but think it to the favor of the other in communities, it is what it is, mentally. those who are in the coalition that just look like punished and he is paying almost $1500000.00 yearly indexation. and they obviously think less than 500000000, so yearly from 6 to 7, until now they are stealing out of our technicians system of our position. contribution that is obligated to the on 1st on most of them as one video go out of it. so yes, democrats, i, republicans have failed to agree on a new debt. the same thing as of the june, the 1st deadline moons overhead, despite the treasury things with warnings, the white house remains optimistic that a bipartisan agreement will be reached. we're going to continue to have those conversations. we believe they've been productive. we believe there is a space and an opportunity here to have a bi partisan reasonable,

reasonable budget agreement. so the sitting dispute started back in january and there's an awful limit on governmental for only both parties of because i've used it. no progress has been made so far. democrats insist on higher taxes, the wealthy americans and businesses republicans suggest cutting spending. instead, according to the length of the data, the american federal budget deficit in the 1st 6 months, the 2023 fiscal year has already exceeded $1100000.00. that is $430000000.00 more than the same period last year. however, instead of exclusion and spending, the us government is for even more money in the brain of the country, we simply sam's explains how the prices as influence the us. i can check the site if we're actually looking at the sales of defense products within the us. now we noticing that the price is since before the special ed show for operation, sometimes $5.00, even 6 times more expensive. so what does that do to an investor,

if that's a key economic drive, but this setting product, a boss, the inflated price for an invest, just turns around and looks at that and guys hang on a minute. okay, so you're producing it for this cost, just selling it to this cost that's not sustainable in the long time. so, okay. that, that industry, that the specific industry may be making, you know, right. and the cost right now is biting, keeps writing blank checks for the end of the day if they increase the debt ceiling or people to say, now we sold this in quite a bit $19.00, right? so i just think investors don't buy it anymore. so i don't think that is the solution to, to the i've been speaking since i'm speaking to a fund managers in luxembourg for example, several telling me they all taking that money out of the us and that talking about money in the middle east. you know, they, they pocket and places like saudi arabia, the pocket and places like the u i. e pops out all these countries that i'll have vast amounts of no, on the oil reserves, which is obviously a very good thing to fly on money into. but it will say this thing is stable and strong countries that have finally standing up to the us and saying, look, we're not gonna be bullied by you. all financial system is very,

very secure and solid. and i think we're also seeing people flying money into places like china, india, basically into the bricks, nations, you know, saudi in the way he wants to joined briggs. so i think we're going down that route of seeing people see that as a valid alternative to holding your money in the us as well that so from me for today, my colleague, nicky allen will be with you at the top of the out. i'm let him out, meet with you or a one for when the the, we spend a lot of time on the show talking about national security whistle blowing in the fall out from that truth telling. we've spoken about the c i a, the f, b i the n s a in the military. but what's it like to blow the whistle internationally? what does it like to take on the government of the united states? its allies in the united nations and the us congress all at the same time will soon

find out. i'm john to reaku. welcome to the whistle blowers the . 2 2 2 2 2 scott ritter is a name known to many around the world, a former u. s. military officer. scott was the chief un weapons inspector in iraq in the period following the 1st gulf war. he had already had extensive experience in the u . s. military having been an officer working for us central command, general norman schwarzkopf scott's whistle blowing begins in, in 1991 schwarzkopf reported having destroyed 16 of your rocks, 20 scud missile launchers, those numbers couldn't be confirmed. and scott said so publicly. later that year, scott joined the united nations and was assigned to ans. com. where he left the investigations into saddam hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction. a position he held for almost the entire decade of the 19 ninety's scot resigned for

months, gone in 1998 after iraq refused for the co operation with the united nations and the security council refused to do anything about it. scott gave testimony in a contentious senate committee hearing in which thence senator joe biden, criticized him for conducting what he described as confrontation based inspections in iraq. even though that was the policy that successive us administrations, both democratic and republican, had demanded in the end the new york times mat. they said that scott quote, was in fact vindicated about iraq's lack of w and these and that the aftermath of the rock more could be calamitous and quote, he added that scott was the most determined dissenter, and the one with the most on the ground intelligence of the situation prior to the war. we're happy to have scott ritter with us. scott, welcome to the show. as well. thank you very much. i me. glad to have you. let's

begin at the beginning. as they say, you joined us military in 1980. after some years you became an officer in the marine corps and at the time that the gulf war broke out in 1991, you were a captain working under general norman schwarzkopf. i remember him well from my time at the c i a he was a legendary figure and nobody or practically nobody spoke back to him. but you did, you said privately and later publicly that swartzkoff was simply not telling the truth when he told the american people and the country's leaders that the us military had. detroit had destroyed 16 other rocks, 20 scud launchers. you later told the media that the us hadn't destroyed any of your rocks. god, lodgers, was that your 1st brush with whistle blowing? well i, i didn't whistle blow, i was doing my job bill. you know, there's john john of intelligence officers and to tell his or her boss what, what they want to hear. and so,

but the facts on the table and then the boss can. so make the decision a real i was a junior kept in. there's no doubt about it, how is a junior chapter, but i was given a big responsibility and one of those responsibilities was doing the final battle damage assessment of, of, of, of scale engagements to make a determination whether or not and iraqi scott had been destroyed or not been destroyed and this was big because at the time i was trying to draw a israel into the war. they were firing missiles that were not being interdicted. and his ro, saying that the united states can come up with a solution. we're going to enter the word that would have destroyed the coalition that would have made it very difficult. it's almost impossible to feature that machine. so we needed to be projecting your. it'd be the, the perception of success. and so we're going with us. air force came in with video tape, sure to strike that the air force claimed storage guides. everybody was optimistic, but unfortunately the battle damage assessment officer, the spouse individually looked at and so does our oil tankers are not scott,

i thought that was it, but the insurance guy went on national tv in brief to this. it was reality. the next morning when i have to write the report, i wrote confirmed guns 0, the colonel, that there was between me insurance about 2 man said you gotta change that number. i should know. i'm not gonna change that number. so with the general breach of the world, no rush, it doesn't make it fat practice it 0. you're asking me to falsify documents. i'm not going to do it. we went back to back to your fire. george goes fired. you're done. get out of here. so i did, but before i left i ended a report on to the senior d. b. i a lead defense intelligence agent liaison. we sent it back to general l mcardle. that's the point she's just after to get all now and um, we'll go a gun. the full coverage towards god, it's words go send it up and it was just dummy's not as good as the others. he's wrong. well short guns and a d. i a, a to settle or do a computer and hazard the,

the imagery is exactly what i said. it was, they were a fuel tankers, and i was given my job back. what though, they didn't change that number because once they put that down there, they had to maintain the perception that we were joined us, but i maintain throughout the entire war, we didn't show a single scale and i don't just mean the air force. i mean the british so yes, i mean delta force, everybody was out there who can in general, if you were axes, we didn't show a single scott. i was a very contentious assessor because metals were handed out for people who are doing sketch of turned out i was 100 percent. correct. this lead 1991. you move to and scum and became one of the chief weapons inspectors who were the chief weapons inspector on 14 of the 30 inspections of a rocky facilities. you were looking for evidence of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. i remember those days got as if they were yesterday. the west insisted that their rock had w. m d,

the rockies insisted that they did not, but they still would not let you carry out your inspections and molested. you then did something that angered the united states, although it help the cause of the inspections you saw at the assistance of the british and his really intelligent services. the us criticized you and the rockies were enraged that you did it, but you stopped by your guns. what was it like handling all of these different competing interests? these, these aren't clothing companies or retail companies that you were reporting back to? these were the most important and powerful governments in the world and their intelligence services. what was that like when i started the job with the, with united special commission i, when i was 30 years old. wow. now, i don't know what people think about 30 year olds, but i will tell you that i was young. i had some experience under my belt, but not enough. and you know, they threw me into a job where i are the weight of the world on my shoulders and that the weight of

the world isn't, isn't just, you have the responsibility for going in and uh, implementing inspections. um, united states government brought me, you know, i was brought in degraded intelligence organization. i was brought in by the united nations. united states government didn't want me bear to do that job. and they actively got conspired to have me removed from that position. but united nation stuck with one of the reasons why is that there's, you know, intelligence drive operations, the person who controls the information controls the scope and scale of the operations to us the united states going to do was after c, i a lose control of the case of inspections, regimen of inspections, the danger of it. and how that taken over by the united nations that would be calling its own shot. me. that was my job was because the united nations all their own shots. so not only am i going into a wreck to try and find weapons if your interest don't want us to fight in the

clear red caps, new web s program. i'm, you know, there's a difference. we 19911998 there 7 years range in special teams that by b and other inspectors. i went in there and disarmed direct and we, they didn't do it cooperatively. i don't want to tell you how many times i had guns put to my station. they've driven to decorate the wall behind me with my bridge. wow. this was disco. every inspection team i lead into a rack had a built in a hostage rescue component because we anticipated that because of the confrontational nature of our word, you're actually going to take us hostage. and because we had people but sensitive backgrounds on the change. united states and pre deployed in for deployed. i should address teams to come in and rescue as this wasn't, you know, some sort of g, b scientific words. and this is from light stuff to the level of intensity. the people can't even begin to imagine. and, and where you know, you, because you re inspected was a bad example in the military type operation. and while i'm doing this war against

the iraqis, i'm fighting the war with united states. united states didn't want me to do my job chic. this argument was not the objective we need one i ranked as are right. i wanted to create the perception of a non compliant directed on cooperative iraq, which was easy to do when they weren't compliant. and they weren't cooperative missions but published. but because of the tenacity of the inspectors of your st. come all said dollars in several of the fact that in august of 1995, that's right. and when he was the, when he was the brief by the united nations, he said you're inspections are having greater success than you know. you have made his panic and we have gotten rid of weapons because we, we fear your inspection. so when we were doing something good, we were accomplishing emission, but that it desirable is not with united states wants to go more. we succeeded in a rug. uh,

the more danger in the united states came in and tried to machine and tired of talking about charging me with the espionage sending the the army suggestions penalty are asking my family. you're asking my friends. everything were to go full scale war. the united states government and me because they wouldn't cooperate with us. i had a job to do so i convinced my boss is to let me go, for instance, to england, where i was able to get the british government to provide us with a, a coverage singles intelligence collection team that we pointed to i wrapped in monitor the communications of the iraqi government and iraqi security services to see if they're moving, whether it's about disruption does. we're doing the inspection. we have a huge, we're proud taking photographs of us government wouldn't give us quality interpreters because they didn't want us to read too much of the images. so i got permission to go to israel where i sat down with these realities in their photo interpretation. use the youtube film, they don't find targeting, and then they use that in access to their database. these really data base numbers,

any information about or genuine, whether it's about destruction, some people say, gosh, that the inspectors don't do. it empowered us because it allowed us to go in and hop down the last remaining vestiges of these weapons of mass destruction program. and they gave us the credibility to span before the international beauty and say, we have exhausted every possible venue. there is for information and there's nothing left to mentally. therefore, our finding a webpage, we can make plans that are out of this, or that made me the number one, the enemy to the united states of america. and that's why they were disrupting my inspection. so as i was a war, a to for, to get united states and food front. because the more success i had with the british more success i had with years, or at least the more in the united states conspired internally, all the relationship with the finally succeeded in british my ability to your relationship. ready been stuff that i'm so now i'm trustworthy, i was a side, it should share information which of these really is saying and claim after is

great relationships that were missing. results are related because united stage didn't want weapons inspection teams to succeed. scott, and you were really legendary in the respect that you went nose to nose with some of the most infamous leaders. and so i'm saying it's regime you didn't seem to figure them. and indeed, you never mentioned that you feared for your safety in iraq. you were also quick to criticize the clinton administration, including secretary of state, madeleine albright going up against the rockies and having them cancel inspections is one thing, but being criticized publicly by the president of the united states and the secretary of state. and later on that the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee is an entirely different thing, especially when some of your own leaders refused to back you to what do you attribute that resolve that you had? whistle blowers, earl, or often criticize for their stubbornness. but what gave you that strength to stand

up? how's the regular officer? yeah, that's what we do. yeah. there's, yeah, there's no, there's no secret here. i went through officer can school. it's a, it's a streaming process. you show that either you have to ensure you don't. i went through 6 months of basic training in quantico, either show that you had, or you don't, i went to the fleet marine forces a lieutenant where it's either st. there's one of you in front of you. busy the metal, the lead marines and conduct, or they ask you to the exit. no, i proved my getting building. i worked in the former soviet union, implementing intermediate nuclear forces, treated employees and treaty. certainly all for one knows who knows the general shortest job. that's what you do. have you see? i was afraid. i was here today. i knew what the risks where i knew what we were getting ready to do. but when you lead people, you can't show fear. i was assembling teams of 506070, sometimes a 100 international. busy was around the world,

many of them have very spend next in ours because they linked enough. but, you know, in solar environ environment, these are people who were experts and chemical weapons, biological weapons, nuclear weapons, long range, ballistic missiles, but they worked at present confrontational people. and i was now going to lead them into iraq, where we knew it will be made with guns point those guns at our streaming that is threatening to kill us. but i understand before them and say, don't be afraid to look at me. look at me. if i'm standing there and i'm not shrinking, you don't straighten your aggies for like shars with blood. if you, if you fear being all around the fear and they'll, they'll come out you there to be no fear. and it was an act because i was scared to death, but the leader doesn't show fear in front of the people they're leading to. well i, i was a pretty good actor. but anybody who wants to sit here and think that i had a nurse to steal when i assume my veins always went in inside because this was real . this was the homeless liaison indeed was a to your good. that's right,

that's right. i'm going to ask you to stay with us scott, we're speaking with united nations whistleblower scott ritter. there's a lot more of this conversation, so please stay with us through this short commercial break. we'll be right back. 2 2 2 2 the the

welcome back to the whistle blowers. i'm john kerry onto were speaking with former united nations weapons inspector and whistle blower. scott ritter. scott, thanks again for being with us. thanks. rarely you became a noted commentator after you left the united nations. you were a regular on fox news for a period. you can be seen regularly on r t and heard on the sputnik radio network. you're a successful author. what else are you doing these days? what kind of a transition did you make into media and commentary?

i mean um i think my primary um the venue of employment is with a, a, a, an energy um, a publication group. energy intelligence, where i, uh, i provide the geo political analysis relating to energy, security and into products that are read by the, the, the major ceos of every oil company in the world. and anybody who's involved with your business. so i'm doing that. i also again, i write for a variety of outlets over the past couple years. i've written for the american conservative, which is kind of a lifeline. do you happen to be? i've written for true dig, which is sort of on the left and i've written for people in the middle. there's no idea ology here or again, i'm an intelligence officer or former intelligence officer. and my job is to try and promote some political it into my job is to put the fact based analysis on the table in front of a certain audience and enable them to empower themselves with knowledge and

information to formulate their own opinions. if i'm trying to tell you what to think, i've sale if i'm in power and you to learn to think on your own and i'm succeeding . so that's what i've been trying to do. scott, a question that i frequently ask guests on the show is what advice they would give to people considering blowing the whistle on waste, fraud, abuse, or illegality. your whistle blowing was a little different. your whistle blowing was on what came down to phony international policies on the parts of the most powerful countries on the planet. the personal cost to you has been high. like it is with many whistle blowers. with that in mind, what advice would you give and what would you have done differently in your own case? and that's why the toughest questions is out there, john. i paid a horrible price. now if it's just me paying the price, i live with that. a families paid the price. my wife paid the price and make sure

price. my friends paid the price. my parents paid the prize anybody was in my in or, or paid a price. and i'm just gonna be straight up honest with you and your audience. knowing what i know today and the price that has been paid, the cost of that has been borne by so many people who didn't deserved adaptive barriers. this cost would i have done the same thing and i can't give you an honest answer. i mean, i believe what i did was the right thing, but the price paid the cost incurred was horrific. and i, i honestly can't tell you that i would have done that. and so therefore, on the wrong person, for people to come to and say, should i blow the whistle? i mean, if you want to have a tech support, uh, you know, session and morality, i would say, yes, of course you have to tell the truth. do you have to speak to the car? i want to talk to you as a human being, i would say, don't do it. mm hm. because you know, your price is beyond imagination. you can't comprehend the price you're going to pay, and the price your family's going to pay the price your friends are going to pay.

and here's the other thing about it. the government doesn't care, so people don't care. that's the biggest list i drove away from. is true, there's a lot of people to say today to say thank you very much for doing what you do. i still got to stop the war in iraq. we didn't stop by continue to speak out today to try and improve relations with russia. but we're not improving relations with russia. it's up till battle. it's uh, you know, it's like a freak. busy the pre good god, it has to push the rock up and rolling out the rock. the struggle over surface. oh yes, that's it. mm hm. you're, you're never going to get into the job. you're never going to get into the job. so doing the right thing does not produce. now come worthy of the 2nd, but here's the thing. here's the killer. every morning i wake up and i looked in the mirror. i'm damn proud of the man staring back. and when i looked my wife in the eyes, i could see the pride in her eyes were a little my daughter's in the eyes. i see the price and you can't afford it. you

can't put a price on it. yeah, your sample, you're absolutely right, scott. i say exactly the same thing, i say exactly the same thing. the price is high higher than anybody can imagine before they actually blow the whistle. but with that said, i can sleep at night. my children receive back to me. and i like to think that i've left a legacy for future generations, my grandchildren or great grandchildren, who i likely will never know at least still know that that one push came to shove, i did the right thing. so you're right. it is very high, but boy, is it worth it? i want to as you, oh yeah, please go ahead and go right ahead. just one thing. yeah. and i apologize for that . all. what we're doing is we think what we're doing is going to expose the truth and, and, and, and that's going to be the outcome of we're, we're wrong. we can expose the truth. but there you go. hopefully what we're doing is setting a standard that's when the government probably has their standards. that's right.

for the american people, that's right and begin to demand and their government. and we get to the point where we don't need whistle blowers. that's the key where we don't need, we're so good because the government, a sufficiently transparent enough and the people have confidence in the decisions being made that are being told the truth. so the doesn't have to be with was the fact that there needs to be whistle blowers, those everybody right off the bat is there's a problem on the. exactly right, scott, i have to ask you about the conflict in ukraine and your position on it. you were an early supporter of russia, but in a very reasoned way. i've seen interviews where you work to contextualize, the conflict in the, in the scope of modern history. but that hasn't stopped the ukrainian government, for example, from adding you to a list of what they call russian propagandist. your twitter account was briefly suspended. what is the fallout been for you? has it been harder for you to work because of your position on ukraine?

it's almost impossible for me to work um every, every main stream. uh, media. i want to say main street america. you know, i used to write sure of some, some good um, american based journals. i don't get to write them anymore because of the steps i've taken by my primary employer won't let me write on russian issues anymore. cuz they, they feel that of have my name attached to anything. that's a positive assessment on russia's russian propaganda. it's the dumbest thing in the world. mm hm. but uh, and when i tried to speak out the vin user or a jack, dave, i've tried to have books i need to of been using the they can call them by drawing training elements that threaten violence. and no business wants to host or something just to bring down their business. so this had a real quickly detrimental impact on my ability to make an earning. and as you know, john, the so we do things because we believe in it. we do it for honor,

but none of them put food on the table. right. busy push the page, the mortgage, the put your roof, or the head or clothes on the back of your children. during the day when they're providers for a family, that means we have to have gainful employment in here, i am trying to do the right thing for my country. anybody thinks of doing this because i'm in love with russian. i'm doing this for russia. if you don't know me, it's just like i didn't speak out about i ranked because i love saddam shame and i loved i rack. i knew that i was an issue, but i rag and people have great respect for i don't the end of but i get it because i love america. because i believe that before we send americans service mirrors out the fi done awards, we have to make sure the cars that we're asking to give their lives towards worthy of the sacrifice and racket. was it now we have a situation, you train with the same question to have to be as i'm asking the questions they don't like the answers. but instead of trying to deal with this response, we tend to shut me up. and that's uh, that's okay. you can show me up and remember we were talking about the cost john, my family basic gosh, that's right. when, when my job, my daughters want to go to graduate school and i can't provide the money to to

write it up. so they have to take loans as it cost. busy when my wife hasn't been on a vacation in 20 years, that's a cost that people can say, well that's a little frivolous, really was. or do you turn your way? you can go on big like 120 years out frivolous stuff. that's all right. well, i would like to thank our guests, scott ritter and thank you to our viewers for joining us. i'd like to leave you with the words of polish american poet and writer. chest loves me lush, who said quotes in a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence. one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot. speak up, speak the truth. the world will be a better place for it. i'm john kerry. i can thank you for watching the whistle blowers until next time. 2 2 the,

[000:00:00;00] the president vladimir putin say is rupture is becoming an economic locomotive despite house pressure, with wisdom, sanction plants firing that the only problem in themselves, the floors will need to equip a brandon destroyed the western western side of the city. those even late the us, the report was exclusively from the scene of one of the deadliest others in boxes and in recent history. awesome. i also noticed spot to me which is now under the