Scott Ritter.......Al Jazeera's favorite son?
Spring is upon us, and the snakes are coming out of their holes to bask in the sun on these warm autumn days. One of their favorite places is in the road on the black ashphalt pavement. Every year we see many on the roads near our house, often slowing to show the children..............."Look Joshua, it's a King Snake", or "Beth Ann, did you see that Rattlesnake?"
I was going to start this post by saying......."yesterday another snake crawled from his hole. American traitor punk Scott Ritter slipped into the light of day with this commentary". But this morning I googled Rtter to refresh my memory about him. Now I'm troubled, and find myself wondering "what the heck happened to the guy?" I have found no answer, but suspect that his personal troubles have affected his ability to think rationally.
Ritter exploded into the limelight in 1991 when he became the UN's chief weapons inspector in Iraq, charged with insuring the destruction of Iraq's WMD stockpiles and programs He was an impressive individual and a hero to many of us who thought Saddam's Iraq was a problem in need of a solution. For years he agressively pursued WMD in Iraq and dogged the UN to give him the support he needed.
Then something wierd happened. In 1998 Ritter abrubtly resigned, making claims that the US was making his job for the UN harder, if not impossible. No biggie, Hans Blix was available. I say this was "wierd" because it came out of the blue, and seemed to be contrary to what I knew about Ritter (I admit I knew him only from what I read and heard in the news.........he could have been misleading America all along)
Then, during the buildup to the Iraq war, Ritter called for impeachment and prosecution of President Bush, making claims that Iraq was really not a threat, and that the US could not win a war with Iraq. He is quoted as saying in March 2003 that the US "would leave Iraq with it's tail between it's legs". For all you "Bush lied" freaks, Ritter stated that if the US attacked Iraq, Iraq would respond with poison gas (Ritter believed Iraq had WMDs) then the US would retaliate with nukes.
Today Ritter is a totally discredited farce and liar who ought to dissappear into the closet whatever room he lives in. Yet instead he continues bashing the US and is now the darling of Al Jazeera. In his latest "commentary" he pulls the pit out of the truth then stuffs it with an anti-US, anti-military lie. Ritter makes the claim that a few disillusioned marines from the 3rd battalion 7th MAR, who had a tough time in Husaybah Iraq back in April 2004 are proof that the US is not winning the war. He completely leaves out the fact that 3/7 was replaced by 1/7, who kicked the terrorists butts for 7 months before turning Husaybah over to 3/2. Then he uses the triple SVBIED attack of April 11, 2005 as proof that things are not better in Iraq. NO MARINES DIED IN THAT ATTACK, and up to 50 terrorists did (many non-iraqi terrorists who will not drive suidide bombs into American schools, malls, or churches).
Ritter has a problem with the facts, but a bigger problem with perspective. Everything Ritter writes shows up in far left scialist news sites, making him the American far left's hero.
I started this post mad at the guy for his stupid comments about the Marines in Iraq. I now finish it feeling sorry for him as it has become clear Scott Ritter is mentally unstable.
posted by senorlechero @ 8:56 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
12/5/04 TIMESUN D1
12/5/04 Times Union (Alb.) D1
2004 WLNR 17765211
Albany Times Union (NY)
Copyright (c) 2004, The Times Union, Inc.
December 5, 2004
Section: Capital Region
Ritter leaves his war behind
PAUL GRONDAHL Staff Writer
BETHLEHEM - By outward appearances at least, Scott Ritter, once an A-list
national media commentator and one of the most outspoken critics of the U.S.
invasion of Iraq, is trying to blend quietly into his suburban landscape.
He drives a white minivan (with a "Support Our Troops" yellow ribbon on
back). He's a Delmar volunteer firefighter. He shuttles twin 11-year-old
daughters to ballet, karate, piano and horseback riding lessons - worrying how
he's going to pay for it all.
Now, at 43, the burly ex-Marine and former U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq,
the man The New York Times called "the most famous renegade Marine officer
since Oliver North," is contemplating a career in academia.
Hoping to move beyond a sex-sting arrest that tarnished his reputation,
Ritter plans to begin graduate studies next fall at a local college or
university, although he hasn't selected one. His goal is to earn a doctorate
in political science or history and eventually to teach at the college level.
He holds a bachelor's degree in Russian history from Franklin and Marshall
College in Lancaster, Pa.
"I don't need a Ph.D. to teach what I know," said Ritter, who sounded
alternately combative and resigned three days after President Bush's
re-election. "I'll put my degree in life studies in foreign affairs in Iraq up
against anybody."
Ritter thought better of his attack on the ivory tower as he spooned out
sour cream on potato skins brimming with melted cheese and bacon bits. He's
aware that the six-year meal ticket he cashed in from his Iraq experience is
beginning to show an expiration date.
Paid speaking engagements - he's represented by Greater Talent Network and
once commanded as much as $30,000 per talk - have slowed from a stream to a
trickle. In late-October, he spoke in London at Oil & Money, a high-powered
world energy forum, but did it for free as a favor to a friend.
Less travel on the lecture circuit has left more time for golf. He's a
member at Colonie Country Club and played plenty over the summer, lowering his
handicap to 5.
"As the years pass and Iraq fades and becomes a memory, I'll need an
advanced degree," he reasoned. "You can only beat your head against the wall
on futile causes for so long. I'm just hoping to find a niche in academia that
allows me to continue to write, to speak and to continue the education
process."
Ritter said he has been approached to run for local political office, but
declined. "Politics is a dirty business," he said. "And I'm not a guy who
likes compromise."
That much is evident when the topic of President Bush's re-election arises.
Even though his contention about there being no weapons of mass destruction in
Iraq proved true - and therefore, he says, there was not adequate
justification of a U.S. invasion of Iraq - Ritter is angrier than ever.
"I did my part by speaking out, but I can't carry the sins of a nation on
my shoulders," Ritter said. "Bush is on a Christian crusade and he's
controlled by several lunatic fringes. It's stunning that 59 million Americans
voted in favor of an immoral, illegal war that has killed more than 100,000
Iraqi civilians."
Ritter, a registered Republican, said he voted for John Kerry by default.
"It was a vote against Bush," he said. "Kerry's a moral coward. The only
difference between them is that Bush is commander in chief."
Ritter plans to shift his focus in graduate school from Iraq to an earlier
interest, the former Soviet Union. He met his wife, Marina, who is from the
republic of Georgia, while in Russia, where she was working as an interpreter
and English literature college professor.
His wife now works as a human resources specialist at a private company in
Albany and is the primary breadwinner. Ritter makes money as a self-employed
security consultant, a speaker and an author, but the income is sporadic and
the bills are steady. "We're struggling to make ends meet, like the rest of
middle-class America," he said.
His wife's parents were political refugees from Georgia during ethnic
clashes and came to stay with the Ritters in Delmar, where they've lived for
four years. Her mother has since died, but her 74-year-old father lives with
the family and spends his time shuttling his granddaughters, Patricia and
Victoria, to activities.
At an imposing 6 feet 4 and 220 pounds (15 pounds over his playing days as
a college football tight end), Ritter seems hard-wired to be a professional
combatant. Yet he wears a burgundy Delmar volunteer firefighter jacket and
speaks with the soft-edged tones of a stay-at-home dad who walks his daughters
to the school bus in the morning - they attend Bethlehem Central Middle School
- and spends the day writing a book, his third, on Iraq.
"He's just one of the guys," said Jim Kerr, chief of the Delmar Fire
Department.
Ritter checked his pager occasionally during the interview to see if he
needed to leave on a call. He spoke of an adrenaline rush in fighting fires, a
gut-tightening, pulse-racing sensation he hadn't felt since he hunted Scud
missiles as a Marine during the Persian Gulf War.
Instead of blasting Bush and the war in Iraq, Ritter spent the day after
the election as a chaperone on his daughters' class field trip to the State
Museum. "I was just another parent. I didn't assume anybody recognized me and
I didn't try to be noticed," he said.
During a two-hour interview at Beff's, a popular bar and restaurant in
Delmar, nobody appeared to take notice on a Friday afternoon of the man who
amounts to a local celebrity. That's how Ritter prefers it, especially since
the cloud of a sex scandal has not entirely dissipated.
In June 2001, Ritter was charged with a misdemeanor in a Colonie police
sting operation for allegedly trying to lure a 16-year-old girl he met on the
Internet to a Burger King in Menands. Police had posed as the teenage girl and
were waiting for him when he arrived at the fast-food restaurant. The case was
adjourned in Colonie Town Court in contemplation of dismissal and, after six
months, the case was sealed.
At the height of his vociferous attacks on the Bush administration leading
up to the March 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, information from Ritter's sealed
criminal file was leaked. Ritter's records were later unsealed by a judge and
given to federal prosecutors, who have not yet acted on the case.
Ritter said before the interview that he would not discuss the case,
although he did indirectly address the scandal's fallout. "I won't let it
bother me and it won't cause us to move away," he said. "I just try to go
forward as the best husband, the best father, the best neighbor and best
member of this community I can be."
He described standing toe to toe with FBI agents, who had been keeping his
family under surveillance and alleging his wife was a spy. She pushed back
against the FBI. "They weren't used to meeting a woman tougher than they are,"
he said, and eventually the agents moved on. "They've got bigger fish to fry
than some loudmouth in Delmar."
Community members who have known Ritter for years believe he has largely
recovered from the taint of the scandal and run-ins with the FBI.
"We've been with him from the beginning; we stood with him when he received
tough personal attacks, and now it turns out the guy was absolutely right
about what he was saying about Iraq all along," said Alan Chartock, president
and CEO of WAMC-FM, the public radio station on which Ritter has spoken
numerous times. Ritter's remarks have been gathered into five hourlong CDs
that are one of WAMC's most popular fund drive giveaways.
Chartock said only a few WAMC listeners had called to complain about giving
Ritter continued air time in light of the sex scandal. "We got more credit for
not succumbing to the attack dogs," Chartock said.
"He's not a quitter. He's the quintessential Marine," said Frank Houde, a
retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and president of the Albany chapter of
Veterans for Peace. That group gave Ritter a citation in Boston in July for
his outspoken criticism of the Iraq war.
"I worked as a union organizer during the McCarthy era, and I understand
how government stings work and the damage they can do," said Ed Bloch of
Latham, a World War II Marine Corps veteran who works with The Interfaith
Alliance of New York State. "I'm angry at those who perpetrated the sting on
Scott."
For his part, Ritter has felt at times as misunderstood as a prophet in his
own land. He may receive more invitations to speak in Europe than in upstate
New York, but he won't be lured away.
"My dad was a career Air Force officer and we moved between Hawaii, Turkey
and Germany when I was in high school," Ritter said. "I'm done moving. No
matter what, we're staying put in Delmar."
Paul Grondahl can be reached at 454-5623 or by e-mail at
pgrondahl@timesunion.com.
PHOTO
LORI VAN BUREN/TIMES UNION SCOTT RITTER talks about the changes in
his life since demand dropped for his speaking engagements.
Anonymous...........it's very intereseting that the thing about Ritter you choose to focus on is his troubles with the law over his alleged attempt to meet an underage female for sex.
The man is a disgrace. He became a puppet of Saddam Hussein and is now a puppet of Al Jezeera, and all you have to say is............"he was setup"
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The previous post by "anonymous" used foul language and made no sense at all.........typical for an anonymous poster
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