Scott Ritter

William Scott Ritter, Jr. is a retired U.S. Marine and the former UN weapons inspector in Iraq.

Related Topics:
U.S. Marine - UN weapons inspector in Iraq

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Ritter was born into a military family on July 15, 1961. After graduating from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with departmental honors, he joined the 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 expert under General Norman Schwarzkopf.

Related Topics:
1961 - Franklin and Marshall College - Lancaster - Pennsylvania - Marine Corps - 1984 - Intelligence - Rapid Deployment Force - Soviet invasion of Afghanistan - Iran-Iraq War - Desert Storm - Ballistic missile - Norman Schwarzkopf

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Ritter served as a UN weapons inspector in Iraq between 1991 and resigned from UNSCOM on August 26, 1998. He acted as head of the Weapons Concealment Unit, leading 30 inspection missions, 14 as team leader.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2247600.stm After he was singled out for expulsion from Iraq in August 1998, before UNSCOM was withdrawn, he said on the PBS show, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer:

Related Topics:
UN - Iraq - 1991 - UNSCOM - 1998 - PBS - The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

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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.http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/july-dec98/ritter_8-31.html

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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. "Above your pay grade" became a popular phrase in American congressional hearings thereafter.

Related Topics:
Joseph Biden - John McCain - Vietnam War

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Ritter later worked as a security and military consultant for the Fox News network. In 2000 he made a documentary In Shifting Sands on the effects of the sanctions on Iraq. Ritter?s documentary was financed in part by Detroit businessman Shakir al Khafaji. Al-Khafaji gave Ritter $400,000 has admitted being awarded over one million dollars in oil allocations during the UN oil-for-food program.

Related Topics:
Fox News - 2000 - In Shifting Sands - Detroit - Shakir al Khafaji - UN - Oil-for-food

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In the months leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Ritter spoke to numerous audiences, proclaiming the extreme unlikelihood that Saddam Hussein had any functioning weapons of mass destruction.While we were never able to provide 100 percent certainty regarding the disposition of Iraq's proscribed weaponry, we did ascertain a 90-95 percent level of verified disarmament. This figure takes into account the destruction or dismantling of every major factory associated with prohibited weapons manufacture, all significant items of production equipment, and the majority of the weapons and agent produced by Iraq.

Related Topics:
2003 - Saddam Hussein - Weapons of mass destruction

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... Effective monitoring inspections, fully implemented from 1994-1998 without any significant obstruction from Iraq, never once detected any evidence of retained proscribed activity or effort by Iraq to reconstitute that capability which had been eliminated through inspections.http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0721-02.htm

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On February 18th, 2005 Scott Ritter announced to an audience in Washington that George Bush had ordered plans drawn up to bomb Iran in June of 2005, and that the Iraq elections had been rigged by the United States. http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/2295/ He reiterated and clarified his statements about Iran in a March 30 article published by Al Jazeera. http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0330-31.htm Ritter also alleged that the United States had rigged the 2005 parliamentary election to prevent the United Iraqi Alliance from winning an outright majority.

Related Topics:
February 18th - 2005 - Washington - George Bush - Iran - Iraq - United States - March 30 - Al Jazeera - 2005 parliamentary election - United Iraqi Alliance

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He has also said that "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." He added: "The EU3 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."

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See also: Operation Rockingham

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