Why Not to Rescue GM

I see that the President is ready to throw another $17.4 billion down a rathole of bad management (this time at big auto) without much in exchange except the purring utterance that "of course I'll respect you in the morning" (link). There is a little flutter in the story about getting "non-voting warrants" but my guess is that by the time the ink is dry, they will turn out to be pretty much confetti. So this is as good a time as any to showcase a story that Steve Coll dug up for his riveting account of the Bin Laden family.

It's about Salem, eldest brother of Osama and de facto leader of the family for many years before his death in 1998. Apparently Salem had some honest-to-goodness ability, but he certainly relished all the perks of being a rich kid, including but not limited to all the babes that come with the deal.

But at around the age of 40, Salem decided to settle down and take a wife--well, actually, four wives, as permitted by Islamic law. He brought four of his special friends to his brick-walled estate outside London. There were four separate nationalities: one British, one German, one French, and one American.

Now I paraphrase Coll, parphrasing Salem: ladies, I propose to you marriage: honest, upright, honorable, marriage. But I am a dreamer, a visionary. I will build each of you a home in my new family compound at Jeddah. It will be a little United Nations. Each of you will have your own home, where you will fly your own flag. And (now I quote Coll) "each wife would have a car parked outside, a model from her own country."

We shift our focus now to the American girl (she seems to be Coll's source for the story). What is she thinking as she listens, with her prospective co-wives, to this vision of domestic and international harmony? Coll quotes her:

"I get gypped--I don't want a Corvette or a Cadillac."

Keep that in mind, Mr. President, when you are drafting the language of the bailout warrant.

Source: Steven Coll, The Bin Ladens 308 (2008). Coll also tells the story in this podcast, where I first heard it. The book, by the way, is a gripping read, and it works on two quite different levels. One, it's just a ripping yarn (I believe I heard Coll say he had more fun writing it than anyof his previous books). But two, it is a riveting introduction to the new world of Middle Eastern playboys (and a few playgirls), thrust from the Stone Age into the 20th (and 21st) Century before either we or they had any chance to figure out what was up.