The ‘conspiracy’ continues — let’s blame the Jews(Ritter mention; Ritter eviscerated on YouTube)

Three books, two already in print and one soon to appear, all point readers in the same direction. Taken together, we believe, they represent an unholy trinity of hate, distortion and vituperation that needs to be answered with a clear message.

No one should dispute that these volumes have the right to be published, but we have an obligation to expose these views to the full light of what they truly represent. Let there be no doubt that these distortions need to be exposed and repudiated by all individuals of conscience.

A new book will soon be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Professors John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen Walt of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government are the authors of a March 2006 “working paper” entitled “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy.” Their forthcoming book will be based on this earlier work.

David Gergen, adviser to four U.S. presidents, denounced the working paper, stating that “allegations that a pro-Israeli ‘lobby’ has hijacked American policy in the Middle East are without foundation and do a disservice to American Jews.”

In a review of the Mearsheimer-Walt paper, Eliot A. Cohen, counselor to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, has asked a critical question: Is this work anti-Semitic?

Cohen answers by stating, “If by anti-Semitism one means obsessive and irrationally hostile beliefs about Jews; if one accuses them of disloyalty, subversion or treachery, of having occult powers and of participating in secret combinations that manipulate institutions and governments; if one systematically selects everything unfair, ugly or wrong about Jews as individuals or a group and equally systematically suppresses any exculpatory information — why, yes, this paper is anti-Semitic.”

The endorsement of the Mearsheimer-Walt paper by David Duke, the neo-Nazi, Holocaust denier and former Ku Klux Klan leader, is no accident. As German newspaper editor Joseph Joffe aptly put it, their paper “puts ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ to shame.”

If that were not enough, one-time United Nations arms inspector Scott Ritter’s new book, “Target Iran,” is equally disturbing.

Despite his protests that he supports Israel, Ritter offers a view of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and those who support Israel that is filled with distressing undercurrents. He states that “over the years, AIPAC has exerted its influence over the U.S. and the executive branch of government to a degree unparalleled by any other single nation or group of nations.”

Ritter describes “the duality of loyalty inherent in AIPAC, where Israeli interests continuously trump those of the United States” and speaks of the “ongoing espionage scandal in which two senior AIPAC officials were indicted as part of an effort to have classified U.S. information pertaining to Iran transferred through unofficial channels to the Israeli government.” Code words such as “duality of loyalty,” the accusation of “ongoing espionage” and “classified U.S. information” raise concerns that cause us to question whether Ritter really is a “friend” of Israel.

It has been 26 years since Jimmy Carter departed the White House. His recognized bias against Israel was evident then and is back with a vengeance today. His latest book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid,” is a one-sided, inaccurate work that has been labeled for what it is, an anti-Israel tirade.

Carter’s bias against Israel is nothing new. In this book, his bias is indisputable. Carter’s longtime associate on projects relating to the Middle East, Emory University Professor Kenneth W. Stein, for many years director of the Carter Center at Emory, summed it up exactly when he recently wrote that Carter “has done what no nonfiction author should ever do. He allows ideology and opinion to get in the way of the facts … To suit his desired ends, he manipulates information, redefines facts and exaggerates conclusions.” In an act of conscience and courage Stein terminated his relationship with Carter and the Carter Center.

What makes this tragic trinity so disturbing is that, taken together, they weave a web of imagined conspiracy that provides fodder for those who would contend that there is a plot by supporters of Israel to subvert the United States and the direction of American foreign policy.

The Israel lobby and Jews in America, they allege, are responsible for all the sins and omissions of American foreign policy in the Middle East.

Our immediate response must be clear. This kind of distortion of the truth must be unequivocally exposed and repudiated without delay.

David G. Dalin and John F. Rothmann are the authors of the forthcoming book “Mandate for Hate: Hitler’s Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam.”

David G. Dalin is the Taube Research Fellow in American History at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

John F. Rothmann is a talk show host on KGO News Talk 810 AM and is on the faculty of the Fromm Institute at the University of San Francisco.

Ritter admits it: 'I was arrested'
Ex-weapons inspector calls sex scandal 'dead issue,' but cancels trip to Baghdad

Former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter is finally admitting he was arrested a year and half ago by police in upstate New York, but refuses to disclose if it had anything to do with looking to meet underage girls from the Internet.

Scott Ritter on CNN 'Newsnight'

Ritter made an appearance tonight on "CNN Newsnight with Aaron Brown," but was evasive on questions dealing with reports he was caught in a police sex-sting operation.

"I was arrested in June 2001, charged with a Class B misdemeanor," said Ritter. "I stood before a judge and the case was dismissed. The file was sealed. And I certainly wish you and everyone else would respect that."

Citing legal counsel, Ritter stressed he was not going to reveal details, but questioned the timing of the revelations as he canceled his trip to Iraq due to this "distraction."

"And we should never forget that when a case is dismissed," said Ritter, "what the law says is that – by dismissing the case – it brings with it the presumption of innocence. And by sealing the file, it's designed to prevent the stigma attached with any unsubstantiated allegations from arising. So, as far as I'm concerned, as far as everyone should be concerned, this is a dead issue."

Brown responded by saying it wasn't a dead issue, as the case is starting to get more national publicity. He also challenged Ritter on the issue of the "sealing."

"Scott, we spent a fair amount of time today looking at New York law on this," said Brown. "There is nothing in a sealed case, zero, that prevents you from talking about it. The point of the seal is to protect you from the state, not to protect the state from you."

Ritter continued to elude specifics, stating the media had "turned this into a feeding frenzy."

"You are radioactive until this is cleared up," said Brown. "Until people understand what this is about, no one is going to talk to you about the things that you feel passionately about. And as uncomfortable as it may be, I submit to you that it is in your interests to explain what happened. Otherwise, Lord only knows what people will say."

"Well, Aaron, Lord only knows what people are already saying," responded Ritter. "And, frankly speaking, I have no control over that."

The CNN interview featured a series of non-committal answers, as evinced by this exchange between Ritter and the host:

RITTER: Aaron, again, I have to respectfully reply by noting that I am obligated legally not to discuss matters pertaining to a

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: Can you tell me, under what provision of what law are you referring to?

RITTER: Well, Aaron, you know I'm not a lawyer. And I have sought legal counsel on this. And I'm strictly abiding by legal counsel.

BROWN: So, I can dance around this a thousand ways and you're not going to tell me why you were arrested at that Burger King on that day in June. Is that right?

RITTER: Aaron, I will respond the same way, this way, until Sunday. I was arrested in June 2001, charged with a Class B misdemeanor. I stood before a judge and the case was dismissed. The file was sealed. And I certainly wish you and everyone else would respect that.

BROWN: OK. Again, I'm not going to beat my head against the wall. If you don't want to talk about it, you don't want to talk about it.

Let's talk about the ramifications of it. It is my view, and, certainly I think as far as this program is concerned, and I think others, that you are, in a sense, radioactive, that these charges, I would submit, until they're responded to, will keep it that way.

But, in any case, in this moment, for the moment, nobody cares what you think about Iraq. You think that's why this stuff was leaked?

RITTER: Well, I have no way of knowing why this happened. But the effect is obvious. I was supposed to be on an airplane yesterday flying to Baghdad on a personal initiative that could have had great ramifications in regards to issues of war and peace.

I wish people would keep the eye on the ball here. It's about war and peace. It's about the potential of conflict with Iraq, many thousands of Americans dying. And whether you agreed with me or disagreed with me on the issue, there's no doubting – and you can't rewrite history – I was a very effective voice in the anti-war effort in the campaign to keep inspectors on the ground.

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: What is stopping you from going to Baghdad?

RITTER: Well, look, what's stopping me is the reason why I'm sitting here before you, Aaron.

If I went to Baghdad and tried to talk responsibly about issues of war and peace, this issue would have come up. And it would have been a distraction and it would have actually been a disservice. There are people in Baghdad right now pursuing the initiative that I started. And I want to give them every chance of success. I don't want to provide any distractions.

BROWN: Well, one way or another, I hope all this stuff gets cleared up and you can get back to talking about the issues you care about. But, again, I'm not quite sure how that's going to happen.

Last September, Ritter became the first American to address the Iraqi National Assembly. He then urged Baghdad to allow weapons inspectors back into Iraq, something to which Saddam agreed shortly after Ritter's departure.

But Ritter started making headlines of a different sort this week after newspaper and television reports from his hometown region of Albany, N.Y., indicated he was arrested in 2001 for trying to meet underage girls in part of a police sex-sting operation.

The Schenectady Daily Gazette and New York Daily News originally reported Ritter allegedly had an online sexual discussion with someone he thought was an underage girl. The "girl," however, turned out to be an undercover police investigator, according to the Daily News, whose sources spoke on condition of anonymity.

WTEN-TV, the ABC affiliate in Albany, reported that Ritter contacted the "teen-age girl" twice in the spring of 2001, and that he has since undergone court-ordered sex-offender counseling from a psychologist in New York's capital.

Sources also told the Albany Times Union that Ritter had two run-ins with police.

The first occurred in April 2001, as he reportedly drove to a Colonie business to meet what he thought was a 14-year-old girl with whom he had chatted online. Instead, he reportedly was met by officers, who released him without a charge.

Ritter allegedly tried to lure underage girl to this Burger King parking lot (WNYT-TV)

Two months later, the source told the paper, Ritter was caught in the same kind of sex sting after he tried to lure a 16-year-old girl to an area Burger King restaurant.

An attorney for Ritter confirmed that the ex-inspector, who says President Bush should be impeached for his Iraq policy, was arrested a year and a half ago.

Norah Murphy said Ritter was arrested in the upstate New York town of Colonie in June 2001, but she would not respond to allegations that he was charged with soliciting an underage girl on the Internet. Ritter lives in the Albany suburb of Delmar.

Scott Ritter mug shot (courtesy WNYT-TV)

Though Ritter originally told the Daily Gazette the paper had him mistaken for someone else, the local NBC television affiliate WNYT produced video of a mug shot of Ritter after the arrest.

"If it's not him, it's either his clone or a twin," the station's news director, Paul Conti, told WorldNetDaily.

Conti said the 16-year-old girl had been lured by Ritter to meet him at the Burger King in Menands, N.Y., in order "to have her watch him have sex with himself."

Police reportedly charged Ritter with attempted endangerment of a child, a Class B misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in the county jail.

Sources said Ritter's attorney and a town court judge agreed to adjourn the matter in contemplation of a dismissal.

That generally means the case is on hold for six months, and if the defendant doesn't get into trouble, the case is usually dismissed and the record sealed. The adjournment means neither an admission of guilt or innocence.

Though network news coverage of the case has been scant, Ritter has been mentioned on Rush Limbaugh's radio program, heard on over 600 stations.

"If I were Scott Ritter, I would just come up with a 'Hey, I was just doing research here.' ... The Pete Townshend reply," joked Limbaugh.

"You know we've all wondered," he added, "why it is that Scott Ritter has done a 180 on what he originally saw as a weapons inspector and then the last couple years, it's like 'Nah, the Iraqis don't even have the capability to make a thumbtack, much less a chemical weapon.'"

Ritter is still planning to give discussions about the crisis with Iraq here in America.

......Shakir al-Khafaji was a ruthless negotiator who aggressively pursued his payments when the company fell behind, according to Italtech executives. The Italians say that one day he arrived unannounced at Mr Giangrandi’s office in Abu Dhabi, accompanied by bodyguards. “It was a surprise visit: he wanted his commission. It was, let’s say, unusual,” says Mr Giangrandi. Another Italtech executive adds: “He knocked at the door with two tough guys. Augusto was terrified and arranged for Shakir to be paid in Geneva.”
Mr Khafaji acknowledges that he had problems with the payment of the commission and that he went to Abu Dhabi, but says he went there alone.
A copy of an Italtech accounting document shows that on November 17 2000, Bayoil transferred $1m to Italtech’s Geneva account. On the same day, it records Italtech made a “payment” of the same amount; a note, hand-written by an Italtech executive, identifies the recipient as “Shaker Al Khafagi”. The original document is in the hands of the Italian authorities.
Mr Khafaji says he worked alone when he sold the allocations and that he was selling them on behalf of his family. He also now says he did not have any associates in Jordan. But Mr Giangrandi says that Mr Khafaji introduced himself as Mr Ritter’s “partner” and that he was “representing his allocations”. Mr Giangrandi says he never met Mr Ritter. [Scott Ritter]
A copy of a handwritten fax dated July 10 2000, the same month that Mr Khafaji began funding Mr Ritter’s film, shows Mr Giangrandi passing on Mr Khafaji’s contact details to Mr Chalmers.
The note says: “Dear David. This is the partner of S. R. [Scott Ritter] with whom I am negotiating now the 5M B-L. He is a very influential person here, and we can do many things in the future with him. Regards, A. G.”
Mr Giangrandi confirmed that “S. R.” referred to Mr Ritter.
Mr Ritter insists he was never offered any allocations by the Iraqi government. But he does relate an incident when an Iraqi official from the UN mission in New York said he might be able to get funding for his film by “sending an oil contract through a French oil company”. Mr Ritter says he “terminated the conversation at this point”. .... ——— “Questions about former UN weapons inspector’s film” (Ritter)
Financial Times ^ | April 12, 2004 | Mark Turner

Whoever owned Simon & Schuster in the late 90s may also be a possibility.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.