The Lifeboat News
[ Message Archive | The Lifeboat News ]

    Scott Ritter: Cancel Culture, Round Three: Get Out of My Damn Backpack Archived Message

    Posted by sashimi on February 3, 2023, 8:07 am

    Unfortunately, he quotes IBC figures

    3 Feb 2023

    The antiwar "movement" needs to clarify its priorities

    (quote)
    [Note: Since this article was written, the organizers of "Rage Against the War
    Machine" have reversed their decision to withdraw their invitation for me to
    speak at the February 19 anti-war event in Washington, DC. They made this
    decision under pressure from many of the other speakers scheduled to attend who
    opposed my being removed from the event. This is the right decision. I recognize
    that being invited to speak at an event such as the one scheduled for February
    19 is a privilege, not a right. I will do my utmost to ensure that my
    presentation is worthy of the occasion. I have no hard feeling against the
    organizers. However, the decision to kick me off the speakers list, after
    publicly announcing I would be speaking, sent a message to all those who promote
    "cancel culture" tactics that their methods work. This is a threat to
    everyone. Moreover, given the vicious and vociferous attacks that have been
    leveled against me, I believe it only appropriate that I respond by staying true
    to the emotions and mindset I had upon learning I had been removed, and which
    governed the tone and content of the article as originally written. Cancel
    culture cannot be allowed to prevail. Thank you again to those who supported me,
    and to the event organizers who have honored me by allowing me to be in the
    company of such esteemed individuals working in support of such a worthy
    cause.]

    Back in early January 2003, I was involved in a project intended to be a
    last-gasp effort to head off a US-led war with Iraq. In December 2002, Ari
    Fleischer, the White House spokesperson, had articulated during a press
    conference that while the official US policy toward Iraq was regime change, this
    did not necessarily mean removing Saddam Hussein by use of force. Fleischer
    indicated that a significant change in behavior on the part of the Iraqi
    government could constitute "regime change."

    I picked up on that theme and reached out to the Iraqi government (keeping in
    mind I had addressed the Iraqi Parliament back in September 2002 in a successful
    bid to get UN weapons inspectors back on the job), and outlined a proposal based
    upon a six-point plan of action that would have the Iraqi government agree to
    changes in policy regarding disarmament, human rights, democracy, diplomacy,
    economy and peace.

    I proposed that Iraq accept a high-level delegation from the international
    community who would meet with senior Iraqi leadership, including Saddam Hussein,
    where they would take these six points and turn them into a formal commitment by
    the Iraqis to, in short, conduct "regime change" through self-induced behavioral
    modification.

    To my surprise, the Iraqi government agreed to my proposal.

    I began working with contacts I had developed over the years, and soon assembled
    a delegation which included Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and other
    international dignitaries, including the former UN coordinator for humanitarian
    affairs in Iraq, Denis Halliday. Normon Soloman, the director of the Institute
    for Public Accuracy, agreed to help fund the delegation.

    We were planning to fly to Iraq on January 23, hold meetings with the Iraqi
    officials on January 24-25, and hold a joint press conference on January 26
    announcing the Iraqi government's acceptance of the six points for peace, as I
    was calling the agreement.

    My work caught the attention of the FBI, and a senior Special Agent with the
    National Security Division named Beth Gallagher asked for an emergency meeting
    to discuss my upcoming trip.

    My policy regarding the FBI was to be fully transparent, and so I agreed to the
    meeting. On January 17, I met with Special Agent Gallagher and other FBI agents
    in a hotel room in downtown Albany, where they proceeded to question me about my
    sources of funding and my personal motivations in making the trip. Apparently,
    my answers satisfied them, and we departed on good terms (several FBI agents had
    brought along copies of my book, Endgame, which they asked me to sign before
    departing).

    No sooner than I returned home, my phone rang. On the other end was a reporter
    from The Daily Gazette, a Schenectady, New York newspaper, who told me his paper
    was preparing to publish a frontpage story about an incident between myself and
    the Colonie Police Department in June 2001 that had led to Class-B misdemeanor
    charges of Child Endangerment being filed against me (charges that were
    eventually dismissed, and all records relating to the incident sealed under
    court order).

    That was the end of my effort to stop a war with Iraq. Normon Soloman withdrew
    his funding support, and the delegation evaporated. If I wanted to proceed with
    the mission, I would have to do so alone. So I, too, dropped out.

    I quit.

    On February 5, 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell delivered his now infamous
    presentation to the United Nations Security Council, and a little more than a
    month later, the UN invaded Iraq.

    Beth Gallagher has denied any role in leaking information about the 2001 law
    enforcement encounter to the press. That may be, but the FBI did have a close
    working relationship with former Colonie Police Lieutenant Tom Breslin, who was
    the supervising officer during the incident in question.

    Breslin had retired from the Colonie Police Department in the fall of 2001,
    shortly before the charges against me were dismissed and the records
    sealed. Apparently, the judge's decision, which was fully backed by Breslin's
    fellow police officers, enraged Breslin, who had taken a personal dislike to me.

    Breslin took a job with the Office of Security for Siena College, located in the
    Town of Colonie. It was at Siena College where Breslin and I next met, in
    December 2002, while he was providing security for a speaking event where I was
    the featured speaker. As I spoke, Breslin was beside himself with anger, turning
    nearly purple in the face while he glared at me. I left once the event finished,
    the two of us never having exchanged words.

    It turned out it was Tom Breslin who had placed the call to the Schenectady
    Gazette, a fact acknowledged by the Colonie Police Chief, who said that while it
    would be illegal for any serving officer in the department to discuss sealed
    files in their possession, there was nothing the department could do about
    retired officers. Tom Breslin was the only police officer involved in the 2001
    encounter who had retired at the time of the news leak. And he clearly had it
    out for me.

    For the benefit of those who haven't allowed what I just wrote to fully sink in,
    let me reiterate:

    * On my own initiative, I came up with a plan which, if implemented, had a very
    real chance of preventing a war from breaking out. To be clear - the Iraqi
    government, including Saddam Hussein, was on board. All I had to do was to
    have the courage to pull it off.

    * I formed a team of people I thought were as committed as I was to the cause of
    preventing war to help me implement this plan.

    * Then a disgruntled cop, with or without the assistance/collusion of the FBI,
    made a phone call to the press, putting into the public spotlight a story
    which was designed to compel those whom I had entrusted with this mission of
    peace to pull out, killing the effort.

    It worked.

    And one of my biggest regrets in life is that I let it work.

    I had the opportunity to go it alone, to travel to Baghdad by myself and see the
    mission through. The Iraqi government was ready to receive me. My previous
    intervention, in September 2002, to implore the Iraqi government to allow UN
    weapons inspectors to return to work, had forestalled the US invasion by helping
    discredit the false claims about weapons of mass destruction.

    I had momentum on my side, and the six-point peace plan should have been given a
    chance.

    But I allowed it to die because I allowed the concept of cancel culture premised
    on the age-old tactic of character assassination to succeed.

    Nearly 4,500 American military personnel were killed as a result. Tens of
    thousands more were wounded.

    More than 110,000 Iraqis lost their lives through violence because of the US
    invasion. Millions more had their lives torn asunder.

    The Middle East was destabilized because of the US invasion, and it still hasn't
    recovered.

    Whether Tom Breslin acted on his own in making his phone call, or was acting in
    coordination with the FBI, I will probably never know.

    What I do know is that his phone call set in motion events that were responsible
    for stopping the last remaining chance of preventing a war with Iraq, and for
    that he can rot in hell.

    But the lives lost and altered are on me because I quit, and I must live with
    that reality every day of every week of every year for the rest of my life.
    (/quote)
    -- Cont'd at https://www.scottritterextra.com/p/cancel-culture-round-three-get-out

    Message Thread: