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The U.S. is engaged in a bloody war in Iraq for the purpose of eliminating the remnants of a terrorist regime, foreign terrorists, and bringing democracy to Iraq and the region. It is a big gamble that has put radical Islam on the defensive around the world. But shocking evidence demonstrates that controversial former U.S. Marine and former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter, who now writes for the anti-American Arab "news" organization Al Jazeera, was involved in a controversial effort to stop the war by enlisting prominent personalities in a "peace" campaign.

WITH THE release last month of the report by the Senate Select Committee on intelligence and Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, John Kerry was handed a gift that rarely occurs in a major political race: the chance to underscore a major failing on the part of an opponent. The committee found that there was no intelligence data to sustain President Bush's oft-cited reason for last year's invasion of Iraq -- the presence of WMDs and ongoing projects dedicated to their manufacture. Kerry said that the Bush administration had been "wrong, and soldiers lost their lives because they were wrong."

BEIJING, China (AP) - The United Nations investigator on torture said Thursday that China postponed his visit by several months, again thwarting a decade-long effort to pursue claims of abuse in the country's prisons. Theo van Boven had planned a two-week visit later this month to investigate reports of torture in Chinese jails, but China wanted more time to prepare, a statement on van Boven's Web site said. "The need for additional time to prepare for the two-week visit, especially given the different authorities, departments, and provinces involved, was cited by the government as a reason for the postponement," the...

Applause could be heard from outside the Special Events Center Tuesday, as Scott Ritter walked onto the stage. Ritter received a standing ovation as he began to discuss his views on the weapon inspections in Iraq and the possible war. Ritter, a former major in the U.S. Marines and a former U.N. chief weapons inspector, said it takes a gathering of more than 800 people to bring the Green Party and a former Marine together. The event, which was sponsored by the University Lecture Series, The Alliance of Concerned Students and the USF Campus Green, examined what the weapons inspectors...

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=104631&category=STATE&newsdate=2/12/2003   Bill would make Internet-luring a felony Albany-- Proposal would be added to last year's measure aimed at protecting minors By ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, Capitol bureauFirst published: Wednesday, February 12, 2003 Using the Internet to lure children for sexual encounters would be a felony punishable with up to seven years in prison under a proposal by Assembly Republicans. The Assembly minority introduced a similar law last year that would make it a felony for anyone to "lure or entice" a minor under age 17 into a car, building or other isolated place for the purpose of committing a sexual offense....

 

WAS RITTER SET UP?

Local Albany New York radio stations are reporting that Schenectady County Community College will continue with plans to pay sexual pervert and anti-American Scott Ritter $4,000 to preach his left wing peacenik anti-US venom to the college kids. Is it any wonder everyone is concerned with the Left Wing indoctrination that goes on at colleges and universities. Yet, God forbid a college would invite an Ann Coulter or Justice Thomas (which they seldom do because they don't want diversity of ideas on campus) and the whole student population goes berserk. We got some serious problems in America thanks to the...

Scott Ritter said he doesn't want forgiveness. Speaking publicly for the first time about the sex charge he was arrested for in 2001, the former U.N. arms inspector and one of the leading critics of the Bush administration's plans to attack Iraq said he has been held accountable for breaking the law. And it would be a shame, he said Wednesday, that his arrest could derail his efforts to help prevent a war in the Middle East. "I think it's important to put a human face on this, to remind people that there are issues out there bigger than a...

<p>January 23, 2003 -- Former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter yesterday suggested that court-sealed details of his Internet sex-sting arrest were intentionally leaked to sabotage his planned peace mission to Iraq.</p> <p>Because of "the timing" of the leak - about "something that occurred nearly two years ago" - he had to cancel his trip to Baghdad, where he planned to advise Iraqi officials on ways to avoid a conflict with the United States.</p>

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 mug shot (courtesy WNYT-TV) 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...

Much has been chatted (see, i.e., Raimundo's latest screed, but also including thinkers on the right) about how Ritter was "set up" in an oh-so-obvious attempt to silence a Bush critic.Putting aside the problem of TIMELINES and CAUSE-EFFECT metaphysical problems with that critique, I want to address another problematic aspect -- that the critics think that punishing an "attempt" crime is overreaching, and hence it is evidence of police conspiracy. Thes critics fundamentally misunderstand the notion and retionale for criminalizing "attempted crimes' in our criminal law system. "Attempt" crimes are a morally legitimate and necessary part of the criminal law...

<p>January 22, 2003 -- Former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter shouldn't have gotten a free pass after he was arrested for soliciting an underage girl in a police Internet sting, says the district attorney whose office muffed the case by dropping the charge.</p>

All right stop what you're doin' cause I'm about to ruin the image and the style that you're used to I look funny but yo I'm makin money see $400,000 for an Iraqi movie Now gather round I'm the new tool in town and the scuds laid down in the underground I'll take up all the TV time ya got on ya shelf so just let me introduce myself My name is Ritter pronounced like "litter" young ladies oh how I like to funk thee and all the legal aged chatters on AOL please allow me to bump thee I'm...

Reports from newspapers and television stations in Albany, N.Y., now indicate that outspoken former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter allegedly sought to meet underage girls twice in a three-month period in 2001. Scott Ritter mug shot (courtesy WNYT-TV) 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, is reporting that Ritter contacted the "teen-age...

http://www.timesunion.com/aspstories/storyprint.asp?storyID=95483 Arrest wasn't first time police had eye on Ritter Former U.N. arms inspector reportedly was under inquiry when cops charged him in 2001 By MIKE GOODWIN, Staff writerFirst published: Tuesday, January 21, 2003 Colonie -- The Internet sex case that led to the arrest of a former U.N. weapons inspector was not his first involvement with police on that type of crime, a person familiar with the case said Monday. Scott Ritter was under investigation for trying to set up a meeting with a girl through the Internet when town police charged him in June 2001 with using an...

TV station claims film shows ex-U.N. inspector caught in sex sting An attorney for Scott Ritter confirmed that the outspoken former U.N. weapons 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, N.Y., suburb of Delmar. The Schenectady Daily Gazette and New York Daily News report Ritter allegedly...

Okay. Someone has to do this so that we can keep track. On this thread, please give links for all the stories in print, in the news, on the radio, on the TV, and on the internet about Scott Ritter and the possible arrest.