Free Republic

A small number of U.S. military forces inside Ukraine have recently begun doing onsite inspections to ensure that Ukrainian troops are properly accounting for the Western-provided weapons they receive, a senior U.S. defense official told Pentagon reporters Monday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide a military update, would not say where the inspections are taking place or how close to the battlefronts the U.S. troops are getting. The official said U.S. personnel can’t do inspections “close to the front lines,” but said they are going where security conditions allow.

Time.com September 14, 2002 Q: Some on the right call you the new Jane Fonda, and joke about what you'll call your exercise video.A: (Long pause?) Those on the right who say that disgrace the 12 years of service I gave to my country as a Marine. I love my country. I'll put my record of service up against anyone, bar none. If they want to have an exercise video then why don't they come here and say it to my face and I'll give'm an exercise video, which will be called, "Scott Ritter Kicking Their Ass." Q: Are you...

If reports by the National Intelligence Council and the Undersecretary of Defense can just be dismissed and replaced with dumbed down sound bites like “no WMDs have been found,” why bother having Intelligence? Ongoing criticism of the Bush administration’s actions in Iraq generally consists of the same two accusations; one, that the administration exaggerated the possibility that Iraq had WMDs, and two, that the continued presence of U.S. troops in Iraq is turning into another Vietnam. The left-leaning American press knows that if it continues to repeat these two themes, the American public will eventually start to believe them. Studies...

Yesterday in the Royal Courts of Justice, Andrew Gilligan effectively called David Kelly a liar. Days after a government spokesman had smeared Dr Kelly as a fantasist with delusions of grandeur, Gilligan alleged explicitly that the civil servant's evidence to Parliament had been systematically and knowingly false.

PASADENA, California - Former United Nations weapons inspector Scott Ritter says the U.N. resolution on disarming Iraq of weapons of mass destruction makes war inevitable. "We're going to war, and there's not a damn thing the inspectors can do to stop it, and that's a shame. Inspections worked once and they can work again," Ritter said Wednesday night during a speech at the California Institute for Technology. The wording of the U.N. resolution will allow the United States to attack by mid-December, said Ritter, who was chief weapons inspector for the U.N. Special Commission in Iraq from 1991 to 1998....

Sponsored by the University of Maryland Peace Forum SEEpublicrelations@union.umd.edu On November 11 at 7:30 Scott Ritter, Marine Intelligence officer and former UNSCOM cheif weapons inspector, will present "War in Iraq: a View from the Inside" in the Grand Ballroom of the Stamp Student Union at the University of Maryland in College Park. Admission is FREE!! Sponsored by Student Entertainment Events. WHAT: "War in Iraq: a View from the Inside," featuring Scott Ritter, UNSCOM chief Inspector WHEN: Monday, November 11 at 7:30 pm WHERE: Grand Ballroom of the Stamp Student Union University of Maryland, College Park Map of University of MD...

TONY BLAIR will tomorrow challenge the United Nations to prove its worth and force Iraq to dismantle its deadly weapons stockpile. In a gamble that could avoid war, Mr Blair and President Bush are putting the UN’s credibility on the line by backing a final deadline on President Saddam Hussein to allow in arms inspectors, but insisting that it must be backed up by the threat of force if he refuses to comply. In his speech to the TUC conference in Blackpool tomorrow, Mr Blair will try to defuse a potential Cabinet rebellion by disclosing that he has won Mr...

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan will try again to convince Iraq to admit U.N. weapons inspectors amid growing speculation that the United States is planning to invade the nation ruled by Saddam Hussein. But the leading opposition group to Saddam's regime believes Annan is wasting his time. United Nations spokesman Fred Eckhard said Annan will meet with Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri April 18 to discuss the U.N. Security Council's demand that Iraq allow inspectors to resume their work. U.N. weapons inspectors left Iraq in 1998 just before a U.S.-British bombing raid occurred. U.N. officials want to get back into...