No longer a terrorist

The world feted Nelson Mandela Friday with a London concert attended by thousands in honor of his approaching 90th birthday.

The concert at London's Hyde Park raised funds for the AIDS charity 46664, which was Mr. Mandela's number when he was a prisoner of South Africa's apartheid regime. The concert marked the 20th anniversary of the Free Mandela concert demanding his release from prison.

He was freed in 1990 after 27 years behind bars and went on four years later to become the country's first black president. He retired from politics in 1999 but has been active in the fight against AIDS.

In 1993, he and then-South African Prime Minister F.W. de Klerk shared the Nobel Peace Prize for bringing a peaceful end to the country's inhumane segregationist system.

While the rest of the world celebrated Mr. Mandela's birthday, Congress finally got around to correcting an indignity done to him.

Despite the cause he championed for a lifetime, the Nobel Peace Prize winner has been blacklisted in the United States. His name appeared on a U.S. terrorist watchlist, along with others in the African National Congress that he led.

The ANC was designated a terrorist group by the former white-minority government of South Africa. The United States and other countries followed suit. As a result, Mr. Mandela and other members of his party have required waivers to get into the United States.

The ANC was removed from the State Department's watchlist of terrorist organizations years ago but members remained on other lists.

In April, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told a House committee, "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."

Over the years, other ANC members have been questions and even denied visas to enter the country. But last week Congress voted to remove Mr. Mandela's name and those of anyone else on the lists because of their ANC affiliation. It should not have taken an act of Congress.

Homeland Secretary Michael Chertoff had said that the issue of the ANC and Mr. Mandela's status "raises a troubling and difficult debate about what groups are considered terrorists and which are not."

Mr. Mandela and the ANC should be just the beginning of that national debate.