As recently as 2001, former CIA director James Woolsey and son-of-Prince-of-Darkness Paul Wolfowitz were praising Ritter for his courage and honesty.
This is a paraphrase of something Woolsey said about Ritter, published on MilNet:
>>Of all the terrorist threats out there, Iraq is the most urgent threat. This is due to the constant WMD development efforts. Even while under scrutiny, Iraq was most likely still heavily involved in development if not production of WMD. UNSCOM inspector (and former intelligence officer during the Gulf War) Scott Ritter was adamant that Iraq was clearly playing musical chairs with much of the materials that would indicate the secret development efforts in the WMD arena. And of course, it is even more likely that development has continued unhindered and at a breakneck pace since December 1998 when the direct scrutiny through inspections was halted. <<
The article goes on to say:
>.Mr. Woolsey is joined in his opinions my many others, some of whom are today key members of President George W. Bush's cabinet and other advisors. Looking through the material cited below, one will begin to understand who are the people in the U.S. who have a clear vision as to the danger Iraq presents. Scott Ritter, a former U.N. inspector for UNSCOM, the agency of the U.N. responsible for the last effective inspections made in Iraq per the conditions of the Gulf War Treaty, has uniformly criticized U.S. lack of inaction and U.N. waffling in the case of Iraq. Ritter has drawn criticism from the left, but staunch support from the right. Names that crop up in this debate include the now Assistant Secretary of Defense, Paul Wolfowitz who has gone on record supporting Ritter's conclusions and critiques of the Clinton Administration. Despite being politically incorrect at the time, both men stood up and said there is a danger in Iraq and the weak inspection activity and we commend them for that courage. <<
milnet.com |
