The RT contributor is reportedly being investigated as a \u201cforeign agent\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Federal agents and state police have searched the house of former US Marine and UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter in New York state on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
State Police and FBI agents descended on the street of Bethlehem township, south of Albany, around noon, according to the local outlet Times-Union. They carried \u201cmore than two dozen boxes\u201d out of the house just before 5pm local time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The law enforcement executed a search warrant \u201crelated to concerns apparently the US government has about violations of the Foreign Agent Restriction Act (FARA)\u201d Ritter told reporters gathered outside the house after the agents left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He denied any allegations of wrongdoing and said the federal government was trying to intimidate him.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n An FBI spokesperson confirmed \u201claw enforcement activity in connection with an ongoing federal investigation,\u201d but would say nothing further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ritter is a former US Marine Corps major who served as a UN weapons inspector in Iraq during the 1990s. He opposed the 2003 US invasion, insisting that Saddam Hussein\u2019s government did not have weapons of mass destruction, as Washington claimed at the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He has also been an RT contributor and saw his passport seized by the US government when he tried to attend<\/a> the St Petersburg International Economic Forum in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jim Hoffman, Ritter\u2019s neighbor across the street for two decades, told the Times-Union that the former inspector has kept a low profile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen he came out against the Iraq War back in early 2000s, he was vilified everywhere,\u201d Hoffman said. \u201cHonestly, he was right. He said there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ritter himself has not posted anything about the raid on social media. His most recent post on X was from Tuesday\u2019s meeting<\/a> with independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The administrators of his Telegram channel posted photos of the raid and said they have not heard from him either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n