Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has strongly criticized President Bush, accusing him of exploiting the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks against the United States for political reasons.
Mr. Carter says U.S. news organizations must share the blame for what he calls "the fallacies" of Mr. Bush's foreign policy, because reporters who do not want to seem unpatriotic have failed to question the administration's claims more closely.
In an interview published today (Monday) in Britain's Guardian newspaper, Mr. Carter said President Bush has repeatedly invoked the attacks three years ago "to elevate himself in the consciousness of many Americans" -- as the former president put it -- "to a heroic comander-in-chief, fighting a global threat against America." He also accused Mr. Bush of using misleading statements to justify an "unwarranted" war in Iraq.
(Mr. Carter, a Democrat, was elected president in 1976, but lost his bid for a second term in office to Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980.)