| Old Articles | | Friday, February 08 | | · | |
| Wednesday, February 06 | | · | |
| Tuesday, February 05 | | · | Savage Capitalism or Socialism: A Conversation with Luis Britto Garcia |
| Sunday, February 03 | | · | Canada vs. Venezuela: The Background Gets Even Murkier |
| Thursday, January 31 | | · | |
| Monday, January 28 | | · | The History - and Hypocrisy - of US Meddling in Venezuela |
| · | Canada Is Complicit in Venezuela's US-Backed Coup D'état |
| Wednesday, September 26 | | · | Why Israel Demolishes: Khan Al-Ahmar as Representation of Greater Genocide |
| Friday, September 21 | | · | US Disregard for International Law Is a Menace to Latin America |
| Saturday, August 25 | | · | How Long is the Shelf-Life of Damnable Racist Capitalist Lies? |
| Thursday, August 09 | | · | Martial Law By Other Means: Corporate Strangulation of Dissent |
| Wednesday, August 08 | | · | North Korea and The Washington Trap |
| · | Venezuela Assassination Attempt: Maduro Survives but Journalism Doesn't |
| Sunday, May 20 | | · | The British Royal Wedding, Feelgoodism and the Colonial Jumbie |
| Friday, May 04 | | · | |
| Monday, April 09 | | · | The Bayer-Monsanto Merger Is Bad News for the Planet |
| Tuesday, March 20 | | · | Finally, Some Good News |
| Thursday, March 15 | | · | Zimbabwe Open for Business, Code for International Finance Capitalism |
| Friday, January 12 | | · | Shadow Armies: The Unseen, But Real US War In Africa |
| Wednesday, December 13 | | · | The U.S. is Not a Democracy, It Never Was |
Older Articles
| |
 | |
Scott Ritter wages loud fight against war
Monday, September 23 @ 11:41:04 UTC
|
 By Frank James, Chicago Tribune
WASHINGTON -- Scott Ritter is a self-described patriot on a self-appointed mission.
The 41-year-old former United Nations weapons inspector has said his duty is to be one of the most vocal and visible critics of President Bush's Iraq policy.
He accuses the administration of offering no more than a trumped-up case for a pre-emptive strike against Iraq. He has likened the administration's tactics to those of a police officer who plants "evidence" on a suspect to help win a conviction.
What's more, he says, the White House is cynically using the "rhetoric of fear and ignorance" in the anxious, post-Sept. 11 era to drum up support for expanding the war on terror to Iraq.
With the blood of American soldiers at stake and global stability hanging in the balance, Ritter, a Marine captain during the gulf war, has said it would prove tragically wrong to go into battle on less than hard, convincing evidence that Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction and poses a danger to the U.S. and the world.
To that end, he has argued for the return of inspectors to Iraq and has charged that the administration's reluctance to do so arises from its fear that they would get in the way of its real goal: Hussein's overthrow. Not one for understatement, Ritter believes his stand likely contributed to Hussein's decision last week to allow the unconditional return of inspectors.
Hoping to saturate America with his message, Ritter has seized every chance to grab the media spotlight. He even made a controversial journey to Baghdad earlier this month and spoke before the National Assembly to warn that the U.S. was on the verge of making a "historic mistake," saying that Iraq didn't represent a threat to anyone beyond its borders.
'Cursed with this experience'
Ritter became known four years ago when he resigned as the UN's chief weapons inspector in Iraq, at the time essentially accusing the world body and the Clinton administration of being too easy on Hussein.
Now, some of Ritter's critics say he is contradicting himself.
Once regarded as a hero, especially by conservatives who loved his criticism of the Clinton administration and muscular stand against Hussein, some opponents are branding him a traitor for opposing Bush so vigorously. Some even suggest he's being paid or sponsored by Iraq, a charge Ritter denies.
For Ritter, seven years as a UN weapons inspector and his view of himself as a straight-shooter unafraid to clash with those in authority make him uniquely suited to challenge what he sees as the Bush administration's double-time march toward war.
During Operation Desert Storm in 1991, for instance, it was Ritter, a military intelligence officer, who told superiors that the allies had failed to destroy any Iraqi Scud missile launchers despite the commanders' desire to believe otherwise. Army Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf reportedly was angry over Ritter's conclusion, but Ritter stood firm and was vindicated after the war.
This character trait gave him little choice but to take on the Bush administration, he said.
"Because I have this standard of integrity, when I see a lie being perpetrated by my government, I can't look myself in the mirror if I don't speak out," Ritter said during a recent interview. "Because I'm cursed with this experience [as a weapons inspector in Iraq], I've got to speak out."
Ritter believes it's highly unlikely that Iraq is close to having a working nuclear weapon because of the great difficulty of getting enriched uranium.
He says Iraq's chemical and biological weapons were largely destroyed during and after the gulf war. By his estimate, 90 percent to 95 percent of Iraq's capacity to produce such weapons was eliminated by him and other inspectors before they were pulled out by the UN in 1998 after Hussein ended even the appearance of cooperation.
Ritter admits that Iraq could have reconstituted some of its chemical weapons stockpile but that the only way to find out is for inspectors to return for a first-hand look.
Even so, he doesn't believe Iraq could have produced enough lethal chemicals during the four-year absence of inspectors to endanger the region or the U.S. The Bush administration is basing its desire to launch a pre-emptive war against Iraq on nothing more than speculation, he said.
This has drawn direct fire from the administration. "We have facts, not speculation," Secretary of State Colin Powell said in a Fox News interview. "Scott is certainly entitled to his opinion, but I'm afraid that I would not place the security of my nation or the security of our friends in the region on that kind of an assertion by somebody who is not in the intelligence chain any longer."
1998: 'Iraq is not disarmed'
Ritter has been accused of revisionism by other ex-weapons inspectors. They note his testimony before Congress shortly after he quit in 1998, when Ritter said that without inspectors, Iraq would have operational chemical and biological weapons in less than six months.
"Iraq is not disarmed," Ritter told the House Armed Services Committee in 1998. In contrast to his present position that Iraq doesn't endanger the region, he said: "Iraq still poses a real and meaningful threat to its neighbors, and nothing the Security Council or the U.S. is currently doing will change this back."
At a recent hearing of the same House panel, David Kay, another former UN weapons inspector with Iraq experience, questioned Ritter's integrity.
"Either he lied to you then or he's lying now. It's your choice," Kay told lawmakers. "He's gone completely the other way. I cannot explain it on the basis of the known facts."
When asked about the seeming contradiction, Ritter denied there was any. "I'm not giving Iraq a clean bill of health. I've been consistent throughout here," he said.
Ritter noted that Iraq hasn't acted with the kind of aggression toward its neighbors or the U.S. that would justify an invasion under international law. Iraq could possess banned weapons, he said, but there has been no proof.
"You kill on facts, not a hunch," Ritter said.
Though Ritter's speech to the Iraqi assembly drew worldwide attention, Ritter said he was blunter in his private meetings with Hussein's top aides.
Ritter said that when Iraqi officials insisted they would never let inspectors return, "I said you have no choice. I told [Taha Yassin] Ramadan, the vice president, ... `If you don't let inspectors in and give them unfettered access, I'm looking at a dead man.' That's a message I delivered to every person I met in Iraq."
Ritter didn't meet with Hussein.
Of all the criticism he has received, it's the accusations of treason that bother him. "I do get angry when people question my patriotism," says Ritter, a 12-year military veteran.
He has not been paid by Iraq and would not take its money, he said. He financed his trip to Iraq through speaking engagements and contributions, though one backer, an Iraqi-American businessman who supports the regime, has been controversial.
Ritter has sacrificed time with his wife and twin daughters to pursue what to him has been a righteous and often lonely cause: The return of inspectors to Iraq and avoidance of an armed conflict if it's unwarranted by the facts.
He hasn't done it for Iraq, he said. "I don't care about Iraq. It's about America. I love America. America is my religion," Ritter said.
"I've put too much into serving my country, too much on the line. But I've got big shoulders. I can carry this."
Copyright © 2002, Chicago Tribune
Reprinted from The Chicago Tribune:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/
nationworld/chi-0209230225sep23(0,3089292).story?
coll=chi%2Dnewsnationworld%2Dhed
|
|
| |
| Article Rating | Average Score: 4
Votes: 1
| |
|
|
