Editing Scott Ritter (section)

== Career ==

=== Military background ===
In 1980, Ritter served in the [[United States Army|U.S. Army]] as a private. In May 1984, he was commissioned as an [[military intelligence|intelligence]] officer in the [[United States Marine Corps]]. He served in this capacity for about 12 years.<ref name=Fox2002>{{cite interview |last=Ritter |first=Scott |interviewer=[[David Asman]] |title=Talk of the Nation |publisher=[[Fox News|Fox News Channel]] |date=September 12, 2002 |url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,62916,00.html|archive-date=September 6, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080906131857/http://foxnews.com/story/0,2933,62916,00.html |url-status=live|access-date=January 21, 2008}}</ref> He was the lead analyst for the Marine Corps [[Rapid Deployment Force]] concerning the [[Soviet invasion of Afghanistan]] and the [[Iran–Iraq War]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Williams-Hedges |first=Deborah |date=November 1, 2002 |title=Former UN Weapons Inspector to Speak at Caltech |url=https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/former-un-weapons-inspector-speak-caltech-632 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240107104803/https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/former-un-weapons-inspector-speak-caltech-632 |archive-date=January 7, 2024 |access-date=January 7, 2024 |website=www.caltech.edu}}</ref> His academic work focused on the [[Basmachi]] resistance movement in [[Soviet Central Asia]] during the 1920s and 1930s, and on the Basmachi commanders [[Faizal Maksum]] and [[Ibrahim Bek]].<ref name="jch">{{cite journal|last=Ritter |first=William S |author-link=Scott Ritter |year=1990 |title=Revolt in the Mountains: Fuzail Maksum and the Occupation of Garm, Spring 1929 |journal=[[Journal of Contemporary History]] |volume=25 |issue=4|pages=547–580|doi=10.1177/002200949002500408 |s2cid=159486304}}</ref><ref name="ss">{{cite journal|last=Ritter |first=William S |author-link=Scott Ritter |year=1985 |title=The Final Phase in the Liquidation of Anti-Soviet Resistance in Tadzhikistan: Ibrahim Bek and the Basmachi, 1924–31 |journal=[[Soviet Studies]] |volume=37 |issue=4 |pages=484–493|doi=10.1080/09668138508411604}}</ref>

During [[Desert Storm]] (1991), as a Marine [[captain (United States O-3)|captain]], he served as a [[ballistic missile]] intelligence analyst under General [[Norman Schwarzkopf]]. Ritter filed multiple internal reports challenging Schwarzkopf's claim that the US had destroyed  "as many as 16" of Iraq's estimated 20 mobile [[Scud missile]] launchers, arguing that they could not be confirmed.<ref name="salon" /><ref name="scuds">{{citation|date=June 24, 1992 |title=Pentagon Claims on Scuds Disputed |newspaper=New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/24/world/pentagon-claims-on-scuds-disputed.html|last=Schmitt |first=Eric|archive-date=October 3, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221003065247/https://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/24/world/pentagon-claims-on-scuds-disputed.html |url-status=live|access-date=October 3, 2022}}</ref> In 1992 Ritter was quoted in a ''New York Times'' op-ed saying "No mobile Scud launchers were destroyed during the war."<ref name="scuds" /> He later worked as a security and military consultant for the [[Fox News]] network.  In an interview with ''[[Democracy Now!]]'' in 2003 he said he had "a long relationship [...] of an official nature" with the UK's foreign intelligence spy agency [[Secret Intelligence Service|MI6]].<ref name="Democracy Now!">{{cite web |url=http://www.democracynow.org/2003/12/30/scott_ritter_how_the_british_spy |title=Scott Ritter: How the British Spy Agency MI6 Secretly Misled A Nation Into War With Iraq |last1=Goodman |first1=Amy |date=December 30, 2003 |work=[[Democracy Now!]] |access-date=November 3, 2014 |archive-date=March 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220302220923/https://www.democracynow.org/2003/12/30/scott_ritter_how_the_british_spy |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== UN Weapons inspector ===
Ritter worked as a weapons inspector for the [[United Nations Special Commission]]  from 1991 to 1998, which was charged with finding and destroying all weapons of mass destruction and WMD-related manufacturing capabilities in Iraq. He was the chief inspector in fourteen of more than thirty inspection missions in which he participated.<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 22, 2007 |title=Former Iraq weapons inspector Scott Ritter speaks at RCSI |url=https://www.rcsi.com/dublin/news-and-events/news/news-article/2007/05/former-iraq-weapons-inspector-scott-ritter-spoke-at-royal-college-of-surgeons |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240107105054/https://www.rcsi.com/dublin/news-and-events/news/news-article/2007/05/former-iraq-weapons-inspector-scott-ritter-spoke-at-royal-college-of-surgeons|website=www.rcsi.com |archive-date=January 7, 2024 |access-date=January 7, 2024}}</ref>

Ritter was among a group of UNSCOM weapons inspectors which regularly took [[Lockheed U-2]] imagery to [[Israel]] for analysis, as UNSCOM was not getting sufficient analysis assistance from the United States and the United Kingdom. That was not authorized by UNSCOM, the U-2 jet had been loaned to UNSCOM and caused him to be subjected to criticism and investigation by U.S. authorities. Iraq protested about information being given to Israel.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.users.cloud9.net/~recross/israel-watch/Texts/WashingtonPost.htm |title=Israel Gave Key Help To U.N. Team in Iraq |author=Barton Gellman |newspaper=Washington Post|archive-date=September 4, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190904040136/http://www.users.cloud9.net/~recross/israel-watch/Texts/WashingtonPost.htm |url-status=dead|date=September 29, 1998|access-date=August 31, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |page=227 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uOcrDF0y-CAC |title=Spyplane: The U-2 History Declassified |author=Norman Polmar |publisher=Zenith Imprint |year=2001 |isbn=9780760309575 |access-date=August 31, 2013 |archive-date=August 20, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240820211911/https://books.google.com/books?id=uOcrDF0y-CAC |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Operation Mass Appeal ===
Beginning in December 1997, Ritter, with the approval of UNSCOM head [[Richard Butler (diplomat)|Richard Butler]] and other top UNSCOM leaders, began to supply the UK's foreign intelligence service MI6 with documents and briefings on UNSCOM's findings to be used for MI6's propaganda effort dubbed "[[Operation Mass Appeal]]": "I was approached by the British intelligence service, which I had, again, a long relationship with, of an official nature, to see if there was any information in the archives of UNSCOM that could be handed to the British, so that they could in turn work it over, determine its veracity, and then seek to plant it in media outlets around the world, in an effort to try to shape the public opinion of those countries, and then indirectly, through, for instance, a report showing up in the Polish press, shape public opinion in Great Britain and the United States. I went to Richard Butler with the request from the British. He said that he supported this, and we initiated a cooperation that was very short-lived. The first reports were passed to the British sometime in February of 1998. There was a detailed planning meeting in June of 1998, and I resigned in August of 1998.[...] This is an operation—Operation Mass Appeal, that had been going on prior to UNSCOM being asked to be the source of particular data, and it's an operation that continued after my resignation."<ref name="Democracy Now!" />

=== Last weapons inspections in 1998 ===

In January 1998, Ritter's inspection team in Iraq was blocked from some weapons sites by Iraqi officials who said that information obtained from the sites would be used for future planning of attacks. UN Inspectors then left Iraq, shortly before [[Operation Desert Fox]] attacks began in December 1998, using information which had been gathered for the purpose of disarmament to identify targets which would reduce Iraq's ability to wage both conventional and possibly unconventional warfare. UN weapons inspectors were thereafter denied access to Iraq. Ritter spoke on the [[PBS]] show, ''[[The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer]]'': "I think the danger right now is that without effective inspections, without effective monitoring, Iraq can in a very short period of time measured in months, reconstitute chemical and biological weapons, long-range ballistic missiles to deliver these weapons, and even certain aspects of their developing of nuclear weapons program."<ref name="PBS1998">{{Cite web|title=Online NewsHour: Scott Ritter|url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/july-dec98/ritter_8-31.html|publisher=[[PBS]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061021202822/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/july-dec98/ritter_8-31.html |url-status=dead|archive-date=October 21, 2006 |access-date=September 11, 2017}}</ref>

When the United States and the UN Security Council failed to take action against Iraq for their ongoing failure to cooperate fully with inspectors (a breach of [[United Nations Security Council]] [[List of United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1101 to 1200|Resolution 1154]]), Ritter resigned from the United Nations Special Commission on August 26, 1998.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2247600.stm |publisher=BBC News |title=Profile: Scott Ritter |date=September 9, 2002 |access-date=May 23, 2010 |archive-date=August 31, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170831043048/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2247600.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> In his letter of resignation, Ritter said that the Security Council's reaction to Iraq's decision earlier that month to suspend co-operation with the inspection team made a mockery of the disarmament work. Ritter later said in an interview, that he resigned from his role as a United Nations weapons inspector over inconsistencies between United Nations Security Council Resolution 1154 and how it was implemented: "The investigations had come to a standstill, were making no effective progress, and in order to make effective progress, we really needed the Security Council to step in a meaningful fashion and seek to enforce its resolutions that we're not complying with."<ref name="PBS1998" />

On September 3, 1998, several days after his resignation, Ritter testified before the [[United States Senate Committee on Armed Services]] and the [[United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations]] and said that he resigned his position "out of frustration that the United Nations Security Council, and the United States as its most significant supporter, was failing to enforce the post-Gulf War resolutions designed to disarm Iraq."<ref name="CEIP">[http://www.ceip.org/programs/npp/ritter.htm Carnegie Endowment for International Peace<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021224112338/http://www.ceip.org/programs/npp/ritter.htm |date=December 24, 2002}}</ref> According to him Secretary of State [[Madeleine Albright|Madeleine K. Albright]] had supposedly "blocked more inspections in 1997 than Saddam Hussein did," a charge which Albright disputed.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|last=Gellman|first=Barton|date=September 4, 1998|title=SENATE DEMOCRATS ATTACK RITTER|language=en-US|newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1998/09/04/senate-democrats-attack-ritter/fcccba45-df53-4dc7-aa44-17b1d1e96289/|issn=0190-8286|archive-date=August 27, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170827024313/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1998/09/04/senate-democrats-attack-ritter/fcccba45-df53-4dc7-aa44-17b1d1e96289/|url-status=live|access-date=January 29, 2022}}</ref>

During the testimony on September 3, 1998, Ritter was asked by then-Senator [[Joe Biden]] about his position on inspections, which Biden criticized as "confrontation-based policy."<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|last=Biden|first=Joseph R.|date=September 19, 1998|title='I MEANT NO DISRESPECT'|language=en-US|newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1998/09/19/i-meant-no-disrespect/6acd6366-2058-4a7c-83cd-da4d345c144d/|access-date=January 29, 2022|issn=0190-8286|archive-date=January 29, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220129054643/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1998/09/19/i-meant-no-disrespect/6acd6366-2058-4a7c-83cd-da4d345c144d/|url-status=live}}</ref> According to [[Barton Gellman]], Biden questioned if the inspector was trying to "appropriate the power 'to decide when to pull the trigger' of military force against Iraq," with Biden saying that the Secretary of State would also have to consider the opinion of allies, the United Nations Security Council and public opinion, before any potential intervention in Iraq.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=United Nations Weapons Inspections in Iraq|publisher=C-SPAN|url=https://www.c-span.org/video/?110998-1/united-nations-weapons-inspections-iraq|access-date=January 29, 2022|language=en-us|archive-date=January 29, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220129063718/https://www.c-span.org/video/?110998-1%2Funited-nations-weapons-inspections-iraq|url-status=live}}</ref> Later on, Biden stated that the decision was "above [Ritter's] pay grade."<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0" /> According to Gellman, Senate Democrats joined Biden and "amplified on the [[Presidency of Bill Clinton|Clinton]] administration's counterattack [against] Scott Ritter" with exceptions such as [[John Kerry]], while Senate Republicans "were unanimous in describing Ritter's disclosures as highly damaging to the credibility of the Clinton administration on one of its core foreign policies."<ref name=":0" />

Ritter's testimony was disputed by Richard Butler, chief UN arms inspector for Iraq, who claimed that Ritter made factual errors and harmed UNSCOM's mission. The previous chief inspector for Iraq, [[Rolf Ekéus]], said that Ritter was "not in a position to know all of the considerations that go into decision making on the commission," and defended Albright's support for UNSCOM. Albright publicly disputed Ritter's claims in a speech, saying "In fact, the United States has been by far the strongest international backer of UNSCOM. We have provided indispensable technical and logistical support. We've pushed and pushed and pushed some more to help UNSCOM break through the smoke screen of lies and deceptions put out by the Iraqi regime."<ref>{{cite news |last=Philip |first=Shenon |date=September 10, 1998 |title=Rebuking Ex-Arms Inspector, Albright Defends U.S. Role |newspaper=New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/10/world/rebuking-ex-arms-inspector-albright-defends-us-role.html |access-date=October 3, 2022 |archive-date=October 3, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221003055008/https://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/10/world/rebuking-ex-arms-inspector-albright-defends-us-role.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Reception as weapons inspector===

Butler, Ritter's former UNSCOM boss, said that Ritter "wasn't prescient" in his predictions about WMDs, saying, "When he was the 'Alpha Dog' inspector, then by [[God]], there were more weapons there, and we had to go find them a contention for which he had inadequate evidence. When he became a peacenik, then it was all complete B.S., start to finish, and there were no weapons of mass destruction... that also was a contention for which he had inadequate evidence."<ref name="Bai" />

Writing in ''[[The New York Times]]'', [[Matt Bai]] said that Butler's caveat notwithstanding, Ritter was in fact vindicated about Iraq's lack of WMDs and that the aftermath of the war could be calamitous. Bai described Ritter as the "most determined dissenter and the one with the most on-the-ground intelligence" of the situation in Iraq prior to the war.<ref name="Bai" />

However, Bai went on to compare Ritter's insistence during his 2011 trial for sex offenses that his conduct was of no consequence to the wider community—and his unwillingness to consider a plea agreement—to the stridency with which Ritter advocated for his views on Iraq: "If there is a connection between Ritter the activist and Ritter the accused, though, it probably lies in the uncompromising, even heedless way in which he insists on his version of reality, and how he sees himself always as the victim of a system that is self-evidently corrupt.&nbsp;... the very attribute that made Scott Ritter appear somehow clairvoyant on Iraq—his refusal to accede to everyone else's sense of reality—is the same one that has led him, now, to ruin."<ref name="Bai" />