Let’s check in on the Chicago Bears and White Sox stadium situations, through assorted quotes that have appeared in what’s left of newspapers:
- “[There is] next to no appetite to fund a new [White Sox] stadium with taxpayer dollars.” — Illinois state senate president Don Harmon
- “If the Bears can get it done in Chicago, I think they’ll try to do it. If they can’t get it done in Chicago, this is just me guessing, I think they’re going to be right back here [in Arlington Heights].” — Arlington Heights school district lobbyist John Dunn
- “Mr. Auchi never met or spoke to Saddam Hussein.” — attorneys for Nadhmi Shakir Auchi, the 86-year-old Iraqi-British billionaire who owns the South Loop land where White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf wants to build his stadium
So, uh, yeah. The biggest bombshell, obviously, is the Chicago Sun-Times’ lengthy investigation of Auchi, who twice had visa applications rejected by the U.S. State Department on the grounds of “crimes of moral turpitude,” which may or may not be related to that time in 1959 when he and Hussein were among 78 Iraqis convicted of trying to assassinate that country’s prime minister, Abdul-Karim Qasim. (Qasim had taken power himself in a military coup that had assassinated the previous prime minister, and was eventually overthrown and killed four years later in a suspected CIA-backed plot.) Auchi has been operating through his property manager the Related Companies, and until now had mostly stayed out of the spotlight.
That Reinsdorf’s partner in his proposed downtown development is a foreign billionaire with a history of light murder plots may not be the most important part of his $2 billion subsidy demand, but it’s certainly not going to help at a time when state officials are already unenthused about the idea: The same Sun-Times article that quoted Harmon continued, “There might be some [state legislative] members who could be open to the idea, but there simply aren’t nearly enough of those folks right now to cobble together a majority of 30 votes in the Senate and 60 in the House and a governor’s signature.” So Reinsdorf — and Bears owner Virginia Halas McCaskey, who at 101 is a whole 13 years older than the White Sox owner — need a groundswell of support to get stadium deals done in their lifetimes, and questions of exactly how chummy his real estate partner was with Saddam Hussein aren’t likely to help.
Of course, this is Chicago, and this is real estate, and lots of funny things can happen when both those things are involved. One more quote:
- “I don’t know about you, but sometimes I feel as though there’s an entire world going on out there I know nothing about.” — Chicago Sun-Times sports columnist Rick Telander
You said it, Rick! Not sure I would have admitted it in the newspaper column where I’m paid to know things and write about them, but points for honesty.
Can the government be mad a guy for trying to assassinate a guy they wound up assassinating later?
He screwed it up so yeah. Technically the Hussein regime practiced some version of socialism so that’s an automatic no-no in our “allowed governments to exist” registry.
Basically, you can commit human atrocities… If you’re in favor of American interests or have the belief that power belongs to a select few. But the moment you start saying the proletariat deserve equal say, that’s gotta go!
Isn’t American meddling fun?
It just reminds me of the time when the US Government indicted the bank the CIA used to move money around for Iran-Contra without indicting the people within the CIA for Iran-Contra
I remain steamed that Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams was allowed to continue his political and punditry career without a requirement that whenever he appeared on TV he would have to be identified as “Elliott Abrams, Convicted Liar.”
to quote George Carlin: “Bull-shit! That’s our F’ing Job!!”
I miss the old NYT Pitchbot so I read that as “Here’s why that’s bad for Joe Biden”.
Also, I assume he was jailed for FAILED assassination because if it was a successful assassination he would have been celebrated in this country.
That was indeed meant as a Pitchbot reference, yes.
I think the whole “being chummy with Saddam” thing is really a question of timing.
Was he pals with Saddam when SH was on the CIA payroll and frequently received warm and hug-filled visits/tributes from the likes of Rumsfailed and the future Bush 41?
Clearly Saddam was someone we could work with then, no matter how many of his own people he exterminated (suboptimal) or Iranians he gassed (gold star in the CIA’s book, but not mine).
Sort of like when Noriega was on ‘our side’, or Juan Orlando Hernandez (whom we pushed through as president for a third time – despite being term limited by the local constitution – after a curiously delayed election in which he was losing before the delay but ultimately triumphed several weeks later), or Pinochet or Castillo Armas etc. etc. etc…
So long as they are the right kind of bloodthirsty murderous dictators, we seem completely able to work with them.
I wouldn’t rule Reinsdorf or Auchi out yet, the latter seems resourceful… just the kind of overseas partner the west (and maybe MLB) loves to keep in the mix.
Which was the African country where one year in the 1970s the U.S. and U.S.S.R. just up and switched sides that each was supporting? I need to go re-read Philip Agee and John Stockwell.
I believe it was Angola? Those times were so wild, strongmen and armed rebellions would switch between loving/hating Communism and/or radical Islamism and/or European colonialism at will, depending on whoever was offering the most stuff at the time. If you’re interested by this stuff and want a good laugh, the Lions Led By Donkeys podcast is a good listen. They cover all military history, but have several miniseries dunking on idiotic Cold War-era dictators along with their bumbling CIA and/or KGB handlers. Being a spook in the 70s sounds like it was insane.
That sounds right — early-onset Jonas Savimbi?
I know that Angola was the origin of the Kissinger Grunt, which is truly the greatest moment in the history of U.S. foreign policy:
https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/31023350/in-search-of-enemies-a-cia-story-john-stockwell
(Flip ahead a few pages to the prologue.)
Ya know? I did NOT have “business partner with links to the murder of a middle eastern Prime Minister” on the ol’ “My Team’s Turn in the Stadium Swindle” Bingo card.
We are currently the worst team in baseball, by the way. Can you believe that?
Ha ha – you can?!??
Go White Sox?
One of the things that makes me tend to believe the scientists who say we might be living in a computer simulation are right is that it should not be possible for a major league baseball team to be worse than the Oakland A’s as-run by John Fisher.
And yet several are.
It’s like a broken plate suddenly leaping from the floor and reassembling itself…
John, I really like that last graf! Good metaphor!