The Nigh Seen Creeder

Remember Scott Ritter? He was the chief U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq in the late 1990s. At one time, Ritter was a hard-line critic of Saddam Hussein's regime. Indeed, he published an essay in the New Republic in 1998 alleging that Hussein had produced a rather large stockpile of chemical and biological weapons.

For reasons unexplained, Ritter transformed into a rather forceful apologist for Hussein's regime. In July 2000, he traveled to Baghdad to appear in a documentary film financed by the Iraqi government. According to Ritter, the documentary's purpose was to "de-demonize" Saddam Hussein. It was no surprise, then, that prior to the U.S./British invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Iraq Ba'ath Party's Web site featured a tribute to Scott Ritter.

So, what's Ritter been up to lately? Apparently, he's on a crusade to de-demonize the theocrats who're currently running things in the Iranian Islamic republic. In the November 20 Nation magazine, Ritter says Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, "has been navigating a path of moderation." How moderate is Khamenei? Let's examine his recent behavior: He toted an assault rifle to a prayer service; he called for the destruction of "satanic and cancerous Israel"; he stated that the fatwa (death sentence) against Salman Rushdie is "irreversible"; and by most accounts, he is the primary architect of Iran’s nuclear weapons program. So much for "moderation."

That being said, Ritter takes great exception to the Bush Administration's lumping Iran in with al-Qaida as threats to America's interests around the globe. In the Nation article, Ritter approvingly quotes a former Iranian Revolutionary Guard member thusly: "Doesn't America understand that we oppose Al Quaeda [sic] and all it stands for?" Oh, really?

This past week brought disturbing news about Iran and al-Qaida. According to the London Telegraph, Western intelligence agencies have uncovered evidence that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wants a pro-Iranian militant in Tehran to take over leadership of al-Qaida. So, Ritter's protestations notwithstanding, it looks like Iran and al-Qaida are soon to be - if they're not already - joined at the hip. What's even more disturbing is the fact that al-Qaida is actively seeking a nuclear weapon. Think about what a nuclear-armed Iran, aligned with and leading the most active al-Qaida cells, will mean for the Middle East, not to mention world peace.

For years the Nation magazine has been the journal of record for people who think Alger Hiss was innocent, who think communism works, and who think that the United States and Israel are responsible for 100 percent of the suffering in the world. Now, thanks to Scott Ritter, the Nation is officially the journal of record for people who've deluded themselves into thinking that Iran is an island of moderation in the Middle East.