Iran Hostage Crisis, Tehran, 1977

Ex-President Jimmy Carter organized a Tea Time with Terrorists when he met with Hamas officials last Tuesday at a reception in Ramallah. Carter also announced his intentions to meet with exiled Hamas political chief, Khaled Mashaal, in Damascus, Syria on Friday. Carter was in the West Bank meeting with Hamas officials, part of a series of planned meet-ups between the ex-president and Hamas officials in what he describes as discussions towards a “final peace agreement”.

We decided to put together a short list of Carter’s accomplishments as President: signing away the Panama Canal, signing a treaty with Soviet Russia shortly before they invaded Afghanistan, and the colossal inept bumbling of the Iran Hostage Crisis.

Ex- President Jimmy Carter lays a wreath at the tomb
of Yasser Arafat, April 15, 2008

Carter defended meeting with the terrorist group Hamas, stating that their involvement was necessary for a “final peace agreement”:

“Since Syria and Hamas will have to be involved in the final peace agreement, they ought to be involved in the discussions leading up to… peace.”

Carter also met with Nasser al-Shaer, a senior Hamas official at a reception, organized by the Carter ’s office in Ramallah. According to USA Today, al-Shaer was greeted by Carter with a hug and kisses.

He gave me a hug. We hugged each other, and it was a warm reception,” Shaer told the Associated Press. “Carter asked what he can do to achieve peace between the Palestinians and Israel … and I told him the possibility for peace is high.”

While Carter is meeting up with Hamas we thought it might be fun to take a little trip down memory lane in regards to Jimmy Carter’s presidency to gain a clearer perspective on Carter’s proclivity for “peace” at all costs.

We begin with September, 1977, with Carter signing away the Panama Canal.

Carter and Panamanian president Omar Torrijos Herrera sign the Panama Canal treaties. They provide for control of the canal to be handed over to Panama in 1999. September 7, 1977

In September of 1999 the Panamanian government leased the major ports at both ends of the canal for fifty years to the Communist China company, Li-Ka-Shing. Former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired Admiral Thomas H. Moorer warned that the United States faced a “nuclear Peal Harbor, that the control of the canal “gives China’s Communist Party de facto control over the most strategic waterway in the West”. That if a scenario where “China blocks U.S. Navy ships from moving through the canal and Communist Chinese missiles and J-11 attack jets are poised to launch from Panama, Beijing could intimidate the US into surrendering Taiwan, Panama and other strategic concerns without a shot being fired.”

Jimmy Carter and Soviet Russia Premier Leonid Brezhnev June 19, 1979

The photo shows Carter and Brezhnev after they had just signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) II Treaty. The treaty wasn’t ratified by the Senate and was removed from consideration from Congress by Carter after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan seven months later in January, 1980.

Carter and Iran, November, 1979

Iranian students stormed the United States Embassy, November, 1979, taking 52 Americans hostage.

The American hostages were held for 444 days after Carter attempted to free them by way of freezing Iran’s assets in America and halting oil exports. In April of 1980 Carter ended diplomatic relations with Iran and imposed a complete economic embargo.

On April 24, Operation Eagle Claw, a “top-secret” mission to free the hostages ended when mechanical malfunctions coupled with a blinding dust storm forced the mission to abort. After the decision had been made to end the mission, eight crew members lost their lives when a helicopter accidentally drifted into a parked C-130.

How does the Carter spin the Iranian hostage crisis? From Carter’s Presidential Library:

On November 4, 1979, Iranian militants stormed the United States Embassy in Tehran and took approximately seventy Americans captive. This terrorist act triggered the most profound crisis of the Carter presidency and began a personal ordeal for Jimmy Carter and the American people that lasted 444 days.

President Carter committed himself to the safe return of the hostages while protecting America’s interests and prestige. He pursued a policy of restraint that put a higher value on the lives of the hostages than on American retaliatory power or protecting his own political future.

The toll of patient diplomacy was great, but President Carter’s actions brought freedom for the hostages with America’s honor preserved. Source – Jimmy Carter Library and Museum

Carter’s Library wrote that the Iranian Hostage Crisis was the most “profound crisis of the Carter presidency”.

While Carter considers himself somewhat of a “Master of Peace Negotiations” he was unable to solve the single most “profound crisis” of his presidency.

His library also wrote that the crisis was 1. a personal ordeal for Jimmy Carter, and 2. the American people. Funny how Carter places his own importance above all others, including the hostages, whose ordeal, we imagine, was far more arduous than Jimmy’s.

The library goes on, that Carter had “committed himself to the safe return of the hostages while protecting America’s interest and prestige“. This next sentence is quite interesting. “He pursued a policy of restraint that put a higher value on the lives of the hostages than on American retaliatory power or protecting his own political future.”

What a great way to turn several key negatives into positives. Initially Carter used diplomacy by means of freezing Iran’s assets in the United States and imposing an oil embargo. We assume that this was implemented after Carter was unable to schedule a “series of diplomatic discourses” with Iran.

By April, Carter had severed all diplomatic “relations” with Iran, five months after the hostages were seized. Thus signaling that diplomacy had, in regards to Jimmy Carter and Iran, indeed failed.

And yet, on Carter’s Library website we see a different spin:

The toll of patient diplomacy was great, but President Carter’s actions brought freedom for the hostages with America’s honor preserved.

Now we see Jimmy Carter in perhaps his greatest role, Propagator of Peace, whose main mission is that of “peace” across the planet. Carter told the press that he planned to meet with Hamas because, in his words, “Since Syria and Hamas will have to be involved in the final peace agreement, they ought to be involved in the discussions leading up to… peace.”

In regards to a “final peace agreement” surely Carter is very aware of the Hamas Charter:

“Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”

This is the only “final peace agreement” that Hamas is interested in.

While Hamas continues to further its agenda, Carter, by way of his actions in meeting with Hamas, has given the group what it believes to be “instant cachet”. Carter is no stranger to Hamas, he makes no apologies for his long standing friendship and affection for the now deceased former head of Hamas, and known terrorist and murderer, Yasser Arafat.

In regard to Carter and Hamas, this phrase comes to mind, “when you lie down with dogs, you get fleas”, provided you’re not a flea already.

By LBG

Source – Hamas Charter
Source – Operation Eagle Claw
Source - CBS News – Iran Hostage Anniversary
Source – Global Security – US Faces Surprise Attack with Canal Giveaway
Source – CBS – Jimmy Carter Meets with Hamas Delegation
Image – Iran hostages
Image – Carter and Castro
Image – Castro and Carter
Image – Carter and Chavez
Source - Al Jazeera – Carter Lays Wreath for Arafat
Source – Britannica

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