SO WHY WOULD HE HAVE FOUND SADDAM'S REIGN OF TERROR OFFENSIVE?:

Ritter's sex charges from 2001 unsealed (BRENDAN J. LYONS, December 27, 2010, Times Union)

Nearly two years ago, Ritter, of Delmar, watched his computer screen reveal that an anonymous person who had been exchanging sexually charged messages with him for 80 minutes was not a 15-year-old girl.

It was a cop from a small town in northeast Pennsylvania, alone in his station house and trolling the Internet for suspected child predators.

Ryan Venneman, a detective for the Barrett Township Police Department in Monroe County, had enough after Ritter allegedly transmitted streaming video of himself masturbating.

"(Y)ou know ur in a lot of trouble don't u," Venneman typed in a Yahoo chat-room message. "Im a under cover police officer u need to call me asap."

"Nah," Ritter answered. "Your not 15. Yahoo is for 18 and over. Its all fantasy. No crime. ... As far as I know, you're a 56 year old housewife."

The problem for Ritter, 49, a volunteer fireman and married father of two daughters, is that the encounter with Venneman is at least the third time he's been snared in an Internet sting case involving police posing as minors. Now, the past is coming back to haunt Ritter.

A Pennsylvania judge ruled last week that two Colonie case files involving Ritter be unsealed so they can be used as evidence against him at his upcoming trial.