Nelson Mandela. A name that just about everyone on this planet recognises. He is a great statesman, a freedom fighter, hero and well.. he's Nelson Mandela. The Nelson Mandela. But to the US, he is still deemed a terrorist in that he is still on the US terror watch list. Yes, that's right folks. The powers that be in the US are only now starting to move closer to having him and the ANC removed from the US terror watch list. It's taken them this long? All this time, it's only now they are deciding to do this.. as a present for his 90th birthday? What the hell...? Of course, the bigger question is how he could have made it to the list in the first place.. He was unjustly jailed by an apartheid regime. And that somehow makes him a terrorist? Wrongfully? No shit Sherlock. And Senator Lee should not talk along party lines on this issue. Clinton, a Democratic President, also did not remove him from the terror watch list. Nor did the Bush's... up to now.. for his birthday present. I mean honestly! Did they just forget? Well, no, not really. Condoleezza Rice was apparently embarrassed that it was even in place. Well better late than never.Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
The bigger question is all those other people not famous enough to get special consideration, but who also do not deserve to be on there.
I didn't think there was that much debate on the fact he was a terrorist. He's not anymore, but he was.
i agree with spider, who else is on the list maybe the PM, president and former leaders of east timor perhaps?
America and Israel are two nations which fully supported the apartheid South African system, thus they declared South African resistance leaders as terrorists. Nelson Mandela is also an advocate for Palestinian rights and has likened Israeli apartheid system to that of the South African one which was oppressed South Africa for many years.
:bugeye: Seriously, it's taken them this long? Yes Ms Rice. It is "embarrassing". And also kind of scary. Can't really be that surprised though. Wasn't Cheney one of the people who voted against a Congressional resolution to call on South Africa to release Mandela? As for who else is on that list... It's so damn huge now, anyone could be on it. But Frank James from The Swamp makes a very valid point: How many times is this list revised? And no one noticed until now that not only Mandela's name, but that of anyone associated with the ANC, is on the list? If he can get on it, who else can and who else is not.
Just because you don't see Mandela as a terrorist doesn't mean anybody could be on the list. Rest assured "asguard" isn't on the list. Nelson Mandela was a terrorist from the perspective of south africa and thus south africa's allies, he was actively trying to dismantle the government. Turns out now lots of people think that government was in the wrong and blah blah blah, and Mandela's like a hero for the oppressed and etc. But that doesn't really change the fact that he was a terrorist. Saying he wasn't is like saying Bin laden isn't because it turns out America sucks and should have been attacked. Mandela is a convicted criminal terrorist, so ofcourse he would be on a list of known terrorists. Maybe there should be some wankey ceremony where they take him off the list, but I don't see why we're all outraged and surprised that he is on such a list.
Its all perspective, to the Germans the French resistance were terrorists and the Allies, terrorist supporters. From Hitlers perspective, he was dutifully protecting the fatherland from economic terrorism, it was his War on Terror. Its probably why modern "democracies" have adopted his Verschärfte Vernehmung
When Saddam was an ally Mandela was a 'criminal terrorist' for US in the eighties.. the real surpise is why current south african regime is not declaring Bush a terrorist.
