Important updates at the bottom of the post.

Censure Carter has sent me three emails today with information that the Bin Laden family gave $1 million to the Carter Center. What that’s particularly news is beyond me, but let us look at the CFP article that has the Censure Carter folks all riled up.

Ex-U.S. President Jimmy Carter is in league with Osama bin Laden.

A paper trail shows that more than $1 million has been funneled from Bakr M. Bin Laden on behalf of the Saudi Bin Laden Group to The Carter Center.

That’s an impressive bit of investigative journalism that comes your way, not courtesy of the New York Times and company, but from Melanie Morgan, Chairman, Censure Carter Committee (Censure Carter Committee ).

“An investigation by the Censure Carter Committee into the financing for The Carter Center of Atlanta, Georgia founded by President Carter and his wife to advance his “Blame America First” policies reveals that over $1,000,000 has been funneled from Bakr M. Bin Laden for the Saudi Bin Laden Group to the Carter Center,” says Censure Carter.Com in a mainstream media-ignored recent media release.

“In fact, an online report accuses former President Carter of meeting with 10 of Osama Bin Laden’s brothers early in 2000, Carter and his wife, Rosalyn followed up their meeting with a breakfast with Bakr Bin Laden in September 2000 and secured the first $200,000 towards the more than $1 million that has been received by the Carter Center.”

The outrage seems to be really centered around the film by Michael Moore called Fahrenheit 911 that makes the same type allegations with the Bush family and the Bin Laden family. No, Moore certainly did not include that information, assuming he knew it of course, but does anyone in their right mind actually believe even half the drivel that Moore says, writes or puts into his films? Fahrenheit 911 was one-sided? That’s not exactly news as the film has been debunked numerous times over.

What gets me about the Censure Carter movement and this CFP article is that it leads with “Ex-U.S. President Jimmy Carter is in league with Osama bin Laden.” Says who? The CFP article says so, but the details in the actual article never make such a connection. The only connection made is from the Bin Laden family to Jimmy Carter.

Only two of the pleathora of Bin Ladens were ever involved in terrorism (OBL’s older brother reportedly influenced OBL himself from his own days in jihad). Ok, but that leaves the other 145 (I don’t know the actual number and it doesn’t really matter) who as far as everyone knows are completely innocent. Osama was disowned by his own family for his ways. Some argue that disowning was largely ceremonial, but there has yet to be solid public proof that shows there are still links other than common blood and support.

The Bin Laden family is a very wealthy family as we all know, or should know. Considering the line of work that made the family millions, construction in Saudi Arabia, it’s hardly unusual the family would donate money American causes. Saudi Arabia is a wealthy country due to decades of American oil investment and purchaes inside the nation.

So isn’t it just a tab bit ironic that Censure Carter, which is operated by Move America Forward (whoever that is), is calling out Michael Moore for failing to disclose this information in his film while chasting the Bush family for accepting donations even though it took an investigation by the group to find the funds? Further, is it not ironic for alleging Moore spun the information for his own purposes and then spinning the alleged connection of the donation from the Bin Laden family to Osama?

Sure, it’s ironic that Carter didn’t bother rebutting this claim in Moore’s film as we all know he loves the camera, but does that shock anyone? It’s the same type of action we see from several of our elected officials including that of one Senator Teddy Kennedy who rails on and on about raising taxes on the wealthy yet hides the vast majority of his money from the IRS. There’s a difference here though. Censure Carter is trying to make a point while it conveniently leaves out other information, including that there is no solid evidence linking the Bin Laden family to Osama other than blood. Carter . . . does he really have a point to make?
Captain Ed agrees with me.

Most of all, it makes the Censure Carter folks look rather desperate. I have little regard for Jimmy Carter, and I know that we have plenty of material already for which to excoriate him. Why go out on a limb with this tripe? More importantly, why spend all of this money advertising this unimportant episode in an effort to get the mainstream media to notice it? McLeod works her prose into a lather, but it doesn’t hide the sad truth that Bakr bin Laden is not Osama bin Laden, the Bin Laden Group is not al-Qaeda, and the Censure Carter Committee is about to spend thousands of dollars destroying its own credibility. The only affect this will produce will be to make Jimmy Carter look good in comparison.

Long-time readers, or for that matter anyone who has read any post I’ve written on the man I call Jihad Jimmy, know that I have no qualms with using Carter’s own words and actions to villify him. I consider Carter to be a national disaster equal to Katrina if not more so. He was a disaster as a president and he’s been even worse as an ex-president, sans Habitat-for-Humanity which I have volunteered for and it’s a great cause. In no way am I defending Jihad Jimmy, his antics or what he stands for. I find all of them rather appalling.

Ed hit on something very important though in that brief excerpt of a post that should be read in full. In the same CFP article, Censure Carter announces they need money to purchase television advertisements.

The mainstream media is pretending that the Carter-bin Laden story is a non-issue, so the Censure Carter Campaign is out raising the money to air the facts in TV ads.

“The more money we raise, the more airtime we can purchase,” say campaign organizers.

“A typical spot on CNN or Fox News during the daytime will cost us about $4,000-$6,000. We must collect the contributions of thousands of people who can make a $25, $50, $100 or $250 contribution.

“Or we can make up our goals with fewer people contributing a more generous amount–say $500, $1,000, $2,500 or even the full $4,000 or $6,000 to buy each spot that will be seen by people all across the nation,

“No matter what you can afford, please make your contribution now, and help us get the message out.”

Well, that’s because it really is a non-issue. If Censure Carter can provide proof that Osama bin Laden himself donated to the Carter Center, I’d be all over it like white on rice, but I think this weak connection is all they will ever find which is why it’s all that has been released.

The connection is worthless in my opinion and the way the group trots out this connection and then all but asks for donations to the group cheapens the entire organization and any future value it can have. I support a public censure of Jihad Jimmy, but I won’t contribute to an organization that trots out nonsense and acts like it’s Pulitzer Prize material. Even then we know that it has to be left-wing stuff to win a Pulitzer if it’s a completely non-story or just made up garbage, a la Dana Priest.

The story is only worth noting to help further debunk the dribble produced by Moore, but that’s it and isn’t Moore really a non-factor these days anyways? Or at least until he produces his next film that shows how there are three foot Jews running the White House.

UPDATE: The only connection Censure Carter is making is between Jimmy Carter’s Carter Center and the Bin Laden family.  For whatever reason it was the reporter who wrote the CFP article, Judi McLeod, who decided that means Carter is “in league with Osama.”  As noted above, there is no direct connection between Osama bin Laden and the rest of the Bin Laden family sans blood.

Joe Wierzbicki, a representative of Censure Carter, emailed me to correct my earlier mistake that Censure Carter connected the two.  His email aslo included the following information:

Our entire premise was that President Jimmy Carter had aggressively solicited and received $1 MILLION + from the Bin Laden family.  There were multiple meetings and appeals with upwards of 10 of Osama Bin Laden’s brothers.

These are the SAME people that Michael Moore cited as evidence of wrongdoing by President George W. Bush in his factually flawed propaganda film, Fahrenheit 9/11.

To top things off, Moore then was invited by Carter to join him in the Presidential Viewing Box at the 2004 Democratic National Convention while ex-President Bill Clinton spoke.

Were the actions of Carter cited in Moore’s film?  Did Moore condemn Carter for going after this money?  Did the media EVER report on this?  Did Carter ever defend Bush?

The answer to ALL of those questions is NO.  So, tell me, how is this not then relevant to report.

Melanie Morgan addressed these points on Fox News Channel (video HERE), pointing out that it was the hypocrisy of the whole affair that was most troubling.

I completely disagree with Wierzbicki that this information is somehow newsworthy for the reasons I stated above in the original post.  A Liberal who shows hypocrisy while criticizing others?  Wow!  Break out the lights and sirens.

Even so, due to this error the Censure Carter movement has received a bum rap that is not wholy deserved on this issue.  The point they bring up is valid and is more of the salt on the Censure Carter case against Carter, a valid case in my opinion.  This turns the questions to McLeod, or her editors, rather than Censure Carter as to why the article thought this donation meant Carter was in league with OBL.

The problem I repeatedly have with conservative criticisms regarding similar issues is that they really get much less airtime than liberal criticisms.  Liberal criticisms are on the front pages even where there is no basis of truth behind them or they are easily defended against.  Conservative criticisms of this manner are not given that extra benefit of doubt and that’s why they need to be 100 percent solid and not either written or presented in a way that makes connections were none are.  Conservatives cannot get away with the same loose criticisms many liberals get away with in our media.  Frankly, neither side should.  The CFP article certainly did that when the main point of Censure Carter was valid and actually pretty funny.