Scott Ritter: The search for Iraqi WMD has become a public joke.

[T_i_B]

I remember seeing Scott ritter denounce Blair's WMD dossier the Saturday after it came out in Hyde Park as a load of old codswallop and here is another superb article by him on the subject.

http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=477860

President George Bush, in his State of the Union address in January last year, told the world that Saddam Hussein had promised he would disarm his weapons of mass destruction, and that this promise had not been fulfilled. Bush spoke of the Iraqi president retaining massive stocks of chemical and biological agent, as well as an ongoing nuclear weapons programme.

On 20 March 2003, Bush ordered American military forces, accompanied by the armed forces of Great Britain, to invade Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein from power. In hiding since the fall of Baghdad, Saddam was finally run to ground in December. On his capture, he is reported to have said that WMD was an issue created by George Bush to justify the invasion of Iraq. This is a claim that has increasing validity.

Tony Blair had already been embarrassed by a growing recognition that his own intelligence-based estimates regarding Iraqi WMD were every bit as cooked up as the American president's. He faced further ignominy when Paul Bremer, the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, publicly mocked his assertions that David Kay, the former UN weapons inspector turned CIA agent who headed the so-far futile search for WMD in occupied Iraq, had found "massive evidence of a huge system of clandestine laboratories". Dismissed by Bremer as a "red herring", Blair's discredited comments only underscore the sad fact that the issue of Iraqi WMD, and the entire concept of disarmament, has become a public joke.

The misrepresentation and distortion of fact carried out by President Bush and Prime Minister Blair is no joke, but rather represent an assault on the very fabric of the concept of a free and democratic society which they espouse to serve. The people of the United States are still waiting for a heavily divided Congress to break free of partisan politics and launch a genuine investigation. This should certainly look at the massive intelligence failure surrounding the gross distortion of the Iraqi WMD threat put forward by the US intelligence community. But perhaps more importantly, the investigation should focus on the actions of the White House in shaping the intelligence estimates so that they dovetailed nicely with the political goals and objectives of the Bush administration's Iraq policy-makers.

[MysticMind]

1. I guess Scott forgot about this screwing underage girls...

"According to Scott Ritter, he received human-source intelligence in the fall of 1996 indicating that Iraq possessed three sets of components for nuclear weapons"





http://www.nci.org/i/ib10198a.htm

[CatWoman]

2. oh please!!!!!!

ok -- show me the proof that he screwed little girls.

fuck the right wing bullshit talking points -- show us your proof.

[MysticMind]

3. alright here you go

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/01/26/ritter.arrest/index.html

[CatWoman]

according to that link

the case was dismissed, and the records were sealed. That sure doesn't look like a clear cut case to me.

*tapping foot*

still waiting............................

[CatWoman]

4. according to that link

the case was dismissed, and the records were sealed. That sure doesn't look like a clear cut case to me.

*tapping foot*

still waiting............................

[Atman]

5. This changes what he said/knows how?

The man was an expert in the inspections process. He knew/knows more than most about Iraq's weapons program, and he certainly knows infinitely more than you on the subject, Mystic.

So I ask...are his years of knowledge and expertise in the field of arms inspection negated by this totally-unrelated bad behavior?

Read the words he wrote, keep them in context. If you want to start a thread about stupid sex things middle age men do, you'd better damn well start a whole new message board, and make sure your host provides a lot of bandwidth!

[CatWoman]

6. Thank you, Atman

the mind boggles..............

[MysticMind]

7. Scott Ritter has changed his mind about Iraq and WMDs

Since 1998. I provided a link to his inconsistency.

[T_i_B]

8. Scott Ritters argument over Iraq

has been that "Since 1998 Iraq has been fundamentally disarmed". Since 1998. The fact that he is a UN weapons inspector and knows what he is talking about might inform this viewpoint.

Your CNN link does not show any inconsistency in this matter, it merely deals with Ritter's private life which has very little to do with WMD's. (Unless you can prove to me that he keeps a stash of chemical weapons in his undercrackers of course. :eyes: )

[WoodrowFan]

18. in other words

In other words as Ritter gathered evidence he changed his mind. That's not inconsistency. That's called intellectual honesty.

[jbfam4]

9. You know, Cat

If you can't refute what they say with proof.....then you attack.

So what's new?

[CatWoman]

10. I suppose I'm just sick and tired

of people throwing out that straw man whenever it comes to Ritter.

As Atman said above -- what does these allegations have to do with ANYTHING???????

I didn't make the allegation, so why should *I* provide proof of anything??

There's way too much slander going on around here as it is (inserting mirror for jbfam4).

*still tapping foot waiting for proof that this man is guilty of the poster's allegation*

So, what's new with you?

[jbfam4]

13. Sorry, Cat....

I just got back to this and what I said didn't come out right. I wasn't referring to you..you don't have to prove anything.


Should have just said.......Mystic was shooting the messenger(Ritter.)

[thebigidea]

11. how incredibly tacky! you should be ashamed of yourself

[CatWoman]

12. Hey Baby

:hi:

Alan sends his regards :D

[DrBB]

14. Question for MysticMind

How does someone so enamored of rightwing "debating" techniques last for 190 posts on DU? I mean, that's just such a nifty little example of a Limbaugh or O'Reilly move. Can't deal with the facts, so we try to change the subject by throwing in a bit of cooked up slander.

I don't know anything about those charges other than that the judge threw them out of court and sealed the records--from what I read, a rare treatment, for which the presumptive explanation is that there was bugger-all there to begin with. But gee how those reichpundits--and you--love to keep the thing alive. How come? The fact that Ritter keeps being vindicated on the facts of Iraq's WMD doesn't strike you as worthy of comment, I guess.

[Room101]

15. I have had (MysticMind) on IGNORE since he first joined

For using FREEPER anti-logic and talking points. I would advice people to hit the Alert button on him.

[DarkSim]

16. WMD this

Freaking Bush administration. Is there something Bush has truly been sincere on (excluding tax cuts)? please someone tell me if there is anything.

the issue on WMDs is a big scam, the whole shit of it. i suggest someone come and disarm the US of it's weapons of mass destruction

yes lets put Bush on trial in the Hague for war crimes with his good buddies Saddam and Milosevic.

I'm sick and tired of lying deceptive (not to mention stupid) politicians messing up my life.

[Judi Lynn]

17. He has brought up new, totally serious material we've not considered, yet.

Very interesting.

Really appreciate your posting this.

Thanks a lot, Thankfully_in_Britain. :hi: