Mandela finally dropped from US terror watch list

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States has removed former South African president Nelson Mandela and his African National Congress from a three-decade old immigration watch list for possible terrorists, the White House said Tuesday.

In time for the anti-apartheid leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner's 90th birthday on July 18, President George W. Bush signed a bill Tuesday which effectively ended a system in which Mandela had to get special certification from the US secretary of state that he is not a terrorist in order to visit the United States.

Now Mandela and members of the ANC will be able to simply apply for visas to travel to the United States, the State Department said.

"Today the United States finally has removed from its legal code a vestige of that...