[THS] Congresswoman tries to yank Carter's passport

[Peter Webster]

http://www.ajc.com/uga/content/news/stories/2008/04/18/carter_passport.html

Congresswoman tries to yank Carter's passport
Former president in Syria meeting with Hamas leader

By BOB DEANS
Cox News Service
Published on: 04/18/08

WASHINGTON - He no longer travels aboard Air Force One; now former President Jimmy Carter could be restricted to domestic flights.

It's not likely to happen, but Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., wants Carter's U.S. passport pulled because he met Thursday with members of Hamas in the Middle East.

Hamas is the party of the elected government in the Palestinian territory of Gaza. The State Department lists Hamas as a terrorist group, however, meaning U.S. officials are not to meet with them.

Myrick has called for Carter's passport to be removed and for U.S. taxpayer money to be cut off from the Carter Center, the former president's library and global humanitarian institution in Atlanta.

As a House member, Myrick lacks the authority to revoke the passport of a former commander-in-chief.

"That's up to the secretary of state," Myrick said Thursday in an interview on the Fox News Network. "But, frankly, I wanted to send a strong message, because we have a policy in this country about Hamas. And he is just deliberately undermining the policy, and it's wrong."

Carter, author of the controversial book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," has said diplomacy with Hamas is essential to any effort to broker peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

As president, Carter led Israeli and Egyptian foes to the peace table, resulting in the historic Camp David talks that ended war between those neighbors three decades ago.

Myrick, though, said Carter has turned away from a long tradition of former presidents respecting the diplomatic policies of sitting presidents like George Bush, who has worked to isolate Hamas while supporting the Palestinian government in the neighboring West Bank.

Carter, said Myrick, is undermining that approach.

"He's just unilaterally going off on his own and undermining everything the international community and the United States is trying to do," said Myrick, contending that Carter's willingness to meet with Hamas has lent credibility to a terror group.

"He's legitimizing them when they shouldn't be legitimized."