Scott Ritter

Scott Ritter speaks at SUNY New Paltz on March 16, 2006.

William Scott Ritter, Jr. (born July 15, 1961) is noted for his early career as an intelligence officer, as a United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq, and more recently as a critic of United States foreign policy in the Middle East.

Military background

Ritter was born into a military family in 1961. He graduated from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with a Bachelor of Arts in the history of the Soviet Union and departmental honors. He joined the United States Marine Corps in 1984, where he served for twelve years as an intelligence officer. He initially served as the lead analyst for the Marine Corps Rapid Deployment Force concerning the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Iran-Iraq War. During Desert Storm, he served as a ballistic missile advisor to General Norman Schwarzkopf. Ritter later worked as a security and military consultant for the Fox News network.

Weapons inspector

Ritter served from 1991 to 1998 as a United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq in the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM), which was charged with finding and destroying all weapons of mass destruction and WMD-related manufacturing capabilities in Iraq. He was chief inspector in 14 of the more than 30 inspection missions in which he participated.

In January of 1998, his inspection team into Iraq was blocked from some weapons sites by Iraqi officials and Ritter was accused by Iraq of being a spy for the CIA. He was then expelled from Iraq by its government in August 1998. Shortly thereafter, he spoke on the Public Broadcasting Service 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 nuclear weaponization program

[1]

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. [2]

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.

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." [3]

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." [4]

During Ritter's Senate testimony about the inspection process, Senator Joseph Biden stated "The decision of whether or not the country should go to war is slightly above your pay grade." Senator John McCain later rebutted by stating that he wished that the administration had consulted with somebody of Ritter's pay grade during the Vietnam War. "

Opinions on US policy in the Mideast

Following his resignation from UNSCOM, Ritter continued to be an outspoken commentator on US policy toward Iraq, particularly with respect to the WMD issue.

Commentary in the post-inspection period

In 1999, Ritter wrote Endgame: Solving the Iraq Problem -- Once and For All 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 containment 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 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 inspection-verified abandonment of their WMD programs and other objectionable policies.

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 tells 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.[5]

Commentary on Iraq’s lack of WMDs

Despite identifying himself as a Republican and Bush-voter, by 2002 Ritter had become an outspoken critic of the Bush administration’s claims that Iraq possessed significant WMD stocks or manufacturing capabilities, the primary rationale given for the US invasion of Iraq in March of 2003. His views at that time are well summarized in War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn’t Want You To Know, a book which consists largely of an interview between Ritter and anti-war activist William Rivers Pitt, the book’s author. In the interview, Ritter is asked, based on his experience as a chief UNSCOM inspector, whether he believes Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. Ritter’s quotes include the following:

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.

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.

If Iraq were producing [chemical] weapons today, we’d have proof, pure and simple.

[A]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.

In the Pitt interview, Ritter also remarked on several examples of members of the Bush or Clinton administration making statements he knew to be misleading or false with regard to Iraqi WMD’s

While the motives behind Ritter’s criticism of US-Iraq policy have been called into question by some (see below), he is notable as being one of the only highly knowledgeable commentators on the Iraq WMD issue who correctly predicted that Iraq did not possess any significant WMD’s prior to the 2003 war.

Statements on U.S. - Iran policy

On February 18th, 2005 Scott Ritter told an audience in Washington that George Bush had signed-off on preparations to bomb Iranian 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 2005 parliamentary election, changing the percentage of United Iraqi Alliance votes from 56% to 48%. [6]

Ritter reiterated and clarified his statements about Iran in a March 30 article published by Al Jazeera. [7]

On October 21st, 2005, Ritter was interviewed by Amy Goodman of the radio and TV show "Democracy Now!" and qualified his earlier statements about U.S.A. policy toward Iran, as they had been reported by some sources.

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. [8] (transcript) [9] (mp3)

Ritter has also made the following two statements regarding military intervention in Iran.

The real purpose of the EU-3 intervention - to prevent the United States from using Iran's nuclear ambition as an excuse for military intervention - is never discussed in public.

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.

On February 06, 2006, in James A. Little Theater Santa Fe, Ritter stated about a US war with Iran: "We just don't know when, but it's going to happen," and said that after the UN 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," [10]

Criticism of Ritter

Critics of Scott Ritter have questioned the motives behind his pointed criticism of US policy in Iraq. Specifically, they have pointed to a perceived abrupt shift in his views on Iraq, questionable financing of his documentary film, and personal legal entanglements as suggesting that his independence and objectivity on these issues may have been compromised.

Change of views regarding Iraq

Some commentators have alleged that after Ritter had resigned his position as weapons inspector, the he did a "turnaround" and changed from being a "hawk" to a "dove". His 1998 UNSCOM resignation letter, as well as public comments and testimony made in the months afterwards, focused on Iraq’s ability to resurrect WMD capabilities in the absence of inspections. He was also sharply critical of the United Nations Security Council for refusing to enforce its mandates requiring full Iraqi cooperation with the inspectors. In the resignation letter, he decried:

...the current decision by the Security Council and the Secretary General, backed at least implicitly by the United States, to seek a "diplomatic" alternative to inspection-driven confrontation with Iraq, a decision which constitutes a surrender to the Iraqi leadership. [11]

After 1998, while still critical of Iraq’s obstructionism, Ritter placed more emphasis on the mitigating circumstances of Iraqi actions, including the infiltration of the UNSCOM team by CIA agents gathering intelligence for a coup or assassination plot against Saddam Hussein. A turning point in Ritter's public statements appears to have occurred in the spring of 1999 - in January of that year he was still speaking to conservative audiences about the threat posed by rapid restoration of Iraq's WMD capabilities, while by June of 1999 (following the April publication of Endgame), he was quoted as telling antiwar audiences that Iraq did not pose a significant WMD threat. His embrace of a "diplomatic" solution to the Iraq standoff in Endgame, as well as his sudden downplay of Iraq’s residual WMD capabilities, have been portrayed as contradictory to the statements he made immediately following his resignation. Ritter himself has claimed that his views on Iraqi disarmament have remained consistent.

Documentary

Ritter has been criticized for the financing of his 2000 documentary In Shifting Sands: The Truth About UNSCOM and the Disarming of Iraq.

Detroit businessman Shakir al Khafaji, an American citizen of Iraqi descent, gave Ritter $400,000 to produce his film. Al Khafaji later disclosed to media sources that he had profited from the sale of oil allocations distributed by the Iraqi government under the Oil-for-Food programme run by the UN. [12] Some commentators have speculated that Al-Khafaji's fianancial support of Ritter's film may have been part of a quid-pro-quo with the Iraqi govenment, since the film supported the official Iraqi claim that WMD capabilities had been eliminated. Ritter has stated that at the time, he accepted Al-Khafaji's personal assurance that the money was not connected to the Iraqi regime.

Legal problems

In 2001, Ritter was arrested near Albany, NY. News reports say Ritter had brushes with police on two occasions, both involving allegations of intent to meet underage girls after chatting on the Internet.[13]

Prosecutors initially agreed to charge Ritter with a misdemeanor with a view to dropping the charges if no further allegations against him arose in the following six months, and asked for court records to be sealed. Ritter himself says all charges were dismissed. However, it was claimed by WTEN-TV citing unnamed sources, that Ritter underwent court-ordered sex offender counseling from an Albany psychologist.[14]

Following the dismissal of charges in the state jurisdiction, federal law enforcement officials looked into the possibility that Ritter violated federal law, but no charges were filed. [15]

According to a CNN report, the dismissal of the charges was the result of a deal between Ritter and Albany County Assistant District Attorney Cynthia Preiser and without the knowledge of Albany County District Attorney Paul Cline. Cline fired Preiser for failing to "inform him of the existence of a sensitive case," referring to Ritter's case. [16]

According to an article originally appearing in the Toronto Star on September 12, 2002 CNN was attempting to "smear" Ritter because of his outspoken views against war in Iraq, including speaking directly to Iraq's National Assembly. Two of the articles cited above are from CNN. Ritter himself wondered why an 18 month old dismissed misdemeanor would rise to CNN newsworthyness in January 2003 unless it were an attempt to discredit him because of views against going to war with Iraq. [17]

See also

• Operation Rockingham

Bibliography

• Iraq Confidential: The Untold Story of the Intelligence Conspiracy to Undermine the UN and Overthrow Saddam Hussein (Hardcover), 2005. Foreword by Seymour Hersh. ISBN 1560258527
• Frontier Justice: Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Bushwhacking of America (Context Books, 2003) ISBN 1893956474
• War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know (with William Rivers Pitt). Context Books, 2002. ISBN 1893956385
• Endgame: Solving the Iraq Problem - Once and For All (Simon & Schuster, 1999) ISBN 0684864851 (paperback: Diane Pub Co, 2004; ISBN 0756776597)

External links

• Scott Ritter and Seymour Hersh - Iraq Confidential: How We Got Into Iraq and How to Get Out recorded on 10/19/05 at The New York Society for Ethical Culture, 89 min., mp3 format
• Scott Ritter’s resignation letter from UNSCOM.
• Commonwealth Club 2005-12-05 speech.(Real Audio)
• Taprock Peace Center pictures and MP3 of Scott Ritter.
• War: Why Now? What You May Not Know. UCC, Claremont, Ca., 1/19/03 - Ritter's talk about Saddam's probable lack of WMDs.
• Summary of Ritter's remarks to The Washington Institute's Policy Forum, 29 March 1999
• New York Times review of "In Shifting Sands".
• Scott Ritter in His Own Words Time magazine interview
• Person of the Week: Scott Ritter Time 13 September 2002.
• Scott Ritter Charges Iraq War for Global Hegemony - interview
• BBC News profile
• The risks of the al-Zarqawi myth
• Ex-UN aide may face federal sex rap
• Transcript of Scott Ritter on CNN
• Neocons are Parasites, Larisa Alexandrovna Ritter series,Alternet via Raw Story.
• "In Shifting Sands". IMDB. Retrieved November 29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "RITTER SPEECH TO IRAQI PARLIAMENT". CSPAN. Retrieved December 2. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)

• Website for Ritter's book, Iraq Confidential
• Ritter's Appearance on the BBC Radio 4 programme 'The Moral Maze' in July 2002 (Real Audio)

References

• "Middle East Iraq welcomes inspector resignation". BBC News. Retrieved August 28. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "SCOTT RITTER". The Unity Network. Retrieved December 2. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "Review of the Year: 1998, January: Scott Ritter". BBC. Retrieved December 3. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "The Case for Iraq's Qualitative Disarmament". Arms Control Association. Retrieved December 2. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "Scott Ritter: Facts needed before Iraq attack". CNN. Retrieved December 2. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "Is Iraq a True Threat to the US?". commondreams.org. Retrieved December 2. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "Ex-U.N. Inspector Ritter to Tour Iraq, Make Documentary". Washington Post. Retrieved December 13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "Hero of doves forgets when he was a hawk". Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved December 13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)

Criticism of Ritter

• "Smoking Gun on Scott Ritter". FreeRepublic.com. Retrieved December 2. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "CNN and Scott Ritter". Accuracy in Media. Retrieved December 13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "Joe Biden was Right". Jewish World Review. Retrieved December 13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "Saddam's Cash". Weekly Standard. Retrieved December 13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)