FBI raids home of ex-UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter

ISTANBUL

The FBI and state police on Wednesday conducted a raid at the home of Scott Ritter, a former UN weapons inspector and current critic of US foreign policy, located in upstate New York.

FBI agents and state police were seen entering Ritter’s residence in the hamlet of Delmar on Wednesday afternoon.

The reason for the raid remains unknown, and it is also unclear if Ritter, who has had legal issues in the past, was at the home during the operation, according to Fox News.

"I can confirm FBI personnel are at a home on Dover (Drive) conducting law enforcement activity in connection with an ongoing federal investigation," the FBI spokesperson in Albany, the state capital, told Fox News Digital.

"As the investigation is ongoing, (Justice Department) policy prevents me from commenting further,” he added.

On the FBI raid at his home, Ritter claimed that the US government issued a search warrant, due to concerns about potential violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

“I am not in violation of the foreign agent Registration Act. I have not done anything that do it and hopefully, by executing the search warrant and taking the materials that they did, they will rapidly reach that conclusion,” Ritter told reporters in front of his house.

Agents of foreign governments working on US soil are required to register with the US government.

Ritter claimed that the search warrant was issued due to his remarks on the US policy in Ukraine, his efforts to improve relations between the US and Russia, drive arms control, and achieve peace.

In an interview posted on YouTube yesterday, Ritter criticized Israeli attitudes towards Palestinians, saying: “Israelis jailed nine soldiers (who) were raping Palestinian prisoners and then Israeli citizens rise up and say that the Talmud interpretation of a Jewish law says it's not a crime to rape non-Jews, and that these men should be freed.”

“This is reality happening in Israel right now, our ally, we claim that Israel and America is alike in many ways. I don't know when was the last time 500 American citizens stormed a state prison saying we need to be allowed in to rape the prisoners because we're permitted to under our religious beliefs,” he added.

Ritter, also a critic of the 2003 Iraq war, served as a member of the UN team overseeing the disarmament of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction from 1991 to 1998, a post he quit in protest.

In the early 2000s, Ritter was convicted of a number of sexual offenses, some involving minors.