Scott Ritter Quotations

One, if you attack my integrity, I will defend myself. If you attack my patriotism, I will defend myself. If you come after my family, I will counter-attack viciously, I will destroy you.

I'm someone who believes the truth needs to be heard. And if I'm empowered with the truth, I'm not going to shut up.

The most dangerous thing Iraq could have ever had was a nuclear weapon. The nuclear weapon Iraq was trying to build was not deliverable by bomb or ballistic missile. It was a large, bulky device that they hoped to bury and set off to let the world know they had a nuclear weapon. They never achieved that.

The Iraqi people are some of the warmest people you'll meet in your life. They are extremely receptive to strangers. Their hospitality is immense.

Weapons of mass destruction aren't pulled out of a black hat like a white rabbit at a magic show. They're produced in factories. There's science and technology involved. They're not produced in a hole in the ground or in a basement.

I love my country more than anything. I spent 12 years in the United States Marine Corps. I know what it means to defend this country.

I have a credibility on the subject that most people don't.

I haven't exaggerated anything, I've stuck to the facts.

If you want to play the game of truth, I'll tell the truth, and the truth will burn.

My goal in Baghdad was to facilitate a debate here in the United States on America's policy toward Iraq, a debate that's been sadly lacking.

War is not some sort of Nintendo video game.

History will eventually depict as legitimate the efforts of the Iraqi resistance to destabilise and defeat the American occupation forces and their imposed Iraqi collaborationist government.

I didn't promote war when I was a weapons inspector.

I don't disagree with anything I've ever said. Why in God's name would I disagree with something I've said?

I'll put my record of service up against anyone, bar none.

If people don't like the history, I'm sorry.

Sanctions aren't about weapons of mass destruction. People need to understand that.

The only way an Iraqi biological agent would kill you is if it landed on your head.

The United States is the laughingstock of the world.

We say that we care about the war, but we don't even really know what we're fighting for.

I've been called a spy of Israel since 1996, and since I made my documentary film in 2000 the FBI has investigated me as an agent of Iraq. The FBI has also opened up an investigation into my wife calling her a KGB spy.

We have inspectors on the ground. They're getting compliance. They're doing their job and they're not finding anything that warrants a threat worthy of war,

There are people in Baghdad pursuing the initiative that I started, and I want to give them every chance of success. I don't want to provide any distractions.

One of my biggest concerns is that people think I am a tool of the Iraqi government,

One of the problems with President Bush issuing that kind of ultimatum is that he has no credibility. Members of his administration have said inspections don't matter. Members of his administration have said that, even if they get back in Iraq and succeed in disarming Iraq, that they're still going to seek regime removal.

I believe that this inspection was rushed through, and the sites weren't chosen for disarmament reasons, but rather to be provocative in nature so Iraq would respond in a predictable fashion,

has not been demonstrated to pose a threat worthy of war at this time.

I was a credible voice, I am a credible voice, and I will be a credible voice in regards to issues pertaining to Iraq, and obviously what you are not mentioning here is the timing of all of this,

It is a pro-U.N. movie. It's a pro-American movie. It's a pro-American movie. It's a movie people should be watching and not denigrating.

It is complicated because you need members of all fields, including chemists, physicists and biologists. They are the heart and soul of the process.

We have thousands of American veterans who continue to suffer,

You know we can't expect the inspectors to accomplish anything in a country the size of Iraq.

When I resigned, I put the U.S. Government on notice that I'm going to stick to policy issues, that I have no intention of going out and blowing the cover off of the intelligence operations, that those are truly sensitive and they should not be exposed.

Where did it come from? Did they suddenly grow factories? ... You build factories, not in a basement, not in a mountain cave. It's a modern industrial capability. Where did it come from?

This refusal means we can't carry out our inspections -- it is a failure of Iraq to comply with obligations,

This refusal ... in effect means we cannot carry out our inspection and is a failure of Iraq to comply with its obligations.

Both these men could be pulled up as war criminals for engaging in actions that we condemned Germany in 1946 for doing.

There is a lot of inaccurate information and irresponsible speculation today, particularly from the U.S. government.

We just don't know when, but it's going to happen.

We had the proof. We couldn't present it. And that's where we are today.

We had the information. We had the goods on the Iraqis, clear and irrefutable evidence of Iraq's prohibited activities. We caught them red-handed.

Now, in Kosovo, we have NATO, a defensive treaty organization that has existed admirably for 50 years . . . being led down a path of its eventual demise by the Clinton administration, which has no effective vision of where NATO or the United States should fit in vis-a-vis Europe.

Anyone who said that, doesn't know Scott Ritter. I'm a tool of no one but myself.

The Bush administration has its sights set firmly on Tehran. The same deception is taking place right before our eyes and most Americans remain blind. It is going to happen. It is happening as we speak.

Does Iraq have weapons of mass destruction today? Does Iraq possess the ability to produce weapons of mass destruction? The answer is no,

That response would be used as a justification for military action.

It was never about getting rid of weapons. It was about propaganda to justify continuing sanctions until Saddam could be removed from power.

In fact, the very policies that we are executing today only alienate us abroad, strengthen Saddam Hussein and give him cause to reconstitute these capabilities once he has the means,

I know that inspections did work, ... We achieved a 90 to 95 percent level of verified, absolutely certain accountability for Iraq's weapons program.

Iraq is a nation on fire. And our troops are the fuel that feeds that fire.

How do I know this? I've talked to Bolton's speechwriter.

I brought out a series of compact discs which contained the totality of the Iraqi declaration,

I am assisting United States veterans, heroes. People who put on our uniform, defended our country in time of war, who have been abandoned by their government.

I believe Iraq will seek to reconstitute a militarized nerve agent that will be used in a last ditch defense of Baghdad, and I think the Iraqi government's efforts to acquire significant stockpiles of atropine are an indication that this is the direction that Saddam Hussein is heading, ... Crossfire.

The guilt can be spread fairly evenly across the board,

The file was sealed. Those are the facts. I am ethically and legally bound not to discuss any aspect of this case, ... So is everybody else involved. Unfortunately, there appear to be those who don't feel to be bound by rule of law.

An ACOD means that it's expunged from the record, as if it never happened,

Our guys working this area for a living all believe Chalabi and all those guys in their Bond Street suits are charlatans. To take them for a source of anything except a fantasy trip would be a real stretch. But it's an article of faith among those with no military experience that the Iraqi military is low-hanging fruit.

I'd like to think the best bunker buster is a diplomat.

I can train a monkey to wave an American flag. That does not make the monkey patriotic.

It has been estimated that 80 percent of the oil illegally smuggled out of Iraq under oil for food ended up in the United States.

There has been no case made - based on anything other than speculation - that Iraq poses a threat.

I was right about one of the most significant issues in modern American history. I was the only one who was right about one of the most significant issues in modern American history.

When I resigned, I put the U.S. Government on notice that I'm going to stick to policy issues, that I have no intention of going out and blowing the cover off of the intelligence operations, that those are truly sensitive and they should not be exposed.

That we have collectively failed to halt and repudiate the war in Iraq makes us even worse than the Germans.

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 nuclear weaponization program,

It is hard as an American to support the failure of American military operations in Iraq. Such failure will bring with it the death and wounding of many American service members, and many more Iraqis.

My personal missteps - how many Americans have died as a result of that? None. Other than my family, how many victims were there? None. And yet, in refusing to engage in a responsible debate about Iraq, how many Americans died? Thousands. And America seems to have no problem with that.

Iraq has a tremendous amount of history.

Iraq has not been disarmed 100 percent [but] in terms of what they [Iraqis] have accomplished there are no meaningful weapons or weapons production capability in Iraq today.

We are the ones responsible to determine whether the war that our marines, soldiers and airmen are fighting in is worth the cause...

The U.S. has perverted the U.N. weapons process by using it as a tool to justify military actions, falsely so. ... The U.S. was using the inspection process as a trigger for war.

[Operation] Rockingham was spinning reports and emphasizing reports that showed non-compliance (by Iraq with UN inspections) and quashing those which showed compliance. It was cherry-picking intelligence.

I consider myself to be a true friend of the Israeli people. But I define friendship as someone who takes care of a friend, who just doesn't use or exploit a friend. And, you know, there's that old adage: 'Friends don't let friends drive drunk'.

I really am tired of all the Clinton Democrats running around getting all-sanctimonious over Iraq. It was them who killed 1.5 to 2.2 million Iraqis through sanctions. Sanctions that Madeline Albright, their illustrious Secretary of State, when confronted with the fact of 500,000 dead Iraqi children, said it was a price she was willing to pay.

The UN stopped using Chalabi's information as a basis for conducting inspections once the tenuous nature of his sources and his dubious motivations became clear. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the mainstream US media, which give prominent coverage to sources of information that, had they not been related to Hussein's Iraq, would normally be immediately dismissed.

While we were never able to provide 100 percent certainty regarding the disposition of Iraq's proscribed weaponry, we did ascertain a 90-95 percent level of verified disarmament. This figure takes into account the destruction or dismantling of every major factory associated with prohibited weapons manufacture, all significant items of production equipment, and the majority of the weapons and agent produced by Iraq.

If you call yourself an American that means that you have embraced the constitution, because that is what an American is. A citizen of the United States of America is someone who has sworn an oath of allegiance to that document, to the words, to the ideals of that document. Right now we have citizens who don't even understand what that document is.

I can generate attention quickly.

I made a movie to explain to the American public what had been achieved in regards to disarmament of Iraq and why inspectors aren't in Iraq today and detailing the very complex, murky history of interaction between Iraq, the United Nations and the United States. It is most definitely not a pro-Iraq movie. It is a pro-truth movie.