Word: ritter
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...YORK: Scott Ritter is back on point for the U.N. arms inspection team -- but this time he's targeting the Security Council and the Clinton administration. Ritter resigned from UNSCOM Wednesday, accusing the Security Council -- with the tacit support of Washington -- of caving in to Iraq. Ritter's departure follows the U.N.'s decision, backed by the U.S., to refrain from undertaking arms inspections that would turn Iraq's recent refusal to cooperate with UNSCOM into a new confrontation...
...Ritter's very public resignation is designed to raise pressure on the U.N. to hold the line against Iraq amid signs that the U.S. is looking for a compromise," says TIME U.N. reporter Stuart Stogel. "The fact that his letter of resignation was released to the media by Richard Butler even before it went to the Security Council suggests that Butler may concur with some of its sentiments." Despite Ritter's principled protest, the tide of realpolitik may have turned against him -- Kofi Annan's call for a "comprehensive review" of the UNSCOM-Iraq relationship reflects an emerging consensus...
Instead of disbanding, the U.N. redoubled its effort to find hidden documents and weapons, creating a "counterconcealment team," headed by former U.S. Marine intelligence officer Scott Ritter. At one point, when Ritter and his team tried to enter an SSO facility in downtown Baghdad, a guard pointed a loaded gun at his head and prepared to fire. In the end Ritter, who spoke in depth for the first time about his work to CNN, did his job too well: he was accused of being a CIA spy and denied access to sensitive sites...
BAGHDAD: Former Marine captain Scott Ritter successfully inspected Iraqi weapons sites Friday, accompanied by the standard Iraqi escorts. It was business as usual for the UNSCOM inspector, whose branding as a spy by Baghdad reignited the inspection crisis in January -- and that means Kofi Annan's deal with Saddam has passed its first test...
...Ritter is being sent back because Annan has to prove that he?s going to take a hard line with Iraq over weapons inspections,? says TIME?s U.N. correspondent William Dowell. Baghdad expelled Ritter not simply because he was American, but because he headed up UNSCOM?s attempts to expose Iraq?s concealment and deception, explains Dowell. ?If the Iraqis let him back in to continue his work, it?s a show of good faith on their part.? Of course, if Saddam decides once again to block Ritter?s efforts, the crisis will rewind to the (by now rather confusing...