SADDAM: DA AMICO A DEMONIO

["annamaria" <ambarile@fermobiologico.it>]

Saddam: From friend to fiend
From the National Desk
Published 3/26/2003 11:02 AM
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DETROIT, Ill., March 26 (UPI) -- In 1980, the city of Detroit gave Iraqi
leader Saddam Hussein the key to the city.

Today, the 90,000 area residents of Iraqi descent wonder how the generous
individual who donated $1.5 million to cover their church's debt and build a
parish center could have turned so evil.

"It's very strange, thinking about it now," the Rev. Jacob Yasso, pastor of
Detroit's Sacred Heart Parish, said of the 1980 ceremony, during which
then-Mayor Coleman Young passed along his compliments.

The 70-year-old Iraqi-born priest traveled to Baghdad two decades ago to
present the key to Saddam, accompanied by 25 Chaldean Catholics to celebrate
Sacred Heart's 50th anniversary. The sojourn was funded by the Iraqi
Embassy.

Yasso, leader of the west side Chaldean Catholic community, noted at the
time, Saddam was "an American puppet." Iraq and the United States were
allied against Iran.

Many in Yasso's congregation as well as area Muslims of Iraqi descent say
they have loved ones missing in Iraq but have been afraid to talk, fearing
the regime would retaliate against other family members in the country. Now
that hostilities have erupted, many are speaking out and say they will
demand a full accounting of what happened to missing family members when the
fighting ends.

Some may be in Iraqi prisons and observers speculate they may be used as
bargaining chips by the regime.

Yasso tells the story of a mother and daughter-in-law who asked to see their
son and husband who had been arrested. Several hours later, authorities
knocked on the door and dropped off the body. The man had been chopped into
seven pieces.

Imam Qazwini of the Islamic Center said his grandfather, a prominent imam in
Iraq, was beaten and arrested for refusing to bless Iraq's decision to
attack Iran.



Copyright © 2001-2003 United Press International


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