[Peace-discuss] Transcript of Scott Ritter interview on CNN about False Claims of Iraq WMD's

[Charles Jenks]

Scott Ritter gave an interview on the intensifying Iraq 'WeaponsGate'
scandal with Wolf Blitzer (CNN) on July 11. I have copied it below.

The CNN interview followed on the heels of Ritter's July 9th international
press conference at Traprock. The entire conference is available for
download and re-broadcast at  http://traprockpeace.org/audio/ritter.mp3
A photo and links to important related resources are found on the homepage
at http://traprockpeace.org

Thanks to Jesse at TVNewsLies.org for the heads-up about the transcript
http://tvnewslies.org


Charles Jenks, attorney at law
President of the Core Group
Traprock Peace Center
103A Keets Road
Deerfield, MA 01342
413-773-1633
http://traprockpeace.org

[BLITZER:] Let's focus some more on the controversy and the continuing hunt
for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Joining us now from Albany, New
York, the former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter. He's also the author
of a new book just about to come out entitled "Frontier Justice: WMD and the
Bushwhacking of America."

No great surprise there, Scott, what you're going to tell us. But tell us
right now what you think of this uproar here in Washington over how this one
line got into the president's speech? Is it just an honest mistake that
happened? 

SCOTT RITTER, FORMER U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: No, it's not an honest mistake.
It's part of a larger effort of deception that was, you know, taken by the
president, by his administration in regards to justifying this war with
Iraq. It's not just the nuclear issue, although that's the one that got the
majority of the senators and congressmen to change their vote back in
October to support this war. It's about chemical weapons, biological
weapons, the entire case that was made that Iraq has an ongoing program
dedicated to manufacturing and concealing weapons of mass destruction that
threaten the security.

BLITZER: But Scott, reference to the nuclear sale, if you will, of uranium
from Niger to Iraq, that occurred in January after the October vote. So it
wasn't specifically designed to get senators and congressmen to support the
resolution. 

RITTER: Will, actually, Wolf, you're wrong on that one. That piece of
information, that intelligence was peddled by the CIA, in behind the door
briefings, two senators and congressmen in late September, 2002, and it was
that information amongst others, including the now what we know to be
fraudulent claim that aluminum tubes were going to be used in a centrifuge
program, that got many senators, including Dianne Feinstein, who sits on the
Intelligence Services Committee or sat on the committee to change their
vote. So it was just part and parcel of a larger problem.

BLITZER: Yes, but I was suggesting that the State of the Union address came
after the congressional votes in the House and the Senate.

RITTER: Well, the State of the Union address is when the president made his
case to the American people, and he perpetrated the fraud to the American
people at that time. But this fraud was perpetrated to Congress back in
September using the same information. So, you know, this is -- this is a
very broad-based issue that needs to be delved into.

BLITZER: Let's get right to the issue at hand, though. Do you have any doubt
that Saddam Hussein would have loved to reconstitute his nuclear weapons
program? 

RITTER: Well, you know, now, you're getting into speculation. What I have
said is we have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was reconstituting the
nuclear weapons program. And I tend to believe that (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

BLITZER: Wait a minute, wait a minute. What about the equipment that was
just discovered the other day buried in the backyard of a former Iraqi
nuclear scientist that had been buried there since before the first war?
They were supposed to give all that stuff up, as you well know, as a result
of the cease-fire? RITTER: You're right on one point. As I well know. I led
the investigation into Mahdi Obeidi. I interviewed him for many hours,
looking for just this material. In fact, had the United States not pulled
the plug on the inspections I was trying to carry out in August 1998, we had
plans to go to Obeidi's house with ground-penetrating radar, to look for
this material. 

But I believe you'll find that when you dig deeper into the Obeidi case,
he's not telling the whole truth. Obeidi kept that material on his own
volition. Qusay and the security services, you know, didn't hand it out. And
the bottom line is, it's components of a nonexistent program. Nobody is
trying to make the case that what Obeidi had is representative of anything
that represents a viable nuclear weapons program worthy of war.

BLITZER: But that was a violation of what the U.N. -- the U.N. cease-fires
had called for, hiding that equipment underground.

RITTER: First of all, it's not equipment. It's components. It doesn't
constitute a viable centrifuge or centrifuge array (ph), and it's not part
of a larger program. Obeidi was in violation for maintaining this. Does the
fact that he maintained it represent a larger effort by the Iraqi
government? We won't know until the investigation is carried out.

But what I'm telling you is based upon my investigation, which went on for
many months and involved dozens of hours. Obeidi did this on his own. This
wasn't something that ...

BLITZER: But Scott, you know the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein. You lived
there, you talked to these people. Did anything happen like that of a nature
like that, Obeidi doing this on his own without getting approval or someone
asking him keep this quiet? That was such a brutal regime. The guy wouldn't
have had the guts to do that on his own?

RITTER: Actually, again, Wolf, you're wrong. We have several cases of Iraqi
scientists who were very proud of the work they did. Remember, Obeidi was
competing with Dr. Diah Jaffar Al-Jaffar (ph) over, you know, who was going
to be the first to enrich uranium. He was proud of this program, and when he
was ordered to turn it over, I think he maintained these components and
these blueprints of his own volition, in a very similar manner that Iraqi
scientists responsible for designing guidance and control equipment did the
exact same thing. 

BLITZER: One final question before I let you go, Scott. The two trailers,
the semitrailers, the trucks they found that a lot of U.S. intelligence
officials believe could only have been used to develop biological weapons,
biological warfare, I don't know if you've had a chance to even examine
those reports, but what do you make of that evidence?

RITTER: Again, it's not evidence of anything, Wolf. British experts who are
very familiar with the Marconi hydrogen generation equipment sold to Iraq in
the 1980s have reviewed these laboratories and says it is an exact
replication of that. There's only one thing those labs could do, that is to
produce hydrogen for weather balloons. Biological experts, who know about
manufacturing biological agents say, you can not produce biological agent
there. 

So the president again has misled the American public and indeed the world.
When, a month ago, he was in Poland and said, the fact that we had these two
labs is proof that we have weapons of mass destruction. It's proof of
nothing more than the president has mislead, has fabricated, we don't have a
weapons of mass destruction program in Iraq to justify this war. What we
have is a quagmire with Americans dying on almost a daily basis and no end
in site. 

BLITZER: Scott Ritter has got a new book coming out, I believe, next week
"Frontier Justice: WMD and the Bushwhacking of America". We'll talk when the
book comes out again. Thanks, Scott, very much.

RITTER: Thank you. 

This interview is posted at http://traprockpeace.org/ritter13july03.html
The entire Blitzer program transcript was posted at
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0307/11/wbr.00.html