Jimmy Carter, in an interview for NBC’s Meet the Press, says he uses snail mail when communicating with foreign leaders. He is pretty sure that the NSA is spying on him, a fear that is not unfounded, according to Fox News.
“I have felt that my own communications are probably monitored,” the former Democratic president said. “And when I want to communicate with a foreign leader privately, I type or write the letter myself, put it in the post office and mail it, because I believe if I send an email, it will be monitored.”
Why the 89-year-old former president and founder of The Carter Center would need to be monitored, I don’t know, but the actions taken by the Obama administration and the NSA just don’t sit well with him. He said the practice of spying on American citizens’ emails, internet use, and cell phone calls has been “extremely liberalized and I think abused by our own intelligence agencies.”
He also admitted that Mr. Obama didn’t bother to consult him when dealing with Russian President Vladmir Putin, even though he has direct experience which could have been helpful and has been consulted by former presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan on dealing with “unsavory characters”.
In fact, in 1980 Carter boycotted the Summer Olympics in Moscow because Russia had just invaded Afghanistan. But he feels that he knows the reason, and because of its sensitive nature, he understands Obama’s reluctance to consult him, according to NBC.
He said,“I think the problem was that — in dealing with the issue of peace in between Israel and Egypt — the Carter Center has taken a very strong and public position of equal treatment between the Palestinians and the Israelis. And I think this was a sensitive area in which the president didn’t want to be involved.”
Image Via Wikimedia Commons
