Scott the Inspector is all upset
Scott Ritter opines to the AP:

Former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter, a harsh critic of the Bush administration's push toward war with Iraq, suggested that recent news reports of his arrest in an Internet sex sting last year were part of an attempt to silence him.

He said the publicity forced him to cancel a trip to Baghdad, where he said he would have offered an alternative to military action.

"The timing does stink. I was supposed to be on an airplane yesterday to Baghdad," he said. "Let's not forget, we're on the verge of a major conflict in which thousands of American lives may be lost, and I was a leading voice of opposition to this."

"It's a shame that somebody would bring up this old matter, this dismissed matter, and seek to silence me at this time," he said.

It's all about Scott! Well yes, I guess it is.

There is a conspiracy to silence him! I don't think so.

At the time of the arrest, NBC station WNYT-TV of Albany reported that William Scott Ritter Jr. - Ritter's full name - was charged with trying to lure a 16-year-old girl to a restaurant. The girl turned out to be an undercover police officer.

WNYT broadcast Ritter's mug shot provided by the police but did not make the connection to his role as the chief U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq during most of the 1990s.

He was charged with attempted endangerment of a child, a misdemeanor that carries up to 90 days in jail, according to The Times Union of Albany. The case was adjourned in contemplation of dismissal, meaning if he stayed out of trouble for six months, the charges would disappear and the file be sealed.

And according to the local police chief:

Colonie police Chief John Grebert said he did not blame any of his staff for the controversy. Though the case was sealed, he said, his detectives were not barred from talking about it, according to two lawyers he consulted. Furthermore, the case had been reported on Channel 13 in 2001 and many people were already familiar with it.

"This case is going on two years old," he said. "This case has been discussed fairly openly over the past year. A person who becomes more and more of a public figure increases the chance that anyone's going to talk."

It was just a matter of time until the news seeped out of the local area.

But Scott is defiant:

Scott Ritter said he doesn't want forgiveness.

OK.