This guy has done a 180 that is simply inexplicable.
Scott Ritter THEN:
In his resignation letter to Amb.
Butler, Ritter wrote, "The Special Commission was created for the
purpose of disarming Iraq. As part of the Special Commission team, I
have worked to achieve a simple end: the removal, destruction or
rendering harmless of Iraq's proscribed weapons. The sad truth is that
Iraq today is not disarmed . . . UNSCOM has good reason to believe that
there are significant numbers of proscribed weapons and related
components and the means to manufacture such weapons unaccounted for in
Iraq today. . . Iraq has lied to the Special Commission and the world
since day one concerning the true scope and nature of its proscribed
programs and weapons systems. This lie has been perpetuated over the
years through systematic acts of concealment. It was for the purpose of
uncovering Iraq's mechanism of concealment, and in doing so gaining
access to the hidden weapons components and weapons programs, that you
created a dedicated capability to investigate Iraq's concealment
activities, which I have had the privilege to head. . . . This
investigation has led the Commission to the door step of Iraq's hidden
retained capability, and yet the commission has been frustrated by
Iraq's continued refusal to abide by its obligations . . . to allow
inspections, the Security Council's refusal to effectively respond to
Iraq's actions, and now the current decision by the Security Council and
the Secretary General, backed at least implicitly by the United States,
to seek a 'diplomatic' alternative to inspection-driven confrontation
with Iraq, a decision which constitutes a surrender to the Iraqi
leadership . . . The issue of immediate, unrestricted access is, in my
opinion, the cornerstone of any viable inspection regime, and, as such,
is an issue worth fighting for. Unfortunately, others do not share this
opinion, including the Security Council and the United States. The
Special Commission of today, hobbled as it is by unfettered Iraqi
obstruction and non-existent Security Council enforcement of its own
resolutions, is not the organization I joined almost seven years ago. .
. The refusal and/or inability on the part of the Security Council to
exercise responsibility concerning the disarmament obligations of Iraq
makes a mockery of the mission the staff of the Special Commission have
been charged with implementing. The illusion of arms control is more
dangerous than no arms control at all. What is being propagated by the
Security Council today in relation to the work of the Special Commission
is such an illusion . . . " |
