Mandela Removed From U.S. Terrorist List

The 90-year-old ex-president of South Africa has been unwelcome for many years

Following a national outcry which even included comments of outrage from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the United States government will finally remove former South African President Nelson Mandelas from a U.S. terrorism watch list. The international icon and Nobel Peace Prize winners treatment by the U.S. government urged lawmakers to introduce a bill to take him off the list. President Bush signed the bill Tuesday. He had no place on our governments terror watch list, and Im pleased to see this bill finally become law, said Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry. Mandela, the former head of the African National Congress, was the jailed for 24 years during the heyday of apartheid, the South African regimes longtime system of racial separation that was brutally enforced by the White minority government for 46 years. South African dubbed the apartheid-fighting ANC a terrorist group. Thus ANC members were denied U.S. visas, without special permission. Mandela was released from prison in 1990 and, four years later, apartheid officially crumbled, but the leaders name remained on the U.S. terrorist watch list. Under the new bill, both the State Department and Homeland Security Department have the power to dissolve the restrictions against Mandela and fellow ANC members. What it will do is make sure that there arent any extra hoops for either a distinguished individual, like former President Mandela, or other members of the African National Congress to get a U.S. visa, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.