Consortium News strongly condemns the raid on the home of its columnist Scott Ritter by the F.B.l. on Thursday as a serious threat to press freedom.
Scott Ritter speaking with the media outside his home after the F.B.I. left with boxes of documents and electronics. (CBS 6 Albany/YouTube screenshot)
By Consortium News
Consortium News condemns in the strongest terms the F.B.I. raid on the home of CN columnist Scott Ritter.
Federal agents removed Ritter’s electronic equipment and numerous boxes of paper files from his Albany, N.Y. area home Thursday on suspicion that the former U.N. weapons inspector is violating the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act.
In a video posted to his Substack page, Ritter said that normally in alleged FARA violation cases the authorities send a letter to the subject of the inquiry informing them of the investigation. They do not send numerous F.B.I. agents to the door with a warrant to search and remove potential evidence.
The warrant, a copy of which Ritter posted, only called for electronic devices to be removed, but the agents, whom Ritter said acted professionally, also removed boxes of paper United Nations files from his days as a U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq in the 1990s. As Ritter says in the video, U.N. documents are never classified and could have nothing to do with the alleged FARA case against him.
“So the idea that, this is normal procedure is absurd in the extreme. I’m not a foreign agent. What I am is a journalist. And this is how we need to couch this entire thing. What the F.B.I. did yesterday, what the United States government did yesterday, was a frontal assault not only on free speech, but a free press,” Ritter said in the video.
Ritter says he’s being targeted because of his freelance work for Russian media. In the wake of Russiagate, the U.S. Department of Justice in 2017 forced Russian-government financed media companies to register as foreign agents. But only the principal executives of RT and Sputnik need to register, not employees or freelancers such as Ritter.
“They are seeking to intimidate a journalist with a long record of journalism, to intimidate this journalist, me, from engaging in activities such as the research and publication of articles and materials critical of U.S. policy in Ukraine, supportive of Russian objectives,” he said.
“Just a quick reminder. The U.S. courts have determined that under FARA, coincidence of ideas between an individual such as myself and a foreign government, Russia, does not weigh in on FARA,” Ritter said.
“So the fact that the Russian government and I happen to have coinciding viewpoints on critical issues of the day might reflect that we’re both on the right side of history as opposed to me being an agent of the Russian government. In fact, it does reflect that we’re both on the right side of history,” he said.
Because of his views, Ritter has been placed on a “kill list” by the Ukrainian government. The local CBS News affiliate in Albany, N.Y., apparently tipped off by the F.B.I., filmed agents removing boxes from Ritter’s home. In the process they revealed his home address and license plate numbers.
Ritter said in the video (published on CN) that a police SWAT team was also sent to his home Thursday evening and left without incident.
Ritter said:
“I’m a journalist. I have a constitutional right of free speech associated with a free press to do what I’m doing. And to shut up means I’ve allowed the United States government to intimidate a journalist into silence. That simply isn’t going to happen.
Why would the F.B.I. do this? I think we can’t ask that question without bringing up the obvious. What I’m saying and doing strikes fear in the hearts of some people in Washington, D.C., whether it be the State Department, the C.I.A, the White House, Department of Justice; it strikes fear in the hearts of the Ukrainian government.”
Consortium News calls on the Justice Department to immediately cease its intimidation of one of our columnists as it constitutes state interference in the operation of the media and a threat to press freedom.
There was no investigation of PR firm Hill and Knowlton when it worked for the Kuwaiti government in exile to promote what would become ‘Operation Desert Storm’.
DOJ, FBI, and HSA are completely out of control.
In my recent case against FBI and HSA for collusion with political racketeers (Repubs), where all levels of all agencies refused to investigate theft of $120 million in conservation funds for three years, despite thirty full packets of evidence and analysis sent to all local, state, HQ, and OIG offices, I found that they had investigated a Dem politician for six years for alleged mishandling of one-thousandth that amount.
Their defense, after DOJ was given six extra months to investigate the agencies, was to refuse even to Answer the COmplaint, claiming wildly that all government agencies may commit massive racketeering crime AT THEIR DISCRETION, and that they have IMMUNITY for massive racketeering crime. The utterly corrupt judiciary of the DC district agreed, with ZERO FACT OR ARGUMENT, and the DC Circuit appeals court AGREED with zero fact, argument, or precedent.
The fact is that the entire judiciary and all secretive agencies are completely OUT OF CONTROL and are systematically SUBVERTING THE CONSTITUTION for bribes and promotions from political parties.
That is what we have, folks. A Corruptocracy with no relationship at all to democracy.
Wishing you best of life Scott!
To Scott Ritter, honoring his courageous dedication in behalf of all of humanity:
The International
SCHILLER INSTITUTE
International Peace Conference
Anniversary of Nuclear Bombing of Japan
hxxps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCqAO-PWTRo
how to view this confederation conference online!
Omit the hxxps://
It was NOT posted in this manner.
It is very interesting that AIPAC is not told to register under FARA but the journailists are supposed to? if there is a candidate to register for FARA it is AIPAC.
It should be clear, by now to all clear thinking people, that our constitution is there to be used by those running our government, that is; the CIA, FBI, the neo-cons, (both Democrats and Republicans) and the oligarchs behind them, when it is convenient to carry out their agenda which is; the break up of Russia, the destruction of China and all other nations and entities that get in the way of US hegemony, or to ignore the constitution in order to carry out this agenda. This means silencing all truth telling, honest journalists like Scott Ritter. It really doesn’t matter to these people in power whether his politics are socialist liberal or conservative. If he stands in the way of their agenda, he needs to be destroyed.
First Amendment rights my not carry a lot of weight with a Congress that applauds a genocider
I ?urge Consortium News and anyone concerned about Scott Ritter ?to follow (and if possible attend) the September 3, 2024 trial of Omali Yeshitela and the Uhuru 3, “the First Amendment Trial of the Century” (?Do a search for “Hands Off Uhuru” ?)
Scott is lucky he’s not a Black community activist?. In contrast to the polite treatment meted out to Scott, when the FBI raided the St. Louis home of the 82 year old Chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party? (ASPS), they terrorized the neighborhood with flash bang grenades, surrounded the house with troops armed with automatic weapons, broke down his door, almost hit his wife with a drone, pinpointed their chests with red laser dots, handcuffed them and took all their electronic equipment, phones, records, and ?archives. This terrorizing tactic was simultaneously carried out at six other benign locations with similar seizures. Months later Biden’s Justice Department charged ?Mr. Yeshitela and two white activist supporters with acting as foreign agents for Russia..
Yes, all this for much the same charges Scott is facing. But you see, the Uhur 3 had done horrible things like build basketball courts, a bakery, used furniture stores, housing for the poor and formerly incarcerated, and WORST OF ALL, run a candidate in a St. Petersburg FL election (thus stealing potential votes from the Democratic Party.). Oh yeah, and the APSP had opposed the US and NATO for their role in fomenting the war in Ukraine. Just like Scott.
Maybe that’s why the NYTimes and other mainstream media are doing a news white-out on the Uhuru 3 case. There will be a protest in ?NYC in front of the NYT on Wednesday, August 14.
It is the wildest thing in human nature, this degraded practice of accusing people of the things the accusers are guilty of. It’s bad enough when it is accusations that defame and ruin reputations. But when actions are taken against the innocent that should really be taken against the guilty instead, it hits rock bottom on the ethics chart. The USA needs to find itself again, and rekindle the purposes in it’s own constitution. There are obviously guilty foreign agents that are trying to convict Scott of their own crimes. But what is Scott’s crime? Wow! Being there and communicating. Evil, corrupt, and criminally minded people don’t like that. They exist in an upside down world where most of us, thank goodness, do not. More power to Scott, and the truth tellers of the world who have the courage to look for themselves, and say what they see.
8.9.24: “What the F.B.I. did yesterday, what the United States government did yesterday,” is f/f.u.b.a.r!!! No doubt, the FBI, “following, orders.” From WHOM?!?
Imo, it’s “home-grown” terrorism. Obviously, the Ritter family, was being surveilled, 24/7, w/o their knowledge; followed by being BLINDSIDED by the USG’s “Beast.” No doubt, waving the “Order” mandating its tentacles freedom to poke, pry, peep into every nook & cranny of their “target’s” private & professional life. The Beast’s, dirty, grubby, bloody claws, carrying out a “Grab & Go!”
Kudos!!! To Scott Ritter for handling this “invasion/occupation/coup d’état,” w/grace, dignity, divine, honesty!!! W/o a doubt, Scott Ritter shows the Universe what “Emotional Intelligence,” looks like, i.e., “the ability, capacity, & skill to perceive, assess & manage the emotions of oneself, of others, and of groups.”
…. “There are three things worth having, in this world, courage, common sense, caution.” (Nigerian proverb)
No doubt, Consortium News, Scott Ritter, the readership rock all three!
This goes out to the USG’s Beast (National $ecurity-M.I.C., & National Interests-Corporations), from me, LeoSun,
…… “My country ‘tis of thee. Sweet land of misery. To thee, I, sing, “F/Off.” Keep your dirty, grubby, bloody, clawed, hands, to yourself!!! TY.
TY, Scott Ritter, CN, et al! Onward & Upwards! “Keep It Lit!” Ciao
i thank you in solidarity, scott ritter!
and join the ranks of all those who are grateful
for your relentless appeals for peace and your
courageous and truthful reporting.
i wish you all the strength it takes to remain reasonably
optimistic in the face of unfathomable amounts of perfidy,
hypocrisy, double-standardry, and utter discomfort with
all kinds of truths, of people who claim to act in the name
of … what exactly?
I stand with Julia and Scott.
Scott Ritter needs to lawyer up as the deep state is waging lawfare on him and they have the ability to print money.
This comment sounds like further premeditated incitement of Scott Ritter.
What of the Actual, Unregistered, Homegrown Duopoly Agents in Our Midst who speak trash under the cover of it’s all encompassing unilateral congressional power.
Thank you, Scott R., for revealing the desperation of the security state and for making its hypocrisy even more obvious.
That includes abusing their power that’s supposed to be in service to constitutional protections, instead to undermine bedrock civil rights to score sleazy political points & try to silence critics.
More people are bound to notice how actual foreign agents (AIPAC) of an actual foreign state not only aren’t required to register but may also spend millions of dollars to skew actual US elections.
Given how Congress not only voices full-throated support for Israel but backs it up with US lawfare, guns & money, it doesn’t seem a stretch to suggest most of them are acting as unregistered agents of a foreign government.
Excellent work, Mr. Ritter. Sorry for the hassle.
Something very similar happened to the African People’s Socialist Party – the Uhuru Movement. FBI raided their homes and businesses in St.Louis and Florida and took computers and files. I believe it was under a suspicion that they were “acting as foreign agents of Russia”.
The FBI is using the white glove test, I am sure it would be more effective if they owned a pair that was white to start with.
The military establishment appears to be taking over government as part of ful spectrum world wide dominance of the military protection racket. The fear may be that their profession and profit motives could be harmed by a peaceful world in a globalized system. Not only that a transfer of sexual aggressive dominance may be adversely affected by feminine power for cooperative empathy versus aggressive military aggression.
For human civilization to survive on a global basis in this age dominance by force is not advantageous and is rather an existential threat to humanity. Ever since efforts to outlaw war they have gone on the war path unable to give up the new expensive weapons technology to play with that is fa r to dangerous in their hands..
Ace reporter and former CBS star war correspondent Lara Logan discusses her experiences with the mainstream media’s corruption and cowardice.
Main Stream Media, The Agenda with Lara Logan
hxxps://rumble.com/v58tat9-main-stream-media-the-agenda-with-lara-logan-a-respect-special.html
The person who approved of this raid on Scott’s home is the one who should be identified and questioned.
Ever since the Iraq disclosures I have admired Scott Ritter. He has more than paid his way with his contribution to the truth and as a creditable journalist with Consortium News. PITY THE USA DOESN’T HAVE MORE LIKE HIM.
Amen Rex!
They will try to jail him, Scott is too stubborn and idealistic to do what any sane person would do.
If I leave a reply here I may be raided by the FBI!
I support Ritter….he tells the truth, as far as I can tell.
But, hey, no problem, if Trump gets the Kingship, he will FIRE the FBI!
The USA is in a pretty sick situation (again)…brought on by the usual suspects: humans.
So the legacy media doxed Scott Ritter. Thank god the supplicants in the dysfunctionally compliant US media, but especially the ‘administration’ Biden and Harris put together (and are allegedly managing) is doing everything possible to sAvE dEmOcRaCy.
But but but we have to vote D because…Trump!
If Assange wasn’t enough, here’s the heavy handed message–“we gotcher ‘free press’ right here!” {crotch grab.}
This attack on Ritter, and by extension our right to a free press, is a prime example of how voting for that alleged “lesser of two evils” has enabled the D oligarchy to grow eviler and eviler. The slow, scenic Potemkin route to the same devastation.
People desperate to believe the Ds are different remind me of the guy who fell off the Empire State building. Around the 44th floor he says “so far, so good…”
You’re a class act Scott, stay safe, we and millions more value you.
Facebook is not allowing me to post this article. It just posts the main CN page.
This is a gigantic trawling expedition. The evidentiary basis for the FBI raid should be made public, assuming any exists. In the meantime, we’re looking at a spectacular inversion of reality. At a time when numerous Zionist organizations operate with full freedom and lethal power throughout U.S. society, and countless corporate media outlets take their direction from the Israeli state, we’re expected to look in the direction of one critic as a violator of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. This episode would be laughable were it not so serious. Israeli torture camps represent self defense. Overthrowing the Ukrainian government and unleashing Nazi forces on the country constitute a democratic revolution. But reporting on these matters and others from a skeptical perspective gets your home raided, your papers seized, your freedom threatened by the state.
“Welcome to America.”
“A spectacular inversion of reality” and your examples sum it up perfectly.
The evidentiary basis for the raid is or should be revealed in the affidavit used to secure the search warrant, which will also identify the affiant–the authority who swore it before the magistrate.
Ritter is a truth teller. FBI is one of the goons of the current authoritarian regime. We need more of “Ritters”
Bravo, Scott! We anti-imperialists out here such as Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, Jeff Blankfort, Judge Nap, Medea Benjamin, and all right thinking people are with you 100%! Stay strong, sir! We need you! We love you! We are proud of you!
On the Guardian website today there is an article that accuses Iran hackers of interfering in US “election”, along with Russia China.
WSWS reports that NYC police thugs arrest (Jewish) journalist Samuel Seligson with “hate crimes” enhancement. The charges are BS, this is open thuggery and intimidation against journalists.
And Scott Ritter gets raided. Again, we see open perversion of the law by authorities and so-called law enforcement.
I hate to say it, irony notwithstanding, maybe Scott can move to Russia and hang out with Ed Snowden so nothing else bad happens to him.
Scott cannot legally move anywhere outside the US because the FBI previously seized his passport.
The Deep State’s plan:
1. sieze his passport
2. raid his home and confiscate all his computers
3. plant kiddie porn on his computer
4. jail him forever based on this bullshit entrapment setup
5. if the public outcry to free him proves too inconvenient, get some ukronazi crim inmate to cut his throat, or maybe we find Scott hanged in Epstein circumstances
Anybody who believes due process and justice can prevail in today’s USA is stupid and naive beyond belief. The Deep State has nothing but contempt for ordinary Americans eg operation Northwoods, and does not hesitate to jail/kill American truthtellers eg. JFK, Garry Webb
My suggestion to Scott: get your wife and daughters to leave immediately for Georgia (in Europe, not US)
All Scott supporters must find a way to smuggle him to Mexico or preferably Cuba. Then ask Russia for asylum and reunite with his family in St Petersburg or Moscow.
I trust almost nothing the western media say about China or Russa. Consortium News is a rare exception.
The powers that be in the US want Iran, China, Russia, to be submissive. Poor too. Hence they wage war, proxy or direct. Independent media that do not repeat the “party line” get harrassed.
Really. It’s getting to that point now Jonny. Talk about “1984”/”Clockwork Orange”.
I’ve often said the Guardian is only good for recipes and environmental issues. (With a few opinions/features, here and there.)
Having been censored since 911 bush-cheney wars based upon lies, exacerbated since “Patriot Act II”, post Jan 6 (TDS), those of us forewarning U.S. Constitution is being violated by “the people’s” government, for no reason beyond our free speech rights.
“In an age of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
No one embodies this quote more than Scott Ritter, Consortium News, and the many journalists and contributors who speak Truth to Power.
I have a simple litmus test for journalists, publications, and media outlets: In 2003, did they “go with the flow” and pass U.S. Government lies & propaganda along to the American People? Or did they tell the truth — and risk their careers & lives to do so?
Scott Ritter & Consortium News tell us the truth. They have for decades, despite all the threats arrayed against them.
They deserve — and need — our support.
Cheers for Ritter. The state condemns itself.
I hope you had back-up files, Scott. You know what f-wads our government is run by, so I’m thinking you have all of that information elsewhere in a safe place.
Treating journalists like criminals should not be tolerated by citizens, but what can anyone do against the criminals who run the crooked show?
I have heard Scott Ritter say on Dialogue Works, the podcast, that he believes the 2020 election was stolen away from Donald Trump, which is not true. Often I agree with Ritter on many matters of foreign policy, but his denial of the fact that Joe Biden won the 2020 election fairly by both popular vote and the Electoral College troubles me and diminishes the influence he has on my opinions considerably.
Ms., the 2020 and 2016 elections were both corrupted during primaries by democratic party adoption of republican Kansas Kris Kobach
“vote caging”:
hxxps://www.gregpalast.com/bernie-lost-553000-votes-to-california-dem-party-rules/
This corruption is being copied in states this year, including our own, Washington.
Elections in the U.S. aren’t stolen, they’re purchased – by the oligarchs and corporatists that pay the big bucks to get the candidates elected.
No one cares and that has nothing to do with the topic.
Only if you support Biden. Since I don’t, I don’t fault Scott over this issue. I don’t support Trump, either. I support the Socialist Equality party.
I think you should ask yourself if the reason it troubles you so much is not because you need to believe in the honesty of the Democratic Party as a reflection of the honesty and basic decency of Americans as a whole.
The problem is that, in the present electoral environment, all elections in the US are stolen….from the people. Biden or Trump? Issues of lesser evil? Policies and actions that support the social and economic good for the greatest number?….these are all matters of propaganda and persuasion not grounded in substantive reality of human lives (and the rest of the living world).
Kudos Scott, not only for your record of speaking truth to incompetence & corruption, but for your determination and courage in this time of compromised
journalistic integrity.
And thanks to CN for staying the course.
As Usual,
EA
Stay Safe, Scott Ritter. We all need you and your writings to understand what’s really going on in this USA. THANK YOU!
Kudos Scott, not only for your record of speaking truth to incompetence & corruption, but for your determination and courage in this time of compromised
journalistic integrity.
And thanks to CN for staying the course.
As Usual,
EA
This govt.,which does not represent us, but rather the arms industry and the neocons, seems to be getting worse and worse.
But, but, it’s “Trump who’s going to erase our freedoms!” The only way anyone can believe that is someone living blinkered in a box constructed and framed by manufactured consent.
There are millions like that. They are called Democrats. Since I am a socialist, I try to educate them, and if they refuse to learn, I pass them by.
The US is so weak politically that they cannot tolerate any open dissent. If the US policies were defensible, then there would be no need to stop people from talking about those policies. The Biden administration is going to go down in history as one of the most incompetent and out of control in the last 100 years. The reputation of the US has been trashed, and it is all the Biden administration’s fault.
Good point! Reminds me of the old political adage “pointing with pride” v. “viewing with alarm.” The Ds haven’t had anything to point to since becoming a neolib shill. Now add neocon–and that happened under Biden. IMHO you’re right; apparently their faith in what they are doing is so shaky it cannot withstand the least criticism.
Well said, John. The U.S. cannot defend it’s proxy war against Russia, nor can it defend sending 2000 pound bunker busting bombs to Israel to drop on schools in Gaza, Scott Ritter is a very sharp thorn in the side of evil incarnate.
At this point censorship and intimidation just can’t put the genie back in the bottle for the neocons.
Thank you for your work Scott.