Former UN weapons inspector rails against war in Iraq, warns of terrorism (Scott Ritter's Back!)

Associated Press ^ | February 5, 2003 | Hans Greimel

[Timesink]

Former UN weapons inspector rails against war in Iraq, warns of terrorism

By HANS GREIMEL, Associated Press Writer

TOKYO - Former U.N. chief weapons inspector Scott Ritter blasted the U.S. case against Iraq on Wednesday as based on "circumstantial evidence" and warned that invading the country would be a "long and horrific" invitation to terrorism.

The remarks came just hours before U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) was set to present the U.N. Security Council a detailed argument on the disarmament of Iraq.

Ritter, a former Gulf War (news - web sites) veteran who lead U.N. weapons inspections in Iraq from 1991 to 1998, said the United States was giving up on inspections too soon and that Powell could present only "circumstantial evidence" that they haven't worked.

"The purpose of Colin Powell's presentation ... is to destroy international trust and confidence in weapons inspections, and that's a darn shame," said Ritter, on a two-stop international campaign to condemn the push toward war in Iraq.

"Inspections can work if given a chance," he said.

Current chief weapons inspector Hans Blix indicated Tuesday that time and patience was running out, warning Baghdad that it is "five minutes to midnight."

According to Ritter, however, up to 95 percent of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction had been confirmed destroyed by the end of his tenure and the country has had no industrial base to rearm since — a claim about which many are skeptical.

Ritter argued that U.S. President George W. Bush (news - web sites) wants to undercut the inspections process because his true aim is not the disarmament of Iraq but the removal of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), a goal best achieved through military muscle.

Drawing on his years experience in the U.S. Marines and at the helm of 52 U.N. weapons inspections of Iraq, Ritter called Iraq a "defanged tiger."

But he warned that a U.S. invasion would be potentially devastating and likely trigger a global backlash of terrorist attacks against U.S. targets.

"It's going to be long and horrific," Ritter said. "I think an American invasion of Iraq is the best recruiting poster that Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) and al-Qaida will ever have."

He predicted that a U.S. air bombardment of Iraq would begin by the end of February and that U.S. ground troops could be marching across the border in early March. He said the country could be occupied as early as June. But he said getting there could entail thousands of U.S. casualties and possibly hundreds of thousands on the Iraqi side.

Ritter also dismissed arguments that the Iraqi people would welcome U.S. forces as liberators from an evil tyrant. He compared a U.S. invasion and occupation to Nazi Germany's 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, a homeland fiercely defended by its citizens despite their fear and loathing of then-Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

"When you take a look at the average Iraqi villager, he reaches down in his village and pulls up a handful of dust," Ritter said. "That dust contains his grandfather, his great-grandfather, the history of Iraq. They will fight and die for that."

Ritter leaves Japan on Friday for a seminar in the United Arab Emirates.

[Just mythoughts]

Ritter has someting to say, I say keep talking, because eventually he will spill the beans and really expose himself, from whence his turn came from.

Ritter has now made it easy to question his credibility, however, there are missing parts to the Ritter puzzle. To encourage him to talk, invite him as though he has credibility, only to find out the rest of the story.

We all know about him being a pervert, what we don't know is who spilled the beans about him being a pervert, who and why was he helped for a "dismissal/sealing" of record.