?America does not at the moment have a functioning democracy,? former President Jimmy Carter remarked last week during an Atlanta, GA speaking engagement for Atlantik Bruecke (Atlantic Bridge), a non-profit focused building positive American-German relations. Carter was defending the controversial whistle-blower, Edward Snowden, against the National Security Administration (NSA). Alberto Riva from Salon reports that Carter also made several other controversial comments, including:
- On the NSA: “I think the invasion of privacy has gone too far and that is why the secrecy is excessive.”
- On global affairs: There is ?no reason for him to be optimistic at this time.?
- On technology: ?the triumph of modern technology,? which helped promote the Arab Spring, is undermined by developments around the NSA and Snowden, ?as major U.S. Internet platforms such as Google or Facebook lose credibility worldwide.?
The language Carter employed was far stronger than his more gently worded op-ed for the New York Times.Unfortunately, if you want to read an original, first-hand account of Carter’s speech, you’ll need to learn German. Von Gregor Peter Schmitz from Germany’s Der Spiegel seems to be the only journalist who found this event to be worth covering.
Here’s a translation of Schmitz’s article via Google Translate.
NSA affair: Ex-President Carter condemned U.S. snooping
The Obama administration tried to placate Europe’s anger over spying programs. Not as ex-President Jimmy Carter: The Democrat attacked the U.S. intelligence sharp. The disclosure by whistleblowers Snowden was “useful.”
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter criticized in the wake of the NSA scandals the American political system. “America has no functioning democracy,” Carter said Tuesday at a meeting of the “Atlantic Bridge” in Atlanta.
Previously, the Democrat had been very critical of the practices of U.S. intelligence. “I think the invasion of privacy has gone too far,” Carter told CNN. “And I think that is why the secrecy was excessive.” Overlooking the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden said Carter, whose revelations were long “likely to be useful because they inform the public.”
Carter has repeatedly warned that the United States sharply declined due to excessive restriction of civil rights, their moral authority. Last year he wrote in an article in the “New York Times”, new U.S. laws “never before seen breach our privacy by the government” allowed the.
Carter was the 39th President of the United States, who ruled from 1977 until 1981. During his tenure, he tried to align U.S. foreign policy that is more about human rights – after his retirement from active politics for his humanitarian work, he received the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize.
In Atlanta, he also expressed his overall pessimistic about the global situation. There is currently no reason for him to be optimistic, Carter said, referring to the situation in Egypt, which had fallen into a military dictatorship. He also lamented the growing political divide in the United States, the excessive influence of money in U.S. election campaigns and the confusing American election rules. The ex-president whose “Carter Center” operates worldwide including election monitoring, announced skeptical whether the United States, the standard that applies when reviewing the Center of elections might be fulfilled.
As a bright spot, however, Carter called the triumph of modern technology that would have caused some of the countries of the Arab Spring of democratic progress. Exactly these developments but are endangered by the NSA Sp?hskandal as major U.S. Internet platforms such as Google or Facebook lose credibility worldwide.
Carter called the disclosures by Snowden, “useful.”
Former President Carter used more subtle language in his New York Times op-ed last year where his first sentence claimed the US has abandoned it’s role as the global leader in human rights.
It seems Mr. Carter is concerned that the same agencies that collect data also serve as the judge, jury and executioner. He seems to have come to the conclusion that this could be bad for our defined position as the global leader in the realm of human rights. ?Self proclaimed as it may be.
As more information becomes available we will update to confirm that our former President proclaimed the American experiment in democracy finished.
Photograph of Jimmy Carter from? MSN.
Edited/published by EAP.
