When Saints Stumble - An open letter to Nelson Mandela

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Mailed Friday, January 04, 2002

President Nelson Mandela
Via Ambassador Cameron R. Hume
U.S. Ambassador to South Africa

Dear President Mandela
I never thought it would be necessary to write to the man whom I consider to be one of the greatest men of history let alone of our times. I grew up watching you in prison, starting your time as a radical firebrand advocating violence and ending it as a peaceful man who single-handedly delivered his nation from the torment of its own past. You are directly responsible for the thousands, tens of thousands, perhaps millions of lives saved through the deliverance of your nation from war into peace. And for this I am sure history will remember you well.

I decided to write you after reading an AP wire news story, dated January 3, 2002, that states you have softened your support for America's fight against terrorism. For a peace-loving man to now succumb to the lies of a man who knows nothing but hate and has killed far more than the regime you fought against surprises me. It serves to remind me that you are not the saint many, including myself, have deemed you to be. You are simply a man, one who has done great things, but one who is not infallible.

In your statements of Wednesday January 02, 2002 you state, "The labeling of Osama bin Laden as the terrorist responsible for those acts before he had been tried and convicted could also be seen as undermining some of the basic tenets of the rule of law." President Mandela, the United States has been attacked several times by Osama Bin Laden and his men: The bombing of the Dharan military barracks in 1996. The embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya in August 1998. The USS Cole in October 2000. These are acts of war, not simply criminal acts. Bin Laden has stated clearly in a fatwa, which most Muslim scholars believe to be an heretical act, that Muslims must "kill Americans and Jews wherever they may be." This is exactly what Bin Laden's followers did on September 11, 2001. The above acts have been termed "military operations" by Bin Laden. He has referred to the places where he has trained his men as "military bases". He tirelessly calls on the Muslim world to rise up in Jihad, creating a war against all non-believers or those who believe and have become corrupted. As such, doesn't my people have the right to defend itself?