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December 06, 2013 | | NELSON MANDELA The world is mourning the South African leader who was a powerful force for peace and democracy, but the U.S. government once considered him a "terrorist." If we turn Mandela into a nonthreatening moral icon, says The Daily Beast's Peter Beinart, we'll forget a key lesson from his life: America isn't always a force for freedom. Plus, full coverage of Mandela's death ahead of his funeral, set for December 15: read Michael Moynihan on his relations with dictators; watch video of his six defining moments; read his most inspiring quotes; and see photos of his long and remarkable life. OBIT Nelson Mandela refused to be thought of as a saint. "I never was one," he insisted—"even on the basis of an earthly definition of a saint as a sinner who keeps trying." He wasn't just being modest. He had a weakness for fine clothes and good-looking women, and he certainly was no pacifist. But a halo was the last thing Mandela needed. He spent half a century wrestling South Africa's white-minority rulers to the negotiating table, and when he finally got them there, he had to be a hard bargainer, not a holy man. The Daily Beast's Sam Seibert on the man who liberated South Africa—and then held it together. NEW LOW The U.S. economy added 230,000 jobs in November, slightly higher than analysts had predicted, showing that despite the government shutdown in the fall, the economy is picking up momentum. The new jobs brought the unemployment rate down to 7 percent, a five-year low. The numbers were slightly inflated by the return of furloughed federal employees to work after the shutdown, but the gains go beyond the effects of government payrolls. FREE, SORT OF Two Guantanamo Bay detainees were repatriated to Algeria on Thursday, a sign of the Obama administration's intensifying efforts to close the controversial detention center. The two detainees strongly protested the move, fearing they would be persecuted on their return; their lawyers and human rights groups also attacked it, saying the men could have been released in Montreal or Luxembourg, where they used to live. On Wednesday, another detainee was repatriated to Saudi Arabia, reducing the count to 162. "President Obama remains deeply determined to close the detention facility at Guantánamo," said national security adviser Susan Rice. "We expect to announce more transfers in the near future." BRRRR It may have been hitting the 80s in Texas earlier this week, but that's about to change: the Lone Star State braced Thursday night for an ice storm that has already dumped as much as two feet of snow on parts of the Midwest. The National Weather Service issued winter storm warnings for most of Friday for Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. The storm will likely deliver cold rain, then freezing temperatures, resulting in ice that makes roads slippery. | | 
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