Scott Ritter arrested for internet sex

[medeak]

oh noes...

http://us.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/01/15/un.inspector.ritter.arrest/index.html

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. Yeah. Again. This time he was masturbating on video.

[NYC_SKP]

2. "...a police officer who was pretending to be a 15-year-old girl."

I just wanted to get that out front.

I guess this is better than "accidently" killing yourself, crashing in a small plane, that sort of thing.

:patriot:

[suzie]

11. You'd rather have 15 year old girls hook up with, meet, and be raped

by adult males that they "meet" on the internet?

[aquart]

17. Are there ANY 15 year old girls who ask old men to do that?

Is the real problem here that he believes anything anyone tells him?

[NYC_SKP]

18. I wasn't there, and I don't understand that behavior...

...but I think there may be better ways to catch a predator than entrapment.

and I'll lean toward having a great deal of skepticism when in this case, where the police are baiting him.

And because I like Scott Ritter.

The thrust of my point was that he's no ordinary citizen, and one has to wonder if any of this is part of an attempt to take him down unfairly.

[vadawg]

20. nope this is a good way to trap pedos, its not like the detectives approach the suspect

all they do is hang out in the chatrooms and watch the chat, there are flags that peek their interest and then they start to chat, there is a set pattern that im not going to go into but any psychiatrist could probuably explain it. These guys genuinely believe they are talking to youngsters and will go to far lengths to get them to meet or to private chat with webcams. Personally if there was some great conspiracy to take him down then i doubt that it would be some det from some PD who would be the agent used, lets face it the guys a perv.

[rug]

26. This is who made the arrest.

http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100115/NEWS/1150347

[vadawg]

28. yep, just a cop doing his job, i think its more likely ritter is a sicko than this cop is a deep

cover CIA agent....

[defendandprotect]

43. If the facts re Ritter's behavior are true, really sick . . .but really convenient for ....

GOP/right wing warmongers --

ASIDE FROM THAT ...

I also think we need to give a lot of attention to how damaging and addictive

internet porn seems to be --

Comcast is making $500 million a year from internet porn!!

[suzie]

49. Obviously, he isn't an ordinary citizen. He's a creep that targets 15 year olds.

There are plenty of pedophile-types who are quite good at their jobs or professions. Given their obsessive personalities and their need to cover up their sexual preferences, they are often well-liked by their employers.

I'm thankful for police officers that are willing to spend the time behind a computer baiting these guys, because the more they stop, the fewer 15 year old girls have their lives messed up.

And Scot Ritter has done this enough times that he is 'one of these guys'.

[EFerrari]

21. Just in the last two weeks, he called BS on a report that Iran

had some kind of new trigger. He was attacked all over the place and then the claim was found to be based on a forgery.

[dems_rightnow]

24. If only

He were that good at recognizing fake 15 y.o. girls.

[EFerrari]

25. No kidding. Oh, geeze.

[vadawg]

29. roflmao, zing

[barb162]

33. I just can't imagine any 15 year old would do that. TOO GROSS

[barb162]

32. Good, better a cop than a 15 year old kid. n/t

[TorchTheWitch]

3. link to police Affidavit...

http://www.poconorecord.com/assets/pdf/PR1152113.PDF

[Warpy]

4. Seems like a bad habit

From Wiki: "Ritter was arrested in April 2001<32> and again in June 2001<33><34> in connection with police stings in which officers posed as under-aged girls to arrange meetings of a sexual nature. The first incident did not lead to any charges.<32> He was charged with a misdemeanor crime of "attempted endangerment of the welfare of a child" after the second, but charges were dropped and the record was sealed on condition that he avoid further trouble for a period of time.<32><35> News of the arrests became public after sealed court records were provided anonymously to the press. Ritter claimed that the timing of the leak was a politically motivated effort to distract attention from his statements about Iraq.<33><34><36>

"Ritter was arrested again in November 2009<37> over communications with a police decoy he met on an Internet chat site. Police claim that he showed himself masturbating via a web camera after the officer said she was a 15-year-old girl. The next month, he waived his right to a preliminary hearing and was released on $25,000 unsecured bail.<38> Charges included "unlawful contact with a minor, criminal use of a communications facility, corruption of minors, indecent exposure, possessing instruments of crime, criminal attempt and criminal solicitation".<39> Ritter faces up to seven years in prison. <40>"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Ritter

One wonders if he has a thing for teenaged girls or just for cops posing as teenaged girls. In any case, it seems that he's got a serious personal problem and he's going to need a hell of a lot of treatment. This isn't a simple pattern, it's starting to look like a compulsion and the man needs to deal with it.

[EFerrari]

14. What a terrible disappointment.

He's been so good at debunking Pentagon bs.

[Warpy]

16. He still is. However, if he wants to keep doing it

He's going to need to admit he's got a real problem here and take some steps to deal with it.

Maybe a couple of years in the joint will get through to him.

[medeak]

38. dear gawd....he was my hero

had no idea of his past :(

[Robb]

50. The 2001 charges weren't "dropped"

The case was "adjourned in contemplation of dismissal." Which I had to look up:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adjournment_in_contemplation_of_dismissal

[howaboutme]

5. About Ritter - you need to understand

Scott Ritter opposed the Iraq War and the actions of Wolfowicz and others that involved us.

Scott Ritter (just like Spitzer) has been targeted for years by those who perceive that candid and honest criticism about the ridiculous and irrational US neocon foreign policy is a threat to their own interests. They don't care about America.

There are those who monitor US phone conversations, email, cell phone and texting whose targets are not terrorists but instead those individuals who espouse such beliefs as threat to their own interests.

[vadawg]

6. you need to add that he seems to have a thing for young girls :)

[howaboutme]

22. All men have weaknesses

Those who wish to blackmail and neuter political opposition understand this and will use it to their advantage, just as the Republicans,etc used it against Bill Clinton. It is a huge advantage for the political opposition and the intel if they have the capacity to monitor everything and if the target subject is known to have vulnerability.

Most believe that Ritter and his knowledge about Iraq and the Middle East, even though he may have had this weakness, was a plus for those of us who believed our interests were not served by the neocons.

Sex is used as a tool for both control and exposure by those with the ability.

[izquierdista]

40. Oil vs. girls

If he had a weakness for oil and wanted to masturbate to pics of oil tankers, that would be no problem. He could even join Cheney and Rumfilled in one of their circle-jerks. But the thought-crime of imagining a 15 year old girl is much more serious than the violent crime of sending soldiers to shoot 15 year old girls.

[Blue-Jay]

47. Jesus fuckin' christ.

"All men have weaknesses"! Are you serious?

Showing your cock to what you think is a 15-year old is not a weakness that all men have! This has nothing to do with men being weak. This is about Ritter being a sexual predator.

Why is that hard for people to grasp?

[Juche]

48. There are several things wrong with that statement

1. Ritter has a history of doing this. He was arrested twice in 2001 for doing this. So if the goal was to blackmail him, they would've done it in 2003 when he was one of the most outspoken critics of the Iraq war.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/01/22/ritter.arrest/

2. True, men do have weaknesses. But we are supposed to control them. Besides the idea of masturbating in front of a 15 year old is something different than cheating on your wife. Both are immoral, but they aren't the same thing. Had he done this with a 19 year old girl, it wouldn't have been nearly as bad. If the girl was 19, it actually would've been kindof funny.


I do agree sexual blackmail happens. Sibel Edmonds said it was done to a democratic congresswoman. And I think the Russians tried to blackmail Suharto in Indonesia. Supposedly Bohemian Grove engages in this kind of behavior too. So it happens. But this incident is not sexual blackmail. Ritter has done this since 2001.

[Blue-Jay]

8. ...aaaaaaaand, he's apparently a pervert.

[vadawg]

10. +1 yup people seem to keep overlooking that part....

seems some stuff is over lookable if it suits an agenda....

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. He masturbated on camera on the internet for a 15 year old girl

I gave him a pass the first time because I believed he was targeted by the Bush administration for his claims about WMDs in Iraq.

But he can't talk his way out of this one.

[condoleeza]

19. My first reaction exactly, but...

I'd say if the camera don't lie - regardless of his possibly being set up - not nice behavior.

[Blue-Jay]

30. Jerking off for a 15 year old is "not nice".

That's a good way to put it.

[SidDithers]

44. Elegantly understated...

:applause:

Sid

[howaboutme]

51. Ritter hated neocons, and neocons hated Ritter

That is the bottom line to all of this. Ritter was obviously a pedophile (not a prepubescent pedophile) but nonetheless a disgusting ped who hated neocons because they fabricated intel for their pet interests and sold out the USA. Neocons hated Ritter because he wasn't in their hip pocket as were our leaders such as Bush and Cheney

Who do you prefer having as a public mouthpiece...a perv or a traitor?

[apocalypsehow]

53. Will you kindly cease making excuses for this man's detestable behavior? Thank you. n/t.

[condoleeza]

7. I will truly never understand this compulsion in some men, truly disgusting n/t

[Boojatta]

42. It's disgusting because it's Scott Ridder.

If he were instead a popular male porn star, then some 15-year-old girls who have unsupervised internet access would be watching him perform, but they probably wouldn't see a live performance.

Note: the above isn't intended to excuse Scott Ridder. I'm simply trying to look at the big picture.

[rrneck]

9. Adios, Scott. nt

[Odin2005]

12. I hope he likes prison.

[barb162]

31. I hope he likes prison for a few decades. n/t

[Canuckistanian]

15. Damn.

His personal life aside, he was a courageous truth-teller about Iraq and the runup to war.

Unfortunately, his credibility with the media ends here, like it or not.

[Mike Nelson]

23. I understand the...

"indecent exposure" and "criminal solicitation", but not the "corruption of minors" (unless there are some real minors involved).

[Blue-Jay]

27. Really?

There has to be an actual minor involved? The idea that Ritter thought there was a minor involved means nothing? Are you shitting me?

[Mike Nelson]

34. No, I was serious

But, I guess, if he THOUGHT there was a minor involved, it works? Most 15 year olds would probably say they are OLDER, I would think - so, that would be no minor in the mind.

(I thought all this was made up for NBC-TV, but I guess it goes on a lot.)

[Raster]

35. Seems there is a bit more to the story....,

<snip>
Swetz said he has presented juries with excerpts of chat room conversations that he argued clearly show Venneman entrapping defendants by initiating or encouraging sexual innuendos.
<snip>
"I don't have a problem with police posing undercover in teen chat rooms which ban adults," Swetz said. "I do have a problem with police going into exclusively adult site chat rooms and misrepresenting themselves as minors, which clearly violates the rules of those adult sites. That's what Officer Venneman has done."

[Blue-Jay]

36. I often see teens on "adult" websites.

BUT I DON'T JERK OFF IN FRONT OF THEM.

[Raster]

39. Well, good for you. It's probably not a good thing to do.

That said, I wouldn't be surprised if there was not an element of entrapment.

[Blue-Jay]

41. Entrapment or not...

If you're flogging your dong in front of what you think is an underage girl/boy, you need to be put away. I don't care if you're Scott Ritter, Mother Theresa, or Jesus Herman Christ; someone who acts that way is a pervert and should be treated as a sexual predator.

(not that Mother Theresa had a "dong" to flog.....as far as I know.)

[TorchTheWitch]

46. There was no entrapment

Entrapment is only a reasonable defense if the officer compelled you to do something you would not have done otherwise. Merely having a history of being guilty of the same or similar crime in the past would automatically make entrapment an unreasonable claim. Police providing an opportunity for a crime to be committed is not entrapment, and police are allowed to pose as minors, prostitutes, drug dealers, etc.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-entrapment.htm
Another reason entrapment is difficult to prove in court is the criminal history of the defendant. If the prosecution can demonstrate a previous history of similar crimes, then it becomes extremely difficult to prove entrapment. Providing an opportunity to commit a crime is not considered entrapment.

This is why police stings involving Internet sex crimes have been successful. Defendants may claim that adult police officers posing as underage chatroom participants constitutes entrapment, for instance. The reality is that the undercover agent only provided an opportunity for the suspect to initiate illegal conversations.

[proteus_lives]

37. Enjoy prison pervert.

[salin]

45. multiple episodes... ugh.

Even if one was very generous and accepted the 'framed' excuse time one (or time two) - wouldn't you not engage in behavior that one had been accused of in the past? Courts are set up to determine guilt... but it looks like the case is a slam dunk.

I certainly appreciated his perspective in the run up to the war, per his past work/experience as chief inspector. But appreciation is completely divorced from the disgust at this behavior.

A predator is a predator. I feel deeply for his family.

[eridani]

52. What IS it with men like Spitzer, Edwards and Ritter?

They have to know that they are being watched. You'd think that would be a powerful motivator for some self control.

[dorktv]

54. Uh what is internet sex?

And no one better post "it depends on what the meaning of the word is is" even if that is actually really funny!

[NNN0LHI]

55. I think they caught him spanking his monkey on inter-tube video

He thought it was a 15-year old girl watching but it was in fact an older police detective looking for pervs.

Jokes on him.

Don