Scott Ritter William Scott Ritter , Jr . ( born July 15 , 1961 ) was a United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991 to 1998 , and later a critic of United States foreign policy in the Middle East . Prior to the U . S . invasion of Iraq in March 2003 , Ritter stated that Iraq possessed no significant weapons of mass destruction ( WMD ) capabilities . He became a popular anti - war figure and talk show commentator as a result of his stance . In 2001 , Ritter on two occasions was detained and later arrested on charges of soliciting minors for sex on the Internet that were both dismissed . He was arrested on similar charges in 2010 that led to a conviction and sentence of one and a half to five and a half years . Military background . Ritter was born into a military family in 1961 in Gainesville , Florida . He graduated from Kaiserslautern American High School in 1979 , and later from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster , Pennsylvania , with a Bachelor of Arts in the history of the Soviet Union and departmental honors . In 1980 he served in the U . S . Army as a Private . Then in May 1984 he was commissioned as an intelligence officer in the United States Marine Corps . He served in this capacity for about 12 years . He served as the lead analyst for the Marine Corps Rapid Deployment Force concerning the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Iran – Iraq War . Ritter ' s academic work focused on the Basmachi resistance movement in Soviet Central Asia during the 1920s and 1930s , and on the Basmachi commanders Fazail Maksum and Ibrahim Bek . During Desert Storm , he served as a ballistic missile advisor to General Norman Schwarzkopf . Ritter later worked as a security and military consultant for the Fox News network . Weapons inspector . Ritter served from 1991 to 1998 as a United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq in the United Nations Special Commission ( UNSCOM ) , which was charged with finding and destroying all weapons of mass destruction and WMD - related manufacturing capabilities in Iraq . He was chief inspector in fourteen of the more than thirty inspection missions in which he participated . Ritter was amongst a group of UNSCOM weapons inspectors that regularly took Lockheed U - 2 imagery to Israel for analysis , as UNSCOM was not getting sufficient analysis assistance from the U . S . and UK . This was authorised by UNSCOM , the U . S . U - 2 having been loaned to UNSCOM , but caused Ritter to be subjected to criticism and investigation by U . S . authorities . Iraq protested about the supply of such information to Israel . In January 1998 , his inspection team in Iraq was blocked from some weapons sites by Iraqi officials stating that information obtained from these sites would be used for future planning of attacks . UN Inspectors were ordered out of Iraq by the United States Government , 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 . He spoke on the Public Broadcasting Service 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 . 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 Resolution 1154 ) , Ritter resigned from the United Nations Special Commission on August 26 , 1998 . In his letter of resignation , Ritter said 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 . 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 . " Opinions on U . S . policy toward Iraq . Following his resignation from UNSCOM , Ritter continued to be an outspoken commentator on U . S . policy toward Iraq , particularly with respect to the WMD issue . He became a popular anti - war figure and talk show commentator . Ritter and Operation Desert Fox . In a 2005 interview Ritter criticized the Clinton administration ' s use of a blocked inspection of a Ba ' ath party headquarters to justify Operation Desert Fox , a three - day bombing campaign in December 1998 that saw inspectors withdrawn from Iraq where they would not return until late 2002 . Public perception is that the Iraqis were confrontational and blocking the work of the inspectors . In 98 % of the inspections , the Iraqis did everything we asked them to because it dealt with disarmament . However when we got into issues of sensitivity , such as coming close to presidential security installations , Iraqis raised a flag and said , “ Time out . We got a C . I . A . out there that ' s trying to kill our president and we ' re not very happy about giving you access to the most sensitive installations and the most sensitive personalities in Iraq . ” So we had these modalities , where we agreed that if we came to a site and the Iraqis called it ‘ sensitive , ’ we go in with four people . In 1998 , the inspection team went to a site . It was the Baath Party headquarters , like going to Republican Party headquarters or Democratic Party headquarters . The Iraqis said , “ You can ' t come in – you can come in . Come on in . ” The inspectors said , “ The modalities no longer apply . ” The Iraqis said , “ If you don ' t agree to the modalities , we can ' t support letting you in , ” and the Iraqis wouldn ' t allow the inspections to take place . Bill Clinton said , “ This proves the Iraqis are not cooperating , ” and he ordered the inspectors out . But you know the United States government ordered the inspectors to withdraw from the modalities without conferring with the Security Council . It took Iraqis by surprise . Iraqis were saying , “ We ' re playing by the rules , why aren ’ t you ? If you ' re not going play by the rules , then it ’ s a game that we don ' t want to participate in . ” Bill Clinton ordered the inspectors out . Saddam didn ' t kick them out . However , in his 1999 book " Endgame " Ritter explained that he was the one who had originally pushed for the fateful inspection of the Ba ' ath party headquarters over the doubts of his boss Richard Butler and also planned to use 37 inspectors . It was temporarily cancelled due to the fact that Iraq broke off cooperation in August 1998 : Commentary in the post - inspection period . In 1999 , Ritter wrote " Endgame : Solving the Iraq Problem — Once and For All " in which he reiterated his claim that Iraq had obstructed the work of inspectors and attempted to hide and preserve essential elements for restarting WMD programs at a later date . However , he also expressed frustration at alleged attempts by the CIA to infiltrate UNSCOM and use the inspectors as a means of gathering intelligence with which to pursue regime change in Iraq – a violation of the terms under which UNSCOM operated , and the very rationale the Iraqi government had given in restricting the inspector ' s activities in 1998 . In the book ' s conclusion , Ritter criticized the current U . S . policy of containment in the absence of inspections as inadequate to prevent Iraq ' s re - acquisition of WMD ' s in the long term . He also rejected the notion of removing Saddam Hussein ' s regime by force . Instead , he advocated a policy of diplomatic engagement , leading to gradual normalization of international relations with Iraq in return for inspection - verified abandonment of their WMD programs and other objectionable policies . Ritter again promoted a conciliatory approach toward Iraq in the 2000 documentary " In Shifting Sands : The Truth About UNSCOM and the Disarming of Iraq " , which he wrote and directed . The film tells the history of the UNSCOM investigations through interviews and video footage of inspection missions . In the film , Ritter argues that Iraq is a " defanged tiger " and that the inspections were successful in eliminating significant Iraqi WMD capabilities . ( For more see below under " Documentary " . ) Iraq War predictions . Just after the coalition invasion of Iraq had been launched , but prior to troops arriving in Baghdad , British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the Parliament of the United Kingdom that the United States and the United Kingdom believed they had " sufficient forces " in Iraq . At that very time Ritter offered an opposing view on Portuguese radio station TSF : " The United States is going to leave Iraq with its tail between its legs , defeated . It is a war we can not win . . . We do not have the military means to take over Baghdad and for this reason I believe the defeat of the United States in this war is inevitable . . . Every time we confront Iraqi troops we may win some tactical battles , as we did for ten years in Vietnam , but we will not be able to win this war , which in my opinion is already lost , " Ritter added . U . S . forces swiftly took Baghdad , but characterizing the result as " winning the war " remains controversial . Shortly after the fall of Baghdad , Ritter appeared on the Sean Hannity show debating the validity of the invasion and his involvement in the Weapons Inspection program . Richard Butler , Scott Ritter ' s boss under the United Nations in Iraq , 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 . And that also was a contention for which he had inadequate evidence . " Commentary on Iraq ' s lack of WMDs . Despite identifying himself as a Republican and having voted for George W . Bush in 2000 , by 2002 Ritter had become an outspoken critic of the Bush administration ' s claims that Iraq possessed significant WMD stocks or manufacturing capabilities , the primary rationale given for the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003 . His views at that time are well summarized in " " a 2002 publication which consists largely of an interview between Ritter and anti - war activist William Rivers Pitt . In the interview , Ritter responds to the question of whether he believes Iraq has weapons of mass destruction : There ' s no doubt Iraq hasn ' t fully complied with its disarmament obligations as set forth by the Security Council in its resolution . But on the other hand , since 1998 Iraq has been fundamentally disarmed : 90 - 95 % of Iraq ' s weapons of mass destruction capacity has been verifiably eliminated . . . We have to remember that this missing 5 - 10 % doesn ' t necessarily constitute a threat . . . It constitutes bits and pieces of a weapons program which in its totality doesn ' t amount to much , but which is still prohibited . . . We can ' t give Iraq a clean bill of health , therefore we can ' t close the book on their weapons of mass destruction . But simultaneously , we can ' t reasonably talk about Iraqi non - compliance as representing a de - facto retention of a prohibited capacity worthy of war . ( page 28 ) We eliminated the nuclear program , and for Iraq to have reconstituted it would require undertaking activities that would have been eminently detectable by intelligence services . ( page 32 ) If Iraq were producing [ chemical ] weapons today , we ' d have proof , pure and simple . ( page 37 ) [ A ] s of December 1998 we had no evidence Iraq had retained biological weapons , nor that they were working on any . In fact , we had a lot of evidence to suggest Iraq was in compliance . ( page 46 ) He later stated in another address ; I think [ The Bush Administration ] has stated that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction , and that ' s as simple as they want to keep it . They don ' t want to get into the nitty - gritty things such as if you bury a Scud missile to hide it from detection , there is a little thing called corrosion . Where do you hide the fuel , how do you make this stuff up , how do you align it . Because when you disassemble it , there is a process called re - alignment . There is a factory involved in that . And then you have to test launch it to make sure that the alignment works , and that ' s detectable , and they haven ' t done that . There is a lot of common sense things that go into consideration of whether or not Iraq has a operational weapons of mass destruction capability . In 2002 , he heavily criticized the Bush administration and Media outlets for using the testimony of alleged nuclear scientist Khidir Hamza as a rationale for invading Iraq ; We seized the entire records of the Iraqi Nuclear program , especially the administrative records . We got a name of everybody , where they worked , what they did , and the top of the list , Saddam ' s " Bombmaker " was a man named Jafar Dhia Jafar , not Khidir Hamza , and if you go down the list of the senior administrative personnel you will not find Hamza ' s name in there . In fact , we didn ' t find his name at all . Because in 1990 , he didn ' t work for the Iraqi Nuclear Program . He had no knowledge of it because he worked as a kickback specialist for Hussein Kamel in the Presidential Palace . He goes into northern Iraq and meets up with Ahmad Chalabi . He walks in and says , I ' m Saddam ' s " Bombmaker " . So they call the CIA and they say , " we know who you are , you ' re not Saddam ' s " Bombmaker " , go sell your story to someone else . " And he was released , he was rejected by all intelligence services at the time , he ' s a fraud . And here we are , someone who the CIA knows is a fraud , the U . S . Government knows is a fraud , is allowed to sit in front of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and give testimony as a expert witness . I got a problem with that , I got a problem with the American media , and I ' ve told them over and over and over again that this man is a document - able fraud , a fake , and yet they allow him to go on CNN , MSNBC , CNBC , and testify as if he actually knows what he is talking about . In the Pitt interview , Ritter also remarked on several examples of members of the Bush or Clinton administration making statements he " knew to be misleading or false " with regard to Iraqi WMD ' s . Later statements on Iraq . In February 2005 , writing on Al Jazeera ' s website , Ritter wrote that the " Iraqi resistance " is a " genuine grassroots national liberation movement , " and " History will eventually depict as legitimate the efforts of the Iraqi resistance to destabilize and defeat the American occupation forces and their imposed Iraqi collaborationist government . " On December 20 , 2005 , in a debate with Christopher Hitchens at the Tarrytown Music Hall in Tarrytown , NY , Ritter said furthermore that he would " prefer to be an Iraqi under Saddam than an Iraqi under a brutal American occupation . " In an October 19 , 2005 interview with Seymour Hersh , Ritter claimed that regime change , rather than disarmament , has been the primary objective of President George H . W . Bush , and later of President Clinton and the second President Bush , in imposing and maintaining economic sanctions on Iraq after the Gulf War . Said Ritter : The United States needed to find a vehicle to continue to contain Saddam because the CIA said all we have to do is wait six months and Saddam is going to collapse on his own volition . That vehicle is sanctions . They needed a justification ; the justification was disarmament . They drafted a Chapter 7 resolution of the United Nations Security Council calling for the disarmament of Iraq and saying in Paragraph 14 that if Iraq complies , sanctions will be lifted . Within months of this resolution being passed — and the United States drafted and voted in favor of this resolution — within months , the President , George Herbert Walker Bush , and his Secretary of State , James Baker , are saying publicly , not privately , publicly that even if Iraq complies with its obligation to disarm , economic sanctions will be maintained until which time Saddam Hussein is removed from power . That is proof positive that disarmament was only useful insofar as it contained through the maintenance of sanctions and facilitated regime change . It was never about disarmament , it was never about getting rid of weapons of mass destruction . It started with George Herbert Walker Bush , and it was a policy continued through eight years of the Clinton presidency , and then brought us to this current disastrous course of action under the current Bush Administration . In March 2007 , in " Calling Out Idiot America , " Ritter posted a quiz on Iraq to be taken by citizens : If the reader can fully answer the question raised , then he or she qualifies as one capable of pointing an accusatory finger at Congress as its members dither over what to do in Iraq . If the reader fails the quiz , then there should be an honest appraisal of the reality that we are in way over our heads regarding this war , and that it is irresponsible for anyone to make sweeping judgments about the ramifications of policy courses of action yet to be agreed upon . Claiming to be able to divine a solution to a problem improperly defined is not only ignorant but dangerously delusional . Ritter has also been harshly critical of Bill Clinton for politicizing the inspection process during his presidency and of Hillary Clinton for obfuscating that record . From January 1993 until my resignation from the United Nations in August 1998 , I witnessed first hand the duplicitous Iraq policies of the administration of Bill Clinton , the implementation of which saw a President lie to the American people about a threat he knew was hyped , lie to Congress about his support of a disarmament process his administration wanted nothing to do with , and lie to the world about American intent , which turned its back on the very multilateral embrace of diplomacy as reflected in the resolutions of the Security Council Hillary Clinton so piously refers to in her speech , and instead pursued a policy defined by the unilateral interests of the Clinton administration to remove Saddam Hussein from power . Opinions on U . S . policy toward Iran . On February 18 , 2005 Scott Ritter told an audience in Olympia , Washington that George Bush had signed - off on preparations to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities , and that these preparations would be completed by June 2005 . On the same occasion , he also made reference to the Iraqi elections , saying that the United States had manipulated the 2005 parliamentary election , changing the percentage of United Iraqi Alliance votes from 56 % to 48 % . Ritter reiterated and clarified his statements about Iran in a March 30 , article published by Al Jazeera . In a June 20 , 2005 , article published by Al Jazeera , after noting that the Iraq war , which supposedly began in March 2003 , in fact began with military operations authorized by the president in late August 2002 and executed in September 2002 , Ritter wrote : " The reality is that the U . S . war with Iran has already begun . " On October 21 , 2005 , Ritter was interviewed by Amy Goodman of the radio and TV show " Democracy Now ! " and commented on his earlier statements about United States policy toward Iran , as they had been reported by some sources . I was very clear , based upon the information given to me , and it ' s 100 % accurate , that in October 2004 , the President of the United States ordered the Pentagon to be prepared to launch military strikes against Iran as of June 2005 . That means , have all the resources in place so that if the President orders it , the bombing can begin . It doesn ' t mean that the bombing is going [ to ] begin in June . And a lot of people went , " Ah , you said they were going to attack in June . " Absolutely not . Although there were no air strikes against Iran by the United States in June 2005 , there were bomb blasts in the southern west Iranian city of Ahwaz on June 12 , 2005 . Some believe the attacks were carried out by the Mujahideen al - Khalq ( MEK ) organization . Scott Ritter as well as other sources have claimed that the United States , after the invasion of Iraq , have been working with Mojahedin - e - Khalq to continue covert operations in Iran . Ritter has also made the following two statements regarding military intervention in Iran The real purpose of the EU - 3 intervention — to prevent the United States from using Iran ' s nuclear ambition as an excuse for military intervention — is never discussed in public . The EU - 3 would rather continue to participate in fraudulent diplomacy rather than confront the hard truth — that it is the United States , and not Iran , that is operating outside international law when it comes to the issue of Iran ' s nuclear programme . On February 6 , 2006 , in the James A . Little Theater in Santa Fe , Ritter stated about a U . S . war with Iran : " " We just don ' t know when , but it ' s going to happen , " " and said that after the U . N . security Council will have found no evidence of WMD , Bolton " " will deliver a speech that has already been written . It says America cannot allow Iran to threaten the United States and we must unilaterally defend ourselves . " " and continued " " How do I know this ? I ' ve talked to Bolton ' s speechwriter , " " In an interview with Amy Goodman broadcast on Democracy Now ! on October 16 , 2006 , Ritter again reaffirmed the U . S . ' s state of undeclared war vis - à - vis Iran . Ritter published " " Target Iran : The Truth About the White House ' s Plans for Regime Change " " in 2006 . One editorial review stated : " This book offers Ritter ' s " national intelligence assessment " of the Iranian imbroglio . He examines the Bush administration ' s regime - change policy and the potential of Iran to threaten U . S . national security interests . " In his book Ritter claimed that Israel was pushing the Bush administration into war with Iran . He also accused the U . S . pro - Israel lobby of dual loyalty and outright espionage . Documentary . According to the " Washington Times " , Ritter ' s 2000 documentary " In Shifting Sands " was partially financed by Iraqi American businessman Shakir al Khafaji . Al - Khafaji pled guilty to multiple felony charges in 2004 for his relationship with U . N . Oil - for - Food scandal . Ritter denied any quid pro quo with Al - Khafaji , according to Laurie Mylroie , writing in the " Financial Times " . When Ritter was asked " how he would characterize anyone suggesting that Mr . Khafaji was offering allocations in [ his ] name " , Mr . Ritter replied : " I ' d say that person ' s a fucking liar . . . and tell him to come over here so I can kick his ass . " Arrests and conviction . Ritter was detained in April 2001 and arrested in June 2001 in connection with police stings in which officers posed as under - aged girls to arrange meetings of a sexual nature . The first incident did not lead to any charges . He was charged with a misdemeanor crime of " attempted endangerment of the welfare of a child " after the second , but charges were dropped after he completed six months of probation and the record was sealed on condition that he avoid further trouble for a period of time . After this information was made public in early 2003 , Ritter said that the timing of the leak was politically motivated . Ritter was arrested again in November 2009 over communications with a police decoy he met on an Internet chat site . Police said that he exposed himself via a web camera after the officer said she was a 15 - year - old girl ; Ritter said he was not made aware of the ostensible age of his correspondent before the act . The next month , Ritter waived his right to a preliminary hearing and was released on a $ 25 , 000 unsecured bail . Charges included " unlawful contact with a minor , criminal use of a communications facility , corruption of minors , indecent exposure , possessing instruments of crime , criminal attempt and criminal solicitation " . Ritter rejected a plea bargain , testified in his trial and was found guilty of all but the criminal attempt count in a Monroe County , Pennsylvania courtroom on April 14 , 2011 . In October 2011 he received a sentence of one and a half to five and a half years in prison .