(NAME-MCE) FW: Madela on Terror Watch List?!?!?!

[Tracey de Morsella]

-----Original Message-----
From: Chris de Morsella [mailto:cdemorsella at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2008 10:44 AM
To: Tracey de Morsella (work); Julie de Morsella; paul demorsella
Subject: RE: Just who is being watched?

http://news. aol.com/story/ _a/mandela- is-on-us- terrorist- watch-lists/
2008050109030999 0001


Mandela Is on US Terrorist Watch Lists
By Mimi Hall,
USA Today
Posted: 2008-05-01 10:44:26
Filed Under: World News


(May 1) - Nobel Peace Prize winner and international symbol of freedom
Nelson Mandela is flagged on U.S. terrorist watch lists and needs special
permission to visit the USA. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice calls the
situation "embarrassing, " and some members of Congress vow to fix it.

The requirement applies to former South African leader Mandela and other
members of South Africa's governing African National Congress (ANC), the
once-banned anti-Apartheid organization. In the 1970s and '80s, the ANC was
officially designated a terrorist group by the country's ruling white
minority. Other countries, including the United States, followed suit.


Because of this, Rice told a Senate committee recently, her department has
to issue waivers for ANC members to travel to the USA.

"This is a country with which we now have excellent relations, South Africa,
but it's frankly 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," Rice said.

Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., chairman of the House International Relations
Committee, is pushing a bill that would remove current and former ANC
leaders from the watch lists. Supporters hope to get it passed before
Mandela's 90th birthday July 18.

"What an indignity," Berman said. "The ANC set an important example: It
successfully made the change from armed struggle to peace. We should
celebrate the transformation. "

In 1990, Mandela was freed after 27 years in prison for crimes committed
during the struggle against Apartheid, a repressive regime that subjugated
black South Africans. In 1994, he was elected South Africa's first black
president.

Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., called ANC members' inclusion on watch lists a
"bureaucratic snafu" and pledged to fix the problem.

Members of other groups deemed a terrorist threat, such as Hamas, also are
on the watch lists.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says "common sense" suggests
Mandela should be removed. He says the issue "raises a troubling and
difficult debate about what groups are considered terrorists and which are
not."

When ANC members apply for visas to the USA, they are flagged for
questioning and need a waiver to be allowed in the country. In 2002, former
ANC chairman Tokyo Sexwale was denied a visa. In 2007, Barbara Masekela,
South Africa's ambassador to the United States from 2002 to 2006, was denied
a visa to visit her ailing cousin and didn't get a waiver until after the
cousin had died, Berman's legislation says.