Scott Ritter: Cancel Culture, Round Three: Get Out of My Damn Backpack
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.
The... 'left' have been... 'played'. For a long time they've been 'nudged' and 'pushed' into 'stupidity' by people far, far, smarter, well-funded, powerful and influential than they are.
It's rather sad. Identity politics and gender, the colossal importance of the 'individual' have been blown way, way, out of proportion, deliberately shoving class and economics aside and prodding the 'left' up a blind alley.
Bizarre how even Ritter has never mentioned Powell's Feb 2001 "No significant WMD" assessment...
"Bizarre how even Ritter has never mentioned Powell's Feb 2001 "No significant WMD" assessment..."
2002:
O'BRIEN: You seem very certain that there is no evidence that Saddam Hussein is engaged in an effort to build weapons of mass destruction. How can you be so certain?
RITTER: What I'm very certain of is that the Bush administration has not provided any evidence to substantiate its allegations that Saddam Hussein's regime is currently pursuing weapons of mass destruction programs or is in actual possession of weapons of mass destruction.
on February 3, 2023, 8:07 am