Posted on 04/23/2008 11:03:51 AM PDT by Shermy
ATLANTA (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter on Wednesday accused Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of not telling the truth about warnings she said her department gave Carter not to speak to Hamas before a Middle East trip.
The State Department has said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch, the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, issued the warning before Carter, a veteran of Middle East diplomacy, went on his trip last week.
Rice said in Kuwait on Tuesday: "We counseled President Carter against going to the region and particularly against having contact with Hamas."
"President Carter has the greatest respect for ... Rice and believes her to be a truthful person. However, perhaps inadvertently, she is continuing to make a statement that is not true," a statement issued by the Carter center in Atlanta said on Wednesday.
"No one in the State Department or any other department of the U.S. government ever asked him (Carter) to refrain from his recent visit to the Middle East or even suggested that he not meet with Syrian President (Bashar) Assad or leaders of Hamas," it said.
It said Carter attempted to call Rice before making the trip and a deputy returned his call since Rice was in Europe.
"They had a very pleasant discussion for about 15 minutes, during which he never made any of the negative or cautionary comments described above. He never talked to anyone else," the statement said.
Carter had already on Monday, in an interview with national Public Radio, described as "absolutely false" any suggestion he had been warned not to meet Hamas.
Hamas, which controls Gaza, is viewed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel.
"The United States is not going to deal with Hamas and we certainly told President Carter that we did not think that meeting with Hamas was going to help the Palestinians," Rice said Tuesday while attending a conference in Kuwait.
Carter, who met Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Syria over the weekend, is trying to draw the Islamist group into peace talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
But Rice and other senior U.S. officials are concerned that Carter's meeting could confuse U.S.-brokered peace talks already moving at a slow pace between Abbas and Olmert.
Hamas won a 2006 election and briefly formed a unity government with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. It seized control of Gaza from Abbas' secular Fatah faction in fighting in June.
(Editing by David Storey)
gee, whom should I believe? /s
Jimmy conveniently forgot the substance of the phone call....
Is Jimmy smokin peanuts again?
I question that a person with a brain would even have to be told not to talk with known terrorist organizations.
Carter who was the worst President in the last 100 years and the worst ex-president ever needs to go to Americas GA and raise peanuts.
Assuming he’s telling the truth (ha ha), what? He needs to be told not to meet w/ the enemy/ terrorists?
He's sexist and racist for accusing her of lying.
Oh, wait.....he's a Democrat so none of that applies.
If they did not put it in writing;
they are remiss when dealing with Jimmah !
Using Condi as "the last word" is his peanut mentality.
My thought exactly.
No controlling legal authority, right Peanut Head?
Revoke his passport.
Nobody in the state department told me not to kick Jimmy Carter in the groin. I guess it’s OK.
I take Condi’s side in this matter. She could have flat out stated “Don’t go” and Jimmuh would not want to go.
This trip to Hamas in three countries was personal psychological repair work for Jimmy’s own mental state. When his last book came out people criticized him for apologizing for everything about Arafat and most of all about Hamas and jihadism. He was on a radio show for one and showed deep denial that Hamas’ constitution says the things it did. His obsessive, cryptic anti-Israelism needed perfect gardening, like all lefty world views, and this trip to Hamas was to prove himself right, in effect denying Hamas’ voice. His claim on what Hamas told him about living in peace as neighbors was such a miscasting more than one Hamas official came out to correct him.
This trip wasn’t about the Palestinians. Carter didn’t even bother to meet with President Abbas. Carter had three meetings in the West Bank, Egypt and Syria with Hamas. This trip was about Carter proving to himself, and to others, that Israel is 100% wrong.
He also said that Hamams had agreed to recognize Israel and would live side by side with them as long as there was a Palastinaian state. Hammas didn’t even wait for his plane to lift off before denying that one. He’s either a liar or a senile old coot or both. I vote for both.
correction
“and Jimmuh would STILL want to go.”
Contact Information: The Carter Center
Mailing Address:
The Carter Center
One Copenhill
453 Freedom Parkway
Atlanta, GA 30307
Phone:
(404) 420-5100 or (800) 550-3560
E-mail:
carterweb@emory.edu
Oh yeah...an illustrious career in ME diplomacy! You know, I brought you "modern" Iran! Yeah Reuters...you tell 'em!
“Hammas didn’t even wait for his plane to lift off before denying that one. He’s either a liar or a senile old coot or both. I vote for both.”
Exactly, see my #17.
“... a statement issued by the Carter center in Atlanta said on Wednesday.”
I’m beginning to believe that the “Carter Center” is another government located within the U.S. It has its own spokespersons as if they were foreign diplomats dialoging with the U.S. on foreign policy matters.
“I’m beginning to believe that the “Carter Center” is another government located within the U.S.”
It’s an Arab state NGO, given the history of donations to it.
Though I think this embrace of Hamas was not cheered by his usual donors, who are antagonistic to Iran, Syria, and their new proxy Hamas.
The world has more need for another Starbucks.
What makes the cartoon so funny is it’s so believable!!!
Anybody suggest tests for dementia for Jimmah Cartah???
Jimmah is a disgraceful little man.
Let’s see
1) Condi Rice is lying?
or
2) Jimmy Carter is lying?
Whom to believe? What to decide? What to decide?
ROFL....says it all!
He is lying about this.
That whole area is a powder keg. Carter has been out of the loop for nearly 30 years. He doesn't know the nuance of what's going on. Therefore, what he did was extremely ill-advised and potentially dangerous. There is no way he could have not known better. He did not need and “official” warning from State or from anybody. Common horse sense should have been his guide.
Secretary Rice certainly provided Carter clear warnings, but she was attempting to penetrate an ignorance, arrogance, and self-delution supernatural in scope. Even a severe physical beating would only call forth visions of martyrdom.
In meeting with Hammas, Jimmy Carter advocated including dedication to exterminating levels of murder within the norm of political behavior. His actions opposed those holding the principle some activities are beyond the pale, and not just harsher forms of civil disobedience.
Those in opposition include the parents and grandparents of the “Greatest Generation” who wrote the Geneva Conventions. People whose words expressed a durable wisdom, morality and leadership earned in finding peace through victory in the ultimate bloody deluge of the 20th century.
For them terrorist organizations such as Hammas, al Qaida, and Hezbollah were not insurgents, freedom fighters, militias, volunteer corps, or members of any organized resistance movement or authority. By the most expansive interpretation of Geneva Conventions, these people would offer terrorists no protections. Terrorists would be eligible for tribunals and executions, only if they survived every overwhelming fury needed to crush their abominations. They repudiated terrorists for regarding “Protected Persons” as the unrelenting focus of murder, when not used as biodegradable sandbags to sustain sanctuaries and operations, or as bloody theatrical props duping gullible people in public relations campaigns.
Jimmy Carter’s actions promote a new level of depravity for inclusive human behavior. For basic human rights to survive, one must instead repudiate the sophistry that goodness will abound by fabricating a moral high ground inclusive of terrorist actions. Carter’s actions are so internationally damaging, they must be repudiated by at least a condemning resolution, if not a call to revoke his passport.
Simply an observation...but the Carter Center...is simply a library...with a bunch of liberal library types who run it. The idea that they are world diplomats or triggering freedom or liberty throughout the world....is an amusing state of mind (more so for a guy who wears a straitjacket). If they are so capable in accomplishing mighty missions...why not go into Pakistan and take on the radical Islamic groups, or perhaps Ossama Bin Ladin himself?
He's from Plains, GA. Same county, but way over on the Webster/Sumter county line.
I think democrats think they are allowed to, see John Kerry for example................
Make that two for both.
==> “Even a severe physical beating would only call forth visions of martyrdom.” <==
Threaten him with a “rabbit” punch if he does it again.
I'll take the lady with the PhD.
Jimmy Carter is continuing to cement his reputation into history.
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