I remember this interview of Scott Ritter with Paula Zahn. She sneered at him with disgust like he was a pile of dog poo she had stepped in. Instead of being a journalist and asking him real questions she ridiculed him and defended the reich's march to war. She didn't just pound the war drums, she was the head drum majorette.
Paula, kids enlisted because of your intellectual and moral laziness.
Kids signed up to save the world from Saddam because of this crap you shoveled down our throats. Now they are dead, and I hope that haunts you forever.
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0209/09/ltm.14.htmlAired September 9, 2002
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The report from the International Institute for Strategic Studies confirming Saddam's enduring interest in developing weapons of mass destruction, that comes a day after former United Nations weapons inspector Scott Ritter insisted Iraq is not a threat to the U.S. He told the Iraqi parliament the country is on the verge of making an historical mistake by trying to remove Saddam Hussein.
But in 1998, when Ritter resigned his U.N. post, he criticized the international community for being too easy when Iraq violated Security Council resolutions.
So, what do you think of Scott Ritter now?
Well, he joins us from Baghdad and you can make your own assessment.
Mr. Ritter, thanks for joining us. Appreciate your time this morning.
The first question for you, just...
SCOTT RITTER, FORMER U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: Good morning.
ZAHN: I want to have, hear your reaction to the whole range of Bush administration officials yesterday who essentially came out and have said that Saddam Hussein has been trying to obtain materials to build nuclear weapons, particularly trying to buy thousands of aluminum pipes that could be used in the manufacture of a centrifuge and ultimately used to manufacture weapons.
What do you make of that?
RITTER: What an absurd statement. Thousands of aluminum pipes, and we're going to go to war over thousands of aluminum pipes? Even the ISS report that you cite says that if Iraq was to have trying to do uranium enrichment, it would take them many years before they could do it. This is patently ridiculous. These are aluminum pipes coming in for civilian use. They are not being transferred to a covert nuclear processing plant or any covert nuclear activity whatsoever.
But the best way to figure this out is to send the weapons inspectors in. If they, if the United States has this evidence that Iraq has these pipes, why not, heck, give me the data. I'll come to Iraq, hunt it down and we'll bring it to a close. That would save us going to war, killing thousands of people and destroying our reputation in the international community.
We cannot go to war because Vice President Cheney's worried about some aluminum pipes. This is ridiculous.
ZAHN: But, Scott, why are you so convinced that these pipes would be used for civilian use when so many other people out there are absolutely convinced these pipes could ultimately be used to build a centrifuge? I mean that is true. These pipes could be used that way, right?
RITTER: Sure they could. But you say they're ultimately convinced. What makes them convinced? What evidence do they have? We're talking about going to war here, Paula. War. War kills people. War destroys things. War is something that's going to put the lives of American service members at risk and if we go to war along the lines that Bush is talking about, destroy our reputation in the international community. <read entire transcript>
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0209/09/ltm.14.html
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
