Historic terrorism

Politicians love to get their picture with Nelson Mandela, gives them credibility. Next David Cameron denounces the UK government’s policy at the time, where Thatcher branded the ANC terrorists.

That’s brave or stupid. People forget that ANC had a paramilitary wing back then who were blowing up restaurants and killing civilians. One family friend “Tony Hudson” died in one such attack, which goes down in ANC‘s Web pages like so:

18/04/86 Bomb explodes in casino of Wild Coast Holiday Inn; 2 civilians killed, 1 injured Note: the ANC denied responsibility for this attack.

Did that mean “Apartheid agents” killed him? Or the ANC did, but aren’t sure? Some other crazy?

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was setup at the fall of the Apartheid government to document the terrorist activities on both sides. I have yet to read the report. I’ve sort have dismissed it as it is common knowledge that files were destroyed and many important people didn’t give testimony.

Some people say the ANC wasn’t a terrorist organisation, it was a counter-terrorist organisation, combating Apartheid’s terrorism. It’s all a bit of a slippery slope, making “terrorist” rhetoric difficult to consume.

I’ve noticed Wikipedia has an interesting category for terrorist organisations which have gained legitimacy.