What a travesty. Bad enough the US wouldn't let 77 year old Ibrahim Ferrer in to receive his Grammy, but Nelson Mandela?
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.
[From U.S. has Mandela on terrorist list - USATODAY.com]
How many US Presidential Administrations have ignored this travesty? Reagan, Bush the Smarter, Clinton, and the current Bush, over 20 years of bureaucratic snafus.
As an aside, I bet it wouldn't be very difficult to dig through the morass of right wing media and blogs and discover accusations that Mr. Mandela is a terrorist, or other groundless accusations. Reagan didn't care much for Mandela after all.
BTW, remember this song?
