Scott Ritter, the former United Nations weapons inspector, told a West Seattle audience federal officials knew there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq but went to war anyway over domestic politics.

"Our policy was never disarmament," Ritter said. "It was regime change."

With a new book he's written, Ritter spoke Friday evening to a crowd of about 80 at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Westwood Village.

Before becoming a weapons inspector, Ritter was a U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer and served as ballistic missile advisor to Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf during the Gulf War.

Ritter pointed out that the United States. once got along with Saddam Hussein.

"We used to support Saddam Hussein because he was a secular bulwark against Islamic fundamentalism," Ritter said.

Former Sen. Bob Dole once led a Senate delegation to Baghdad and praised Saddam as "a true friend of America," he said.

In 1988, Hussein dropped chemical weapons on the Kurdish people in northern Iraq which, combined with other unpopular acts, turned the U.S. against him.

Economic sanctions were imposed on Iraq. That kept away most of the world's goods and stopped much of Iraq's trade.

As the Gulf War approached, President George H. W. Bush referred to Hussein as the Hitler of the Middle East. That increased the stakes and soon the Gulf War became a battle between good and evil, Ritter said.

The U.S. and its allies enjoyed victory a short time later but the president had compared Saddam Hussein to the likes of Hitler, and "Hitler" had gotten away at the end of the Gulf War. The election of 1992 was coming up and the CIA was instructed to "get rid of Saddam," Ritter said.

"He threatened the president's reputation," Ritter said.

A few years later, President Clinton "wanted Saddam gone" before the 1996 election, Ritter said. The CIA got caught attempting to use weapons inspectors to gain information.

Then came President George W. Bush and the Iraq War. His main legal reason for attacking Iraq was its possession of weapons of mass destruction, Ritter said, but none were ever found.

Ritter said the Iraqis frequently lied to the weapons inspectors about how many missiles and other armaments they had.

"Iraq didn't want to be disarmed," Ritter said. "They underrepresented by 50 percent the weapons they had. They denied having chemical weapons. They denied having biological weapons. Iraq lied from Day One."

Inspectors were looking for evidence Iraq had nuclear enrichment equipment for awhile. They went to a location where they found 100 missiles on trucks. Under protection of the Iraqi army, the missile-loaded trucks drove away when the inspectors arrived.

With the aid of satellite cameras, the inspectors were able to find the trucks but again the missile trucks drove off. This time the inspectors gave chase and were able to photograph the trucks before gunfire from the Iraqi army forced the inspectors to give up the chase.

Most of Iraq's ordnance was hauled to the desert and detonated by the Iraqis, Ritter said.

Ritter estimated the Iraqis had 100 missiles and six mobile launchers. Weapons inspectors found 96 missiles. Two more were located later and two missiles were unaccounted for.

CIA officials scoffed at Ritter's report in 1992, he said. They told him there indeed were more missiles in Iraq, that they were wrapped in plastic and buried. The weapons inspectors excavated in search of the plastic-wrapped missiles but found nothing. Later they learned the CIA had made up the story, Ritter said.

Ritter once again told the CIA there were no more unaccounted-for missiles in Iraq.

"The CIA director said there will always be 12 to 20 missiles in Iraq, no matter what," Ritter told the crowd.

"We knew Iraq had been disarmed but that wasn't the goal," Ritter said. "It was regime change. We went to war because of domestic politics."

Ritter also was critical of the fact the United States concerned itself only with Hussein and not members of the Bathist Party who carried out many of Hussein's dictates.

Americans have been convinced it doesn't matter the nation's reason for invading Iraq was groundless.

"The president says, let's not focus on how we got there," Ritter said. "Focus on where we are going."

But Ritter said it's time to define the problem in Iraq and a key part of that is asking how the U.S. got involved there in the first place.

"The U.S. government misrepresented the reality of Iraq weapons status to the American people," Ritter said. "The CIA got us, the sheep of America, to believe in the war."

Ritter warned that now there are stirrings from the federal government about the danger posed by Iran.

"I'm not saying we're bad or the U.S. is wrong," Ritter said. "But we have to hold our elected leaders accountable for what they do in our names."

Tim St. Clair can be contacted at tstclair@robinsonnews.com or 932-0300.