timmynausea
02-05-2006, 01:46 PM
Bettis gets key to city, same as Saddam
By Patrick McManamon
Akron Beacon Journal
Published: 02.01.2006
DETROIT — The city of Detroit presented the Key to the City to Steelers running back Jerome Bettis on Tuesday.
Bettis, a Detroit native, joined only three others to receive the key — and one of them was Saddam Hussein.
Yes, that Saddam Hussein, dictator from Iraq, now on trial after being thrown out by a U.S. invasion.
Seems back in 1980, Saddam was on the side of the good guys, and just after he was "elected" president of Iraq, he became friends with a Rev. Jacob Yasso, who ran Chaldean Sacred Heart church in the Motor City.
Yasso recently told The Associated Press that Saddam was "very kind, very generous, very cooperative with the West."
"Money and power changed the person," Yasso added.
Chaldeans are a Catholic group in predominantly Muslim Iraq, and Detroit is a city with a large Muslim population. Saddam donated money to many Chaldean churches, according to the AP, and gave the church in Detroit $250,000.
At that time, Iraq was at war with Iran, which was an enemy of the United States.
Bettis laughed off his link with Saddam.
"I don't know that I'll be sharing that with Saddam," he said. "I think they canceled his key. They changed the locks on that one."
http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/113959
By Patrick McManamon
Akron Beacon Journal
Published: 02.01.2006
DETROIT — The city of Detroit presented the Key to the City to Steelers running back Jerome Bettis on Tuesday.
Bettis, a Detroit native, joined only three others to receive the key — and one of them was Saddam Hussein.
Yes, that Saddam Hussein, dictator from Iraq, now on trial after being thrown out by a U.S. invasion.
Seems back in 1980, Saddam was on the side of the good guys, and just after he was "elected" president of Iraq, he became friends with a Rev. Jacob Yasso, who ran Chaldean Sacred Heart church in the Motor City.
Yasso recently told The Associated Press that Saddam was "very kind, very generous, very cooperative with the West."
"Money and power changed the person," Yasso added.
Chaldeans are a Catholic group in predominantly Muslim Iraq, and Detroit is a city with a large Muslim population. Saddam donated money to many Chaldean churches, according to the AP, and gave the church in Detroit $250,000.
At that time, Iraq was at war with Iran, which was an enemy of the United States.
Bettis laughed off his link with Saddam.
"I don't know that I'll be sharing that with Saddam," he said. "I think they canceled his key. They changed the locks on that one."
http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/113959