How ‘Reset’ Man McFaul Helped Torpedo U.S.-Russia Relations

To get a sense of why Putin meddled in our elections one need go no further than the Obama administration's hijinks.

Post-Mueller report insanity has gripped the nation. In between Presidential proclamations that the report provides proof of his exoneration, and Democratic declarations that the report contains evidence of crimes deserving of impeachment, lies the reality of U.S.-Russian relations, and the fact that these two nations live in a world where their combined nuclear arsenals can eliminate humanity as we know it.

While President Trump struggles to gain traction for his campaign promise to better relations, his political opponents are stuck in a time warp that has them reliving the 2016 Presidential election and its allegations of Russian interference.

Americans have every right to be concerned about the prospects of Russian interference in elections which serve as the foundation of American democracy. However, in seeking to find a solution to the problems that plague the relationship, it is imperative that the American people understand how we got to where we are today. You can’t solve a problem without first accurately defining the problem, and as such any examination of the Genesis of the he-said/she-said aspects of alleged Russian interference in 2016 must take into account the fact that, if anything, the Russians were reacting to a lengthy history of U.S. interference in their internal affairs since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991.

One of the key players in this interference was Michael McFaul, a Stanford professor who, while serving as the U.S. Ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014, oversaw a policy of engagement with Moscow on behalf of the Obama administration and, when that policy failed, facilitated U.S. interference in the 2012 Russian Presidential election in an effort to keep Vladimir Putin out of office.

Really Scott Ritter is lecturing us on Russiagate!

Scott Ritter paroled in online sex case
Former U.N. weapons inspector imprisoned for contact with minor

By Rick Karlin Published 8:20 pm EST, Thursday, December 4, 2014

Scott Ritter, former chief United Nations weapons inspector, walks through the Monroe County courthouse in Stroudsburg, Pa., on Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011. The sentencing phase of his trial on unlawful contact with a minor began Wednesday morning. (AP Photo/Pocono Record, David Kidwell) Photo: DAVID KIDWELL / Pocono Record
Photo: DAVID KIDWELL
Scott Ritter, former chief United Nations weapons inspector, walks through the Monroe County courthouse in Stroudsburg, Pa., on Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011. The sentencing phase of his trial on unlawful contact with a minor began Wednesday morning. (AP Photo/Pocono Record, David Kidwell)
Albany

Scott Ritter, the former United Nations weapons inspector who was arrested and imprisoned for unlawful contact with a minor, has returned to Bethlehem.

Ritter was paroled from state prison in Pennsylvania in September. A call to his home wasn’t returned on Thursday.

A vocal critic of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Ritter has resumed his trenchant writing on U.S. policy in the Middle East: He has authored at least three online articles for Huffington Post since October, including one warning that the creation of a U.S.-backed “Free Syrian Army” represents a “figment of American creative thinking.”

Ritter, 53, was an intelligence officer in the Marine Corps and then a weapons inspector for the U.N.

Upon leaving the U.N., he criticized the organization for not enforcing disarmament in Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War.

But as the U.S. was preparing to invade in 2003, Ritter gained prominence for his contention that the country had no real weapons of mass destruction.

Later the same year, Ritter made headlines when news surfaced that he had been caught in a police sting in 2001.

Police said that he had tried to lure a 16-year-old girl — actually a Colonie undercover officer posing online — to a Burger King in Menands. That case was later adjourned in contemplation of dismissal — essentially dropped — and the record was sealed. At the time, Ritter suggested that the case was a smear campaign designed to silence him.

Less than a decade after that arrest, Ritter found himself in similar legal trouble.

He was convicted in 2011 in Monroe County, Pa., after Barrett Township police presented evidence that in 2009 he had masturbated in front of a webcam being viewed by an undercover officer who was posing as a 15-year-old girl.

Ritter reportedly went by the handle “delmarm4fun.”

Though the case dragged on — a New York appellate division court at one point ruled that some of the evidence was inadmissible — Ritter was convicted on six counts, including felony unlawful contact with a minor. Sentenced to up to five and half years, he was sent to Laurel Highlands state prison in Somerset County, Pa., in March 2012.

Records show that the Pennsylvania parole board in June concluded Ritter had demonstrated positive behavior; had a “motivation for success” and had completed the programs needed for release.

Under the terms of his parole, Ritter can’t possess weapons, must refrain from alcohol, and has agreed to drug testing and “outpatient sex offender treatment.”

He can’t have contact with anyone younger than 18 without approval from parole officials.

rkarlin@timesunion.com • 518-454-5758 • @RickKarlinTU

https://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Scott-Ritter-paroled-in-online-sex-case-5936227.php

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