Jimmy Carter Has Cancer

[David Guyatt]

And then there was the October Surprise to end prematurely his Presidency and legacy. He was a targeted man. Also, the only President I can think of who actually spent his retirement DOING something useful and saying meaningful things - not just counting their money and making deals to further their money and power. He even in his last several years has criticized [subtly and gently] the powers behind the curtain. While far from a perfect President, he was too much a man of the People, supporter of the Constitution, and his own man [not fully under their control] he had to be dealt with - and was. Sadly, given his current diagnosis, he won't live much longer. His Houses for Humanity alone is such a break with what ex-Presidents do - and he had many other causes, peace missions, and significant actions and statements after his Presidency. After JFK, it was all downhill - by design [sculpted at 12:30 on Elm St., Dallas, TX]. A few little bumps here and there - but soon hammered down and eliminated. You can bet your bippy there won't even be anyone like Carter (much less so anyone like JFK!) ever again this side of the Revolution.

The military "goof up" in the desert (Operation Eagle Claw) that resulted in the rescue attempt of the US hostages in Iran being aborted has always struck me as being engineered to fail. I mean out of 8 helicopters sent to the first staging area, Desert One, three didn't arrive. One had hydraulic problems, another got caught on a cloud of fine sand that disabled it and the third "showed signs" of a cracked rotor blade. The planners of of Eagle Claw agreed that if less than 6 helicopters arrived at Desert One the mission would be aborted (despite only 4 actually being needed).

Had this mission succeeded - or rather been allowed to succeed - the raison d'etre of October Surprise would have evaporated. In other words Operation Eagle Claw had to fail in order for October Surprise to succeed.

Carter's antagonism about the CIA with his appointment of Admiral Stansfield Turner as his appointment to DCI followed by the sacking of over 800 HUMINT assets (with the subsequent emphasis on SIGINT and TECHINT instead) plus Turner's breaking the secrecy seal on MKULTRA to Congress is what, in my opinion, put paid to Carter's presidency.

I agree with others here that Jimmy Cater was a much more independent and more honest president than any of those who have followed him (even though his National Security Advisor was the beastly Zbigniew Brzezinski). And for my money too, all those that have followed him have been entirely beholden to the US intelligence community, especially the CIA (Reagan was a front man - Bush was the power behind the throne).