Jerome "The Bus" Bettis & Saddam...what do they have in common?

[givemebackmycountry]

Today the Mayor of the City of Detroit gave a "key to the city" to Jerome Bettis, star running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Detroit native.

It was only the third time in the city's history that someone was given a "key to the city" in Detroit.

The last time was 1980.

Who was so honored?

Saddam Hussein.

Saddam Hussein donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to a Detroit church and received a key to the city more than two decades ago, soon after he became president of Iraq.

Saddam’s bond with Detroit started in 1979, when the Rev. Jacob Yasso of Chaldean Sacred Heart congratulated Saddam on his presidency.
In return, Yasso said, his church received $250,000.

“He was very kind person, very generous, very cooperative with the West.
Lately, what’s happened, I don’t know,” Yasso, 70, said Wednesday. “Money and power changed the person.”

Yasso said that at the time, Saddam made donations to Chaldean churches around the world.

“He’s very kind to Christians,” Yasso said.

A year later, Yasso traveled with about two dozen people to Baghdad as a guest of the Iraqi government, and they were invited to Saddam’s palace.

“We were received on the red carpet,” Yasso said.

Yasso said he presented Saddam with the key to the city, courtesy of then-Mayor Coleman Young.
Then, Yasso said, he got a surprise.

“He said, `I heard there was a debt on your church. How much is it?’” Yasso said.

Saddam donated another $200,000.

In the 1980s, Iraq and the United States were allied in their mistrust of Iran, which held hundreds of Americans hostage under the regime of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Yasso called Saddam an American puppet.

“The job the United States trusted to him is done; now he’s no good,” he said.

http://stupidevilbastard.com/index/seb/comments/saddam_holds_key_to_the_city_of_detroit/


Nice.

[MinnesotaDem]

1. There is no question..................

Saddam will go down as one of the greatest humanitarians of all time.

[oasis]

2. Bettis will have "Shock and Awe" visited upon him. Saddam and

Bettis will have that in common come Sunday.:woohoo: