Sunday Times 2
Jimmy Carter says he’s the most targeted US President
Jimmy Carter has revealed that he received the most assassination threats since leaving office out of any former president.
The one-term Democrat said that he has been the subject of up to three legitimate assassination attempts since he left the White House in January 1981. The details of the assassination plots were not released, but Mr Carter described them as being domestic in nature, meaning that the would-be killers were American.
Targeted man: Former President Jimmy Carter, seen here in Jerusalem in 2010, said that there have been two or three assassination attempts towards him since leaving office (Reuters)
Adding to security concerns about the former president, he has been particularly active since leaving office and regularly travels abroad, to North Korea, Africa, and the Middle East. ‘When I go on an overseas trip almost invariably, I get a report from the Secret Service that where I’m going is very dangerous,’ the former President told author Larry Sabato, according toThe Washington Examiner.
‘Sometimes they (Secret Service) ask me not to go, and I go anyway. They and I both just laugh about it. So I have been more concerned about my safety in doing the Carter Center’s business overseas than I ever was in the White House.’
No information was released about any known threats against former President Clinton’s life or that of either former Bush presidents.
President Obama made history in 2007 when as a Senator he was the first presidential candidate to receive Secret Service protection before formally becoming his party’s nominee because there were a number of threats against him based on race.
Carter, 89, made the revelation about his safety procedures while meeting with Mr Sabato as part of his research for a book on the legacy of President John F. Kennedy. As for his own legacy, Carter’s public image has largely been shaped in recent years by the work he did since leaving the White House.
He founded the eponymous Carter Center to address human rights issues across the globe, working to help eradicate diseases like trachoma and Guinea worm disease globally.Carter even won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for the effort he put into finding ‘peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights’.
He is the first and only American president to receive the distinguished award after his term in office.
© Daily Mail, London
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