Federal agents and state police searched the New York state home of former US Navy and UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter on Wednesday.
State police and FBI agents descended on the street in Bethlehem Township, south of Albany, around noon, according to the Times-Union. They wore “More than two dozen boxes” leave home shortly before 5pm local time.
A search warrant was executed “relating to concerns the US government appears to have about violations of the Foreign Agents Restriction Act (FARA)” Ritter told reporters gathered outside the home after the officers left.
He denied any wrongdoing and said the federal government was trying to intimidate him.
An FBI spokesman confirmed this “law enforcement activity in connection with an ongoing federal investigation,” but I wouldn't say anything else.
Ritter is a former US Marine Corps commander who served as a UN weapons inspector in Iraq in the 1990s. He opposed the 2003 US invasion, insisting that the Saddam Hussein's government did not have weapons of mass destruction, as Washington claimed at the time.
He has also been a contributor to RT and saw his passport confiscated by the US government when he tried to attend the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in June.
Jim Hoffman, Ritter's neighbor across the street for two decades, told the Times-Union that the former inspector has kept a low profile.
“When he came out against the Iraq war in the early 2000s, he was vilified everywhere.” Hoffman said. “Honestly, he was right. He said there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.”
Ritter himself has not posted anything about the attack on social media. His most recent post on X (formerly Twitter) was on Tuesday meeting with independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The administrators of their Telegram channel posted photos of the attack and said they hadn't heard anything about it either.
You can share this story on social media:
English 
Español de Venezuela 