AFP reports:

The US State Department said Thursday it has advised former US president Jimmy Carter against meeting with the radical Palestinian group Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal if he visits Syria....

The State Department will help Carter with arrangements if he visits Syria but "will not participate in the planning or scheduling of any meetings with Hamas figures in Damascus," McCormack said.

"And in fact we have counseled the former president (against) having such a meeting," he said.

Fine, so the State Department won't schedule Carter's meeting with a man who leads a group officially designated as a terrorist organization by the United States government. More important, will the Secret Service be protecting Carter as he goes to rub elbows with the who's who of world terrorism? And if so, do American taxpayers really have to foot the bill? Carter's made it perfectly clear that he's attending this meeting in his capacity as head of the Carter Center, not as a former President of the United States--so why do I have to pay for it?