Revision as of 05:05, 13 February 2008 view sourceCommodore Sloat (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users13,928 edits rv OR← Previous edit | Latest revision as of 17:38, 6 December 2024 view source Citation bot (talk | contribs)Bots5,399,829 edits Altered template type. Add: magazine, authors 1-1. Removed parameters. Some additions/deletions were parameter name changes. | Use this bot. Report bugs. | Suggested by Whoop whoop pull up | #UCB_webform 2087/3333 | ||
Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
{{pp-vandalism|small=yes}} | |||
] | |||
{{Use American English|date=September 2023}} | |||
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2023}} | |||
{{Short description|American weapons inspector and writer (born 1961)}} | |||
{{Infobox person | |||
| name = Scott Ritter | |||
| image = Scott Ritter by David Shankbone (4x5 cropped).jpg | |||
| alt = Scott Ritter wearing a suit | |||
| caption = Ritter in 2007 | |||
| birth_name = William Scott Ritter, Jr. | |||
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1961|07|15}} | |||
| birth_place = ], U.S. | |||
| nationality = | |||
| education = ] | |||
| alma_mater = ]<ref name="d">, p. 159.</ref> | |||
| occupation = {{hlist | speaker | author | columnist}} | |||
| spouse = Marina<ref name="Bai"/> | |||
| known_for = {{Indented plainlist| | |||
* Chief ] weapons inspector to Iraq, 1991–1998 | |||
* Sex crimes against minors | |||
| boards = ]. | |||
}} | |||
| criminal_charges = ] (unlawful contact with a minor, corruption of minors, ])<ref name="nypostponocos" /> | |||
| criminal_penalty = Sentence of 1½ to 5½ years in prison in 2011<ref name="rubinkam" /> | |||
| criminal_status = Paroled in 2014<ref name=TU2014 /> | |||
| website = {{url|scottritterextra.com}} | |||
}} | |||
'''William Scott Ritter Jr.''' (born July 15, 1961) is an American former United States Marine Corps intelligence officer, former ] (UNSCOM) weapons inspector, author, and commentator.<ref name="New Yorker 1998">{{cite magazine|title=Scott Ritter's Private War|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1998/11/09/scott-ritters-private-war|magazine=]|date=November 1, 1998|archive-date=April 4, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240404213924/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1998/11/09/scott-ritters-private-war|url-status=live|access-date=August 18, 2024}}</ref><ref name="Bai">{{cite news |last=Bai |first=Matt |author-link=Matt Bai |title=Scott Ritter's Other War |work=] |editor-last=Lovell |editor-first=Joel |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/magazine/scott-ritter.html?auth=login-smartlock |date=February 22, 2012|archive-date=April 24, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220424221224/https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/magazine/scott-ritter.html?auth=login-smartlock |url-status=live|access-date=June 21, 2019}}</ref> He is a convicted ].<ref name=TU2014>{{Cite news|title=Scott Ritter paroled in online sex case|url=http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Scott-Ritter-paroled-in-online-sex-case-5936227.php|work=]|last=Karlin|first=Rick|date=December 4, 2014|access-date=8 August 2024|archive-date=March 28, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220328195917/https://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Scott-Ritter-paroled-in-online-sex-case-5936227.php|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="BBC 120411">{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13057436|title=Ex-UN inspector Scott Ritter sex sting trial begins|publisher=]|date=April 12, 2011|access-date=June 21, 2019|archive-date=March 14, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220314070242/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13057436|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="BBC2011">{{cite news|title=Ex-UN inspector Scott Ritter guilty in sex chat case|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-13089135|publisher=]|date=15 April 2011|access-date=9 August 2024|archive-date=August 9, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240809172737/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-13089135|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
'''William Scott Ritter, Jr.''' (born ], ]) is noted for his role as a chief ] in ] from 1991 to 1998, and later for his criticism of ] in the ]. Prior to the ] in March, 2003, Ritter publicly argued that Iraq possessed no significant ] (WMDs). He became a popular anti-war figure and talk show commentator as a result of his stance. | |||
Ritter was a junior military analyst during ].<ref name=salon>{{cite news|last=Aydintasbas |first=Asla |date=March 19, 2002 |title=Scott Ritter |magazine=Salon |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100324073227/http://www.salon.com/people/feature/2002/03/19/ritter/index.html |url=http://www.salon.com/people/feature/2002/03/19/ritter/index.html |archive-date=March 24, 2010}}</ref> He served as a member of UNSCOM overseeing the disarmament of ] (WMD) in ] from 1991 to 1998, from which he resigned in protest. Later he became a critic of the ] and United States foreign policy in the ]. In recent years, he has been a regular contributor to Russian state media outlets ] and ]. He has visited ] in support of Russia since the start of the ].<ref name="Chechnya2024">{{Cite web |date=September 12, 2023 |title=Disgraced Ex-Marine Offers Kadyrov's Army 'Friendship' With America: Video |website=] |url=https://www.newsweek.com/scott-ritter-chechnya-visit-kadyrov-army-speech-1858652 |archive-date=January 22, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240122051431/https://www.newsweek.com/scott-ritter-chechnya-visit-kadyrov-army-speech-1858652 |url-status=live|access-date=January 22, 2024}}</ref> In June 2024, Ritter claimed that US authorities seized his passport and prevented him from visiting Russia.<ref name="a042">{{cite web | title=Moscow Throws Putin Fanboy Scott Ritter Under the Bus | website=The Daily Beast | url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/moscow-throws-putin-fanboy-scott-ritter-under-the-bus | last=Quinn | first=Allison | date=4 June 2024 | access-date=5 June 2024 | archive-date=June 5, 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240605080842/https://www.thedailybeast.com/moscow-throws-putin-fanboy-scott-ritter-under-the-bus | url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="passport">{{cite web |title=State Department seizes passport of Delmar's Scott Ritter before flight to Russia |url=https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/state-dept-seizes-scott-ritter-s-passport-flight-19498991.php |work=Times Union |date=June 7, 2024 |access-date=June 8, 2024 |archive-date=June 8, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240608091612/https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/state-dept-seizes-scott-ritter-s-passport-flight-19498991.php |url-status=live }}</ref><ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240612153723/https://www.kyivpost.com/opinion/34028 |date=June 12, 2024 }} (June 11, 2024). ].</ref> As of March 2024, he is a member of ]. | |||
==Early and personal life== | |||
Ritter was born into a military family in 1961 in ]. He graduated from ] in ] west of ] in 1979. He earned a ] degree from ] in ]. He studied the ] there and received departmental honors.<ref name="d"/> | |||
==Military background== | ==Military background== | ||
Ritter was born into a ] family in 1961. He graduated from ] in ], ], with a ] in the ] and departmental honors. In 1980 he served in the U.S. Army as a Private. Then in May of 1984 he was commissioned as an ] officer in the ]. He served in this capacity for twelve years. He initially served as the lead analyst for the Marine Corps ] concerning the ] and the ]. During ], he served as a ] advisor to General ]. Ritter later worked as a security and military consultant for the ] network. | |||
In 1980, Ritter served in the ] as a private. In May 1984, he was commissioned as an ] officer in the ]. He served in this capacity for about 12 years.<ref name=Fox2002>{{cite interview |last=Ritter |first=Scott |interviewer=] |title=Talk of the Nation |publisher=] |date=September 12, 2002 |url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,62916,00.html|archive-date=September 6, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080906131857/http://foxnews.com/story/0,2933,62916,00.html |url-status=live|access-date=January 21, 2008}}</ref> He was the lead analyst for the Marine Corps ] concerning the ] and the ].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Williams-Hedges |first=Deborah |date=November 1, 2002 |title=Former UN Weapons Inspector to Speak at Caltech |url=https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/former-un-weapons-inspector-speak-caltech-632 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240107104803/https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/former-un-weapons-inspector-speak-caltech-632 |archive-date=January 7, 2024 |access-date=January 7, 2024 |website=www.caltech.edu}}</ref> His academic work focused on the ] resistance movement in ] during the 1920s and 1930s, and on the Basmachi commanders ] and ].<ref name="jch">{{cite journal|last=Ritter |first=William S |author-link=Scott Ritter |year=1990 |title=Revolt in the Mountains: Fuzail Maksum and the Occupation of Garm, Spring 1929 |journal=] |volume=25 |issue=4|pages=547–580|doi=10.1177/002200949002500408 |s2cid=159486304}}</ref><ref name="ss">{{cite journal|last=Ritter |first=William S |author-link=Scott Ritter |year=1985 |title=The Final Phase in the Liquidation of Anti-Soviet Resistance in Tadzhikistan: Ibrahim Bek and the Basmachi, 1924–31 |journal=] |volume=37 |issue=4 |pages=484–493|doi=10.1080/09668138508411604}}</ref> | |||
During ] (1991), as a Marine ], he served as a ] intelligence analyst under General ]. Ritter filed multiple internal reports challenging Schwarzkopf's claim that the US had destroyed "as many as 16" of Iraq's estimated 20 mobile ] launchers, arguing that they could not be confirmed.<ref name="salon" /><ref name="scuds">{{citation|date=June 24, 1992 |title=Pentagon Claims on Scuds Disputed |newspaper=New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/24/world/pentagon-claims-on-scuds-disputed.html|last=Schmitt |first=Eric|archive-date=October 3, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221003065247/https://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/24/world/pentagon-claims-on-scuds-disputed.html |url-status=live|access-date=October 3, 2022}}</ref> In 1992 Ritter was quoted in a ''New York Times'' op-ed saying "No mobile Scud launchers were destroyed during the war."<ref name="scuds" /> He later worked as a security and military consultant for the ] network. In an interview with '']'' in 2003 he said he had "a long relationship of an official nature" with the UK's foreign intelligence spy agency ].<ref name="Democracy Now!">{{cite web |url=http://www.democracynow.org/2003/12/30/scott_ritter_how_the_british_spy |title=Scott Ritter: How the British Spy Agency MI6 Secretly Misled A Nation Into War With Iraq |last1=Goodman |first1=Amy |date=December 30, 2003 |work=] |access-date=November 3, 2014 |archive-date=March 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220302220923/https://www.democracynow.org/2003/12/30/scott_ritter_how_the_british_spy |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
==Weapons inspector== | ==Weapons inspector== | ||
Ritter served from 1991 to 1998 as a ] weapons inspector in ] in the ] (UNSCOM), which was charged with finding and destroying all ] and WMD-related manufacturing capabilities in Iraq. He was chief inspector in fourteen of the more than thirty inspection missions in which he participated. | |||
Ritter worked as a weapons inspector for the ] from 1991 to 1998, which was charged with finding and destroying all weapons of mass destruction and WMD-related manufacturing capabilities in Iraq. He was the chief inspector in fourteen of more than thirty inspection missions in which he participated.<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 22, 2007 |title=Former Iraq weapons inspector Scott Ritter speaks at RCSI |url=https://www.rcsi.com/dublin/news-and-events/news/news-article/2007/05/former-iraq-weapons-inspector-scott-ritter-spoke-at-royal-college-of-surgeons |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240107105054/https://www.rcsi.com/dublin/news-and-events/news/news-article/2007/05/former-iraq-weapons-inspector-scott-ritter-spoke-at-royal-college-of-surgeons|website=www.rcsi.com |archive-date=January 7, 2024 |access-date=January 7, 2024}}</ref> | |||
In January of 1998, his inspection team in Iraq was blocked from some weapons sites by Iraqi officials making claims that information obtained from these sites would be used for future planning of attacks. UN Inspectors were then ordered out of Iraq by the United States Government, shortly before Operation Desert Fox attacks began in December 1998, using information which had been gathered for the purpose of disarmament to identify targets which would reduce Iraq's ability to wage both conventional and possibly unconventional warfare. This action undermined the position of the UN Weapons Inspectors, who were thereafter denied access to Iraq. Shortly thereafter, he spoke on the ] show, ]: | |||
<blockquote>I think the danger right now is that without effective inspections, without effective monitoring, Iraq can in a very short period of time measured in months, reconstitute chemical and biological weapons, long-range ballistic missiles to deliver these weapons, and even certain aspects of their developing of nuclear weapons. program.<ref></ref></blockquote> | |||
Ritter was among a group of UNSCOM weapons inspectors which regularly took ] imagery to ] for analysis, as UNSCOM was not getting sufficient analysis assistance from the United States and the United Kingdom. That was not authorized by UNSCOM, the U-2 jet had been loaned to UNSCOM and caused him to be subjected to criticism and investigation by U.S. authorities. Iraq protested about information being given to Israel.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.users.cloud9.net/~recross/israel-watch/Texts/WashingtonPost.htm |title=Israel Gave Key Help To U.N. Team in Iraq |author=Barton Gellman |newspaper=Washington Post|archive-date=September 4, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190904040136/http://www.users.cloud9.net/~recross/israel-watch/Texts/WashingtonPost.htm |url-status=dead|date=September 29, 1998|access-date=August 31, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |page=227 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uOcrDF0y-CAC |title=Spyplane: The U-2 History Declassified |author=Norman Polmar |publisher=Zenith Imprint |year=2001 |isbn=9780760309575 |access-date=August 31, 2013 |archive-date=August 20, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240820211911/https://books.google.com/books?id=uOcrDF0y-CAC |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
When the United States and the UN Security Council failed to take action against Iraq for their ongoing failure to cooperate fully with inspectors (a breach of ] ]), Ritter resigned from the United Nations Special Commission on ], ].<ref></ref> | |||
===Operation Mass Appeal=== | |||
In his letter of resignation, Ritter said the Security Council's reaction to Iraq's decision earlier that month to suspend co-operation with the inspection team made a mockery of the disarmament work. Ritter later said, in an interview, that he resigned from his role as a United Nations weapons inspector over inconsistencies between United Nations Security Council Resolution 1154 and how it was implemented. | |||
<blockquote>The investigations had come to a standstill, were making no effective progress, and in order to make effective progress, we really needed the Security Council to step in a meaningful fashion and seek to enforce its resolutions that we're not complying with.<ref></ref></blockquote> | |||
Beginning in December 1997, Ritter, with the approval of UNSCOM head ] and other top UNSCOM leaders, began to supply the UK's foreign intelligence service MI6 with documents and briefings on UNSCOM's findings to be used for MI6's propaganda effort dubbed "]": "I was approached by the British intelligence service, which I had, again, a long relationship with, of an official nature, to see if there was any information in the archives of UNSCOM that could be handed to the British, so that they could in turn work it over, determine its veracity, and then seek to plant it in media outlets around the world, in an effort to try to shape the public opinion of those countries, and then indirectly, through, for instance, a report showing up in the Polish press, shape public opinion in Great Britain and the United States. I went to Richard Butler with the request from the British. He said that he supported this, and we initiated a cooperation that was very short-lived. The first reports were passed to the British sometime in February of 1998. There was a detailed planning meeting in June of 1998, and I resigned in August of 1998. This is an operation—Operation Mass Appeal, that had been going on prior to UNSCOM being asked to be the source of particular data, and it's an operation that continued after my resignation."<ref name="Democracy Now!" /> | |||
On ], ], several days after his resignation, Ritter testified before the ] and the ] and said that he resigned his position "out of frustration that the United Nations Security Council, and the United States as its most significant supporter, was failing to enforce the post-Gulf War resolutions designed to disarm Iraq."<ref></ref> | |||
=== Last weapons inspections in 1998 === | |||
During Ritter's Senate testimony about the inspection process, Senator ] stated "The decision of whether or not the country should go to war is slightly ''above your pay grade''." Senator ] later rebutted by stating that he "wished that the administration had consulted with somebody of Ritter's ''pay grade'' during the ]." | |||
In January 1998, Ritter's inspection team in Iraq was blocked from some weapons sites by Iraqi officials who said that information obtained from the sites would be used for future planning of attacks. UN Inspectors then left Iraq, shortly before ] attacks began in December 1998, using information which had been gathered for the purpose of disarmament to identify targets which would reduce Iraq's ability to wage both conventional and possibly unconventional warfare. UN weapons inspectors were thereafter denied access to Iraq. Ritter spoke on the ] show, '']'': "I think the danger right now is that without effective inspections, without effective monitoring, Iraq can in a very short period of time measured in months, reconstitute chemical and biological weapons, long-range ballistic missiles to deliver these weapons, and even certain aspects of their developing of nuclear weapons program."<ref name="PBS1998">{{Cite web|title=Online NewsHour: Scott Ritter|url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/july-dec98/ritter_8-31.html|publisher=]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061021202822/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/july-dec98/ritter_8-31.html |url-status=dead|archive-date=October 21, 2006 |access-date=September 11, 2017}}</ref> | |||
==Opinions on US policy toward Iraq== | |||
Following his resignation from ], Ritter continued to be an outspoken commentator on US policy toward Iraq, particularly with respect to the WMD issue. He became a popular anti-war figure and talk show commentator.<ref></ref> | |||
When the United States and the UN Security Council failed to take action against Iraq for their ongoing failure to cooperate fully with inspectors (a breach of ] ]), Ritter resigned from the United Nations Special Commission on August 26, 1998.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2247600.stm |publisher=BBC News |title=Profile: Scott Ritter |date=September 9, 2002 |access-date=May 23, 2010 |archive-date=August 31, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170831043048/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2247600.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> In his letter of resignation, Ritter said that the Security Council's reaction to Iraq's decision earlier that month to suspend co-operation with the inspection team made a mockery of the disarmament work. Ritter later said in an interview, that he resigned from his role as a United Nations weapons inspector over inconsistencies between United Nations Security Council Resolution 1154 and how it was implemented: "The investigations had come to a standstill, were making no effective progress, and in order to make effective progress, we really needed the Security Council to step in a meaningful fashion and seek to enforce its resolutions that we're not complying with."<ref name="PBS1998" /> | |||
On September 3, 1998, several days after his resignation, Ritter testified before the ] and the ] and said that he resigned his position "out of frustration that the United Nations Security Council, and the United States as its most significant supporter, was failing to enforce the post-Gulf War resolutions designed to disarm Iraq."<ref name="CEIP"> {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021224112338/http://www.ceip.org/programs/npp/ritter.htm |date=December 24, 2002}}</ref> According to him Secretary of State ] had supposedly "blocked more inspections in 1997 than Saddam Hussein did," a charge which Albright disputed.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|last=Gellman|first=Barton|date=September 4, 1998|title=SENATE DEMOCRATS ATTACK RITTER|language=en-US|newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1998/09/04/senate-democrats-attack-ritter/fcccba45-df53-4dc7-aa44-17b1d1e96289/|issn=0190-8286|archive-date=August 27, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170827024313/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1998/09/04/senate-democrats-attack-ritter/fcccba45-df53-4dc7-aa44-17b1d1e96289/|url-status=live|access-date=January 29, 2022}}</ref> | |||
During the testimony on September 3, 1998, Ritter was asked by then-Senator ] about his position on inspections, which Biden criticized as "confrontation-based policy."<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|last=Biden|first=Joseph R.|date=September 19, 1998|title='I MEANT NO DISRESPECT'|language=en-US|newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1998/09/19/i-meant-no-disrespect/6acd6366-2058-4a7c-83cd-da4d345c144d/|access-date=January 29, 2022|issn=0190-8286|archive-date=January 29, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220129054643/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1998/09/19/i-meant-no-disrespect/6acd6366-2058-4a7c-83cd-da4d345c144d/|url-status=live}}</ref> According to ], Biden questioned if the inspector was trying to "appropriate the power 'to decide when to pull the trigger' of military force against Iraq," with Biden saying that the Secretary of State would also have to consider the opinion of allies, the United Nations Security Council and public opinion, before any potential intervention in Iraq.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=United Nations Weapons Inspections in Iraq|publisher=C-SPAN|url=https://www.c-span.org/video/?110998-1/united-nations-weapons-inspections-iraq|access-date=January 29, 2022|language=en-us|archive-date=January 29, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220129063718/https://www.c-span.org/video/?110998-1%2Funited-nations-weapons-inspections-iraq|url-status=live}}</ref> Later on, Biden stated that the decision was "above pay grade."<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0" /> According to Gellman, Senate Democrats joined Biden and "amplified on the ] administration's counterattack Scott Ritter" with exceptions such as ], while Senate Republicans "were unanimous in describing Ritter's disclosures as highly damaging to the credibility of the Clinton administration on one of its core foreign policies."<ref name=":0" /> | |||
Ritter's testimony was disputed by Richard Butler, chief UN arms inspector for Iraq, who claimed that Ritter made factual errors and harmed UNSCOM's mission. The previous chief inspector for Iraq, ], said that Ritter was "not in a position to know all of the considerations that go into decision making on the commission," and defended Albright's support for UNSCOM. Albright publicly disputed Ritter's claims in a speech, saying "In fact, the United States has been by far the strongest international backer of UNSCOM. We have provided indispensable technical and logistical support. We've pushed and pushed and pushed some more to help UNSCOM break through the smoke screen of lies and deceptions put out by the Iraqi regime."<ref>{{cite news |last=Philip |first=Shenon |date=September 10, 1998 |title=Rebuking Ex-Arms Inspector, Albright Defends U.S. Role |newspaper=New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/10/world/rebuking-ex-arms-inspector-albright-defends-us-role.html |access-date=October 3, 2022 |archive-date=October 3, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221003055008/https://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/10/world/rebuking-ex-arms-inspector-albright-defends-us-role.html |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
===Reception as weapons inspector=== | |||
Butler, Ritter's former UNSCOM boss, said that Ritter "wasn't prescient" in his predictions about WMDs, saying, "When he was the 'Alpha Dog' inspector, then by ], there were more weapons there, and we had to go find them a contention for which he had inadequate evidence. When he became a peacenik, then it was all complete B.S., start to finish, and there were no weapons of mass destruction... that also was a contention for which he had inadequate evidence."<ref name="Bai" /> | |||
Writing in '']'', ] said that Butler's caveat notwithstanding, Ritter was in fact vindicated about Iraq's lack of WMDs and that the aftermath of the war could be calamitous. Bai described Ritter as the "most determined dissenter and the one with the most on-the-ground intelligence" of the situation in Iraq prior to the war.<ref name="Bai" /> | |||
However, Bai went on to compare Ritter's insistence during his 2011 trial for sex offenses that his conduct was of no consequence to the wider community—and his unwillingness to consider a plea agreement—to the stridency with which Ritter advocated for his views on Iraq: "If there is a connection between Ritter the activist and Ritter the accused, though, it probably lies in the uncompromising, even heedless way in which he insists on his version of reality, and how he sees himself always as the victim of a system that is self-evidently corrupt. ... the very attribute that made Scott Ritter appear somehow clairvoyant on Iraq—his refusal to accede to everyone else's sense of reality—is the same one that has led him, now, to ruin."<ref name="Bai" /> | |||
==U.S. policy toward Iraq== | |||
{{BLP primary sources|section|date=January 2023}} | |||
After his resignation from UNSCOM, Ritter continued to be an outspoken commentator on U.S. policy toward Iraq, particularly with respect to the WMD issue. He became a popular anti-war figure and talk show commentator.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}} | |||
===Ritter and Operation Desert Fox=== | |||
In a 2005 interview, Ritter criticized the Clinton administration's use of a blocked inspection of a ] party headquarters to justify ], a three-day bombing campaign in December 1998. During the bombing, inspectors were withdrawn from Iraq and they did not return until late 2002.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Interview|url=http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05%2F10%2F21%2F144258|website=]|archive-date=October 23, 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051023045136/http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05%2F10%2F21%2F144258 |url-status=dead|access-date=July 16, 2022}}</ref> However, in his 1999 book ''Endgame'', Ritter says that he was the one who had originally pushed for the fateful inspection of the Ba'ath party headquarters over the doubts of Butler, his boss, and also planned to use 37 inspectors. It was temporarily canceled because Iraq broke off cooperation in August 1998.<ref name=":3">{{cite web| author=Scott Ritter| title=Endgame| website=The New York Times Web Archive| date=April 8, 2018| url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/r/ritter-endgame.html| access-date=January 17, 2023| archive-date=January 16, 2023| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230116062234/https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/r/ritter-endgame.html| url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
===Commentary in the post-inspection period=== | ===Commentary in the post-inspection period=== | ||
] on ], ].]]In 1999, Ritter wrote ] in which he reiterated his claim that Iraq had obstructed the work of inspectors and attempted to hide and preserve essential elements for restarting WMD programs at a later date. However, he also expressed frustration at alleged attempts by the CIA to infiltrate UNSCOM and use the inspectors as a means of gathering intelligence with which to pursue regime change in Iraq – a violation of the terms under which UNSCOM operated, and the very rationale the Iraqi government had given in restricting the inspector’s activities in 1998. | |||
] | |||
In the book’s conclusion, Ritter criticized the current US policy of ] in the absence of inspections as inadequate to prevent Iraq’s re-acquisition of WMD’s in the long term. He also rejected the notion of removing ]’s regime by force. Instead, he advocated a policy of diplomatic ], leading to gradual normalization of international relations with Iraq in return for inspection-verified abandonment of their WMD programs and other objectionable policies. | |||
In ''Endgame: Solving the Iraq Problem — Once and For All'', Ritter reiterated that Iraq had obstructed the work of inspectors and attempted to hide and preserve essential elements for restarting ] programs at a later date. However, he also expressed frustration at alleged attempts by the ] (CIA) to infiltrate UNSCOM and use the inspectors as a means of gathering intelligence with which to pursue regime change in Iraq–a violation of the terms under which UNSCOM operated, and the very rationale the Iraqi government had given in restricting the inspector's activities in 1998. In the book's conclusion, he criticized the U.S. policy of ] in the absence of inspections as inadequate to prevent Iraq's re-acquisition of WMD's in the long term. Ritter also rejected the notion of removing ]'s regime by force. Instead, he advocated a policy of diplomatic ], leading to gradual normalization of international relations with Iraq in return for diplomatic recognition of ], ] autonomy and de-escalation of tensions with Israel.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pipes |first=Daniel |date=September 1999 |title=Endgame: Solving the Iraq Problem - Once and for All |url=https://www.meforum.org/1307/endgame-solving-the-iraq-problem-once-and-for-all |journal=Middle East Quarterly |language=English |volume=6 |issue=3 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240107105725/https://www.meforum.org/1307/endgame-solving-the-iraq-problem-once-and-for-all |archive-date=January 7, 2024 |access-date=January 7, 2024}}</ref> | |||
Ritter again promoted a conciliatory approach toward Iraq in the 2000 documentary '']'', which he wrote and directed. The film |
Ritter again promoted a conciliatory approach toward Iraq in the 2000 documentary '']'', which he wrote and directed. The film is about the history of the UNSCOM investigations through interviews and video footage of inspection missions. In the film, Ritter argues that Iraq is a "defanged tiger" and that the inspections were successful in eliminating significant Iraqi WMD capabilities.<ref name="Kehr">{{cite news|newspaper=New York Times|author=Dave Kehr|title=In Shifting Sands|url=http://movies2.nytimes.com/mem/movies/review.html?title1=&title2=In%20Shifting%20Sands%20(Movie)%20%20&reviewer=Dave%20Kehr&pdate=&v_id=279450|access-date=May 23, 2010}}{{Dead link|date=September 2021 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> (For more see below under "Documentary".) | ||
In 2002, Ritter traveled to Iraq to address the ] as a private citizen. He told the parliament that the U.S. was about to make an "historical mistake" and urged it to allow inspections to resume.<ref name="Bai" /> | |||
===Iraq War Predictions=== | |||
Just after the coalition invasion of Iraq had been launched, but prior to troops arriving in ], ] ] ] told parliament that the ] and the ] believed they had "sufficient forces" in Iraq. At that very time Ritter offered an opposing view to Portugese radio station TSF: "The United States is going to leave Iraq with its tail between its legs, defeated. It is a war we can not win... We do not have the military means to take over Baghdad and for this reason I believe the defeat of the United States in this war is inevitable... Every time we confront Iraqi troops we may win some tactical battles, as we did for ten years in Vietnam, but we will not be able to win this war, which in my opinion is already lost," Ritter added.<ref></ref> | |||
===Iraq War predictions=== | |||
U.S. forces swiftly took Baghdad, but characterizing the result as "winning the war" remains controversial. Shortly after the fall of Baghdad, Ritter appeared on the ] show debating the validity of the invasion and his involvement in the Weapons Inspection program. Hannity claimed Ritter was biased and paid off by the Iraqi government to endorse the idea of WMD's no longer existing in Iraq. Ritter claimed the US would be in Iraq years from now and in the same state as the occupation of ].{{Fact|date=March 2007}} | |||
Just after the coalition invasion of Iraq was launched but prior to troops arriving in ], British ] ] told the ] that the ] and the United Kingdom believed they had "sufficient forces" in Iraq. At the same time Ritter offered an opposing view on Portuguese radio station ]: "The United States is going to leave Iraq with its tail between its legs, defeated. It is a war we can not win... We do not have the military means to take over Baghdad and for this reason I believe the defeat of the United States in this war is inevitable... Every time we confront Iraqi troops we may win some tactical battles, as we did for ten years in ], but we will not be able to win this war, which in my opinion is already lost."<ref name=News24> {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080605231314/http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,6119,2-10-1460_1338708,00.html |date=June 5, 2008}}</ref> | |||
===Commentary on Iraq's lack of WMDs=== | ===Commentary on Iraq's lack of WMDs=== | ||
Despite identifying himself as a ] and having voted for ] in 2000{{Fact|date=October 2007}}, by 2002 Ritter had become an outspoken critic of the ]’s claims that Iraq possessed significant WMD stocks or manufacturing capabilities, the primary rationale given for the ] in March of 2003. His views at that time are well summarized in ] a 2002 publication which consists largely of an interview between Ritter and anti-war activist ]. In the interview, Ritter responds to the question of whether he believes Iraq has weapons of mass destruction: | |||
<blockquote>There’s no doubt Iraq hasn’t fully complied with its disarmament obligations as set forth by the Security Council in its resolution. But on the other hand, since 1998 Iraq has been fundamentally disarmed: 90-95% of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction capacity has been verifiably eliminated... We have to remember that this missing 5-10% doesn’t necessarily constitute a threat... It constitutes bits and pieces of a weapons program which in its totality doesn’t amount to much, but which is still prohibited... We can’t give Iraq a clean bill of health, therefore we can’t close the book on their weapons of mass destruction. But simultaneously, we can’t reasonably talk about Iraqi non-compliance as representing a de-facto retention of a prohibited capacity worthy of war. (page 28)</blockquote> | |||
<blockquote>We eliminated the nuclear program, and for Iraq to have reconstituted it would require undertaking activities that would have been eminently detectable by intelligence services. (page 32)</blockquote> | |||
<blockquote>If Iraq were producing weapons today, we’d have proof, pure and simple. (page 37)</blockquote> | |||
<blockquote>s of December 1998 we had no evidence Iraq had retained biological weapons, nor that they were working on any. In fact, we had a lot of evidence to suggest Iraq was in compliance. (page 46)<ref>Pitt, William R. ''War On Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know'' 2002, Context Books, New York. ISBN 1-893956-38-5</ref></blockquote> | |||
Despite identifying as a ] and having voted for ] in 2000,<ref name=berates>{{cite news |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/09/14/MN81272.DTL |title=Ex-weapons inspector berates war plans |date=September 14, 2002 |newspaper=] |first=David |last=Wallis|archive-date=February 21, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060221105013/http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2002%2F09%2F14%2FMN81272.DTL |url-status=live|access-date=January 18, 2009}}</ref> by 2002, Ritter was an outspoken critic of the ]'s claims that Iraq possessed significant WMD stocks or manufacturing capabilities, the primary rationale given for the ] in March 2003. Prior to the war, Ritter said that the U.S.and ] governments were using the presence of WMD's in Iraq as a political excuse for war.<ref name="Bai" /> His views at the time are summarized in '']'' a 2002 publication which consists largely of an interview between Ritter and anti-war activist ].<ref name=Pitt2002>Pitt, William R. ''War On Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know'' 2002, Context Books, New York. {{ISBN|1-893956-38-5}}</ref> | |||
In the Pitt interview, Ritter also remarked on several examples of members of the Bush or ] making statements he knew to be misleading or false with regard to Iraqi WMD’s | |||
===Later statements on Iraq=== | ===Later statements on Iraq=== | ||
In |
In February 2005, writing on ]'s website, Ritter wrote that the "Iraqi resistance" is a "genuine grassroots national liberation movement," and "History will eventually depict as legitimate the efforts of the Iraqi resistance to destabilize and defeat the American occupation forces and their imposed Iraqi collaborationist government."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,147717,00.html |publisher=Fox News |title=A Critic's Defeatist Rhetoric |date=February 15, 2005 |archive-date=September 24, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080924235759/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,147717,00.html |url-status=live|access-date=January 21, 2008}}</ref> In 2012, Ritter said that the U.S. was "bankrupt, morally and fiscally, because of this war. The United States is the laughingstock of the world".<ref name="Bai" /> | ||
==U.S. policy toward Iran== | |||
In an ], ] interview with ], Ritter claimed that regime change, rather than disarmament, has been the primary objective of ] ], and later of ] and the second ], in imposing and maintaining economic sanctions on Iraq after the Gulf War. Said Ritter: | |||
On February 6, 2006, in the James A. Little Theater in ], Ritter talked about a U.S. war with ]: "We just don't know when, but it's going to happen," and said that after the U.N. Security Council will have found no evidence of WMD, then Under Secretary of State ] "will deliver a speech that has already been written. It says America cannot allow Iran to threaten the United States and we must unilaterally defend ourselves." and continued "How do I know this? I've talked to Bolton's speechwriter".<ref></ref> | |||
<blockquote>The United States needed to find a vehicle to continue to contain Saddam because the CIA said all we have to do is wait six months and Saddam is going to collapse on his own volition. That vehicle is sanctions. They needed a justification; the justification was disarmament. They drafted a Chapter 7 resolution of the United Nations Security Council calling for the disarmament of Iraq and saying in Paragraph 14 that if Iraq complies, sanctions will be lifted. Within months of this resolution being passed--and the United States drafted and voted in favor of this resolution--within months, the President, George Herbert Walker Bush, and his Secretary of State, James Baker, are saying publicly, not privately, publicly that even if Iraq complies with its obligation to disarm, economic sanctions will be maintained until which time Saddam Hussein is removed from power.</blockquote> | |||
Ritter's book ''Target Iran: The Truth About the White House's Plans for Regime Change'' was published in 2006.<ref name="Forward2006">{{cite news|title=Book: Israel, Lobby Pushing Iran War|work=Forward|last=Guttman|first=Nathan|url=https://forward.com/news/9734/book-israel-lobby-pushing-iran-war/|archive-date=June 21, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190621140702/https://forward.com/news/9734/book-israel-lobby-pushing-iran-war/|url-status=live|date=December 29, 2006|access-date=June 21, 2019}}</ref> Nathan Guttman in his review for '']'' said Ritter accused the "pro-Israel lobby of dual loyalty and 'outright espionage'". Ritter said that Israel was pushing the Bush administration into war with Iran.<ref name="Forward2006"/> He accused the pro-Israel lobby of invoking ] and of making false claims of ]. Ritter told ''The Forward'' "at the end of the day, I would like to believe that most of American Jews will side with America."<ref name="Forward2006"/> | |||
<blockquote>That is proof positive that disarmament was only useful insofar as it contained through the maintenance of sanctions and facilitated regime change. It was never about disarmament, it was never about getting rid of weapons of mass destruction. It started with George Herbert Walker Bush, and it was a policy continued through eight years of the Clinton presidency, and then brought us to this current disastrous course of action under the current Bush Administration.<ref></ref></blockquote> | |||
] in '']'' wrote about Ritter's writings of the government in Iran. Coughlin wrote that Ritter said "that the Bush administration is in danger of making the same mistake over Iran that it did during the build-up to the Iraq war, namely getting the facts to fit the administration's policy of effecting regime change in ]". Coughlin said, Ritter concedes the "measures the Iranians have taken in pursuit of nuclear glory" which include the "concealing the existence of key nuclear facilities".<ref>{{cite news|last=Coughlin|first=Con|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3663435/The-case-for-action-against-Iran.html|title=The case for action against Iran|work=The Daily Telegraph|location=London|date=February 25, 2007|access-date=June 21, 2019|archive-date=June 21, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190621145142/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3663435/The-case-for-action-against-Iran.html|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
==Opinions on US policy toward Iran== | |||
On ], ] Scott Ritter told an audience in ], ] that ] had signed-off on preparations to bomb ]ian nuclear facilities, and that these preparations would be completed by June of 2005. On the same occasion, he also made reference to the Iraqi elections, saying that the United States had manipulated the ], changing the percentage of ] votes from 56% to 48%.<ref></ref> | |||
==''In Shifting Sands''== | |||
Ritter reiterated and clarified his statements about Iran in a ] article published by ].<ref></ref> | |||
Ritter's documentary ''In Shifting Sands'' was released in 2001. It argues that Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction because of the UN weapons inspection program.<ref name="Ft" /> According to '']'', his documentary was partially financed by ] businessman ].<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070313175206/http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20040321-101405-2593r.htm |date=March 13, 2007 }} ''The Washington Times'', March 22, 2004</ref> Al-Khafaji pleaded guilty to multiple felony charges in 2004 for his involvement in the ].<ref>John O'Neil. ''Virginia Man Pleads Guilty in Oil-for-Food Inquiry''. New York Times. January 18, 2005</ref> | |||
In a ], ], article published by ], after noting that the Iraq war, which supposedly began in ], in fact began with military operations authorized by the president in late ] and executed in September ], Ritter wrote: "The reality is that the US war with Iran has already begun."<ref></ref> | |||
Ritter said that there was no ] with Al-Khafaji and he told Al-Khafaji the financing "can have no connection to the Iraqi government". Ritter was asked "how he would characterize anyone suggesting that Mr. Khafaji was offering allocations in name", he replied: "I'd say that person's a __ liar... and tell him to come over here so I can kick his _."<ref name="Ft">Mylroie, Laurie. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126043109/http://www.mail-archive.com/sam11@erols.com/msg00286.html |date=January 26, 2021 }} ''Financial Times''.</ref> | |||
On ], ], Ritter was interviewed by ] of the radio and TV show "]" and commented on his earlier statements about U.S.A. policy toward Iran, as they had been reported by some sources. | |||
<blockquote>I was very clear, based upon the information given to me, and it's 100% accurate, that in October 2004, the President of the United States ordered the Pentagon to be prepared to launch military strikes against Iran as of June 2005. That means, have all the resources in place so that if the President orders it, the bombing can begin. It doesn't mean that the bombing is going begin in June. And a lot of people went, "Ah, you said they were going to attack in June." Absolutely not.<ref></ref><ref>http://www.archive.org/download/dn2005-1021/dn2005-1021-1_64kb.mp3] mp3 recording of October 2005 Amy Goodman interview</ref></blockquote> | |||
==Arrests and conviction for sex offenses== | |||
Although there were no air strikes against Iran by the United States in June of 2005, there were bomb blasts in the southern west Iranian city of Ahwaz on ], ].<ref>http://en.wikinews.org/Bomb_blasts_kill_several_in_Iran</ref> Some believe the attacks were carried out by the ] (MEK) organization. Scott Ritter as well as other sources have claimed that the United States, after the invasion of Iraq, have been working with Mojahedin-e-Khalq to continue covert operations in Iran.<ref></ref> | |||
Ritter was the subject of two law enforcement ]s in 2001.<ref name="Warner 2011">{{cite news|last=Warner|first=Dave|title=Sex trial of former U.N. weapons inspector opens|work=]|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sex-ritter-idUKTRE73B7PG20110412|date=April 12, 2011|access-date=March 7, 2022|archive-date=March 7, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307204810/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sex-ritter-idUKTRE73B7PG20110412|url-status=live}}</ref> He was charged in June 2001 with trying to set up a meeting with an undercover police officer posing as a 16-year-old girl.<ref name="CNN01232003">{{cite news|url=http://edition.cnn.com/2003/US/01/22/ritter.arrest/|title=Ex-arms inspector, war foe Ritter confirms 2001 arrest|work=CNN|date=January 23, 2003|archive-date=March 2, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220302193421/https://edition.cnn.com/2003/US/01/22/ritter.arrest/|url-status=live|access-date=June 21, 2019}}</ref><ref name="foxnews.com">{{cite news|url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/former-u-n-weapons-inspector-scott-ritter-timing-of-arrest-reports-suspicious|title=Scott Ritter: Timing of Arrest Reports Suspicious|publisher=Fox News|agency=Associated Press|date=January 23, 2003|archive-date=March 5, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220305155012/https://www.foxnews.com/story/former-u-n-weapons-inspector-scott-ritter-timing-of-arrest-reports-suspicious|url-status=live|access-date=June 21, 2019}}</ref> He was charged with a ] crime of "attempted endangerment of the welfare of a child". The charge was dismissed and the record was sealed after he completed six months of pre-trial probation.<ref name="foxnews.com" /><ref name="BBC 120411"/> Ritter was arrested again in November 2009<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100114/NEWS/1140319 |title="Sex sting in Poconos nets former chief U.N. weapons inspector", Pocono Record, January 14, 2010 |access-date=January 14, 2010 |archive-date=January 16, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100116214612/http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100114/NEWS/1140319 |url-status=dead }}</ref> over communications with a police decoy he met on an Internet chat site. Police said that he exposed himself, via a web camera, after the officer repeatedly identified himself as a 15-year-old girl.<ref name="Bai" /> | |||
Ritter has also made the following two statements regarding military intervention in Iran<ref></ref> | |||
<blockquote>The real purpose of the ] intervention - to prevent the United States from using Iran's nuclear ambition as an excuse for military intervention - is never discussed in public.</blockquote> | |||
<blockquote>The EU-3 would rather continue to participate in fraudulent diplomacy rather than confront the hard truth - that it is the United States, and not Iran, that is operating outside international law when it comes to the issue of Iran's nuclear programme.</blockquote> | |||
The next month, Ritter waived his right to a preliminary hearing and was released on $25,000 unsecured bail. Charges included "unlawful contact with a minor, criminal use of a communications facility, corruption of minors, indecent exposure, possessing instruments of crime, criminal attempt and criminal solicitation".<ref name="nypostponocos">{{cite news|title=Poconos sex sting leads to arrest of former chief UN weapons inspector|url=http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/chief_not_publishpoconos_sex_sting_WGyPXivECwaSEiWGUZQ3AJ#ixzz0cc73vR5B|work=]|date=January 14, 2010|access-date=June 16, 2024|archive-date=April 22, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120422083939/http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/chief_not_publishpoconos_sex_sting_WGyPXivECwaSEiWGUZQ3AJ#ixzz0cc73vR5B|url-status=live}}</ref> Ritter rejected a ] and was found guilty of all but the criminal attempt count in county court in ] on April 14, 2011.<ref name="Bai" /><ref name="ponono"> Retrieved April 14, 2011.</ref> In October 2011, he was sentenced to one and a half to five and a half years in prison.<ref name="rubinkam">{{cite news|last=Rubinkam|first=Michael|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna45049386|title=Ex–UN inspector gets prison in Pa. sex case|website=]|agency=]|date=October 26, 2011|access-date=June 21, 2019|archive-date=December 1, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201201025354/https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna45049386|url-status=live}}</ref> He was sent to ] state prison in ], in March 2012 and paroled in September 2014.<ref name="TU2014" /><ref name="BBC 120411" /><ref name="Guardian 150411">{{cite news|title=Former UN weapons inspector found guilty in online sex case|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/15/former-un-weapons-inspector-online-sex|work=]|agency=Associated Press|date=April 15, 2011|access-date=June 21, 2019|archive-date=March 14, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220314070242/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/15/former-un-weapons-inspector-online-sex|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
On ], ], in the James A. Little Theater in Santa Fe, Ritter stated about a U.S. war with Iran: ''"We just don't know when, but it's going to happen,"'' and said that after the U.N. security Council will have found no evidence of WMD, Bolton ''"will deliver a speech that has already been written. It says America cannot allow Iran to threaten the United States and we must unilaterally defend ourselves."'' and continued ''"How do I know this? I've talked to Bolton's speechwriter,"''<ref></ref> | |||
==Depression, Delmar Fire department== | |||
In an interview with Amy Goodman broadcast on Democracy Now! on ], ], Ritter again reaffirmed the U.S.'s state of undeclared war vis-à-vis Iran.<ref>http://ia331317.us.archive.org/2/items/dn2006-1016/dn2006-1016-1_64kb.mp3] mp3 recording of October 16, 2006 Amy Goodman interview</ref> | |||
In the early 2000s, Ritter and his wife, Marina, joined ]'s volunteer fire department. Delmar is southwest of ]. Scott became one of its most active members and was eventually selected as an assistant chief. According to court testimony, by 2004 when he stopped attending therapy, he had made an almost daily habit of trying to meet women from internet chat rooms, in cars or out-of-the-way places, so they could watch him masturbate. He has blamed this behavior on his ongoing ]. | |||
Ritter published "''Target Iran: The Truth About the White House's Plans for Regime Change''" in 2006.<ref></ref> One editorial review stated: "This book offers Ritter's “national intelligence assessment” of the Iranian imbroglio. He examines the Bush administration's regime-change policy and the potential of Iran to threaten U.S. national security interests." | |||
In 2009, when Scott Ritter's sexual offenses with a minor became public, he lost the only regular job he had had in recent years—writing analyses on world events for a private energy firm—and was reported to be heavily in debt. Also at the time, Ritter was removed from active duties in the Delmar Fire department, something he described as “one of the most profound disappointments I have experienced.”<ref name="Bai"/> | |||
In his book Ritter claims that Israel is pushing the Bush administration into war with Iran.<ref></ref> He also accuses the ] of dual loyalty and outright espionage.<ref></ref> | |||
== Russian invasion of Ukraine == | |||
==Documentary== | |||
Ritter received $400,000 from Iraqi American businessman Shaker Al-Khafaji for the financing of his 2000 ] '']''.<ref>http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20040321-101405-2593r.htm</ref> According to a '']'' article, Al-Khafaji obtained the money from the U.N. Oil-for-Food program for goods imported into the country in violation of U.N. sanctions.<ref>http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20040321-101405-2593r.htm</ref> Ritter denies any ] with Al-Khafaji and according to a ''Financial Times'' article, when Ritter was asked “how he would characterize anyone suggesting that Mr Khafaji was offering allocations in his name, Mr Ritter replied: "I'd say that person's a fucking liar...and tell him to come over here so I can kick his ass."<ref></ref> | |||
In April 2022, shortly after the start of the ], Ritter tweeted that the ] was responsible for the ] and U.S. President ] was a "war criminal" for "seeking to shift blame for the Bucha murders" to Russia. Ritter apparently had not commented previously on Ukraine, or Russia.<ref name="Newsweek"/> ] found evidence linking the killings to the Russian military.<ref name="Briant 2022"/> He was suspended from ] for violating its rule on "harassment and abuse" afterwards but his account was reinstated the next day.<ref name="Newsweek">{{cite news|last=Dutton|first=Jack|url=https://www.newsweek.com/scott-ritters-twitter-reinstated-after-suspension-over-ukraine-remarks-1695834|title=Scott Ritter's Twitter Reinstated After Suspension Over Ukraine Remarks|website=]|date=April 7, 2022|access-date=April 7, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220604082349/https://www.newsweek.com/scott-ritters-twitter-reinstated-after-suspension-over-ukraine-remarks-1695834|archive-date=June 4, 2022|url-status=live}}</ref> His strongly pro-Russian position quickly attracted negative international attention.<ref name="Briant 2022">{{cite web | title=How Russia benefits from ill-informed social media policies | last=Briant | first=Emma L. | website=Brookings | date=April 28, 2022 | url=https://www.brookings.edu/blog/techtank/2022/04/28/how-russia-benefits-from-ill-informed-social-media-policies/ | archive-date=July 6, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220706114738/https://www.brookings.edu/blog/techtank/2022/04/28/how-russia-benefits-from-ill-informed-social-media-policies/|url-status=live|access-date=April 26, 2023}}</ref><ref name="Schogol 2023">{{cite web | last=Schogol | first=Jeff | title=How Russia uses US military veterans in its propaganda war against Ukraine | website=Task & Purpose | date=March 6, 2023 | url=https://taskandpurpose.com/news/army-veteran-john-mcintyre-russian-propaganda/ | access-date=April 26, 2023 | archive-date=March 25, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230325065211/https://taskandpurpose.com/news/army-veteran-john-mcintyre-russian-propaganda/ | url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":4" /> In 2022, he became a contributor to Russian government-owned media outlets RT and Sputnik.<ref name="Echols 2023">{{cite web | last=Echols | first=William | title=Misleading: Chinese State Media Depict Pro-Russia Rally as 'Real Voices' of American People | website=POLYGRAPH.info | date=March 9, 2023 | url=https://www.polygraph.info/a/fact-check-misleading-chinese-state-media-depicting-pro-russia-rally-as-real-voices-of-american-people-/6996066.html | access-date=April 26, 2023 | archive-date=November 26, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231126215711/https://www.polygraph.info/a/fact-check-misleading-chinese-state-media-depicting-pro-russia-rally-as-real-voices-of-american-people-/6996066.html | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Schafer |first=Bret |title=How the People's Republic of China Amplifies Russian Disinformation |url=https://www.state.gov/briefings-foreign-press-centers/how-the-prc-amplifies-russian-disinformation/ |publisher=United States Department of State |language=en |access-date=August 18, 2022 |archive-date=August 18, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220818114641/https://www.state.gov/briefings-foreign-press-centers/how-the-prc-amplifies-russian-disinformation |url-status=live }}</ref> He compared Ukraine to a "rabid dog" which needed to be shot.<ref name="Echols 2023" /><ref>{{cite news |last1=Churchill |first1=Chris |title=Scott Ritter's mission to Moscow: Is the disgraced former U.N. inspector speaking truth to power? Or parroting Russian propaganda? |url=https://www.timesunion.com/churchill/article/scott-ritter-finds-new-audience-putin-s-russia-18130243.php |agency=Albany Times-Union |date=3 June 2023|archive-date=August 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230827203707/https://www.timesunion.com/churchill/article/scott-ritter-finds-new-audience-putin-s-russia-18130243.php |url-status=live|access-date=5 November 2023}}</ref> He compared the treatment of Russians under Ukrainian law to ]'s treatment of Jews.<ref name="The Jerusalem Post JPost.com 2022">{{cite web | title=New Hampshire Libertarian Party likens Zelensky to Hitler | work=The Jerusalem Post | date=October 13, 2022 | url=https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-719576 | access-date=April 26, 2023 | archive-date=April 26, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230426131649/https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-719576 | url-status=live }}</ref> In October 2022, he posted a provocative tweet about Bucha, "Bucha was a war crime, Ukraine did it", to test the reaction of Twitter.<ref name=":5" /> | |||
In a Time article on ], ], he declined to provide details regarding the conditions of the children's prison at the Iraqi General Security Services headquarters he inspected in January 1998. Ritter, stating that he did not favor war with Iraq in 2002, said that prison conditions were "horrific" but refused to provide further details, other than it contained "toddlers up to pre-adolescents whose only crime was to be the offspring of those who have spoken out politically against the regime of Saddam Hussein." Ritter refused because he worried the details could "... be used by those who would want to promote war with Iraq."<ref></ref> | |||
DisInfoChronicle, a website of the ] Detector Media which claims to refute Russian disinformation, wrote that Ritter was being used by Russia to "promote narratives needed by the Kremlin".<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |title=Scott Ritter "tested" Twitter: "Bucha was a war crime. Ukraine did it" |url=https://disinfo.detector.media/en/post/scott-ritter-tested-twitter-bucha-was-a-war-crime-ukraine-did-it |access-date=August 28, 2023 |website=disinfo.detector.media |language=en |archive-date=August 28, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230828112214/https://disinfo.detector.media/en/post/scott-ritter-tested-twitter-bucha-was-a-war-crime-ukraine-did-it |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
In July 2022, the Ukrainian ] included Ritter on a list of what it called Russian propagandists.<ref name="u">{{Cite web |last=Carbonaro |first=Giulia |date=July 26, 2022 |title=Tulsi Gabbard, Rand Paul placed on list of Russian propagandists by Ukraine |url=https://www.newsweek.com/tulsi-gabbard-rand-paul-placed-list-russian-propagandists-ukraine-1727831 |access-date=August 18, 2022 |website=Newsweek |language=en |archive-date=July 26, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220726085336/https://www.newsweek.com/tulsi-gabbard-rand-paul-placed-list-russian-propagandists-ukraine-1727831 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Martynyuk2023">{{cite web| title=Russia Uses Ukraine Ex-UN Weapons Inspector's Misinformation for Propaganda| last=Martynyuk| first=Leonid| website=POLYGRAPH.info| date=April 24, 2023| url=https://www.polygraph.info/a/fact-check-ukraine-misinformation-from-ex-un-weapons-inspector-in-russian-propaganda-/7064239.html| access-date=April 26, 2023| archive-date=December 26, 2023| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231226140800/https://www.polygraph.info/a/fact-check-ukraine-misinformation-from-ex-un-weapons-inspector-in-russian-propaganda-/7064239.html| url-status=live}}</ref> In April 2022 and April 2023 Ritter said that Russia was winning the war. American government-owned news outlet ] wrote that Ritter's claims about Russia winning the war and about the Bucha massacre were false.<ref name="Martynyuk2023" /> In May 2023, Ritter began a ] of ], ], and ] for his most recent book, ''Disarmament in the time of the Perestroika'', which examines nuclear weapons agreements between Russia and the United States. According to '']'', Ritter predicted that Ukraine would lose the war.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |date=May 24, 2023 |title=Why are disgraced Americans spouting pro-Putin propaganda in Russia? |url=https://www.euronews.com/2023/05/24/why-do-disgraced-americans-like-scott-ritter-spout-pro-putin-propaganda-in-russia |website=euronews |language=en |access-date=May 29, 2023 |archive-date=September 21, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230921014424/https://www.euronews.com/2023/05/24/why-do-disgraced-americans-like-scott-ritter-spout-pro-putin-propaganda-in-russia |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
==Legal problems== | |||
In June 2001, Ritter was arrested near ].<ref>http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/01/22/ritter.arrest/ "Ex-arms inspector, war foe Ritter confirms 2001 arrest" Thursday, January 23, 2003</ref><ref>http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,76434,00.html ], on ]</ref> News reports state that Ritter had brushes with police on two occasions, both involving allegations of intent to meet underage girls after chatting on the Internet.<ref name=upi_sting></ref> According to WTEN-TV, Ritter underwent court-ordered sex offender counseling from an Albany psychologist.<ref name=upi_sting/> Ritter charged that the reports, which resulted from leaks from a sealed court case, were politically motivated with the intent to defame him and to distract from his revelations about Iraq. <ref>http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/01/22/ritter.arrest/ "Ex-arms inspector, war foe Ritter confirms 2001 arrest" Thursday, January 23, 2003</ref><ref>http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,76434,00.html ], on ]</ref> | |||
In January 2024, Ritter visited ], addressing thousands of Chechen fighters in a central square in ], the capital. ] journalist Francis Scarr called it "one of the most surreal moments of the war yet. Scott Ritter has turned up in Chechnya and spoken in broken Russian (some of which I couldn't make out) to thousands of ]'s fighters about his efforts to strengthen the 'friendship between Chechnya and America'." In his speech, Ritter again repeated his belief that Russia will win its war with Ukraine.<ref name="Chechnya2024" /> After Ritter's speech in Grozny, where he was being welcomed as a guest of the Chechenya, Kadyrov made a public statement that he had given Ritter a list of 20 Ukrainian prisoners-of-war he was prepared to release in return for a lifting of ] on him and his family.<ref>{{Cite news|date=January 6, 2024|title=Chechen Leader Offers Ukrainian Captives In Exchange For Lifting Sanctions On His Family|newspaper=Radiofreeeurope/Radioliberty|url=https://www.rferl.org/a/chechen-kadyrov-ukrainian-captives-lifting-sanctions-ritter/32763582.html|access-date=January 22, 2024|archive-date=January 22, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240122112037/https://www.rferl.org/a/chechen-kadyrov-ukrainian-captives-lifting-sanctions-ritter/32763582.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Kadyrov called his public statement "trolling" and said that it had not been serious.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Kadyrov calls his Ukrainian prisoner exchange for sanctions relief offer 'trolling' |url=https://news.yahoo.com/kadyrov-calls-ukrainian-prisoner-exchange-110400233.html |date=January 8, 2024 |access-date=January 24, 2024 |archive-date=January 24, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240124073959/https://news.yahoo.com/kadyrov-calls-ukrainian-prisoner-exchange-110400233.html |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
==See also== | |||
{{wikiquote}} | |||
* ] | |||
==Passport seizure== | |||
==References== | |||
{{reflist}} | |||
In June 2024, US authorities seized Ritter's passport and prevented him from visiting Russia.<ref name="a042"/><ref name="passport"/> According to Ritter, three ] agents stopped him as he was about to board a flight to ] going to the ].<ref name="passport"/> He said that the agents never showed him a warrant and never gave him a receipt when they seized his passport.<ref name="passport2">{{Cite news |date=June 5, 2024 |title=Scott Ritter Claims State Department Seized His Passport |newspaper=The American Conservative |url=https://www.theamericanconservative.com/scott-ritter-claims-state-department-seized-his-passport/ |access-date=June 12, 2024 |archive-date=June 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240612153725/https://www.theamericanconservative.com/scott-ritter-claims-state-department-seized-his-passport/ |url-status=live }}</ref> ]'s spokesman ] said that "details" about the situation were not clear. Peskov also said that restricting the travel of former intelligence agents "is practiced in almost all countries in relation to former intelligence officers" and that if Ritter was removed from the flight to stop him from speaking in Russia, then it was part of a “frenzied campaign to prevent U.S. citizens from establishing at least some contacts with Russia".<ref name="a042"/> | |||
==Bibliography== | |||
*''Waging Peace: The Art of War for the Antiwar Movement'', 2007, Nation Books, ISBN 1-56858-328-1 | |||
==FBI raid== | |||
*''Target Iran: The Truth About the White House's Plans for Regime Change'' (Hardcover), Nation Books), 2006. ISBN 1-56025-936-1 | |||
*''Iraq Confidential: The Untold Story of the Intelligence Conspiracy to Undermine the UN and Overthrow Saddam Hussein'' (Hardcover), 2005. Foreword by ]. ISBN 1-56025-852-7 | |||
{{See also|Russian interference in the 2024 United States elections}} | |||
*''Frontier Justice: Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Bushwhacking of America'' (Context Books, 2003) ISBN 1-893956-47-4 | |||
On August 7, 2024, the FBI conducted a raid of Ritter's home near Albany as part of efforts by the Department of Justice to combat Russian election interference.<ref name=":62">{{Cite news |work= WNYT |location= Albany, NY |title= FBI searching Delmar home of ex-UN weapons inspector Ritter |url= https://wnyt.com/top-stories/fbi-searching-delmar-home-of-ex-un-weapons-inspector-ritter/ |access-date= August 8, 2024 |archive-date= August 7, 2024 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240807233935/https://wnyt.com/top-stories/fbi-searching-delmar-home-of-ex-un-weapons-inspector-ritter/ |url-status= live }}</ref><ref name="Myers_Barnes_8/21/2014">{{cite web | last1=Myers | first1=Steven Lee | last2=Barnes | first2=Julian E. | title=U.S. Investigating Americans Who Worked With Russian State Television | website=] | date=August 21, 2024 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/21/technology/us-fbi-russia-election-disinformation.html | access-date=August 23, 2024 | archive-date=August 22, 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240822224340/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/21/technology/us-fbi-russia-election-disinformation.html | url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
*''War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know'' (with ]). Context Books, 2002. ISBN 1-893956-38-5 | |||
*''Endgame: Solving the Iraq Problem - Once and For All'' (Simon & Schuster, 1999) ISBN 0-684-86485-1 (paperback: Diane Pub Co, 2004; ISBN 0-7567-7659-7) | |||
==Selected bibliography== | |||
*<u>Revolt in the Mountains: Fuzail Maksum and the Occupation of Garm, Spring 1929.</u> ''Journal of Contemporary History.'' Vol. 25 1990 | |||
*<u>The Final Phase in the Liquidation of Anti-Soviet Resistance in Tadzhikistan: Ibrahim Bek and the Basmachi, 1924-31.</u> '']'' Vol. 37, no. 4, October 1985 | |||
* ''Disarmament in the Time of Perestroika: Arms Control and the End of the Soviet Union'', Clarity Press, 2022, {{ISBN|1949762610}} | |||
* ''Scorpion King: America's Suicidal Embrace of Nuclear Weapons from FDR to Trump'' (Paperback), Clarity Press, 2020; 2nd revised edition, {{ISBN|1949762181}} | |||
* ''Deal of the Century: How Iran Blocked the West's Road to War'' (Paperback), Clarity Press, 2017, {{ISBN|0997896507}} | |||
* ''Dangerous Ground: America's Failed Arms Control Policy, from FDR to Obama'' (Hardcover), 2009 {{ISBN|1568583990}} | |||
* ''Waging Peace: The Art of War for the Antiwar Movement'', Nation Books, 2007, {{ISBN|1-56858-328-1}} | |||
* ''Target Iran: The Truth About the White House's Plans for Regime Change'' (Hardcover), Nation Books, 2006, {{ISBN|1-56025-936-1}} | |||
* ''Iraq Confidential: The Untold Story of the Intelligence Conspiracy to Undermine the UN and Overthrow Saddam Hussein'' (Hardcover), Foreword by ], Nation Books, 2006, {{ISBN|1-56025-852-7}} | |||
* ''Frontier Justice: Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Bushwhacking of America'' Context Books, 2003, {{ISBN|1-893956-47-4}} | |||
* ''War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know'' (with ]). Context Books, 2002, {{ISBN|1-893956-38-5}} | |||
* ''Endgame: Solving the Iraq Problem — Once and For All'' (Hardcover) Simon & Schuster, 1999, {{ISBN|0-684-86485-1}}; (paperback) Diane Pub Co, 2004, {{ISBN|0-7567-7659-7}} | |||
== See also == | |||
<!---♦♦♦ Please keep the list in alphabetical order by LAST NAME ♦♦♦---> | |||
*], Canadian pro-Russian activist | |||
*], American YouTuber | |||
*], a Chilean-American Youtuber | |||
*] | |||
* ], pro-Russian British journalist | |||
*] | |||
==References== | |||
{{Reflist|2}} | |||
==External links== | ==External links== | ||
{{wikiquote}} | |||
===By Ritter=== | |||
*{{C-SPAN|56771}} | |||
* | |||
* recorded on 10/16/06 at , 88 min., mp3 format | |||
* Edited transcript of an ] public conversation | |||
* recorded on 10/19/05 at , 89 min., mp3 format | |||
* | |||
* (Real Audio) | |||
* pictures and ] of Scott Ritter. | |||
* - Ritter's talk about Saddam's probable lack of WMDs. | |||
* to The ]'s Policy Forum, ] ] | |||
* | |||
* | |||
* | |||
* {{cite web|title=The Case for Iraq's Qualitative Disarmament|work=Arms Control Association|url=http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2000_06/iraqjun.asp|accessmonthday=December 2 |accessyear=2005}} | |||
*{{cite web|title=RITTER SPEECH TO IRAQI PARLIAMENT|work=CSPAN|url=http://www.cspan.org/iraq/ritter.asp|accessmonthday=December 2 |accessyear=2005}} | |||
* | |||
* {{cite web|title=Is Iraq a True Threat to the US?|work=commondreams.org|url=http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0721-02.htm|accessmonthday=December 2 |accessyear=2005}} | |||
* {{cite web|title=Scott Ritter on "Target Iran: The Truth About the White House’s Plans for Regime Change”|work=democracynow.org|url=http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/16/144204|accessmonthday=October 17 |accessyear=2006}} | |||
* article in The Nation posted ], ] (web only) | |||
*, with Robert Scheer | |||
*, ], ], ] | |||
* | |||
{{Authority control}} | |||
===About Ritter=== | |||
{{Iran–United States relations}} | |||
* | |||
* ''Time'' ] ]. | |||
* | |||
* | |||
* | |||
*, ] Ritter series,] via ]. | |||
*{{cite web|title=In Shifting Sands|work=IMDB|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361743/|accessmonthday=November 29 |accessyear=2005}} | |||
* | |||
* {{cite web|title=Middle East Iraq welcomes inspector resignation|work=BBC News|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/159293.stm|accessmonthday=August 28 |accessyear=1998}} | |||
* {{cite web|title=SCOTT RITTER|work=The Unity Network|url=http://www.unitynetwork.net/events/ritter_bio.htm|accessmonthday=December 2 |accessyear=2005}} | |||
* {{cite web|title=Review of the Year: 1998, January: Scott Ritter|work=BBC|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1998/12/98/review_of_98/newsmakers/234927.stm|accessmonthday=December 3 |accessyear=2005}} | |||
* {{cite web|title=Scott Ritter: Facts needed before Iraq attack|work=CNN|url=http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/07/17/saddam.ritter.cnna/|accessmonthday=December 2 |accessyear=2005}} | |||
* {{cite web|title=Ex-U.N. Inspector Ritter to Tour Iraq, Make Documentary|work=Washington Post|url=http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/rittrdoc.htm|accessmonthday=December 13 |accessyear=2005}} | |||
* {{cite web|title=Hero of doves forgets when he was a hawk|work=Guardian Unlimited|url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12239,792426,00.html|accessmonthday=December 13 |accessyear=2005}} | |||
*Ritter, Scott. Interview with Elizabeth Farnsworth. ''NewsHour with Jim Lehrer''. PBS. ] ]. Transcript. ] ]. | |||
* {{cite web|title=CNN and Scott Ritter|work=Accuracy in Media|url=http://www.aim.org/media_monitor/A628_0_2_0_C/|accessmonthday=December 13 |accessyear=2005}} | |||
* {{cite web|title=Joe Biden was Right|work=Jewish World Review|url=http://www.jewishworldreview.com/sam/schulman091902.asp|accessmonthday=December 13 |accessyear=2005}} | |||
* {{cite web|title=Saddam's Cash|work=Weekly Standard|url=http://weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/002/605fgcob.asp|accessmonthday=December 13 |accessyear=2005}} | |||
* {{cite web|title=Iraq, Iran, and WMDs|work=ZNet|url=http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=67&ItemID=11993|accessmonthday=January 30 |accessyear=2007}} | |||
* {{cite web|title=Ritter blames the Jews—again|work=World War 4 Report|url=http://www.ww4report.com/node/3610|accessmonthday=April 15 |accessyear=2007}} | |||
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ritter, Scott}} | {{DEFAULTSORT:Ritter, Scott}} | ||
] | ] | ||
] | ] | ||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | ] | ||
] | ] | ||
] | |||
] | ] | ||
] | ] | ||
] | |||
] | ] | ||
] | ] | ||
] | ] | ||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] |
Latest revision as of 17:38, 6 December 2024
American weapons inspector and writer (born 1961)
Scott Ritter | |
---|---|
Ritter in 2007 | |
Born | William Scott Ritter, Jr. (1961-07-15) July 15, 1961 (age 63) Gainesville, Florida, U.S. |
Education | Kaiserslautern American High School, Germany |
Alma mater | Franklin and Marshall College |
Occupations |
|
Known for |
|
Criminal charges | Sex offenses (unlawful contact with a minor, corruption of minors, indecent exposure) |
Criminal penalty | Sentence of 1½ to 5½ years in prison in 2011 |
Criminal status | Paroled in 2014 |
Spouse | Marina |
Website | scottritterextra |
William Scott Ritter Jr. (born July 15, 1961) is an American former United States Marine Corps intelligence officer, former United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) weapons inspector, author, and commentator. He is a convicted child sex offender.
Ritter was a junior military analyst during Operation Desert Storm. He served as a member of UNSCOM overseeing the disarmament of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq from 1991 to 1998, from which he resigned in protest. Later he became a critic of the Iraq War and United States foreign policy in the Middle East. In recent years, he has been a regular contributor to Russian state media outlets RT and Sputnik. He has visited Russia in support of Russia since the start of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. In June 2024, Ritter claimed that US authorities seized his passport and prevented him from visiting Russia. As of March 2024, he is a member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.
Early and personal life
Ritter was born into a military family in 1961 in Gainesville, Florida. He graduated from Kaiserslautern American High School in Kaiserslautern west of Mannheim, Germany in 1979. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He studied the history of the Soviet Union there and received departmental honors.
Military background
In 1980, Ritter served in the U.S. Army as a private. In May 1984, he was commissioned as an intelligence officer in the United States Marine Corps. He served in this capacity for about 12 years. He was the lead analyst for the Marine Corps Rapid Deployment Force concerning the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Iran–Iraq War. His academic work focused on the Basmachi resistance movement in Soviet Central Asia during the 1920s and 1930s, and on the Basmachi commanders Faizal Maksum and Ibrahim Bek.
During Desert Storm (1991), as a Marine captain, he served as a ballistic missile intelligence analyst under General Norman Schwarzkopf. Ritter filed multiple internal reports challenging Schwarzkopf's claim that the US had destroyed "as many as 16" of Iraq's estimated 20 mobile Scud missile launchers, arguing that they could not be confirmed. In 1992 Ritter was quoted in a New York Times op-ed saying "No mobile Scud launchers were destroyed during the war." He later worked as a security and military consultant for the Fox News network. In an interview with Democracy Now! in 2003 he said he had "a long relationship of an official nature" with the UK's foreign intelligence spy agency MI6.
Weapons inspector
Ritter worked as a weapons inspector for the United Nations Special Commission from 1991 to 1998, which was charged with finding and destroying all weapons of mass destruction and WMD-related manufacturing capabilities in Iraq. He was the chief inspector in fourteen of more than thirty inspection missions in which he participated.
Ritter was among a group of UNSCOM weapons inspectors which regularly took Lockheed U-2 imagery to Israel for analysis, as UNSCOM was not getting sufficient analysis assistance from the United States and the United Kingdom. That was not authorized by UNSCOM, the U-2 jet had been loaned to UNSCOM and caused him to be subjected to criticism and investigation by U.S. authorities. Iraq protested about information being given to Israel.
Operation Mass Appeal
Beginning in December 1997, Ritter, with the approval of UNSCOM head Richard Butler and other top UNSCOM leaders, began to supply the UK's foreign intelligence service MI6 with documents and briefings on UNSCOM's findings to be used for MI6's propaganda effort dubbed "Operation Mass Appeal": "I was approached by the British intelligence service, which I had, again, a long relationship with, of an official nature, to see if there was any information in the archives of UNSCOM that could be handed to the British, so that they could in turn work it over, determine its veracity, and then seek to plant it in media outlets around the world, in an effort to try to shape the public opinion of those countries, and then indirectly, through, for instance, a report showing up in the Polish press, shape public opinion in Great Britain and the United States. I went to Richard Butler with the request from the British. He said that he supported this, and we initiated a cooperation that was very short-lived. The first reports were passed to the British sometime in February of 1998. There was a detailed planning meeting in June of 1998, and I resigned in August of 1998. This is an operation—Operation Mass Appeal, that had been going on prior to UNSCOM being asked to be the source of particular data, and it's an operation that continued after my resignation."
Last weapons inspections in 1998
In January 1998, Ritter's inspection team in Iraq was blocked from some weapons sites by Iraqi officials who said that information obtained from the sites would be used for future planning of attacks. UN Inspectors then left Iraq, shortly before Operation Desert Fox attacks began in December 1998, using information which had been gathered for the purpose of disarmament to identify targets which would reduce Iraq's ability to wage both conventional and possibly unconventional warfare. UN weapons inspectors were thereafter denied access to Iraq. Ritter spoke on the PBS show, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer: "I think the danger right now is that without effective inspections, without effective monitoring, Iraq can in a very short period of time measured in months, reconstitute chemical and biological weapons, long-range ballistic missiles to deliver these weapons, and even certain aspects of their developing of nuclear weapons program."
When the United States and the UN Security Council failed to take action against Iraq for their ongoing failure to cooperate fully with inspectors (a breach of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1154), Ritter resigned from the United Nations Special Commission on August 26, 1998. In his letter of resignation, Ritter said that the Security Council's reaction to Iraq's decision earlier that month to suspend co-operation with the inspection team made a mockery of the disarmament work. Ritter later said in an interview, that he resigned from his role as a United Nations weapons inspector over inconsistencies between United Nations Security Council Resolution 1154 and how it was implemented: "The investigations had come to a standstill, were making no effective progress, and in order to make effective progress, we really needed the Security Council to step in a meaningful fashion and seek to enforce its resolutions that we're not complying with."
On September 3, 1998, several days after his resignation, Ritter testified before the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services and the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and said that he resigned his position "out of frustration that the United Nations Security Council, and the United States as its most significant supporter, was failing to enforce the post-Gulf War resolutions designed to disarm Iraq." According to him Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright had supposedly "blocked more inspections in 1997 than Saddam Hussein did," a charge which Albright disputed.
During the testimony on September 3, 1998, Ritter was asked by then-Senator Joe Biden about his position on inspections, which Biden criticized as "confrontation-based policy." According to Barton Gellman, Biden questioned if the inspector was trying to "appropriate the power 'to decide when to pull the trigger' of military force against Iraq," with Biden saying that the Secretary of State would also have to consider the opinion of allies, the United Nations Security Council and public opinion, before any potential intervention in Iraq. Later on, Biden stated that the decision was "above pay grade." According to Gellman, Senate Democrats joined Biden and "amplified on the Clinton administration's counterattack Scott Ritter" with exceptions such as John Kerry, while Senate Republicans "were unanimous in describing Ritter's disclosures as highly damaging to the credibility of the Clinton administration on one of its core foreign policies."
Ritter's testimony was disputed by Richard Butler, chief UN arms inspector for Iraq, who claimed that Ritter made factual errors and harmed UNSCOM's mission. The previous chief inspector for Iraq, Rolf Ekéus, said that Ritter was "not in a position to know all of the considerations that go into decision making on the commission," and defended Albright's support for UNSCOM. Albright publicly disputed Ritter's claims in a speech, saying "In fact, the United States has been by far the strongest international backer of UNSCOM. We have provided indispensable technical and logistical support. We've pushed and pushed and pushed some more to help UNSCOM break through the smoke screen of lies and deceptions put out by the Iraqi regime."
Reception as weapons inspector
Butler, Ritter's former UNSCOM boss, said that Ritter "wasn't prescient" in his predictions about WMDs, saying, "When he was the 'Alpha Dog' inspector, then by God, there were more weapons there, and we had to go find them a contention for which he had inadequate evidence. When he became a peacenik, then it was all complete B.S., start to finish, and there were no weapons of mass destruction... that also was a contention for which he had inadequate evidence."
Writing in The New York Times, Matt Bai said that Butler's caveat notwithstanding, Ritter was in fact vindicated about Iraq's lack of WMDs and that the aftermath of the war could be calamitous. Bai described Ritter as the "most determined dissenter and the one with the most on-the-ground intelligence" of the situation in Iraq prior to the war.
However, Bai went on to compare Ritter's insistence during his 2011 trial for sex offenses that his conduct was of no consequence to the wider community—and his unwillingness to consider a plea agreement—to the stridency with which Ritter advocated for his views on Iraq: "If there is a connection between Ritter the activist and Ritter the accused, though, it probably lies in the uncompromising, even heedless way in which he insists on his version of reality, and how he sees himself always as the victim of a system that is self-evidently corrupt. ... the very attribute that made Scott Ritter appear somehow clairvoyant on Iraq—his refusal to accede to everyone else's sense of reality—is the same one that has led him, now, to ruin."
U.S. policy toward Iraq
This biography of a living person relies too much on references to primary sources. Please help by adding secondary or tertiary sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. Find sources: "Scott Ritter" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
After his resignation from UNSCOM, Ritter continued to be an outspoken commentator on U.S. policy toward Iraq, particularly with respect to the WMD issue. He became a popular anti-war figure and talk show commentator.
Ritter and Operation Desert Fox
In a 2005 interview, Ritter criticized the Clinton administration's use of a blocked inspection of a Ba'ath party headquarters to justify Operation Desert Fox, a three-day bombing campaign in December 1998. During the bombing, inspectors were withdrawn from Iraq and they did not return until late 2002. However, in his 1999 book Endgame, Ritter says that he was the one who had originally pushed for the fateful inspection of the Ba'ath party headquarters over the doubts of Butler, his boss, and also planned to use 37 inspectors. It was temporarily canceled because Iraq broke off cooperation in August 1998.
Commentary in the post-inspection period
In Endgame: Solving the Iraq Problem — Once and For All, Ritter reiterated that Iraq had obstructed the work of inspectors and attempted to hide and preserve essential elements for restarting WMD programs at a later date. However, he also expressed frustration at alleged attempts by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to infiltrate UNSCOM and use the inspectors as a means of gathering intelligence with which to pursue regime change in Iraq–a violation of the terms under which UNSCOM operated, and the very rationale the Iraqi government had given in restricting the inspector's activities in 1998. In the book's conclusion, he criticized the U.S. policy of containment in the absence of inspections as inadequate to prevent Iraq's re-acquisition of WMD's in the long term. Ritter also rejected the notion of removing Saddam Hussein's regime by force. Instead, he advocated a policy of diplomatic engagement, leading to gradual normalization of international relations with Iraq in return for diplomatic recognition of Kuwait, Kurdish autonomy and de-escalation of tensions with Israel.
Ritter again promoted a conciliatory approach toward Iraq in the 2000 documentary In Shifting Sands: The Truth About UNSCOM and the Disarming of Iraq, which he wrote and directed. The film is about the history of the UNSCOM investigations through interviews and video footage of inspection missions. In the film, Ritter argues that Iraq is a "defanged tiger" and that the inspections were successful in eliminating significant Iraqi WMD capabilities. (For more see below under "Documentary".)
In 2002, Ritter traveled to Iraq to address the Iraqi Parliament as a private citizen. He told the parliament that the U.S. was about to make an "historical mistake" and urged it to allow inspections to resume.
Iraq War predictions
Just after the coalition invasion of Iraq was launched but prior to troops arriving in Baghdad, British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the Parliament of the United Kingdom that the United States and the United Kingdom believed they had "sufficient forces" in Iraq. At the same time Ritter offered an opposing view on Portuguese radio station TSF: "The United States is going to leave Iraq with its tail between its legs, defeated. It is a war we can not win... We do not have the military means to take over Baghdad and for this reason I believe the defeat of the United States in this war is inevitable... Every time we confront Iraqi troops we may win some tactical battles, as we did for ten years in Vietnam, but we will not be able to win this war, which in my opinion is already lost."
Commentary on Iraq's lack of WMDs
Despite identifying as a Republican and having voted for George W. Bush in 2000, by 2002, Ritter was an outspoken critic of the Bush administration's claims that Iraq possessed significant WMD stocks or manufacturing capabilities, the primary rationale given for the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Prior to the war, Ritter said that the U.S.and British governments were using the presence of WMD's in Iraq as a political excuse for war. His views at the time are summarized in War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You To Know a 2002 publication which consists largely of an interview between Ritter and anti-war activist William Rivers Pitt.
Later statements on Iraq
In February 2005, writing on Al Jazeera's website, Ritter wrote that the "Iraqi resistance" is a "genuine grassroots national liberation movement," and "History will eventually depict as legitimate the efforts of the Iraqi resistance to destabilize and defeat the American occupation forces and their imposed Iraqi collaborationist government." In 2012, Ritter said that the U.S. was "bankrupt, morally and fiscally, because of this war. The United States is the laughingstock of the world".
U.S. policy toward Iran
On February 6, 2006, in the James A. Little Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Ritter talked about a U.S. war with Iran: "We just don't know when, but it's going to happen," and said that after the U.N. Security Council will have found no evidence of WMD, then Under Secretary of State John Bolton "will deliver a speech that has already been written. It says America cannot allow Iran to threaten the United States and we must unilaterally defend ourselves." and continued "How do I know this? I've talked to Bolton's speechwriter".
Ritter's book Target Iran: The Truth About the White House's Plans for Regime Change was published in 2006. Nathan Guttman in his review for The Forward said Ritter accused the "pro-Israel lobby of dual loyalty and 'outright espionage'". Ritter said that Israel was pushing the Bush administration into war with Iran. He accused the pro-Israel lobby of invoking the Holocaust and of making false claims of antisemitism. Ritter told The Forward "at the end of the day, I would like to believe that most of American Jews will side with America."
Con Coughlin in The Daily Telegraph wrote about Ritter's writings of the government in Iran. Coughlin wrote that Ritter said "that the Bush administration is in danger of making the same mistake over Iran that it did during the build-up to the Iraq war, namely getting the facts to fit the administration's policy of effecting regime change in Tehran". Coughlin said, Ritter concedes the "measures the Iranians have taken in pursuit of nuclear glory" which include the "concealing the existence of key nuclear facilities".
In Shifting Sands
Ritter's documentary In Shifting Sands was released in 2001. It argues that Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction because of the UN weapons inspection program. According to The Washington Times, his documentary was partially financed by Iraqi American businessman Shakir al Khafaji. Al-Khafaji pleaded guilty to multiple felony charges in 2004 for his involvement in the U.N. Oil-for-Food scandal.
Ritter said that there was no quid pro quo with Al-Khafaji and he told Al-Khafaji the financing "can have no connection to the Iraqi government". Ritter was asked "how he would characterize anyone suggesting that Mr. Khafaji was offering allocations in name", he replied: "I'd say that person's a __ liar... and tell him to come over here so I can kick his _."
Arrests and conviction for sex offenses
Ritter was the subject of two law enforcement sting operations in 2001. He was charged in June 2001 with trying to set up a meeting with an undercover police officer posing as a 16-year-old girl. He was charged with a misdemeanor crime of "attempted endangerment of the welfare of a child". The charge was dismissed and the record was sealed after he completed six months of pre-trial probation. Ritter was arrested again in November 2009 over communications with a police decoy he met on an Internet chat site. Police said that he exposed himself, via a web camera, after the officer repeatedly identified himself as a 15-year-old girl.
The next month, Ritter waived his right to a preliminary hearing and was released on $25,000 unsecured bail. Charges included "unlawful contact with a minor, criminal use of a communications facility, corruption of minors, indecent exposure, possessing instruments of crime, criminal attempt and criminal solicitation". Ritter rejected a plea bargain and was found guilty of all but the criminal attempt count in county court in Rochester, New York on April 14, 2011. In October 2011, he was sentenced to one and a half to five and a half years in prison. He was sent to Laurel Highlands state prison in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, in March 2012 and paroled in September 2014.
Depression, Delmar Fire department
In the early 2000s, Ritter and his wife, Marina, joined Delmar, New York's volunteer fire department. Delmar is southwest of Albany. Scott became one of its most active members and was eventually selected as an assistant chief. According to court testimony, by 2004 when he stopped attending therapy, he had made an almost daily habit of trying to meet women from internet chat rooms, in cars or out-of-the-way places, so they could watch him masturbate. He has blamed this behavior on his ongoing depression.
In 2009, when Scott Ritter's sexual offenses with a minor became public, he lost the only regular job he had had in recent years—writing analyses on world events for a private energy firm—and was reported to be heavily in debt. Also at the time, Ritter was removed from active duties in the Delmar Fire department, something he described as “one of the most profound disappointments I have experienced.”
Russian invasion of Ukraine
In April 2022, shortly after the start of the Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Ritter tweeted that the National Police of Ukraine was responsible for the Bucha massacre and U.S. President Joe Biden was a "war criminal" for "seeking to shift blame for the Bucha murders" to Russia. Ritter apparently had not commented previously on Ukraine, or Russia. Human Rights Watch found evidence linking the killings to the Russian military. He was suspended from Twitter for violating its rule on "harassment and abuse" afterwards but his account was reinstated the next day. His strongly pro-Russian position quickly attracted negative international attention. In 2022, he became a contributor to Russian government-owned media outlets RT and Sputnik. He compared Ukraine to a "rabid dog" which needed to be shot. He compared the treatment of Russians under Ukrainian law to Nazi Germany's treatment of Jews. In October 2022, he posted a provocative tweet about Bucha, "Bucha was a war crime, Ukraine did it", to test the reaction of Twitter. DisInfoChronicle, a website of the NGO Detector Media which claims to refute Russian disinformation, wrote that Ritter was being used by Russia to "promote narratives needed by the Kremlin".
In July 2022, the Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation included Ritter on a list of what it called Russian propagandists. In April 2022 and April 2023 Ritter said that Russia was winning the war. American government-owned news outlet Polygraph.info wrote that Ritter's claims about Russia winning the war and about the Bucha massacre were false. In May 2023, Ritter began a book tour of Kazan, Irkutsk, and Yekaterinburg for his most recent book, Disarmament in the time of the Perestroika, which examines nuclear weapons agreements between Russia and the United States. According to Euronews, Ritter predicted that Ukraine would lose the war.
In January 2024, Ritter visited Chechnya, addressing thousands of Chechen fighters in a central square in Grozny, the capital. BBC journalist Francis Scarr called it "one of the most surreal moments of the war yet. Scott Ritter has turned up in Chechnya and spoken in broken Russian (some of which I couldn't make out) to thousands of Ramzan Kadyrov's fighters about his efforts to strengthen the 'friendship between Chechnya and America'." In his speech, Ritter again repeated his belief that Russia will win its war with Ukraine. After Ritter's speech in Grozny, where he was being welcomed as a guest of the Chechenya, Kadyrov made a public statement that he had given Ritter a list of 20 Ukrainian prisoners-of-war he was prepared to release in return for a lifting of US sanctions on him and his family. Kadyrov called his public statement "trolling" and said that it had not been serious.
Passport seizure
In June 2024, US authorities seized Ritter's passport and prevented him from visiting Russia. According to Ritter, three U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents stopped him as he was about to board a flight to Istanbul going to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. He said that the agents never showed him a warrant and never gave him a receipt when they seized his passport. Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that "details" about the situation were not clear. Peskov also said that restricting the travel of former intelligence agents "is practiced in almost all countries in relation to former intelligence officers" and that if Ritter was removed from the flight to stop him from speaking in Russia, then it was part of a “frenzied campaign to prevent U.S. citizens from establishing at least some contacts with Russia".
FBI raid
See also: Russian interference in the 2024 United States electionsOn August 7, 2024, the FBI conducted a raid of Ritter's home near Albany as part of efforts by the Department of Justice to combat Russian election interference.
Selected bibliography
- Disarmament in the Time of Perestroika: Arms Control and the End of the Soviet Union, Clarity Press, 2022, ISBN 1949762610
- Scorpion King: America's Suicidal Embrace of Nuclear Weapons from FDR to Trump (Paperback), Clarity Press, 2020; 2nd revised edition, ISBN 1949762181
- Deal of the Century: How Iran Blocked the West's Road to War (Paperback), Clarity Press, 2017, ISBN 0997896507
- Dangerous Ground: America's Failed Arms Control Policy, from FDR to Obama (Hardcover), 2009 ISBN 1568583990
- Waging Peace: The Art of War for the Antiwar Movement, Nation Books, 2007, ISBN 1-56858-328-1
- Target Iran: The Truth About the White House's Plans for Regime Change (Hardcover), Nation Books, 2006, ISBN 1-56025-936-1
- Iraq Confidential: The Untold Story of the Intelligence Conspiracy to Undermine the UN and Overthrow Saddam Hussein (Hardcover), Foreword by Seymour Hersh, Nation Books, 2006, ISBN 1-56025-852-7
- Frontier Justice: Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Bushwhacking of America Context Books, 2003, ISBN 1-893956-47-4
- War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know (with William Rivers Pitt). Context Books, 2002, ISBN 1-893956-38-5
- Endgame: Solving the Iraq Problem — Once and For All (Hardcover) Simon & Schuster, 1999, ISBN 0-684-86485-1; (paperback) Diane Pub Co, 2004, ISBN 0-7567-7659-7
See also
- Eva Bartlett, Canadian pro-Russian activist
- Patrick Lancaster, American YouTuber
- Gonzalo Lira, a Chilean-American Youtuber
- Operation Rockingham
- Graham Phillips, pro-Russian British journalist
- Russian information war against Ukraine
References
- ^ Historical Dictionary of the Clinton Era, p. 159.
- ^ "Poconos sex sting leads to arrest of former chief UN weapons inspector". New York Post. January 14, 2010. Archived from the original on April 22, 2012. Retrieved June 16, 2024.
- ^ Rubinkam, Michael (October 26, 2011). "Ex–UN inspector gets prison in Pa. sex case". NBC News. Associated Press. Archived from the original on December 1, 2020. Retrieved June 21, 2019.
- ^ Karlin, Rick (December 4, 2014). "Scott Ritter paroled in online sex case". Times Union. Archived from the original on March 28, 2022. Retrieved August 8, 2024.
- ^ Bai, Matt (February 22, 2012). Lovell, Joel (ed.). "Scott Ritter's Other War". The New York Times Magazine. Archived from the original on April 24, 2022. Retrieved June 21, 2019.
- "Scott Ritter's Private War". The New Yorker. November 1, 1998. Archived from the original on April 4, 2024. Retrieved August 18, 2024.
- ^ "Ex-UN inspector Scott Ritter sex sting trial begins". BBC News. April 12, 2011. Archived from the original on March 14, 2022. Retrieved June 21, 2019.
- "Ex-UN inspector Scott Ritter guilty in sex chat case". BBC News. April 15, 2011. Archived from the original on August 9, 2024. Retrieved August 9, 2024.
- ^ Aydintasbas, Asla (March 19, 2002). "Scott Ritter". Salon. Archived from the original on March 24, 2010.
- ^ "Disgraced Ex-Marine Offers Kadyrov's Army 'Friendship' With America: Video". Newsweek. September 12, 2023. Archived from the original on January 22, 2024. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
- ^ Quinn, Allison (June 4, 2024). "Moscow Throws Putin Fanboy Scott Ritter Under the Bus". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on June 5, 2024. Retrieved June 5, 2024.
- ^ "State Department seizes passport of Delmar's Scott Ritter before flight to Russia". Times Union. June 7, 2024. Archived from the original on June 8, 2024. Retrieved June 8, 2024.
- Opinion: Why Scott Ritter's Passport Seizure Is Long Overdue Archived June 12, 2024, at the Wayback Machine (June 11, 2024). Kyiv Post.
- Ritter, Scott (September 12, 2002). "Talk of the Nation" (Interview). Interviewed by David Asman. Fox News Channel. Archived from the original on September 6, 2008. Retrieved January 21, 2008.
- Williams-Hedges, Deborah (November 1, 2002). "Former UN Weapons Inspector to Speak at Caltech". www.caltech.edu. Archived from the original on January 7, 2024. Retrieved January 7, 2024.
- Ritter, William S (1990). "Revolt in the Mountains: Fuzail Maksum and the Occupation of Garm, Spring 1929". Journal of Contemporary History. 25 (4): 547–580. doi:10.1177/002200949002500408. S2CID 159486304.
- Ritter, William S (1985). "The Final Phase in the Liquidation of Anti-Soviet Resistance in Tadzhikistan: Ibrahim Bek and the Basmachi, 1924–31". Soviet Studies. 37 (4): 484–493. doi:10.1080/09668138508411604.
- ^ Schmitt, Eric (June 24, 1992), "Pentagon Claims on Scuds Disputed", New York Times, archived from the original on October 3, 2022, retrieved October 3, 2022
- ^ Goodman, Amy (December 30, 2003). "Scott Ritter: How the British Spy Agency MI6 Secretly Misled A Nation Into War With Iraq". Democracy Now!. Archived from the original on March 2, 2022. Retrieved November 3, 2014.
- "Former Iraq weapons inspector Scott Ritter speaks at RCSI". www.rcsi.com. May 22, 2007. Archived from the original on January 7, 2024. Retrieved January 7, 2024.
- Barton Gellman (September 29, 1998). "Israel Gave Key Help To U.N. Team in Iraq". Washington Post. Archived from the original on September 4, 2019. Retrieved August 31, 2013.
- Norman Polmar (2001). Spyplane: The U-2 History Declassified. Zenith Imprint. p. 227. ISBN 9780760309575. Archived from the original on August 20, 2024. Retrieved August 31, 2013.
- ^ "Online NewsHour: Scott Ritter". PBS. Archived from the original on October 21, 2006. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
- "Profile: Scott Ritter". BBC News. September 9, 2002. Archived from the original on August 31, 2017. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
- Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Archived December 24, 2002, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Gellman, Barton (September 4, 1998). "SENATE DEMOCRATS ATTACK RITTER". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on August 27, 2017. Retrieved January 29, 2022.
- ^ Biden, Joseph R. (September 19, 1998). "'I MEANT NO DISRESPECT'". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on January 29, 2022. Retrieved January 29, 2022.
- ^ "United Nations Weapons Inspections in Iraq". C-SPAN. Archived from the original on January 29, 2022. Retrieved January 29, 2022.
- Philip, Shenon (September 10, 1998). "Rebuking Ex-Arms Inspector, Albright Defends U.S. Role". New York Times. Archived from the original on October 3, 2022. Retrieved October 3, 2022.
- "Interview". Democracy Now!. Archived from the original on October 23, 2005. Retrieved July 16, 2022.
- Scott Ritter (April 8, 2018). "Endgame". The New York Times Web Archive. Archived from the original on January 16, 2023. Retrieved January 17, 2023.
- Pipes, Daniel (September 1999). "Endgame: Solving the Iraq Problem - Once and for All". Middle East Quarterly. 6 (3). Archived from the original on January 7, 2024. Retrieved January 7, 2024.
- Dave Kehr. "In Shifting Sands". New York Times. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
- US defeat in Iraq 'inevitable': World: Iraqi Dossier: News24 Archived June 5, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- Wallis, David (September 14, 2002). "Ex-weapons inspector berates war plans". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on February 21, 2006. Retrieved January 18, 2009.
- Pitt, William R. War On Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know 2002, Context Books, New York. ISBN 1-893956-38-5
- "A Critic's Defeatist Rhetoric". Fox News. February 15, 2005. Archived from the original on September 24, 2008. Retrieved January 21, 2008.
- Ex-U.N. inspector: Iran's next: Ritter warns that another U.S. invasion in Mideast is imminent
- ^ Guttman, Nathan (December 29, 2006). "Book: Israel, Lobby Pushing Iran War". Forward. Archived from the original on June 21, 2019. Retrieved June 21, 2019.
- Coughlin, Con (February 25, 2007). "The case for action against Iran". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on June 21, 2019. Retrieved June 21, 2019.
- ^ Mylroie, Laurie. Money Questions Surround Ritter's Film Archived January 26, 2021, at the Wayback Machine Financial Times.
- "The U.N. Oil for Food scandal" Archived March 13, 2007, at the Wayback Machine The Washington Times, March 22, 2004
- John O'Neil. Virginia Man Pleads Guilty in Oil-for-Food Inquiry. New York Times. January 18, 2005
- Warner, Dave (April 12, 2011). "Sex trial of former U.N. weapons inspector opens". Reuters. Archived from the original on March 7, 2022. Retrieved March 7, 2022.
- "Ex-arms inspector, war foe Ritter confirms 2001 arrest". CNN. January 23, 2003. Archived from the original on March 2, 2022. Retrieved June 21, 2019.
- ^ "Scott Ritter: Timing of Arrest Reports Suspicious". Fox News. Associated Press. January 23, 2003. Archived from the original on March 5, 2022. Retrieved June 21, 2019.
- ""Sex sting in Poconos nets former chief U.N. weapons inspector", Pocono Record, January 14, 2010". Archived from the original on January 16, 2010. Retrieved January 14, 2010.
- "Verdict: Ex-UN weapons inspector Ritter guilty of all but one count in sex sting" (April 14, 2011) Ponono Record Retrieved April 14, 2011.
- "Former UN weapons inspector found guilty in online sex case". The Guardian. Associated Press. April 15, 2011. Archived from the original on March 14, 2022. Retrieved June 21, 2019.
- ^ Dutton, Jack (April 7, 2022). "Scott Ritter's Twitter Reinstated After Suspension Over Ukraine Remarks". Newsweek. Archived from the original on June 4, 2022. Retrieved April 7, 2022.
- ^ Briant, Emma L. (April 28, 2022). "How Russia benefits from ill-informed social media policies". Brookings. Archived from the original on July 6, 2022. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
- Schogol, Jeff (March 6, 2023). "How Russia uses US military veterans in its propaganda war against Ukraine". Task & Purpose. Archived from the original on March 25, 2023. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
- ^ "Why are disgraced Americans spouting pro-Putin propaganda in Russia?". euronews. May 24, 2023. Archived from the original on September 21, 2023. Retrieved May 29, 2023.
- ^ Echols, William (March 9, 2023). "Misleading: Chinese State Media Depict Pro-Russia Rally as 'Real Voices' of American People". POLYGRAPH.info. Archived from the original on November 26, 2023. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
- Schafer, Bret. "How the People's Republic of China Amplifies Russian Disinformation". United States Department of State. Archived from the original on August 18, 2022. Retrieved August 18, 2022.
- Churchill, Chris (June 3, 2023). "Scott Ritter's mission to Moscow: Is the disgraced former U.N. inspector speaking truth to power? Or parroting Russian propaganda?". Albany Times-Union. Archived from the original on August 27, 2023. Retrieved November 5, 2023.
- "New Hampshire Libertarian Party likens Zelensky to Hitler". The Jerusalem Post. October 13, 2022. Archived from the original on April 26, 2023. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
- ^ "Scott Ritter "tested" Twitter: "Bucha was a war crime. Ukraine did it"". disinfo.detector.media. Archived from the original on August 28, 2023. Retrieved August 28, 2023.
- Carbonaro, Giulia (July 26, 2022). "Tulsi Gabbard, Rand Paul placed on list of Russian propagandists by Ukraine". Newsweek. Archived from the original on July 26, 2022. Retrieved August 18, 2022.
- ^ Martynyuk, Leonid (April 24, 2023). "Russia Uses Ukraine Ex-UN Weapons Inspector's Misinformation for Propaganda". POLYGRAPH.info. Archived from the original on December 26, 2023. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
- "Chechen Leader Offers Ukrainian Captives In Exchange For Lifting Sanctions On His Family". Radiofreeeurope/Radioliberty. January 6, 2024. Archived from the original on January 22, 2024. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
- "Kadyrov calls his Ukrainian prisoner exchange for sanctions relief offer 'trolling'". January 8, 2024. Archived from the original on January 24, 2024. Retrieved January 24, 2024.
- "Scott Ritter Claims State Department Seized His Passport". The American Conservative. June 5, 2024. Archived from the original on June 12, 2024. Retrieved June 12, 2024.
- "FBI searching Delmar home of ex-UN weapons inspector Ritter". WNYT. Albany, NY. Archived from the original on August 7, 2024. Retrieved August 8, 2024.
- Myers, Steven Lee; Barnes, Julian E. (August 21, 2024). "U.S. Investigating Americans Who Worked With Russian State Television". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 22, 2024. Retrieved August 23, 2024.
External links
Categories:- 1961 births
- 20th-century American non-fiction writers
- 21st-century American non-fiction writers
- 20th-century American male writers
- 21st-century American male writers
- Living people
- American anti–Iraq War activists
- Iran–United States relations
- American foreign policy writers
- American male non-fiction writers
- United States Marine Corps personnel of the Gulf War
- Iraq and weapons of mass destruction
- United States Marine Corps officers
- Franklin & Marshall College alumni
- American officials of the United Nations
- RT (TV network) people
- American prisoners and detainees
- American people convicted of child sexual abuse