Jimmy Carter linked to oil-for-food scam
Ex-president worked with key figure
in scandal combating Iraqi sanctions
Posted: January 20, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern
2005 WorldNetDaily.com
Jimmy Carter speaking in Tokyo in 2003 (photo: United Nations University)
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."
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