On Wednesday, the FBI raided the home of Scott Ritter, a former UN weapons inspector and outspoken critic of the NATO proxy war in Ukraine and Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza.
Ritter told reporters outside of his New York home that the raid was related to a suspected violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), a law that requires individuals or entities engaging in lobbying or other activity on behalf of a foreign country to register as foreign agents with the US Department of Justice.
“The search warrant is related to concerns apparently the US government has about violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. I will tell you right now I am not in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act … and hopefully, by executing the search warrant and taking the information that they did, they will rapidly reach that conclusion,” Ritter said.
FARA has been used to target people for their political views and is selectively enforced. For example, the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC, which spends millions on pro-Israel candidates and openly boasts about swaying US elections, is not registered as a foreign agent.
Ritter, a former US Marines Corps intelligence officer, said there was “no doubt” he was being targeted for his political views and said the raid would have a “chilling effect on free speech.” He said the warrant allowed the FBI agents to look for “electronic equipment” and said they were “clearly interested in communications that I had with people related to the work I do.”
Ritter recently had his passport seized by Customs and Border Patrol officers when he was boarding a plane from New York to Istanbul while traveling to Russia for the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. According to Ritter, the officers said they were seizing his passport on orders from the State Department.
A dying empire is vindictive and petty …
Confiscating his passport? Isn't that something that those terrible authoritarian governments we deplore so much do?
Be awesome if, like, Switzerland said "Hey, stop by our consulate in New York, we'll issue you a Swiss passport."
Scott has ended up on some list. He really called it on Iraq and deserves respect and admiration for that. The stuff since then I have no idea, expert character assassination, or the guy has some problems. Both are possibilities. In any case thank you for your service.
Scott Ritter to me seems to be probably the most honest, upright and incorruptible person in the entire Northern American continent. This is a person who would maintain 2 + 2 = 4 if it saved his life to just reply 5. There is not enough money in the world to bribe him into saying something, anything that he didn't hold to be true. Of course he might be wrong on certain things and might change his mind on certain things, he's also just human after all, but no power on Earth other than mr. Ritter is going to be the author of that.
Now put that in contrast to any member of the US government or Congress. There you have the people who have been bought and paid for by foreign and domestic special and narrow interests. To be maximally generous to them, I'd probably have to add some of them at cheaper prices than others, and still overpriced nevertheless.
Clapping for genocide. How sick is that? There is not a single one there who can within distances measured in astronomical units hold a candle to the integrity of Scott Ritter.
I protest the war in Gaza, and I am proud to be called a "useful idiot" by Netanyahu. A far site better than being a murderer of women and children.
I am in the club as well!
I empathize with the sentiment, but this insane sadistic childmurderer should not be given the time of day to care whatever he thinks of anyone. I would neither have been particularly concerned with what Albert Fish or Luis Garavito would have thought of me calling them sadistic childmurderers either, and they do not come anywhere close to the depravity of Bibi Babybutcher.
I literally put Putin stooge on my Substack to show them what I think of their ad hominems.
While Ignoring the biggest elephant in the country AIPAC?
Ah, but Israel is part of the US (or is it the other way around??)
That's what I said.
Long live true democratic principles and grant me the patience to deal with those who lack common sense and peaceful intentions.
Little doubt what they're after … or going to plant.
Not in a vacuum, obviously:
African Socialist Party To STAND TRIAL on RUSSIAGATE CHARGES – w/ Penny Hess & Leonard Goodman https://rumble.com/v5a23kl-african-socialist-party-to-stand-trial-on-russiagate-charges-w-penny-hess-a.html
US Prosecution Of Uhuru Activists Threatens ‘First Amendment Exception’
https://popularresistance.org/?s=Uhuru
The Grayzone targeted in US govt-backed ‘enemies of Ukraine’ list (Antiwar, too. Jeffrey Sachs etc)
https://thegrayzone.com/2024/06/12/us-ukrainian-enemies-list/
https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/cover_TM8JQ7u.original.jpg?resize=1400,788&ssl=1
Failing Washington Post attempts to get Grayzone editor jailed with error-filled smear piece
https://thegrayzone.com/2024/06/06/washington-post-grayzone-editor-smear-piece/
J. Edgar/Beria Wray … and downhill from here.
Scott Ritter was the last good thing The USA had.
And now they are making sure he does not speak.
He warmed the US but they didn’t listened.
No. Max Blumenthal, Aaron Mate, Judge Nap, Jeffrey Sachs, Antiwar, etc
Col. MacGregor, Lt. Col. Kwiatoski, Lt. Col. Wilkerkson…………….
I've been telling you for a long time! Russia is a "Police State!" …Wait!? …My mistake. This is China. …As I've been telling you for a long time… …Wait!? Are they speaking American?
Most Members of Congress violate FARA, when will the homes of all those Israeli Citizen Members be raided? When will those accepting AIPAC money be raided? How about those who go KISS the Wall, showing allegiance to the Foreign Nation of Israel, aren't they in violation of FARA? Scott Ritter loves our Republic, our Constitution and is trying to wake Americans up about the "dereliction of duty" by those in our Government.
The homes of All US politician that support Israel should be raided starting with Biden's…!
The predecessor to AIPAC, the AZC needed to be forced to register as a foreign agent. I believe that is what President Kennedy wanted. Kennedy also wanted to smash the CIA and scatter the pieces into the winds.
He is in trouble for appearing on Judging Freedom and speaking his mind.
Gilbert Doctorow's latest on Scott Ritter is rather troubling. He said Ritter as much as admitted that he had received paid trips and honoraria from the likes of Russia Today and Sputnik, both of which are Russian funded news agencies. Thus, the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) could be used against him. We'll see. I enjoy Scott's commentary and uphold his right to free speech, but this is going to have to go to court if that's what this is.
And we blamed Soviets for persecuting dissidents. The US is not a democracy but a hypocrisy.
Scott Ritter and Robert Kennedy were together at a restaurant the day before the search. I bet Scott said something and Bobby finked him out.
Remember when they raided Dershowitz’s (good friend of Epstein) home for being an agent of Israel?
Yeah, me neither.
The guy who alleges he "kept his underwear on"?
SOCIETY-MARCH 2003 ISSUE
The Talented Mr. Epstein
Lately, Jeffrey Epstein’s high-flying style has been drawing oohs and aahs: the bachelor financier lives in New York’s largest private residence, claims to take only billionaires as clients, and flies celebrities including Bill Clinton and Kevin Spacey on his Boeing 727. But pierce his air of mystery and the picture changes. Vicky Ward explores Epstein’s investment career, his ties to retail magnate Leslie Wexner, and his complicated past….
Another person who went to the island with Epstein, Maxwell, and several beautiful women remembers that the women “sat around one night teasing him about the kinds of grasping women who might want to date him. He was amused by the idea…. He’s like a king in his own world.”
Many people comment there is something innocent, almost childlike about Jeffrey Epstein. They see this as refreshing, given the sophistication of his surroundings. Alan Dershowitz says that, as he was getting to know Epstein, his wife asked him if he would still be close to him if Epstein suddenly filed for bankruptcy. Dershowitz says he replied, “Absolutely. I would be as interested in him as a friend if we had hamburgers on the boardwalk in Coney Island and talked about his ideas.”
https://www.vanityfair.com/…
Israel is more of an American Colony than foreign country. Except this colony gets to dictate policy to the motherland!
Tail wags the dog.
I highly recommend the book “Three Felonies a Day.” The author points out that laws are so numerous and vague that most Americans commit three felonies a day. At one time, if someone harmed someone, they would complain to the police who would investigate.
Nowadays, Americans can be “targeted” and law enforcement collects everything they can. The NSA records every cell phone call, every credit card transaction, every flight, and every e-mail and saves it in a massive searchable database. It they need more they can have a corrupt or lazy judge sign a vague search warrant to look for financial or in Ritter’s case “electronic” info. If they find any cash or gold they will take it and you have to go to court to prove that you legally obtained it.
Surely they can find some tax error and errors on a loan or job application or “hate crime” or a “link” to a terrorist or a conspiracy to commit an illegal act, which includes just knowing about it. They’ll probably find several chargeable offenses, or tell a local criminal he can get a sentence reduction if he testifies Ritter did something illegal. And if Ritter talked too much, they can deem he lied to FBI agents and jail him for that. The case will drag on for years and bankrupt the target. The judge may even seize one’s passport and tell them they can’t travel outside town without his permission, even before a trial begins.
The kicker in federal court, you can’t just choose any lawyer to defend you, only those approved to appear in the local district court, who are proven not to rock the boat or upset a judge. Rudy Giuliani has been destroyed by this system, which is funny since he once took part. We also see what happened when Trump was targeted. They dug up BS from decades ago.
JFC
American Stasi: Tulsi Gabbard Confirms"Quiet
Skies" Nightmare
Placed on a terror watch list, the former Hawail congresswoman and her husband were tailed by Air Marshals and bomb dogs. "Unconstitutional on every level" she says. "And I'm not the only one."
….Neither Gabbard nor, apparently, the whistleblowing Marshals know why the former congresswoman would be on a terror watch list. Gabbard has been a persistent, pointed critic of politicians in the current administration. The day before her reported placement on the TSA list, Gabbard appeared on the Ingraham Angle and criticized the “proxy war” in Ukraine, saying the administration was selling the public “crap” excuses for expanding its military commitment, with intent to turn Ukraine into “another Afghanistan.” A debate clash in the 2020 primary was also a factor in ending Harris’ run that year, featuring the viral line: “She put over 1500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when asked if she ever smoked.”
article.
….“Quiet Skies” is a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) program for tracking “travelers who may present an elevated risk,” as well as “unknown or partially known terrorists.” It’s a signature initiative for a new vision of the federal enforcement state that, as covered in this space before, moved after 9/11 from an emphasis on making cases and building prosecutions to endless intelligence-gathering as well as “disruption” and “prevention.” In a key moment, the FBI in 2008 put out a new “baseline collection plan,” which urged agents to come with plans to “disrupt” potential “acts of violence” or other “criminal behavior.” Agents began getting credit for an internal metric called “disruptions,” which allowed them to rise without records of prosecutions or even arrests.
Because most investigations under this new system will never lead to court, agents do not have to worry about meeting probable cause standards or justifying surveillance. The behaviors may be technically permitted, even if some would consider them unconstitutional.
“It all comes under the heading of the Department of Pre-Crime,” adds Empower attorney Jason Foster, longtime Chief Investigative Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee. “So it’s ‘We don’t have to prove anything. We’re not going to court. We’re just following people.’”
https://substack.com/@taibbi/p-147403238
Appreciate the abbreviation, heard you loud and clear!
I believe this raid on Ritter was ordered by Israel as he was strongly against their genocide and Nutanyahoo.
It's evil that AIPAC does not have to register as foreign agents, but they are harassing Scott Ritter to, solely based on his anti-war activism.