NYPD Denies Carter Request to Visit Ground Zero :-)

(ScrappleFace) — The New York City Police Department today turned down a request by former President Jimmy Carter to go to ‘Ground Zero’, the site of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, during Mr. Carter’s upcoming visit to Columbia University because the department could not “guarantee his safety.”

Mr. Carter, who this week said that the U.S. tortures terror detainees and called Vice President Dick Cheney a “disaster“, has previously said the Bush administration’s international relations efforts are “the worst in history.”

An unnamed NYPD spokesman said, “We’re treating Jimmy Carter like we’d treat any other public figure who has denigrated our country and its leaders, and otherwise brought aid and comfort to our enemies. If we allowed his visit, we’d owe an apology to [Iranian President] Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.”

The Nobel prize winner, whose statesmanship ushered in an era of deep and lasting harmony between Muslims and Jews in the Middle East, had requested the Ground Zero tour during his upcoming visit to Columbia University, when he’s slated to deliver the 2008 Ahmadinejad Lectures on Faith and Diplomacy.