Jimmy Carter believes U.S. is spying on him
"I believe if I send an email, it will be monitored."
By Dylan Stableford
Former President Jimmy Carter believes U.S. intelligence
agencies are spying on him — so much so, he eschews email to avoid
government spies.
"You know, I have felt that my own communications
are probably monitored," Carter told NBC's Andrea Mitchell in an
interview broadcast Sunday. "And when I want to communicate with a
foreign leader privately, I type or write a letter myself, put it in the
post office and mail it.
"That has been extremely liberalized and, I think, abused by our own intelligence agencies," Carter said.
"I believe if I send an email, it will be monitored," Carter continued.
The
89-year-old said the National Security Agency and others have abused
the argument that gathering intelligence is critical to homeland
security."That has been extremely liberalized and, I think, abused by our own intelligence agencies," Carter said.
The
39th president, however, stopped short of criticizing No. 44 over the
handling of the N.S.A. scandal, the crisis in Ukraine or anything else.
"I don't have any criticism of him," Carter said of Obama.
He was asked if the the president ever asks him for advice.
"Unfortunately,
the answer is no," Carter said. "President Obama doesn't. But previous
presidents have called on me and the Carter Center to take action."
Why not Obama?
"That's
a hard question for me to answer, you know, with complete candor," he
said. "I think the problem was that in dealing with the issue of peace
between Israel and Egypt, the Carter Center [took] 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."