Court Demands Records on CARTER CENTER Terror Support

WND
5/13/2018

‘It is well known that former President Jimmy Carter is no friend of Israel’

The Carter Center, that organization run by former President Jimmy Carter, as long as 10 years ago was targeted by a Michigan congressman for its officials apparently meeting with leaders of terror groups.

Wouldn’t really be off their agenda, since Carter himself has complained of “horrible persecution” of Palestinians by Israel, and has called on the Jewish state to give up land over it’s “atrocious” “domination” of Palestinians.”

Then just last month, the Zionist Advocacy Center filed a lawsuit against the center for allegedly using taxpayer funds to provide material support to international terror groups in violation of federal law.

The case alleges that in 2015, the Carter Center received more than $30 million in taxpayer grants while hosting designated terrorists at is facilities and providing various forms of assistance to the Palestinian terror group Hamas and other known terror entities.

And, significantly, the American Center for Law and Justice launched a Freedom of Information Act records demand to the State Department for records related to the Carter Center and the same issue.

Now the fight has moved way up, with the ACLJ filing a lawsuit against the State Department for it’s decision not to provide those public records.

“Now we will finally get some answers in court,” the organization announced this week.

It alleges that the Carter Center may have provided “material support or resources” to designated terrorist organizations including Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

“It is well known that former President Jimmy Carter and his Carter Center are no friends of Israel. The Carter Center’s website subtly indicates its view that Jerusalem is within Palestine. Of course the United States has recognized Jerusalem as the capital of the state of Israel, something the Carter Center has criticized the Trump administration over,” the ACLJ announcement said.

Online the center states, “President and Mrs. Carter and The Carter Center have worked to support a viable two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to promote comprehensive peace in the region for decades. The conflict between the major Palestinian political parties Fatah and Hamas has been a particular focus. Palestinian national unity is critical to the success of a two-state solution and the conflict has fractured Palestinian democratic institutions and fed a spiral of intra-Palestinian human rights abuses in the Occupied Territory.”

The organization reported, “Not so subtly, the Carter Center also openly describes its regular contact with Hamas – designated by the State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) since 1997 – stating that ‘The Carter Center works both with grassroots activists and with high-level decision makers in its efforts to further conflict resolution, human rights and democratic development in Palestine,’ and that the Center maintains ‘regular contact with leaders of the two largest Palestinian political parties, Fatah and Hamas.’ For context, other organizations carrying this same designation – FTO – include ISIS, al Qaida, Boko Haram, and al-Shabaab.”

The center got $306 million in cash, pledges and in-kind gifts in 2015-2016 alone and the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development are listed as donors.

George Soros’ organizations also are there.

“In 2016 alone, the State Department and USAID fell into the highest category of donors to the Carter Center – donating a minimum of 100,000+, and $1 million or more over the lifetime of the center’s existence. In fact, the Carter Center has reported over $4 million in accounts receivable from the federal government,” the report said.

So the ACLJ wants to know whether tax money has been given to “Palestinian terrorist groups like Hamas.”

“[Federal law] 18 U. S. C. §2339B makes it a federal crime to ‘knowingly provid[e] material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization.’ The Supreme Court has recently made clear that this goes far beyond providing cash with the intent of directly funding terrorist activities. It criminalizes nearly any support or resources given to a terrorist organization for any purpose, including ”training’ and ‘expert advice or assistance” for purportedly humanitarian reasons,” the ACLJ said.

Carter, a Democrat, was president when the U.S. sustained one of its worst foreign policy failures ever, the Islamic revolution in Iran and the hostage-taking of American government workers at the U.S. Embassy. The 52 diplomats, held by the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam’s Line, were released after 444 days when Republican President Ronald Reagan was inaugurated.