Scott Ritter
Scott Ritter
William Scott Ritter Jr.was a United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991 to 1998, and later a critic of United States foreign policy in the Middle East. Prior to the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Ritter stated that Iraq possessed no significant weapons of mass destructioncapabilities, becoming "the loudest and most credible skeptic of the Bush administration’s contention that Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction." He received harsh criticism from the political establishment but became a popular...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPublic Servant
Date of Birth15 July 1961
CountryUnited States of America
Scott Ritter quotes about
I believe that this inspection was rushed through, and the sites weren't chosen for disarmament reasons, but rather to be provocative in nature so Iraq would respond in a predictable fashion,
One of the problems with President Bush issuing that kind of ultimatum is that he has no credibility. Members of his administration have said inspections don't matter. Members of his administration have said that, even if they get back in Iraq and succeed in disarming Iraq, that they're still going to seek regime removal.
One of my biggest concerns is that people think I am a tool of the Iraqi government,
This refusal means we can't carry out our inspections -- it is a failure of Iraq to comply with obligations,
This refusal ... in effect means we cannot carry out our inspection and is a failure of Iraq to comply with its obligations.
Does Iraq have weapons of mass destruction today? Does Iraq possess the ability to produce weapons of mass destruction? The answer is no,
Iraq is a nation on fire. And our troops are the fuel that feeds that fire.
I brought out a series of compact discs which contained the totality of the Iraqi declaration,
I believe Iraq will seek to reconstitute a militarized nerve agent that will be used in a last ditch defense of Baghdad, and I think the Iraqi government's efforts to acquire significant stockpiles of atropine are an indication that this is the direction that Saddam Hussein is heading, ... Crossfire.
It has been estimated that 80 percent of the oil illegally smuggled out of Iraq under oil for food ended up in the United States.
There has been no case made - based on anything other than speculation - that Iraq poses a threat.
I've been called a spy of Israel since 1996, and since I made my documentary film in 2000 the FBI has investigated me as an agent of Iraq. The FBI has also opened up an investigation into my wife calling her a KGB spy.
That we have collectively failed to halt and repudiate the war in Iraq makes us even worse than the Germans.
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,