Former U.N. Weapons Inspector Declares President Bush Now Plans War Against Iran

Interview with former U.N. Chief Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter, conducted by Scott Harris

As the Bush administration stepped up pressure at the United Nations to impose sanctions against Iran, the government in Tehran defiantly announced that it had recently doubled their capacity to enrich uranium. The process employing centrifuges can either produce nuclear fuel or material for a warhead. Iranian officials have long maintained that their goal is only to generate electricity and reject charges from Washington that they are on a covert path to build nuclear weapons.

In recent weeks, there have been several reports speculating that the U.S. was sending Navy ships to the Persian Gulf for a possible pre-election attack on Iran -- charges dismissed by the Bush administration. But on Oct. 29, a naval training exercise led by the United States got underway off the Iranian coast. The two days of exercises involving ships from six nations were organized under the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative, aimed at blocking nuclear proliferation by practicing the interception of ships at sea. Although U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Brown of America's 5th Fleet said the exercises would not affect shipping in or out of Iran, Iranian officials said they were watching the movements in the Gulf very carefully.

Scott Ritter is a former Marine intelligence officer who served as a chief U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991 to 1998. During the leadup to the Iraq war, Ritter challenged President Bush's rationale for the war, maintaining that Saddam Hussein possessed no weapons of mass destruction that threatened the U.S. Scott Ritter has written a new book titled, "Target Iran: The Truth About the White House's Plans for Regime Change." Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Ritter about his contention that Bush is now planning to launch a new war against Iran.

Scott Ritter's book, "Target Iran: The Truth About the White House's Plans for Regime Change," is published by Nation Books.

Related links:

"Parallel Deceptions: The Bush Agenda for War in Iraq and Iran"

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