# Jimmy Carter believes the NSA monitors his emails **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [March 24, 2014, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimmy-carter-believes-the-nsa-monitors-his-emails/684417 "2014-03-24T03:41:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2014, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimmy-carter-believes-the-nsa-monitors-his-emails/684417/1 "2014-03-24T03:41:26Z")
> [@](#): > > [Asked by NBC’s Andrea Mitchell](http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/03/23/jimmy-carter-believes-the-nsa-monitors-his-e-mails/?hpt=hp_t2) about the debate surrounding the spy agency and the conflict between privacy and national security, Carter said the surveillance practices have “been extremely liberalized and I think abused by our own intelligence agencies.” > > “As a matter of fact, you know, I have felt that my own communications were probably monitored, and when I want to communicate with a foreign leader privately, I type or write the letter myself, put it in the post office and mail it,” Carter said. What do you think? It wouldn’t surprise me if he’s right. People thought John Lennon was nuts when he claimed that the CIA was tapping his phone. Years later, they admitted they had been. On the other hand, this is not the same agency, and Carter is 89. Some of my clients are around that age, and they have all kinds of fears and superstitions. And he doesn’t say, or at least they don’t quote him as saying, what his grounds are for thinking his emails are being intercepted. So who knows, but I’m curious about what others think. ---
**Author:** ![ThisUsernameIsForbidden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b4bc9f/32.png) [@ThisUsernameIsForbidden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisUsernameIsForbidden)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2014, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimmy-carter-believes-the-nsa-monitors-his-emails/684417/2 "2014-03-24T03:52:53Z")
I don’t doubt that all high-profile people are monitored to a greater extent than the rest of us. Look at the battle going on in the Senate with the CIA over monitoring of Congress. Not that I feel bad for Congress–they pretty much built the whole thing that’s monitoring them. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2014, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimmy-carter-believes-the-nsa-monitors-his-emails/684417/3 "2014-03-24T04:27:55Z")
Can the NSA open mail in the post office if they understand that national security demands it ? ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2014, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimmy-carter-believes-the-nsa-monitors-his-emails/684417/4 "2014-03-24T13:55:09Z")
Yeah, I can’t imagine that if they cared enough what Carter emailed, that they wouldn’t also open his mail. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2014, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimmy-carter-believes-the-nsa-monitors-his-emails/684417/5 "2014-03-24T14:17:49Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > Yeah, I can’t imagine that if they cared enough what Carter emailed, that they wouldn’t also open his mail. Given the tendency of our government at various levels to regard even obscure peace groups as a threat, and regard them as worth the trouble to devote surprising resources to their surveillance - sure, I’d expect that they’d be paying attention to the titular head of an influential peace-oriented organization such as the Carter Center. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2014, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimmy-carter-believes-the-nsa-monitors-his-emails/684417/6 "2014-03-24T15:21:51Z")
From what we’ve learned so far, it seems reasonable to assume that his communications with foreign leaders would be regularly captured. Whether anyone is actually reading them is probably more of a case-by-case question. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2014, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimmy-carter-believes-the-nsa-monitors-his-emails/684417/7 "2014-03-24T15:49:08Z")
People say I’m crazy for believing this, but I believe that robots are stealing my luggage. ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2014, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimmy-carter-believes-the-nsa-monitors-his-emails/684417/8 "2014-03-24T16:12:31Z")
I don’t understand how this is even a question. Of course they are. They undoubtedly have been for years. Why wouldn’t they? I would be absolutely astounded if someone with his high profile, involved in anything even remotely related to anything international or political, _wasn’t_ being monitored on some level. It’s really at the point where anyone suggesting that he _isn’t_ being monitored is bordering on conspiracy-theory levels of Occam abuse. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Quatro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bc8723/32.png) [@Mr\_Quatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Quatro)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2014, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimmy-carter-believes-the-nsa-monitors-his-emails/684417/9 "2014-03-24T16:50:32Z")
They monitor mine … so I just tell everyone to buy IBM. Works so far 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2014, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimmy-carter-believes-the-nsa-monitors-his-emails/684417/10 "2014-03-24T17:21:29Z")
> [@BlackKnight](#): > > I don’t understand how this is even a question. Of course they are. They undoubtedly have been for years. Why wouldn’t they? Because Jimmy Carter is such a nice guy? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2014, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimmy-carter-believes-the-nsa-monitors-his-emails/684417/11 "2014-03-24T19:17:00Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > What do you think? It wouldn’t surprise me if he’s right. People thought John Lennon was nuts when he claimed that the CIA was tapping his phone. Years later, they admitted they had been. On the other hand, this is not the same agency, and Carter is 89. Some of my clients are around that age, and they have all kinds of fears and superstitions. And he doesn’t say, or at least they don’t quote him as saying, what his grounds are for thinking his emails are being intercepted. So who knows, but I’m curious about what others think. I would think that, as an ex-President, he would be aware of any abilities the CIA/FBI/NSA/“Others” have in getting access to the public mail stream. In other words, I’m not too sure if his solution is any more secure than his current “problem”. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2014, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimmy-carter-believes-the-nsa-monitors-his-emails/684417/12 "2014-03-25T04:24:02Z")
Getting access to someone’s real mail still requires more effort and will than monitoring their electronic communications. Still, he’d be better off using good encryption that hasn’t been compromised, perhaps covered in some [steganography](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steganography).