Carter, Exiled Hamas Leader Hold Talks

Former U.S. President Rebuffs Criticism And Attends Controversial Meeting In Syria

(CBS/AP)  Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter met Friday with the exiled leader of Hamas and his deputy, two men the U.S. government labels as global terrorists and Israel accuses of masterminding suicide bombings and kidnappings.

Carter's meeting with Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal was the first public contact in two years between a prominent American figure and Hamas' leadership and followed two other meetings between the former American president and the Palestinian militant group around the Middle East this week. Hamas officials say the meetings have lent the group legitimacy.

CBS News' George Baghdadi reported Syria's state-run al-Thawra newspaper praised the visit as an indication that "trends toward peace supported by people like Carter are beginning to gain steam."

Mashaal's deputy Moussa Abu Marzouk attended the meeting with Carter at Mashaal's Damascus office, a Hamas official at the site told The Associated Press. Abu Marzouk was designated a terrorist by U.S. Treasury Department in 1995, allowing the government to seize his assets. He was detained at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York that same year and spent two years in a New York jail before he was deported in 1997.

The U.S. State Department twice advised Carter against meeting Hamas leaders before he left on his Mideast trip earlier this week. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice criticized Carter's plans to meet Mashaal, saying last week that Hamas is an impediment to Middle East peace.

Several members of Congress also urged Carter not to meet Mashaal, saying it would confer legitimacy on the group behind some 250 suicide bombings against Israelis that have killed numerous civilians.

But Carter, who brokered the 1978 Israeli-Egyptian peace and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, has defended what he calls his personal peace mission, saying Hamas must be engaged in order to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace.

The State Department did not comment further on the meeting Friday.

"I don't think I have anything more to add to what I as well as others have said previously on it," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters. "We have made our views clear."

The United States designated Hamas a terrorist organization in January 1995, which made it a violation to conduct any financial or business transaction with the group.

Shortly after Hamas claimed responsibility for an August 19, 2003 suicide bombing in Jerusalem that killed 20 people including four U.S. citizens, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control named a number of Hamas leaders as "specially designated global terrorists." They included Mashaal and Abu Marzouk and the designation made it illegal to conduct any transactions with them.

Israel also brands Hamas a terrorist organization and has accused Mashaal of masterminding the kidnapping of soldier Gilad Shalit near Gaza two years ago. Israel has also blamed Mashaal and the group's Damascus-based leadership of directing suicide bombings such as the September 2004 attacks that killed 16 Israelis in the southern city of Beersheba.

Israel tried to kill Mashaal in 1997, when agents sprayed him with poison on a street in Amman. Jordan's late King Hussein, who had signed peace with Israel in 1994, forced Israel to send the antidote that saved his life.

Afterward, Jordan expelled Mashaal to Qatar as the kingdom's ties with Hamas deteriorated, and he moved to Damascus in 1999.

Before Friday's meeting began, Abu Marzouk told The Associated Press that calming the situation between Hamas and Israel as well as the fate of Shalit would be on the agenda.

"Hamas will not be a hurdle in any future prisoner exchange," Abu Marzouk said.

Asked if Hamas is ready to sit and talk directly to the Israelis, Abu Marzouk said: "There are no (direct) meetings with the Israelis. Most of the meetings that took place between the two sides were not direct."

Carter met senior Hamas officials from Gaza in Cairo on Thursday and asked them to halt rocket attacks against Israel. And in the West Bank Wednesday, he embraced a Hamas representative, angering Israelis.

Though Israel's government refuses to deal with Hamas, Carter said Thursday he knows some Israeli government officials are "quite willing" to meet the militant group and he speculated that might happen in the near future.

Israeli Cabinet minister Eli Yishai said Friday he asked Carter earlier this week to arrange a meeting with Hamas to discuss a prisoner exchange. Yishai, the Israeli deputy prime minister, said he wanted to try to win the release of Shalit, held by Hamas in Gaza for two years.

Hamas said Friday Shalit will "not see the light" until Palestinian prisoners are also released in an exchange.

Yishai was the only Israeli minister to meet Carter when he visited Israel and the Palestinians territories earlier this week. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he did not meet Carter during his visit to avoid creating the impression that he was negotiating with Hamas.

Hamas won 2006 Palestinian parliament elections and has since been locked in a power struggle with the Fatah faction headed by President Mahmoud Abbas. Hamas forcibly seized control of Gaza from Fatah in June and set up a regime that rivals Abbas' West Bank government.

But an internationally backed Israeli boycott of Hamas has put a stranglehold on Gaza, deepening the poverty of its 1.4 million residents.

Hamas officials have said the meetings with Carter have given the group legitimacy.

Hamas official Mushir Masri, in a fiery speech Friday to thousands of Hamas supporters in Gaza, said the meetings with Carter were proof that Hamas was not a terrorist group, but a national liberation movement.

He said countries and groups are beginning to understand that Hamas is a power to reckon with and the region will not have calm or stability without engaging the group.

"It confirms the failure of the U.S. and European policies of ignoring Hamas," he told the crowd. "It confirms that all the countries that assume Hamas is a terrorist group should reconsider."

Carter met Syrian President Bashar Assad earlier Friday after arriving in Syria from Egypt.

[colonieny]

The fact remains that Carter has a long tract record of being on the wrong side of issues, where democracy is at stake, usually others. He was quick to throw the Taiwan democracy under the bus, did not support us going in and liberating Kuwaitt, and in fact actively wrote and met to stop it. He pulled the rug from under the freedom loving people of IRAN.
You can say ,1 thing,he is consistent is french kissing the tyrants. Does Carter look like a transvestite ? Was he our first T. President as so many have speculated ?

[lindaredtail]

terrorislam I am not asking that people do nothing. I support the war in Afghanistan if you read some of my posts on other articles. But I think sometimes that too much violence is the first response rather than the last reponse as it should be. And violence isn''t the only response that means you are doing something. The day we honor diplomats as much as we honor warriors we will know that we have actualized our potential to a higher way of thinking. When George Mitchell is as honored as General Patraeus I think God will smile at us. Truce?

[lindaredtail]

titletrack you also have a good night. I hope we can agree to disagree. I''m sure we''ll meet again on one of these forums and have a good lively and I hope respectful discussion. Rest well.

[lindaredtail]

I won''t say that terrorism is easy to combat. But I think patience is part of the process. Not reacting every time answering violence with violence. What does the U.N. usually call for. Like everyone''s been calling China to do. Restraint. Practice Restraint. The Chinese are just as convinced that Tibet is theirs as Israel is that Palestine is theirs. Do you have any idea how odd violent Buddist monks are? Something had to really set them off. But China considers them terrorists and the Dalai Lama a terrorist because they dispute their rule. Should we ask for restraint from China and not Israel? In China''s logic those are terrorists. To me they are monks.

[titletrack]

Linda - nice talking to you. I am also for a more peaceful world, but I don''t believe it begins with tolerating violent extremism. Have a good night

[titletrack]

Well, if Rush Limbaugh is the worst of the Christina extremists, I think we will be OK. As far as your hypothetical - USA destroys Iran in one round.

[lindaredtail]

Still there titletrack? I also believe that Christian extremists have far too much power in America. Do you know that foreign intelligence services believe the same. (I''ll look up the source if you would like me to) They specifically name Rush Limbaugh, Pat Robertson, and Ann Coulter. Their conclusion was that they have far too much influence in our society. Yet why they were puzzled by. I was quoting before from the Left Behind Series. Just an example. (Just look at the idea) The cuban missile crisis. Kennedy and Krushchev. Kennedy is the brave man . He did not back down. Krushchev was the wise man. He knew when to back down. It could have ended in disaster. But it didn''t. Two reasonable people came together and found a way to solve a difficult problem. Now just imagine Bush is Kennedy and Amadinajad is Krushchev. How do you think it would end?

[titletrack]

Linda - How does one combat extremism using tolerance?

[titletrack]

Linda - Using your logic, I would argue that Hamas is indeed an extremist muslim group, labeled a terrorist group by the world''s more moderate members. All negotiations with Hamas should be rejected then.

[lindaredtail]

My moderate world view is that there is too much extremism in the world right now. That all forms of extremism Moslem, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, and secular forms such as Hugo Chavez''s view need to be rejected. For the first time in the history of the world (going back to the creation of the Bomb) we have the ability to destroy the planet with weapons of war. In as many cases as possible dialogue and diplomacy should be utilized rather than weaponry. Extremism in all of its forms is a danger to the security of the world and the continued existance of our species. We should look for ways to form a more peaceful world where tolerance, understanding of one another''s world view is respected. That is part of my moderate world view.

[titletrack]

''''m defending the principle that this problem can be resolved.

Posted by lindaredtail

This problem can be resolved if Israel takes off the kid gloves

[titletrack]

ell me if the Mexicans came and took your house would you think that they had every right to if they had more weapons than you and more soldiers than you? You''''d be the weak one then-right? But I''''m not defending terrorists. I''''m defending the principle that this problem can be resolved.

Posted by lindaredtail

A little unrealistic, but for the sake of argument, yes they would have every right.

[lindaredtail]

What my point it titletrack is that terroristislam is tossing supposed legitimate sources to justify his Nazi fascist rhetoric. So I''m checking out his sources and this was the second illegitimate one. No inbred people do not do well in life. But he was implying that all Moslems are inbred by taking it out of context in some way thinking to prove a point. Tell me if the Mexicans came and took your house would you think that they had every right to if they had more weapons than you and more soldiers than you? You''d be the weak one then-right? But I''m not defending terrorists. I''m defending the principle that this problem can be resolved.

[titletrack]

Also Linda, please enlighten me on your moderate world view.

[titletrack]

They''''re caucasian and Christian. Even attend church.. Both of you are ignorant. You have no idea of what a reasonble, rational moderate minded balanced view of the world is. You are so blinded and programmed that you never will.

Posted by lindaredtail

What''s your point? Inbred folk don''t make it too far in life. Another example of survival of the fittest.

[lindaredtail]

What did what I said titletrack have to do with what you said titletrack? Nothing. And terroristislam. I just came off of the supposed legitimate source. Did you bother to read the article. The inbred refers to one small group of Moslems from a rural area of Pakistan that make up less than 3% of the Moslem population of Great Britian. Did you know that there are inbred communities in the U.S.? One is not too far from where I live. Less than twenty miles. They have been doing it for decades, they are called pink-eyes (many have pink eyes and extra fingers- defects from inbreeding) and guess what. They''re caucasian and Christian. Even attend church.. Both of you are ignorant. You have no idea of what a reasonble, rational moderate minded balanced view of the world is. You are so blinded and programmed that you never will.

[titletrack]

Try news channels, encyclopedia websites, university websites, ect. You can flood as many postings as you want with your foolish fascist rhetoric. It doesn''''t faze me in the least. Your information is innane, your rhetoric twisted, your sources illegitimate, and your conclusions invalid.

Posted by lindaredtail

Like Al Jazeera? Tell me, why should Israel give back any inch of land? To me, this is survival of the fittest. The Palestinians are the weak in this case. One - they don''t know how to fight (which is why they resort to the worthless tactic of suicide missions), Two - they don''t make very good friends (which is why the world''s most important powers think of Hamas as a terrorist org.) In summary, Israel deserves what they have, and in fact have the right to grab whatever land they see fit.

[lindaredtail]

terroristislam you are seriously in need of psychiatric help. You don''t call those legitimate sources do you? Try news channels, encyclopedia websites, university websites, ect. You can flood as many postings as you want with your foolish fascist rhetoric. It doesn''t faze me in the least. Your information is innane, your rhetoric twisted, your sources illegitimate, and your conclusions invalid.

[rhs648]

Carter is just as much an idiot today as he was as President of the United States. He has to rank as one of America''s worst former presidents.

[titletrack]

You assume you''''re political, when most of you are merely weak.

Posted by REALITYCALLS

Just like the Palestinians