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
I know that inspections did work, ... We achieved a 90 to 95 percent level of verified, absolutely certain accountability for Iraq's weapons program.
Anyone who said that, doesn't know Scott Ritter. I'm a tool of no one but myself.
Iraq is a nation on fire. And our troops are the fuel that feeds that fire.
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.
How do I know this? I've talked to Bolton's speechwriter.
I am assisting United States veterans, heroes. People who put on our uniform, defended our country in time of war, who have been abandoned by their government.
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.
This refusal ... in effect means we cannot carry out our inspection and is a failure of Iraq to comply with its obligations.
This refusal means we can't carry out our inspections -- it is a failure of Iraq to comply with obligations,
When I resigned, I put the U.S. Government on notice that I'm going to stick to policy issues, that I have no intention of going out and blowing the cover off of the intelligence operations, that those are truly sensitive and they should not be exposed.
There is a lot of inaccurate information and irresponsible speculation today, particularly from the U.S. government.
We had the information. We had the goods on the Iraqis, clear and irrefutable evidence of Iraq's prohibited activities. We caught them red-handed.
We had the proof. We couldn't present it. And that's where we are today.
I have a credibility on the subject that most people don't.