Former CIA intelligence officer and current member of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) Larry Johnson pointed out that the spectacle of the U.S. State Department pulling Scott Ritter off of his plane and taking his passport was an act of desperation. “I think this will likely backfire because it’s going to bring more attention to Scott, not less. And it will get his message heard by more people instead of fewer people.”
He told Sputnik: “The confiscation of Scott’s passport is a unconscionable act by a government that’s afraid of him because of the truth he speaks. America touts itself as the land of the free and the home of the brave, this demonstrating that it’s only free for some and definitely a land of cowards.”
