Former President Jimmy Carter thinks the best way to avoid being spied by the National Security Agency is not with advanced technology, but with good old fashioned snail mail.
In a Sunday interview with NBC's "Meet the Press," the nation's 39th president said he believes the NSA intercepts his emails. Carter spoke with NBC's Andrea Mitchell at The Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia.
"As a matter of fact, you know, I have felt that my own communications are probably monitored," Carter, 89, said. "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."
In other words, Carter uses "old fashioned snail mail," Mitchell suggested.
"Yeah," Carter replied, "Because I believe if I send an email it will be monitored."
The former Democrat president said the NSA has taken surveillance a little bit too far.
"[The justification for surveillance] has been extremely liberalized and, I think, abused by our own intelligence agencies," Carter said.
Turning to international affairs, Carter said President Barack Obama has not reached out to him for advice on how to handle Russian President Vladimir Putin, who went against the U.S. and signed a bill that formally annexed Crimea from the Ukraine last week.
"Unfortunately the answer is no. President Obama doesn't, but previous presidents have called me," Carter told Mitchell.
Carter, who served as president from 1977 to 1981, is promoting his book, "A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence and Power," to be released this month.
