"We have evidence that South Africans are preparing to test a nuclear device,"(p.82), Carter writes on August 11, 1977. This issue comes up several times in the diary. Carter's chief concern then, was trying to reform apartheid in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa. Ten days later he writes, "I received South Africa's commitment not to have a nuclear explosive test." A year later on October 17, he writes: "Stan Turner's intelligence briefing was a videotape of the South African nuclear test-site episode that showed data collection through satellites, photograph[s] and electronic signal analysis, [and it was ] superb." This was evidently some desert site. No nuclear weapon was ever tested there.
On September 27, 1979, he writes, "There was [an] indication of a nuclear explosion in the region of south Africa -- either South Africa, Israel using a ship at sea, or nothing."(p.357) Then he writes on October 26, "At breakfast we went over the South African nuclear explosion. We still don't know who did it." The likelihood of a nuclear explosion was based an intense "double-flash" light pulse recorded by a Vela satellite which had accurately noticed nuclear explosions on 41 prior occasions.
Then on February 27, 1980, he writes, "We have a growing belief among our scientists that the Israelis did indeed conduct a nuclear test explosion in the ocean near the southern end of Africa." This is a startling entry. Shortly after the September report from the Vela satellite National Security chief Brzezinski had empowered a panel to see if the Vela had made a mistake. The author of that report, Carey Sublette, quotes Seymour Hersh as writing in his 1991 book, The Samson Option, that "the idea of referring this detection to an advisory panel was floated before any potential problems with the detection had been noted."
The scientific panel in May 1980 reported that the signal was probably not caused by a nuclear explosion, but more likely an artifact of a meteoroid hitting the satellite. So what do we make of Carter's February entry? We can speculate that Brzezinski was determined not to embarrass U.S. allies Israel and South Africa and set up a panel to go on a wild goose chase. To the President he told the truth, hence Carter's February entry.
There is no further comment from Carter in his Diary about the issue. It apparently didn't occur to Carter to ask Israel what they hell they thought they were doing collaborating with racist South Africa in developing nuclear weapons. Or, if it did occur to him ,he put it aside for the sake of the "peace" he thought he was creating in the Middle East.
Afghanistan -- Carter and the Freedom Fighters
In 1998, Zbignew Brzezinski was interviewed by the French magazine Le Nouvel Observateur about the growing problem that it called "Islamic fundamentalism." The question came about because Robert Gates, former CIA director and now President Obama's Secretary of Defense, had written in his memoirs that the CIA had aided the mujahdeen in Afghanistan six months before the Soviets invaded.
Brzezinski said, "On July 3, 1979 President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day I wrote a note to the President that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention."
The interviewer asked Brzezinski if he regretted giving weapons to future terrorists. He answered, "It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter: 'We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war.'"
The Brezezinski interview took place in January 1998 -- five years after the first World Trade Center bombing.
So what did Jimmy Carter say about all this in his Diary? On April 4, 1979, he merely notes that he had a CIA briefing about Afghanistan showing the growing strength of dissidents.
But on the same page he adds a 2010 comment that "after leaving office, Rosalynn and I visited Pakistan on a health mission for the Carter Center, and the President of Pakistan arranged for us to go to the Khyber Pass. Several thousand Afghan freedom fighters assembled under a large tent to welcome me and express thanks for American assistance."
"Freedom fighters." That was the Carter designation. He even uses it in his index where, next to "Afghan rebels," he writes "(freedom fighters)." These freedom lovers were often the same people who threw acid in the faces of girls for the offense of going to school.
Carter did not mention the decision to send aid to the mujahadden in mid-1979, nor did he mention Brezezinski's July 3 note of warning (or was it encouragement?).
There was no real mention of Afghanistan again until December 27, 1979, when Carter writes that the Soviets were moving forces into Afghanistan, which he calls "an extremely serious development."
In a 2010 note, Carter recalls an interview with ABC when he was asked if he was surprised by the Soviet invasion. He recalls that he responded "Yes." He thought it was "fruitless and counterproductive." No reflection on the Brzezinski claim that he and Carter aided the rebels for the purpose of provoking that invasion even though the Le Nouvel Observateur interview is now quite notorious.
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