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On the Federal Investigation of Scott Ritter for Violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act

On Wednesday, 7 August 2024, FBI agents searched the Delmar, New York premises of writer and commentator Scott Ritter, seizing his computer, phone, electronic storage devices, and paper records. According to Ritter, the FBI agents indicated that their investigation concerns a potential violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a seldom-enforced federal law that, according to the Congressional Research Service, “was enacted to require individuals doing political or advocacy work on behalf of foreign entities in the United States to register with the Department of Justice…and to disclose their relationship.”

The criminal investigation of Ritter raises serious concerns for freedom of expression in the United States that I think deserve more attention than they seem to be receiving.

I have followed Scott Ritter’s commentaries since the run-up to the United States’ disastrous, immoral, and illegal 2003 invasion of Iraq, during which, with the late William Rivers Pitt, he co-authored War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn’t Want You to Know. In the years since, Ritter has been a consistent voice for diplomacy over militarism.

Notably, Ritter has in recent years been critical of U.S. policy toward Iran and Russia. He has in particular been critical of post-Cold War NATO expansion and U.S. abrogation of arms control treaties with Russia. Apart from his own Substack, Ritter has written articles published by media outlets including The American Conservative, Truthdig, The Huffington Post, Consortium News, Common Dreams, Energy Intelligence, Sputnik International, and RT. The latter two are affiliated with the Russian government, and it appears to be Ritter’s relationship with these outlets that the FBI is most interested in.

The First Amendment of the U.S. constitution states that:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

To the extent that the Foreign Agents Registration Act is applied against writers and commentators such as Scott Ritter, it appears to be in conflict with the First Amendment (“abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press”), especially when it is selectively applied.

In this respect, it is noteworthy that American media figures who have worked closely with the Ukrainian government but did not register as foreign agents have evidently not been criminally investigated for violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Such figures include Malcolm Nance, a public commentator who joined the Ukrainian Foreign Legion, Sarah Ashton-Cirillo, an American journalist who became a spokesperson for Ukraine’s armed forces, and Philip Itner, an American journalist who has taken up residence in Ukraine and toured the front with Russia, evidently under the protection of the Ukrainian government.

I am not suggesting that any of the above-named persons should have been criminally investigated under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Rather, I think that no one should be so investigated.

Word-searchable Version of the Mueller Report

The U.S. Department of Justice has today released a redacted copy of Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s “Report on the Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election.” Unfortunately, as released, one cannot search the 448-page report for key words or phrases of interest. I have created a searchable copy that you can download here (133 MB PDF).

Twitter Through Trump’s Eyes

U.S. president Donald J. Trump devotes a great deal of time to Twitter. Have you ever wondered what he sees on Twitter? I did, so I created the “Twitter Through Trump’s Eyes” public list that includes the President’s own tweets along with those of the 45 Twitter accounts that he follows. I will keep this list updated as necessary. You don’t need to have a Twitter account to view. Clicking on the image below will take you to the list.

Screenshot of the “Twitter Through Trump’s Eyes” list

 

English Transcript of the Iranian Television Documentary Program “Rules of the Game” (قاعده بازی)

On the evening of Monday, 15 February 2016, Iran’s television channel 3 aired a 13-minute report titled “The Rules of the Game” (in Persian, قاعده بازی) about the 17 January 2016 prisoner swap between Iran and the United States, arguing that the exchange was a victory for Iran and a loss for the United States. The program, produced by the “General Administration for Analytical and Documentary Programming” (اداره کل برنامه‌های تحلیلی و مستند) contends that the settlement of a longstanding property dispute between Iran and the United States was linked to the prisoner exchange, reporting among other things that on the day of the exchange, the U.S. flew $400 million in cash to Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport.

The following is a rough translation of the report that I have prepared. Comments are welcome.

Hello world!

Welcome to my new home page! I’ve had a personal home page since I was a graduate student, but I’ve decided to start fresh on a server that — for the first time — I’m administering myself. This site is currently hosted on a DigitalOcean “droplet” — a virtual private server — running CentOS. I’ve used Let’s Encrypt to secure the site and enabled HTTPS Strict Transport Security (HSTS). I’m pleased to note that as of today, Qualys SSL Labs gives this site an A+ rating.

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