Former President Jimmy Carter has been linked with a key figure in the U.N.'s oil-for-food scandal by the group leading the nationwide effort to evict the United Nations from American soil and halt U.S. funding of the U.N.
Move America Forward today will call upon Carter to provide a full accounting of his meetings and conversations with Samir Vincent, who yesterday pleaded guilty to participating in numerous illegal activities as part of the U.N. scandal.
"President Carter needs to tell the American people exactly what relationships he had with the individuals involved in the oil-for-food scandal," said Melanie Morgan, co-chairman of Move America Forward, which is running television ads attacking the U.N. on national cable news networks, conducting an online petition drive and soliciting contributions to spread the message of the TV spots.
Samir Vincent admitted on Tuesday to receiving allocations for more than 9 million barrels of oil between 1996 and 2003 in return for serving as an agent of Saddam Hussein's regime. Vincent worked at Hussein's direction, lobbying U.S. and U.N. officials to end sanctions and to instead implement the oil-for-food scam.
"Did President Carter know he was dealing with an agent of Saddam Hussein or was he just terribly gullible?" asked Morgan. "And if he truly was naïve as to Samir Vincent's true agenda, then now is the time for him to come forward and repudiate Mr. Vincent and his actions."
According to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, "Vincent lobbied former officials of the United States government, who maintained close contacts to high-ranking members of both the Clinton and Bush administrations."
Ashcroft asserted that Vincent reported the results of his efforts with these former U.S. officials to the Iraqi Intelligence Service.
Based upon an investigation by Move America Forward, it appears President Carter and his associates are among the former officials with whom Vincent collaborated.
"One of two things happened," suggests Morgan. "Either President Carter was totally duped, and allowed himself to be conned into working as an indirect agent of Saddam Hussein, or President Carter knowingly associated himself with a foreign agent who was seeking to undermine American foreign policy."
The first documented contact between Former President Carter and Samir Vincent was in September 1999. Vincent had organized a tour of Iraqi religious leaders to meet with individuals in the United States who might be persuaded to speak out against the sanctions against Iraq. The trip also included discussions of ways to oppose U.S. and U.K. air strikes against Iraqi missile batteries in southern Iraq, which had fired on American and British aircraft engaged in enforcing the southern "No Fly Zone."
The meeting with Carter was one of the highlights of the trip. Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, welcomed the Vincent-organized delegation into their home in Plains, Georgia.
The weekly Iraqi newspaper, al-Raee, reported that Carter expressed his sympathies with the Iraqi people and railed against the "stringent" sanctions imposed against Iraq as a result of the nation's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The report claimed that Carter had promised to send his wife and son to Iraq. Along with the story was a photograph of Carter with the three religious dignitaries who were part of Vincent's anti-sanctions lobbying tour.
After the meeting at Carter's house, the Carters' son, Chip, escorted the delegation to a tour of the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Carter and his wife founded the Carter Center and their son, Chip, serves as vice president. The Carter Center went on to become an ideological missile silo against any U.S. policies that were not favorable towards Iraq," according to Move America Forward.
Carter and his associates have been particularly vicious in their criticisms of President Bush and his Iraq policy, say Move America Forward officials. According to the Ghana News Agency, Chip Carter said President Bush was "bringing back the ugly politics where other people see America as the enemy."
Chip Carter added, "there has to be a regime change" not in Iraq – but in America so as to bring an end the Bush administration.
Carter went on to note that it was the United Nations that was best able to handle the Iraqi question, and not the United States.
The Carter Center website features op-eds in which Carter criticizes the Bush administration's decision to use military force in Iraq as well as an interview by Carter and his wife in which he claimed military action against Iraq would be a "tragic mistake." Carter argued in a 2002 interview that the situation should be dealt with by the United Nations Security Council through the issuance of new U.N. Resolutions or the enforcement of existing resolutions.
"Obviously Jimmy Carter didn't understand that it was the United Nations resolutions that authorized the use of force, which is why coalition forces took military action against Iraq. Saddam Hussein was not abiding by the U.N.'s resolutions for 12 years, yet Jimmy Carter pretends not to be aware of this fact," said Morgan.
The ties between Carter, his associates and Vincent did not end in 1999. Earlier, in 1977, Carter and his wife, along with Wayne Smith, formed an organization called "Friendship Force." The organization promoted cultural exchanges between individuals of different nations as a way of building "friendship" between different countries.
The slogan of Friendship Force is: "A World of Friends is a World of Peace." Chip Carter is also vice president of the "Friendship Force." Smith was a close confidant of President Carter's, serving as the Carter administrations chief diplomat to Cuba. In February, 2001, Smith teamed up with another Carter confidant, Andrew Young, Carter's pick as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, to launch a private corporation, "A World of Friends."
"A World of Friends" was an Atlanta-based company launched with a board of directors totaling seven individuals – including Vincent, Smith and Young. Vincent was described in the firm's first press release as the "president of an energy company."
The company charged individuals $49.95 to enter their profile on a website as a means to meet other individuals from around the world who happened to share their interests. The website is now inactive. Network Solutions reports that no one currently owns the domain name.
It is unclear how much business was actually done or how Vincent was compensated – if at all.
"It's the last point where we can place the cooperation between Carter Administration officials and Samir Vincent," said Morgan said. "President Carter needs to come clean to the American people. Based on what we are being told, President Carter has refused to speak to the media about his involvement with Samir Vincent. "It's kind of curious that a man like Jimmy Carter could be so verbose for the past few years in condemning America's foreign policy as it relates to Iraq. But now he is mute. It really makes you wonder what exactly transpired between Carter, his administration's officials and those who were working as Saddam Hussein's agents."
That's pretty damning,right there!
This is big. It'll be interesting to see how, or if, the media plays it.
Ping
Being discussed on F&F now, along with Jack Kemp. Actually they're talking about Kemp but I'm sure I heard them mention Carter.
The question answers itself.
Sounds like ol' Chipper can't find a real job that means anything, so Dad has to VP him to every do nothing foundation he can get taxpayers/donors to set up in his name.
Since they come from a prosperous nation, Clinton and Carter have been able to indirectly enable more killing by dictators than any other socialist leaders in world history.
Duped? Gullible? A pacifist? Passive? - maybe
Stupid? - no
It's going to be hard to draw a stain on Carter's good image.
Jimmy Carter is many things but not a f-ing Idiot. I vote for gullible.
As I have always maintained, Jimmuh never met a dictator he couldn't love. It's the US and conservatives he hates.
vaudine
Of a leftist non-profit, where the pay is adequate, the benefits great and the perks top rank.
Yes!
Ol' Jimmuh was pretty good at undermining American foreign policy all by his lonesome. Wouldn't surprise me if Mr. "What's-in-it-for-me?" had a hand in the UN scanda.
Shocking, if true. So far as I know Carter has never charged a penny for his many services to America's enemies.
Carter has always been willing to lend an ear to ANY political party - pretending all are equal. He was a pathetic failure as president - and also a failure as an American patriot.