Oh now this is rich.  Former President Jimmy Carter during the Corretta Scott King funeral:

“It was difficult for them then personally with the civil liberties of both husband and wife violated as they became the target of secret government wiretaps.”

Of course this was a direct jab at President Bush, but let’s work with this for a moment.  The wiretaps today are of communication between suspected members of Al Qaida and those within U.S. shores.  Is President Carter saying the civil rights movement, past and present, is equal to Al Qaida?

Yesterday President Carter said the wiretapping was illegal.

“Under the Bush administration, there’s been a disgraceful and illegal decision — we’re not going to the let the judges or the Congress or anyone else know that we’re spying on the American people,” Carter told reporters. “And no one knows how many innocent Americans have had their privacy violated under this secret act.”

When did this wiretapping under FISA begin? 1978 while President Carter was in office, and he signed the bill.  Under the laws of FISA, wiretapping can occur without a court order for 72 hours.  Today though Carter believes the order is illegal, yet he was happy to use it when it suited him.

In 1978, for instance, Attorney General Griffin B. Bell testified before a federal judge about warrantless searches he and President Carter had authorized against two men suspected of spying on behalf of the Vietnam government.

So what President Carter says is illegal now, he has done in the past.  He even signed the bill allowing warrantless wiretaps.  He draws the comparison between wiretaps of civil rights activists with the wiretaps of suspected Al Qaida members in communication with those on our shores today.  Oh, he also believes “there’s a good chance” Hamas will become a non-violent political group.  He also believed that the United States could cease support for the Shah of Iran and nothing would happen.  That turned out to be a collosal blunder on his part.  Does there need to be any more proof it’s time for President Carter to officially resign from his seat in the public forum?

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