The passport belonging to Scott Ritter is confiscated by the US authorities.

The US State Department has seized the passport of former Marine and UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, he informed RT on Monday.

Ritter was on his way to attend the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in Russia when he was detained and had his documents taken.

“I was boarding the flight. Three police officers pulled me aside. They took my passport. When asked why, they said ‘orders of the State Department’. They had no further information for me,” Ritter told RT. “They removed my bags from the plane, then escorted me out of the airport. They kept my passport.”

Reacting to the news, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova questioned if the action was in line with the First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech, press, and assembly, or the Fourth Amendment, which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Ritter, who previously served as a US Marine Corps intelligence officer and a US and UN weapons inspector in Iraq, is also an RT contributor, writing on topics such as international security, military affairs, Russia, and the Middle East, as well as arms control and nonproliferation.

In January, Ritter visited Russia, including Chechnya, Moscow, and St. Petersburg.

Ritter’s latest post on his Telegram channel criticized the Clooney Foundation for Justice for its supposed campaign against “Russian propagandists.”

“Here I am. In your face. If telling the truth about Russia makes me a propagandist in your book, then I accept the title,” he wrote. “Bring it on. I’ll teach you about the First Amendment.”

He added, “You have zero understanding of what free speech is. Try and arrest me and you’ll find out. In spades. It’s war.”

Source: RT