(no subject)

[petermarcus]

Iraq and sports:

Iraq is going to the Olympics in soccer/football for the first time in Iraqi history (clean article -- congrats to them!):
http://www.cpa-iraq.org/pressreleases/20040513_football.html

A Sports Illustrated article from a year ago, about the Iraqi sports program, headed (at the time) by Uday Hussein. The descriptions of the torture of losing athletes are not for the squeamish:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/si_online/news/2003/03/24/son_of_saddam/


(Edit: some descriptive wording added)

Comments

[teaser.livejournal.com]

I hope the Olympics goes off without incident. At least on the sports field the war is forgotten (if only for a few seconds).

[petermarcus.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Politics tend to get dragged in to the Olympics anyway, but the effort of avoiding them is so very noble.

[teaser.livejournal.com]

The recent bomb blasts in Athens worry me a little though. The Greeks haven't managed to complete all their stadiums yet...will they be able to provide decent security to the athletes and tourists? I'm a little sceptical.

[petermarcus.livejournal.com]

Me, too. I was living in Atlanta, though I was away, when the bomb went off during the Olympics in '96. At the time I wondered if there would be a city to come home to.