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JPR 58 USA

SPIEGEL
Interview with Jimmy Carter

"The
US and Israel Stand Alone"

Former
US president Jimmy Carter speaks with DER SPIEGEL about the
danger posed to American values by George W. Bush, the
difficult situation in the Middle East and Cuba's ailing Fidel
Castro.

SPIEGEL:
Mr. Carter, in your new book you write that only the American
people can ensure that the US government
returns to the country's old moral principles. Are you
suggesting that the current US administration
of George W. Bush of acting immorally?

Carter:
There's no doubt that this administration has made a radical
and unpressured departure from the basic policies of all
previous administrations including those of both Republican
and Democratic presidents.

SPIEGEL:
For example?

Carter:
Under all of its predecessors there was a commitment to peace
instead of preemptive war. Our country always had a policy of
not going to war unless our own security was directly
threatened and now we have a new policy of going to war on a
preemptive basis. Another very serious departure from past
policies is the separation of church and state, which I
describe in the book. This has been a policy since the time of
Thomas Jefferson and my own religious beliefs are compatible
with this. The other principle that I described in the book is
basic justice. We've never had an administration before that
so overtly and clearly and consistently passed tax reform
bills that were uniquely targeted to benefit the richest
people in our country at the expense or the detriment of the
working families of America.

SPIEGEL:
You also mentioned the hatred for the United States throughout the
Arab world which has ensued as a result of the invasion of
Iraq. Given this
circumstance, does it come as any surprise that Washington's call for democracy in the
Middle East has been
discredited?

Carter:
No, as a matter of fact, the concerns I exposed have gotten
even worse now with the United
States supporting and encouraging
Israel in
its unjustified attack on Lebanon.

SPIEGEL:
But wasn't Israel the first to
get attacked?

Carter:
I don't think that Israel has any legal or moral
justification for their massive bombing of the entire nation
of Lebanon. What
happened is that Israel is holding almost 10,000 prisoners, so
when the militants in Lebanon or in Gaza take one or two
soldiers, Israel looks upon this as a justification for an
attack on the civilian population of Lebanon and Gaza. I do
not think that's justified, no.

SPIEGEL:
Do you think the United
States is still an important factor in
securing a peaceful solution to the Middle East crisis?

Carter:
Yes, as a matter of fact as you know ever since
Israel has
been a nation the United States has
provided the leadership. Every president down to the ages has
done this in a fairly balanced way, including George Bush
senior, Gerald Ford, and others including myself and Bill
Clinton. This administration has not attempted at all in the
last six years to negotiate or attempt to negotiate a
settlement between Israel and any of
its neighbors or the Palestinians.

SPIEGEL:
What makes you personally so optimistic
about

the effectiveness of
diplomacy? You are, so to speak, the father of Camp David negotiations.

Carter:
When I became president we had had four terrible wars between
the Arabs and Israelis (behind us). And I under great
difficulty, particularly because Menachim Begin was elected,
decided to try negotiation and it worked and we have a peace
treaty between Israel and Egypt for 27 years
that has never been violated. You never can be certain in
advance that negotiations on difficult circumstances will be
successful, but you can be certain in advance if you don't
negotiate that your problem is going to continue and maybe
even get worse.

SPIEGEL:
But negotiations failed to prevent the burning of Beirut and bombardment of Haifa.

Carter:
I'm distressed. But I think that the proposals that have been
made in the last few days by the (Lebanese) Prime Minister
(Fuoad) Siniora are quite reasonable. And I think they should
declare an immediate cease-fire on both sides, Hezbollah said
they would comply, I hope Israel will comply, and then do
the long, slow, tedious negotiation that is necessary to
stabilize the northern border of Israel completely.
There has to be some exchange of prisoners. There have been
successful exchanges of prisoners between Israel and the
Palestinians in the past and that's something that can be done
right now.

SPIEGEL:
Should there be an international peacekeeping force along the
Lebanese-Israeli border?

Carter:
Yes.

SPIEGEL:
And can you imagine Germans soldiers taking
part?

Carter:
Yes, I can imagine Germans taking part.

SPIEGEL:
... even with their history?

Carter:
Yes. That would be certainly satisfactory to me personally,
and I think most people believe that enough time has passed so
that historical facts can be ignored.

SPIEGEL:
One main points of your book is the rather strange coalition
between Christian fundamentalists and the Republican Party.
How can such a coalition of the pious lead to moral
catastrophes like the Iraqi prison scandal in Abu Ghraib and
torture in Guantanamo?

Carter:
The fundamentalists believe they have a unique relationship
with God, and that they and their ideas are God's ideas and
God's premises on the particular issue. Therefore, by
definition since they are speaking for God anyone who
disagrees with them is inherently wrong. And the next step is:
Those who disagree with them are inherently inferior, and in
extreme cases -- as is the case with some fundamentalists
around the world -- it makes your opponents sub-humans, so
that their lives are not significant. Another thing is that a
fundamentalist can't bring himself or herself to negotiate
with people who disagree with them because the negotiating
process itself is an indication of implied equality. And so
this administration, for instance, has a policy of just
refusing to talk to someone who is in strong disagreement with
them -- which is also a radical departure from past history.
So these are the kinds of things that cause me concern. And,
of course, fundamentalists don't believe they can make
mistakes, so when we permit the torture of prisoners in
Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib,
it's just impossible for a fundamentalist to admit that a
mistake was made.

SPIEGEL:
So how does this proximity to Christian fundamentalism
manifest itself politically?

Carter:
Unfortunately, after Sept., there was an outburst in
America of intense
suffering and patriotism, and the Bush administration was very
shrewd and effective in painting anyone who disagreed with the
policies as unpatriotic or even traitorous. For three years,
I'd say, the major news media in our country were complicit in
this subservience to the Bush administration out of fear that
they would be accused of being disloyal. I think in the last
six months or so some of the media have now begun to be
critical. But it's a long time coming.

SPIEGEL:
Take your fellow Democrat Senator Hillary Clinton. These days
she is demanding the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld. But she, like many others, allowed President Bush to
invade Iraq under a false
pretext.

Carter:
That's correct.

SPIEGEL:
Was the whole country in danger of losing its core
values?

Carter:
For a while, yes. As you possibly know, historically, our
country has had the capability of self-correcting our own
mistakes. This applied to slavery in 1865, it applied to legal
racial segregation a hundred years later or so. It applied to
the Joe McCarthy era when anti-communism was in a fearsome
phase in the country like terrorism now. So we have an ability
to correct ourselves and I believe that nowadays there is a
self-correction taking place. In my opinion the election
results in Connecticut (Eds:
The primary loss of war supporter Senator Joseph Lieberman)
were an indication that Americans realized very clearly that
we made a mistake in going into Iraq and staying
there too long.

SPIEGEL:
Now even President Bush appears to have learned something from
the catastrophe in Iraq. During his
second term he has taken a more multilateral approach and has
seemed to return to international
cooperation.

Carter:
I think the administration learned a lesson, but I don't see
any indication that the administration would ever admit that
it did make a mistake and needed to learn a lesson. I haven't
seen much indication, by the way, of your premise that this
administration is now reconciling itself to other countries. I
think that at this moment the United States and
Israel probably
stand more alone than our country has in
generations.

SPIEGEL:
You've written about your meeting with Fidel Castro. He
appears seriously ill now and Cuban exiles are partying
already in the streets of Miami. You are probably not
in the mood to join them.

Carter:
No, that's true. Just because someone is ill I don't think
there should be a celebration of potential death. And my own
belief is that Fidel Castro will recover. He is two years
younger than I am, so he's not beyond hope.

SPIEGEL:
You sought to normalize relations with Castro, but that never
happened. Has anything been achieved through
Cuba's isolation?

Carter:
In my opinion, the embargo strengthens Castro and perpetuates
communism in Cuba. A maximum
degree of trade, tourism, commerce, visitation between our
country and Cuba would bring an
earlier end to Castro's regime.

SPIEGEL:
You've been called the moral conscience of your country. How
do you look at it yourself? Are you an outsider in American
politics these days or do you represent a political
demographic that could maybe elect the next
US
president?

Carter:
I think I represent the vast majority of Democrats in this
country. I think there is a substantial portion of American
people that completely agree with me. I can't say a majority
because we have fragmented portions in our country and
divisions concerning gun control and the death penalty and
abortion and gay marriage.

SPIEGEL:
As president, your performance was often criticized. But the
work you did after leaving office to promote human rights has
been widely praised. Has life been unfair to
you?

Carter:
I've been lucky in my life. Everything that I've done has
brought great pleasure and gratification to me and my wife. I
had four years in the White House -- it was not a failure. For
someone to serve as president of the United
States you can't say it is a
political failure. And we have had the best years of our lives
since we left the White House. We've had a very full
life.

SPIEGEL:
Do you feel you achieved even more out of office than you did
as president?

Carter:
Well, I've used the prestige and influence of having been a
president of the United States as
effectively as possible. And secondly, I've still been able to
carry out my commitments to peace and human rights and
environmental quality and freedom and democracy and so
forth.

SPIEGEL:
Does America need a
regime change?

Carter:
As I've said before, there is a self-corrective aspect to our
country. And I think that the first step is going to be in the
November election this year. This year, the Democrats have
good chance of capturing one of the houses of Congress. I
think the Senate is going to be a very close decision. My
oldest son is running for the US Senate in the state of
Nevada. And if just he and a
few others can be successful then you have the US Senate in
Democratic hands and that will make a profound and immediate
difference.

SPIEGEL:
Mr. Carter, thank you for the interview.

BUSH
= CRAP
So
Says Tony Blair's Deputy Prime Minister!

MER
- MiddleEast.Org - Washington
- 17 August 2006:
OK, apparently the "Crap" reference had specifically to do
with the so-called U.S. "Roadmap" and
promises to the Brits and others regarding the disastrous
Iraqi War.   But you'll pardon us for expanding the
context and suggesting it applies quite generally across the
board.    We think the Deputy Prime Minister,
John Prescott, would agree, if he could.

Bush
is crap, says Prescott

Deputy
PM criticises US handling of Middle
East, condemning 'cowboy' President at private
meeting

By
Colin Brown, Deputy Political Editor

Published: 17
August 2006

John
Prescott has given vent to his private feelings about the Bush
presidency, summing up George Bush's administration in a
single word: crap.

The
Deputy Prime Minister's condemnation of President Bush and his
approach to the Middle East could cause a diplomatic row but
it will please Labour MPs who are furious about Tony Blair's
backing of the United
States over the bombing of
Lebanon.

Mr
Prescott is also known to have used the word "crap" in
relation to political events before. Earlier this month, he
angrily rejected claims that he could resign over the row
about his links to the bid by the tycoon Philip Anschutz for a
super-casino at the Millennium Dome as "a load of crap".

Mr
Prescott was left in charge by Mr Blair when the Prime
Minister went on his delayed holiday but has largely taken a
back seat while John Reid, the Home Secretary, has led for the
Government on security and the alleged terror plot to blow up
planes across the Atlantic.

Behind
the scenes, Mr Prescott had to contend with growing backbench
demands for Parliament to be recalled to debate the crisis in
the Middle East. It remains
an option, in spite of the ceasefire in the
Lebanon.
Campaigners claimed they had the signatures of more than 150
MPs from all parties for a recall. Significantly, they
included Ann Keen, the parliamentary private secretary to
Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, who is on paternity leave
following the birth of his second child. Jim Sheridan, the
Labour MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire North, resigned as the
parliamentary private secretary to the defence ministers over
the bombing of Lebanon.

Mr
Prescott has been keen to show Labour MPs that he is prepared
to listen to their grievances but has insisted on party
discipline to avoid splits. He will be furious at his alleged
remarks being repeated, but the signs of dissent within the
Cabinet are becoming greater.

Straight-talker's
way with words

*
Posing with a crab in a jar at the Millennium Dome, while
Peter Mandelson was standing for election to Labour's ruling
national executive committee, he said to cameramen: "You know
what his name is? He's called Peter. Do you think you will get
on the executive, Peter?"

*
When asked why a car was transporting him and his wife 200
yards to the Labour Party Conference in 1999:

"Because
of the security reasons for one thing and second, my wife
doesn't like to have her hair blown about. Have you got
another silly question?"

*
On the Millennium Dome: "If we can't make this work, we're not
much of a government."

*
"The green belt is a Labour achievement, and we mean to build
on it." (Radio interview, January 1998)

*
On the Tories at the 1996 Labour conference: "They are up to
their necks in sleaze. The best slogan for their conference
next week is " Life's better under the Tories" - sounds like
one of Steven Norris's chat-up lines."

*
When asked by a journalist about Peter Law's decision to quit
the Labour Party after 35 years: "Why are you asking me about
this? I don't care, it's a Welsh situation, I'm a national
politician."

John
Prescott has given vent to his private feelings about the Bush
presidency, summing up George Bush's administration in a
single word: crap.

An outburst that shows Labour's
true feelings
towards America
By
Colin Brown, Deputy Political Editor
Published:
17 August 2006
John
Prescott's use of the C-word about the Bush administration
will remind Tony Blair that before he headed for the beach, he
faced a cabinet revolt over his support for George Bush on the
Middle East.

The
uneasy ceasefire in the Lebanon bought him a breathing
space, but he will return to a party still seething with anger
at the way he has allowed Britain to be seen
as "Bush's poodle".

Jack Straw, the former foreign
secretary, led the doubters in the Cabinet but his concerns
were echoed by loyalists such as David Miliband and later by
Hilary Benn, the International Development
Secretary.

Minister after minister is said to have
urged Mr Blair to break with the Bush administration at his
summit with President Bush in the White House and publicly
criticise the scale of the Israeli bombing. Mr Blair is
reported to have told allies that he did not need convincing
about the concern among the Muslim communities in
Britain but
he felt it imperative to use his close relationship with the
President to push for the revival of the Middle East road map.

The Prime
Minister has been frustrated by the lack of progress on the
road map by the Bush administration and Mr Prescott's alleged
remarks that the "Bush administration has been crap" on the
issue are widely shared in Labour ranks at
Westminster.

Mr Blair believes he gains from his
relationship with the Republican Bush administration. Some
American commentators, such as Irwin Stelzer, agree, saying Mr
Blair is not Bush's poodle, but his "guide dog". It was Mr
Blair who persuaded the White House to go to the UN for the
ill-fated second resolution before the Iraq
war.

The Prime Minister made it clear before his
holiday that he wants to make a personal stake in reviving the
Middle East peace talks as a priority when he returns from the
Caribbean.

The problem is that he has
already been revealed as a supplicant to the President. The
microphone that was switched on at the G8 summit in St Petersburg - when the President
shouted "Yo Blair" in greeting to his ally - also revealed
that Mr Blair asked the President for permission to go to the
Middle East himself, and was
refused. Mr Bush firmly said that Condoleezza Rice, his
Secretary of State, could do the job.
The more worrying
factor for the Cabinet, which they now privately discuss, is
that Mr Blair is convinced that the Bush White House is right
about the "axis of evil". The Prime Minister called it the
"arc of extremism", but the analysis is the same. Mr Blair
said you only had to "join up the dots" around the
world.
Cabinet colleagues are becoming uneasy that unless
Mr Blair delivers on the Middle East by securing an historic
peace between Israel and the Palestinians,
the UK
could be asked to support the Americans in confronting the
suppliers of Hizbollah's arms - Iran.
Before he
was moved, Mr Straw said Britain's support for military
action against Iran was
"inconceivable", which was a public attempt to tie Mr Blair's
hands. Mr Stelzer said Condi Rice had noted that Mr Straw's
Blackburn constituency had a
large Muslim population, confirming doubts in the White House
about his suitability as Foreign Secretary. However, Mr
Straw's allies believe his downfall was his attempt to dictate
foreign policy to Mr Blair.
Mr Prescott has been a loyal
and trusted ally to the Prime Minister and will continue to be
so until the transition of power to Gordon Brown takes place,
probably next year.
Few give him credit for knowledge of
foreign affairs, but Mr Prescott has played a part in world
affairs as Mr Blair's deputy. His political idol was not the
leftwinger, Nye Bevan, but Ernie Bevin, the outstanding
Foreign Secretary and deputy to Clem Attlee. His remark will
be seen as a rare flash of honesty in a world of duplicity in
the Middle East.

Next report 59

Back report 57

"There
was a very robust exchange of views," said the MP. " We had a
row about community relations. The Deputy Prime Minister was
told in no uncertain terms that the Government was relying too
much on the elders in the Muslim community who didn't have the
credibility that was needed."

Muslim
Labour MPs also told Mr Prescott that they needed to retain
their own credibility in their communities, which was one of
the reasons why they had signed a controversial letter calling
for a change in British foreign policy. They said it was not
helpful for the Government to have attacked their letter.

Mr
Prescott has been accused in the past of making his feelings
known about the Republican administration in the White House.
He became friendly with Al Gore, the unsuccessful Democrat
presidential candidate in 2000, during the negotiations on the
Kyoto treaty and allegedly told Mr Gore after his defeat that
he was sorry he lost the race to Mr Bush.

Mr
Prescott is also known to have used the word "crap" in
relation to political events before. Earlier this month, he
angrily rejected claims that he could resign over the row
about his links to the bid by the tycoon Philip Anschutz for a
super-casino at the Millennium Dome as "a load of crap".

Mr
Prescott was left in charge by Mr Blair when the Prime
Minister went on his delayed holiday but has largely taken a
back seat while John Reid, the Home Secretary, has led for the
Government on security and the alleged terror plot to blow up
planes across the Atlantic.

Behind
the scenes, Mr Prescott had to contend with growing backbench
demands for Parliament to be recalled to debate the crisis in
the Middle East. It remains an option, in spite of the
ceasefire in the Lebanon. Campaigners claimed they had the
signatures of more than 150 MPs from all parties for a recall.
Significantly, they included Ann Keen, the parliamentary
private secretary to Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, who is on
paternity leave following the birth of his second child. Jim
Sheridan, the Labour MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire North,
resigned as the parliamentary private secretary to the defence
ministers over the bombing of Lebanon.

Mr
Prescott has been keen to show Labour MPs that he is prepared
to listen to their grievances but has insisted on party
discipline to avoid splits. He will be furious at his alleged
remarks being repeated, but the signs of dissent within the
Cabinet are becoming greater.

Straight-talker's
way with words

*
Posing with a crab in a jar at the Millennium Dome, while
Peter Mandelson was standing for election to Labour's ruling
national executive committee, he said to cameramen: "You know
what his name is? He's called Peter. Do you think you will get
on the executive, Peter?"

*
When asked why a car was transporting him and his wife 200
yards to the Labour Party Conference in 1999:

"Because
of the security reasons for one thing and second, my wife
doesn't like to have her hair blown about. Have you got
another silly question?"

*
On the Millennium Dome: "If we can't make this work, we're not
much of a government."

*
"The green belt is a Labour achievement, and we mean to build
on it." (Radio interview, January 1998)

*
On the Tories at the 1996 Labour conference: "They are up to
their necks in sleaze. The best slogan for their conference
next week is " Life's better under the Tories" - sounds like
one of Steven Norris's chat-up lines."

*
When asked by a journalist about Peter Law's decision to quit
the Labour Party after 35 years: "Why are you asking me about
this? I don't care, it's a Welsh situation, I'm a national
politician."

The
Deputy Prime Minister's condemnation of President Bush and his
approach to the Middle East could cause a diplomatic row but
it will please Labour MPs who are furious about Tony Blair's
backing of the United States over the bombing of Lebanon.

The
remark is said to have been made at a private meeting in Mr
Prescott's Whitehall office on Tuesday with Muslim MPs and
other Labour MPs with constituencies representing large Muslim
communities. Muslim MPs wanted to press home their objections
to British foreign policy and discuss ways of improving
relations with the Muslim communities.

Some
of the MPs present said yesterday they could not remember Mr
Prescott making the remark. He has been at pains to avoid
breaking ranks with Mr Blair in public although he is believed
to have raised concern about the bombing of Lebanon at a
private meeting of the Cabinet. But Harry Cohen, the MP whose
constituency includes Walthamstow, scene of some of the police
raids in the alleged "terror plot" investigation, said Mr
Prescott had definitely used the word "crap" about the Bush
administration.

"He
was talking in the context of the 'road map' in the Middle
East. He said he only gave support to the war on Iraq because
they were promised the road map. But he said the Bush
administration had been crap on that. We all laughed and he
said to an official, 'Don't minute that'." Mr Cohen added: "We
also had a laugh when he said old Bush is just a cowboy with
his Stetson on. But then he said, 'I can hardly talk about
that can I?'

Told
that others at the meeting could not recall the words, Mr
Cohen said: " He did. I stand by that."

The
Deputy Prime Minister's office said last night that the
meeting was private and would not confirm or deny his use of
the word "crap". " These discussions are intended to be
private and remain within the four walls," said one official.
"They are private so that there may be frank discussions."

Many
Labour MPs have been infuriated by the spectacle of Mr Bush
and Mr Blair jointly supporting the Israeli action. The Labour
MPs went to see Mr Prescott to lodge their criticism of the
Government's foreign policy and some said last night that they
would be delighted if he did break ranks over the Bush
administration following the outcry at the bombing of the
Lebanon.

In
the private discussions with Mr Prescott, the Labour MPs
representing large Muslim communities pulled no punches in
their criticism of Mr Blair for giving his backing to Mr Bush.
Another of those who was contacted about the conversations did
not deny Mr Prescott's words, but laughed and said: " I can't
discuss that." When asked whether he had heard Mr Prescott use
the "C-word", he said: "I don't remember that."

The
Deputy Prime Minister is said to have made it clear he
strongly backed the efforts by Mr Blair to persuade the Bush
administration to revive the road map for Palestine and
Israel. Mr Blair has given a commitment that he will give the
peace process his priority when he returns from his holiday in
the Caribbean.

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