Scott Ritter is Back on Twitter

Elon Musk succumbs to pressure from a dangerous man

Regular viewers of our podcast know about the bet I made with our favorite weapons inspector concerning his Twitter account, which he has not been able to access since April 6 of last year, when the previous regime suspended him for supposedly violating rules against abuse and harassment. The accusation couldn’t have been more preposterous. Here is the tweet for which Scott was suspended:

Scott Ritter @RealScottRitter

The Ukrainian National Police committed numerous crimes against humanity in Bucha. Biden, in seeking to shift blame for the Bucha murders onto Russia, is guilty of aiding and abetting these crimes. Congratulations, America…we’ve created yet another Presidential war criminal!

Obviously, the real reason for the suspension was that Scott had expressed an opinion that conflicted with the message of scoundrels who then pressured Twitter to censor him. When Elon Musk took over the company in October, I was very optimistic that Scott would soon be back on Twitter. My reasoning was simple: Elon sounds like a sincere proponent of free speech, and minimizing censorship is good for Twitter. His critics have been saying Elon shouldn’t be trusted, but I’ve never heard or seen a persuasive argument that it would somehow benefit him to falsely and repeatedly claim he opposes viewpoint discrimination. If he didn’t really intend to restore free speech to a significant degree, he wouldn’t need to say anything about it. Why set himself up to be ridiculed as a phony?

My good friend Scott has steadfastly maintained that he would never be allowed to tweet again, unless he agreed to delete his war crime allegation. Which he didn’t want to do. By contrast, I’ve been arguing that it’s more likely Elon just hasn’t focused on Scott’s situation yet. So we placed a bet: If Scott were not back on Twitter by the time we travel to Texas for events tentatively planned in the early Spring, I would buy Scott a beer, and if he were tweeting merrily by then, Scott would treat me to a glass of wine. High stakes, yes. But I’m a little bit dangerous, and Scott isn’t one to turn down a challenge.

I recently became frustrated, and decided to make some noise that would get Elon’s attention in order to find out once and for all why Scott was still locked out of his account:

Jeff Norman @citizenjeff

@elonmusk

Although many of Scott’s supporters retweeted my pitch to the Chief Twit, we heard nothing from Elon or anyone at Twitter after three days had elapsed. So on January 7 I sought the attention of the five Twitter Files reporters who are in the process of disclosing how various government actors infiltrated Twitter to run a propaganda operation:

Jeff Norman @citizenjeff

Fair question for Elon Musk & Twitter Files reporters re: Scott Ritter @elonmusk @mtaibbi @bariweiss @davidzweig @lhfang @ShellenbergerMD #FreeScottRitter @RealScottRitter @author_himself

youtu.beJeff Norman Asks Elon Musk and Twitter Files Reporters a Fair QuestionRetweet pinned tweet at https://twitter.com/citizenjeff in support of Scott.Ask Elon Musk and the Twitter Files reporters to respond.Elon Musk @elonmuskMatt ...

It could just be a coincidence, but Scott was finally given access to his Twitter account today:

Scott Ritter @RealScottRitter

I’m back. I guess @citizenjeff gets a free beer after all! Here’s to spreading the truth and fighting demons. Let’s see how long it lasts!

We’ll discuss the situation, and Scott will answer questions from the audience, on Episode 35 of Ask the Inspector Tuesday.