Mandela finally dropped from US terror watch list

[CptSternn]

http://tinyurl.com/6b5ewu

WASHINGTON (AFP) - President George W. Bush has removed former South African president Nelson Mandela and his African National Congress from the US terror watch list, the White House said Tuesday.

The bill was sent to the White House last week and signed in time for the anti-apartheid leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner's 90th birthday on July 18.

"Today the United States moved closer at last to removing the great shame of dishonoring this great leader by including him on our government's terror watch list," Senator John Kerry said after the bill was approved Friday.

When a similar bill passed the House of Representatives last month, Barbara Lee, a California Democrat who co-sponsored it, said she was "especially pleased we are taking this important step to finally right this inexcusable wrong."

Lee and others said the legislation introduced during the 1980s while Ronald Reagan was president was anachronistic and wrongfully labeled as heroes and freedom fighters as terrorists.

Lee recalled that under the legislation the ANC could travel to United Nations headquarters in New York but not to Washington, DC, or other parts of the United States.

In April, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged a Senate committee to remove the restrictions on the ANC party, calling it a "rather embarrassing matter that I still have to waive in my own counterpart, the foreign minister of South Africa, not to mention the great leader Nelson Mandela."

[CptSternn]

Wow. I mean, this was something that I thought Clinton had fixed, yet he hadn't.

So, for those following at home - the US government officially stood against Mandela on the issue of apartheid. They called him a terrorist for fighting against the government to stop the practice of separating the races, and making blacks a second class citizen.

Until today, the US government called him a terrorist, and his supporters terrorists.

I mean, now on his 90th birthday (well, two days ago) when the world got together and celebrated his victories and accomplishments, NOW the US government comes out and supports him.

Of course, nothing is said about the money, guns, and 'military advisers' that the US sent to S. Africa to combat 'terrorism' (readin: the resources the US used to fight this man).

Goes to show that 'terrorist' and 'freedom fighter' are terms that are mainly defined by what a person believes in and where they are from.

[Moni-que]

geez things like this always amazing