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WASHINGTON DC (Rediff) May 8, 2008 – The United States House of Representatives unanimously passed a legislation to erase the government-imposed stigma against membership in the African National Congress of South Africa, the party of Nobel Laureate and former South African President Nelson Mandela.
The bill, authored by Congressman and California Democrat Howard Berman, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, would remove any notation that would characterise the ANC and its leaders — including Mandela — as terrorists, from all US databases.
Berman said, “This long-overdue bill is the direct result of a stunning and embarrassing story for the United States.”
For decades, the ANC resisted Apartheid and advocated the rights of black South Africans–first through nonviolence and community activism, and then through the actions of its military wing.
The racist white South African government banned the ANC in 1960, and the United States denied entry to ANC members based on the group’s activities. With the end of Apartheid in 1990, the ANC grew to become a leading political party and today continues to lead South Africa in a multiracial, multiparty democracy.
Berman said, “Astonishingly, while South Africa completed its monumental political transition, the US position regarding entry for ANC’s leaders remained frozen in time. Leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, and Govan Mbeki–father of President Thabo Mbeki–were continually barred from entry to the US and had to apply for special waivers to gain entry.”
John Edwards blasted Dick Cheney’s voting record as a congressman where he voted against the release of Nelson Mandela, instituting a holiday for Martin Luther King, Jr., Head Start and more. We speak with John Nichols of The Nation magazine and author of Dick: The Man Who Is President.
that this required legislative action at all is stark testimonial to the depravity of the “homeland security” apparatus that’s been erected in this country.
mandela, winner of the nobel peace prize in 1993, a terrorist?…it is indeed an alternate reality.
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Jimmy Carter Meets Hamas Leader Mashaal
Hezbollah routs pro-government gunmen, controls Beirut
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon’s Iranian-backed Hezbollah took control of the Muslim part of Beirut, tightening its grip on the city in a major blow to the U.S.-backed government.
The European Union, Germany and France urged calm and a peaceful resolution. Syria said the issue was an internal Lebanese affair while Iran blamed “the adventurist interferences” of the United States and Israel for the violence.
The fighting, the worst internal strife since the 1975-90 civil war, was triggered this week after the government took decisions targeting Hezbollah’s military communications network. The group said the government had declared war.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."You really have to give a vote to Bush and Olmert for being the assholes of year, 2006, for pumping up the legitimacy of Hezbollah as the sole defender of Lebanon. Can’t help asking: what the hell were in their minds when they concocted this invasion of southern Lebanon, killing more than 1200 southern Shiite Lebanese, initially, the rest of the toll attributed to cluster bombs which keep on killing, especially children.
Will there be another Bush-Olmert adventure to take down Hezbollah, the militant org almost entirely of Sharon’s making, when he killed over 10,000 southern Shiite Lebanese in 1982. There is nothing more convincing of military power than a modern American-made military force taking on civilian populations.
The civilians will lose every time. Well, stand correct: not the last time. Hezbollah won it seems.
So now the Bush-Olmert duo has succeeded in not only devastating a beautiful country like Lebanon, but taking it down politically.
Anyone understand international politics? Confused. And the point was….?