Exclusive: Scott Ritter in His Own Words

Please click here for the eentire article.

This is an excerpt of an article from last September. Thought it was interesting in light of those children being release from prison ... bastard!

Question from Time ...
You've spoke about having seen the children's prisons in Iraq. Can you describe what you saw there?

The prison in question is at the General Security Services headquarters, which was inspected by my team in Jan. 1998. It appeared to be a prison for children — toddlers up to pre-adolescents — whose only crime was to be the offspring of those who have spoken out politically against the regime of Saddam Hussein. It was a horrific scene. Actually I'm not going to describe what I saw there because what I saw was so horrible that it can be used by those who would want to promote war with Iraq, and right now I'm waging peace.

National Post (f/k/a The Financial Post)
September 14, 2002 Saturday National Edition
Exclusive Interview; Pg. B1

Truth or treason?: Former UN arms inspector Scott Ritter maintains Bush is wrong about Iraq
David Wallis
To his admirers, Scott Ritter --who turned up in Baghdad this week to blast the Bush administration's war plans before Iraq's "parliament" -- is something of a modern-day Daniel Ellsberg, who serves his country patriotically by protesting a war (in this case a seemingly unstoppable one) that he considers misguided and immoral. To his detractors, Ritter is a shill for Saddam Hussein -- a deeper-voiced Tokyo Rose. "[Ritter] is a paid spokesman now for Iraq. The traitor bastard should be shot," one critic of the former UN weapons inspector fumed on the online forum Paratrooper.com. "Scott Ritter, if you see this, YOU ... ARE THE LOWEST FORM OF LIFE KNOWN!! IF I WERE YOU, I'D WATCH YOUR BACK REAL CLOSE!!"
(snip)
D.W. Assuming that there is a war and a U.S. military victory, what steps will America need to take to govern post-war Iraq?

S.R. You assume victory. If Saddam Hussein fortifies his cities with Republican Guard troops, especially in the Sunni heartland, the fight will resemble Grozny. The Russians had no choice but to level the city. That's the kind of fight we are talking about. And if Saudi Arabia does not give us support, we are talking about invading through a single conduit of support: Kuwait.
D.R. Will Iraqis dance on the streets of Baghdad when the U.S. topples Saddam? Do you think he enjoys more popular support than pundits estimate?

S.R. Absolutely, he's more popular than any time since the Gulf War. Saddam has cynically manipulated the economic sanctions against the Iraqi people for his own political gain, transferring blame away from himself to the United States... The Iraqis, who have suffered egregiously, don't like Saddam, but they have rallied around him and his regime because they hate us more. We may be able to generate support for an invasion among some of the Shiites and some of the Kurds, but to get to Baghdad you must penetrate the "Sunni Triangle." Sunnis will not rise up against Saddam -- ever. They will fight tooth and nail.
(snip)

D.W. During your mission in Iraq, did you see things that horrified you?

S.R. Yeah, but it had nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction. It was how Saddam Hussein brutally represses his people. The most horrific thing I saw was the children's prison in downtown Baghdad. Probably 200 kids from toddlers to 12-year-olds. The stench was unreal -- urine, feces, vomit, sweat. The kids were howling and dying of thirst. We threw water in there, but the Iraqis probably took the water out afterwards. They were the kids of political prisoners.
(snip)
D.W. As a weapons inspector, you travelled throughout Iraq. We hear about the ugly side of the country. Tell us about the beauty of Iraq?

S.R. I appreciate the stark contrasts of the Iraqi desert. I love desert mornings. I love desert evenings. I love desert sunsets. I love when rain falls on the desert and kicks up dust and you can smell the earth. The Iraqi people are some of the warmest people you'll meet in your life. They have the same goals and aspirations we have. They want to provide a better life for their children and they face the same struggles. They are extremely receptive to strangers. Their hospitality is immense. Iraq has a tremendous amount of history. Everywhere you go, there are ruins, ziggurats and mosques that go back in time. I warned my inspectors that they could not be caught up in the grandeur of Iraq. We had to be focused on our jobs as inspectors, because you could easily be distracted. Easily.

That's weird, the "alpha dog" stuff. Here's what I wrote earlier before reading that Frontline excerpt:

Here's my own read on this. Ritter saw and was alarmed by the prisons. It made him mad. He beacme a loose cannon. In the Senate hearings Biden busted him, something snapped -- Ritter was vanquished before the alpha dog or some such rot. Ritter however tried to work through his feelings regarding the abused children in Iraqi prisons by redirecting that feeling into sexually caring for random acquantices in "Kiddie" interent chat-rooms -- even though he knew many of those kiddies were other role-playing adults and internet cops. That assuaged his inner morality's sense of vanquishment -- consistent with the "everything is perverted and wasted" sense that came with that vanquishment.
To further wear that perversion's hair shirt -- to complete his sense of "submission" to the dark side -- he took up the Iraqi Regime's cause.

See my reply 24 on the FR thread "PRISONS FOR CHILDREN DISCOVERED IN BAGHDAD "

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.