Butler 'a servant of America', Scott Ritter about Australia's Butler

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AUSTRALIAN Richard Butler was a servant of the American foreign policy for regime change in his former role as chief UN weapons inspector for Iraq, says former weapons inspector Scott Ritter. Mr Ritter, who served as a major with the US Marine Corps in the first Iraq war, was a UN weapons inspector from 1991 to 1998 and worked under Mr Butler after his appointment in 1997 as executive chairman of the relevant United National Special Committee (UNSCOM).

Mr Ritter controversially resigned as an arms inspector in 1998 in protest at what he said was US manipulation of the UNSCOM mandate. He said today history would judge Mr Butler harshly because, he said, he could have established that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction.

"I believe had Richard Butler acted differently ... the truth would have been found out and there would have been no war in Iraq, at least not upon the false premise of weapons of mass destruction," Mr Ritter said. Mr Ritter arrived on his first visit to Australia today for a speaking tour to promote his new book, Iraq Confidential: The Untold Story of America's Intelligence Conspiracy.

More than 500 people at the University of Sydney tonight gave Mr Ritter a standing ovation when he had finished his first talk of the tour. In response to a question from the audience, Mr Ritter claimed Mr Butler was beholden to the United States because then secretary of state Madeleine Albright had personally intervened to have him appointed as UNSCOM chief. After his return to Australia, Mr Butler was appointed Governor of Tasmania. However, he resigned in August last year, having reportedly fallen out with his staff and having ruffled feathers with his outspoken political views.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17398192%255E29277,00.html