Former United Nations Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter will speak at Rider Tuesday, November 14 as part of the University Lecture Series.

Ritter will speak on “Iran Confidential - What You Should Really Know About U.S. Warfare and Intelligence in the Middle East" at 7 p.m. in the Bart Luedeke Center Theater. He is author of “Iraq Confidential: The Untold Story of the Intelligence Conspiracy to Undermine the UN and Overthrow Saddam Hussein” (Nation Books, 2006).

Born in 1961, Ritter hails from a military family. After graduating from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, PA, with a bachelor’s degree in the history of the Soviet Union, he joined the U.S. Army in 1980 as a private. He was commissioned as an intelligence officer in the United State Marine Corps in 1984. He initially served as the lead analyst for the Marine Corps Rapid Deployment Force concerning the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Iran-Iraq War. During the Gulf War, he served as a ballistic missile expert under Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf.

Ritter served from 1991 to 1998 as a United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq in the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM), which was charged with finding and destroying all weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and WMD-related manufacturing capabilities in Iraq. He was chief inspector in 14 of the more than 30 inspection missions.

In 2002, Ritter published the book, “Endgame: Solving the Iraq Crisis” (Simon & Schuster), in which he argued that UNSCOM’s mission had been compromised by Washington’s use of inspections to spy on the Iraqis. He has produced a documentary entitled, “Shifting Sands: The Truth about UNSCOM and the Disarming of Iraq.” He has also served as a consultant on national security and military issues for the Fox News network.

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