Sens. John Kerry, Bob Corker, and Sheldon Whitehouse today announced the passage of their legislation to remove former South African President Nelson Mandela from the terror watch list. The bill grants the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, the authority to waive U.S. travel restrictions on President Mandela and other members of the African National Congress (ANC.)People might be wary of letting Mandela off the hook, but i think it's safe. He's been out of prison for a while and hasn't re-offended, so I think we can let him into the country without a full cavity search.
Mandela and his fellow ANC members remain on the list for activities they conducted against South Africa’s apartheid regime decades ago. The senators hope the passage of this legislation will end this embarrassing impediment to improving U.S.-South Africa relations.
While some will applaud Congress getting on top of this in such a timely manner (only 18 years since he was freed), it of course moves on to a White House where one of the more prominent members of the executive branch *coughcheneycough* voted against a resolution calling for Mandela's release. So getting him off the terrorist watch list isn't a slam dunk.
Maybe Cheney's caution in 1986 was right, this could be the opening Mandela has been lying in wait for. You've got to be on your game when dealing with these 90 year old peace-niks. Maybe we should have just given him a nice hat or something for his birthday.
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