The RT contributor is reportedly being investigated as a “foreign agent”
Federal agents and state police have searched the house of former US Marine and UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter in New York state on Wednesday.
State Police and FBI agents descended on the street of Bethlehem township, south of Albany, around noon, according to the local outlet Times-Union. They carried “more than two dozen boxes” out of the house just before 5pm local time.
The law enforcement executed a search warrant “related to concerns apparently the US government has about violations of the Foreign Agent Restriction Act (FARA)” Ritter told reporters gathered outside the house after the agents left.
He denied any allegations of wrongdoing and said the federal government was trying to intimidate him.
Ritter is a former US Marine Corps major who served as a UN weapons inspector in Iraq during the 1990s. He opposed the 2003 US invasion, insisting that Saddam Hussein’s government did not have weapons of mass destruction, as Washington claimed at the time.
He has also been an RT contributor and saw his passport seized by the US government when he tried to attend the St Petersburg International Economic Forum in June.
this constant harassment only makes him more legitimate.
Holy fuck, I hope he’s OK. He’s not a socialist, but does fight for a multipolar world and has extensive knowledge of the inner workings of the US military apparatus.
Just in case anyone brings up his weird history of child sexual offenses, he was never prosecuted for harming actual children. Both prosecuted offenses were supposedly sting operations (aka entrapment) by FBI and police, which makes them super suspicious. For example, the first one in 2001 was conveniently timed to interfere with his anti-Iraq War advocacy.
The US government seized his passport in early June just to stop him from attending the St. Petersburg Economic Forum and derail his planned tour of Russia, where he would’ve gotten more coverage of his antiwar advocacy.
I would not be surprised if the FBI makes up a new sex offense charge based on this raid to try to shut him up about Russia, since that got the media so riled up the last 2 times. Another kind of bogus charge also wouldn’t be a surprise.
I haven’t taken the time to look into the Ritter allegations/charges myself, but it reminds me strongly of the allegations of sexual assault against Julian Assange which turned out to be complete fabrications.
In general I’m very cautious of emotionally-laden allegations when it comes to anti-imperialist voices or proposals made to serve the empire such as breaking encryption to “prevent terrorism” or “protect the children.”
For what I can tell you; this tactic is an extremely common one not even only used against political opponents or “targets of interest” in that category but even local police precincts can leverage these claims against you. The problem is that it’s hard to prove so it often gets dismissed, but it’s enough to get someone in a station to “talk” for 24 hours with no food or water and have irreparable social damage if it is made public. It’s not always sexual shit either; they’ll make up that you were talking to a “suspected criminal online” and just use it as carte blanche to comb through your shit.
In high-school I had a “friend” (more so a dealer) that slung all sorts of goodies, mostly hash and weed though. They hit him with “talking to a suspected criminal” and brought him into the station for like two days straight. Told me exactly as I said above, no food or water and constant vague threats of “what we found on your computer”. Me and a couple others were brought in for questioning and asked about him. Case ended up getting dismissed but he lost a shitload of friends. Guy ended up starting an arbor business after that.
Just in case anyone brings up his weird history of child sexual offenses, he was never prosecuted for harming actual children. Both prosecuted offenses were supposedly sting operations (aka entrapment) by FBI and police, which makes them super suspicious. For example, the first one in 2001 was conveniently timed to interfere with his anti-Iraq War advocacy.
Have you got any links to look into, or is this just rumors?
The 2001 sting operation was so conveniently timed that even Fox News had to point out how sus it looked: Former U.N. Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter: Timing of Arrest Reports Suspicious
Before he publicly came out against the Iraq war and denounced all claims of Iraq having WMDs, AIPAC even tried to buy Ritter off for 6 million dollars and a lifetime of luxury in exchange for him making up shit about how evil Iraq is. Ritter turns them down because he would not lie about Iraq’s WMDs.
Ritter talks about this on Danny Haiphong’s show here.
Ritter’s non-cooperation obviously has made him a massive target, especially because of his deep knowledge on the ground in Iraq and the military apparatus.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jan/24/usa.davidteather
Police-woman enticed him to meet, pretending to be 16-year-old girl
Case dismissed and files sealed.
Someone from within leaked the story to the press to smear him.
In my own opinion, someone is out to get him and they are grasping at anything to discredit him. If the sexual offenses allegations were true, they’d use those to raid his house.
In my own opinion, someone is out to get him and they are grasping at anything to discredit him.
Looks that way, for sure.
Just in case anyone brings up his weird history of child sexual offenses, he was never prosecuted for harming actual children. Both prosecuted offenses were supposedly sting operations (aka entrapment) by FBI and police
X-Files correct yet again about methods the deep state uses to silence opponents when they have nothing else.
Also see he’s been marked by the zionist lobby so that makes even more sense as they are ruthless in character destroying anyone who endangers US-outpost-colony operation “Israhell”.
Also I’d literally never heard of this accusation before. Seems it was meant to silence him and then once the moment passed they went away with it. With these latest moves and the Russia derangement of this administration and in particular these agencies who after all were key in pushing Trump being an agent of Russia for Hillary it wouldn’t be surprising.
I was thinking when I read the breaking news about the raid that I hope he had all his stuff heavily encrypted (I had no idea about these allegations but even more so now because if it’s all encrypted they can’t claim to have found bad stuff there). Though I suppose if they’re determine they could pull out a thumb drive they ‘found’ at his house and claim it’s his. After all cops do that all the time with drop-guns.
Hope he gets a good lawyer and gets his stuff back soon but sadly this is probably just the beginning of intimidation and even if he beats these charges (who can say how long that might take, they’ll try and drag it out as long as possible for maximum emotional toll, distress, and costs) they’re likely going to continue harassing him in other ways, following him, coming to his door trying to ask questions. All the usual stuff.
