Scott Ritter spoke to a capacity audience in Amherst, MA as part of a fundraiser for Traprock Peace Center on November 17, 2005.
Traprock Peace Center organized the event; Charles Jenks recorded and edited the audio.
The talk may be replayed on radio with email notice to charles@traprockpeace.org and attribution to Traprock as producer of the program and organizer of the event, with a reference to Traprock's website at www.traprockpeace.org and the copyright notice: audio copyright 2005 Traprock Peace Center; all rights reserved. The audio may be downloaded for private use only. We anticipate releasing a DVD of the talk, and may make audio cd's available for sale upon request.
See website for photos, excerpts and link to transcript. http://www.traprockpeace.org/scott_ritter_17nov05.html
"People were trapped by their own ignorance and the fear that is induced by ignorance so that they could not stand up and speak truth to power because, frankly speaking, most people didn't know what the truth was. We were told that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, massive stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, and, to be honest, most Americans didn't have a clue what a weapon of mass destruction was. They didn't know what chemical weapons were, biological weapons were, long-range ballistic missiles. They might have a vague understanding of what a nuclear weapon is, but not really, not what it takes to build a nuclear weapon. They were so ignorant about nuclear weapons that they bought into the argument that Iraq, a nation that is sitting on many tons of yellow-cake uranium ore, would have to go to an African country to buy new stockpiles. They were so ignorant about nuclear weapons that they bought at face value Dick Cheney's proclamation that Iraq was acquiring aluminum tubes to build a new family of centrifuges to enrich uranium when everybody who deals with the enrichment of uranium using the centrifuge method knows that aluminum tubes will never work. We don't build them with aluminum tubes. It doesn't happen. But, no, the American people, informed as always about the complexities of these very difficult issues, said 'my gosh, the President has said yellow cake, and Dick Cheney has said aluminum tubes, and there must be a nuclear threat because Condoleezza Rice has told us 'we don't want to wait for the smoking gun to become a mushroom cloud.' So like the compliant little sheep that we are, we *bah, bah* get led down the path towards a war that has been a disaster, an unmitigated disaster, a war based on a lie, a war based on not just the ignorance of the American public but the moral indifference of those whom we elect to hire office to represent us in our name, namely the congress of the United States of America." - Scott Ritter, November 17, 2005, Amherst
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