- BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Former
U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter told the Iraqi National Assembly on
Sunday that his country, the United States, "seems to be on the verge
of making a historical mistake" in its calls for ousting Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein.
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- Ritter is in Baghdad as a private citizen to voice his
criticism of the U.S. threat of military action against Iraq. He looked
for weapons in Iraq from 1991 until 1998, when he was called back to the
United States two days before a U.S. attack on Iraq.
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- But a report, to be published in Britain on Monday by
the International Institute of Strategic Studies, is said to detail Iraq's
efforts to stockpile weapons of mass destruction.
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- Ritter said Sunday that Iraq was not a threat to the
United States.
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- "Iraq is not a sponsor of the kind of terror perpetrated
against the United States on September 11 and in fact is active in suppressing
the sort of fundamental extremism that characterizes those who attacked
the United States on that horrible day," Ritter said.
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- In an interview after the speech, Ritter denied allegations
that the Iraqis had interfered with the inspection process. (<http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/09/08/ritter.cnna/index.html>Read
the interview)
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- U.S. President Bush is trying to garner international
support for military action against Saddam, who he said harbors weapons
of mass destruction and the intent to use them. (<http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/09/08/bush.blair.iraq/index.html>Full
story)
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- Bush is expected to issue an ultimatum to the Iraqi leader
-- either allow weapons inspectors unfettered access or face unspecified
consequences -- during a speech Thursday to the U.N. General Assembly.
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- In his address Sunday, Ritter denied that Iraq possessed
any weapons of mass destruction but acknowledged that concerns exist about
the country's weapons programs.
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- "These concerns are almost exclusively technical
in nature and do not overcome the reality that Iraq, during nearly seven
years of continuous inspection activity by the United Nations, had been
certified as being disarmed to a 90 [percent] to 95 percent level,"
he said.
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- He warned that if the United States unilaterally launches
any military action against Iraq, it would "forever change the political
dynamic which has governed the world since the end of the second World
War, namely the foundation of international law as set forth in the United
Nations charter, which calls for the peaceful resolution of problems between
nations."
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- Ritter resigned as chief weapons inspector for the United
Nations in August 1998, saying that the U.N. Security Council and U.S.
government had fatally undermined his team's attempts to locate and eliminate
Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
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- He has said U.S. intelligence agents used the weapons
inspectors as a cover for spying and destroyed the inspection teams' credibility.
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- Before his speech, Ritter said that the Bush administration
was "using weapons inspections as an excuse" to go to war with
Iraq.
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- "One of the problems with President Bush issuing
that kind of ultimatum is that he has no credibility," Ritter said.
"Members of his administration have said inspections don't matter.
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- "Members of his administration have said that, even
if they get back in Iraq and succeed in disarming Iraq, that they're still
going to seek regime removal."
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