he said he had not known he would appear in the version containing full nudity.Ijaz provided the AP with 2004 email correspondence between him and the producer of the video in which he threatens legal action unless the producer removes him from the clip that contains nudity.Haqqani’s lawyer, Zahid Bokhari, said the “Stupidisco” video shows that Ijaz “can break all the norms of decency.”“I think a man of that stature, one who can go to that extent for fame, he can make up all kinds of false stories. I am really stunned by this,” said Bokhari. He dismissed Ijaz’s claim that the video was part of campaign to question his credibility, noting that it was made and put on the Internet years ago.The bikini video was uploaded onto YouTube in 2009, with 376,000 views since then, according to that website. Another version of the video was uploaded to a site called Dailymotion in 2007.The Florida-born businessman has pledged to provide damning evidence that the Pakistani government sent the note seeking U.S. help preventing a military coup in the aftermath of the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011.