The Crow-Qadhafi Connection

Yet there is plenty to chew on in the bizarre affair of the Crow family's dalliance with a dictator's regime.

If they were not hoping to do a deal, why did the Crows go to such lengths, seek to pull so many strings, to befriend a government that is anathema to the Western world? Did this conservative Republican Texas family simply develop an abiding sympathy for the nation whose leader President Reagan once dubbed "Mad Dog"?

And if the Crows were seeking to do a deal, why did they so brazenly exploit their powerful political relationships to make it happen? Were they so desperate for the money?

"Arabs," sneered Chuck Dyer, Henry Billingsley's friend, reflecting on the affair. "They never buy anything. They are big talk and no cattle. They all look rich on paper. But they talk to you about a deal, you don't hear from them for months, and then they call you up and want a favor."

What's remarkable in this case is that Trammell Crow and Henry Billingsley were so very willing to do so many favors.