The Wilmette mansion of former Rod Blagojevich fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko sold today for the opening bid of $2.8 million to the same bank that put the house up for auction.
Bank of America, which foreclosed $5.9 million on the property last May, was the only bidder.
Stolen: It’s the Chicago way! Keeps it all together to help connect the dots. Make yourself at home and add anything you want.
FROM:
http://chicago.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/cg081409.htm
CHICAGO—A Chicago man was indicted on federal charges for allegedly providing false information about possible terrorism activity to the FBI, causing agents to aggressively investigate the information before determining that it was a hoax. The defendant, Uzair Ali Hashmi, was indicted on three felony counts of making false statements to FBI agents, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northen District of Illinois, and Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, announced today.
Hashmi, 20,of the city’s far north side, is scheduled to be arraigned at 10 a.m. on Aug. 19 before Judge Milton Shadur in U.S. District Court. He was charged in an indictment returned Wednesday by a federal grand jury.
“We take very seriously any allegation of terrorism activity and we will aggressively investigate every lead. But, while we want to encourage people to report genuinely suspicious activity, we also will seek to prosecute anyone who deliberately provides false information that diverts agents and resources from other important matters,” Mr. Grant said.
According to the indictment, on July 28, Hashmi first lied to FBI agents when he told them that he had been approached the day before by an individual who asked him whether he carried a firearm and was proficient with firearms; asked him his opinion about “homegrown jihad” in the United States; suggested that he join in “God’s military;” and asked him whether he was familiar with downtown Chicago. Hashmi allegedly knew that the individual had made no such statements.
The next day, on July 29, Hashmi allegedly lied again to agents to when he told them that a second individual had approached him and said that in a few minutes Hashmi would find something near the trash cans in the alley behind his home. Again, Hashmi allegedly knew that this individual had made no such statements. Hashmi allegedly made additional false statements the same day when he provided FBI agents with a fabricated letter, purportedly prepared by another individual and directed to Hashmi, which contained the following statements:
“[Y]ou are the exact person we have been looking for.”
“Our job here is to carry out ‘the mission’ of giving the nonbelievers what they deserve.”
“You seem to have the drive it will take to inflict damage to where it will hurt most. This is your calling to Jihad my brother. You have a key roles in our Operation.”
“We ... do not have much time till our operation in completed.”
“We will be in touch with you soon.”
All of the information that Hashmi provided to agents was exhaustively probed by the Chicago Joint Terrorism Task Force, which later determined that it was all a hoax, officials said.
If convicted, each count of making false statements carries a maximum penalty of eight years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The Court, however, would determine the appropriate sentence to be imposed under the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.
The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Krickbaum.
The public is reminded that an indictment contains only charges and is not evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt
ping - thanks for this thread.
Saved to the CHicago Crime thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2332626/posts?page=1
Proof That Obama’s Hawaii and Chicago Communist Networks Were Linked?
NEWZEAL ^ | Monday, June 01, 2009 | Trevor Loudon
Posted on Friday, September 04, 2009 9:54:11 PM by Fred Nerks
It is now well established that Barack Obama was linked to the Hawaiian Communist Party network through his boyhood/teenage mentor Frank Marshall Davis.
It is also well known that after moving to Chicago, Obama linked up with the local communist networks.
Manning Marable, a leader of the Communist Party offshoot Committees of Correspondence for Democracy&Socialism claims that Obama “understands what socialism is. A lot of the people working with him are, indeed, socialists with backgrounds in the Communist Party or as independent Marxists. There are a lot of people like that in Chicago who have worked with him for years...”
This leads to two key questions.
A Were the Hawaii and Chicago networks connected?
B Did Obama’s connection to Frank Marshall Davis in any way influence his progress up the Chicago political ladder?
If the answer is yes to both, there are significant implications.
It means that that the Communist Party USA was watching Obama from an early age and was willing to help his political career.
Frank Marshall Davis was active in the Chicago Communist Party until he moved to Hawaii in late 1948.
I speculated in this post that Davis may have known left wing journalist Vernon Jarrett in post war Chicago. A connection would be significant because the Jarrett family has played a very important role in Obama’s rise to power.
Both Jarrett and Davis worked in the communist dominated South Side Community Art Center and on the communist influenced Chicago Defender newspaper, in late 1940s Chicago.
I have since found conclusive evidence that Davis and Jarrett not only knew each other, but worked together in another Communist Party dominated organisation-The Citizen’s Committee to Aid Packing House Workers.
“organized to support the united packing-House workers of America C.I.O. now on strike”
The letter above is dated April 12, 1948. Note that CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations) was at the time a communist controlled labor federation.
To the left is a partial list of Citizen’s Committee to Aid Packing House Workers officials.
Note the names Oscar C. Brown (Treasurer) and Louise T. Patterson (Assistant Treasurer), F.M. Davis and Vernon Jarrett.
To confirm the connection, below is a close-up of the committee’s publicity committee. Note that it is chaired by Vernon Jarrett and includes Frank Marshall Davis.
That the Citizen’s Committee was communist influenced is beyond doubt.
Louise T Patterson was the wife of Illinois Communist Party vice-chairman and attorney William Patterson and a prominent Party member in her own right. Louise Patterson was still a leader of the Illinois Communist Party well into the 1970s.
Further down the page was list of the organization’s “Food and groceries committee”. Named among them was Ishmael Flory, a leader of the Illinois Communist Party from the late 1930s until his death in 2004.
Incidentally, one of the eulogists at Flory’s funeral was Timuel Black, a well known member of Committees of Correspondence for Democracy&Socialism and a long time friend and political supporter of Barack Obama.
Oscar C Brown-later a famous jazz musician under the name Oscar Brown jnr, was also at the time a Communist Party member. he joined in 1946 and was expelled around 1954.
In 1948 Vernon Jarrett left his job as journalist at the Chicago Defender to start a black oriented radio show “Negro Newsfront” with Oscar Brown.
Jarrett was clearly on the far left and almost certainly, like his colleague Frank Marshall Davis, a covert member of the Communist Party.
Jarrett worked hard promoting socialist causes including the communist controlled Progressive Party.
Vernon Jarrett went on to become the Chicago Tribune’s first black syndicated columnist and was a founder of the National Association of Black Journalists.
According to a Washington Post obituary May 25th 2004
Mr. Jarrett continually shone a light on African American history and pertinent issues in Chicago and throughout the country. He stoked the political embers in Chicago that led to the 1983 election of the city’s first African American mayor, Harold Washington.
Vernon Jarrett was a key influence in Washington’s decision to run for the Chicago mayoralty and remained a key supporter through his four year tenure.
Harold Washington defeated the Daley machine to win the mayoralty backed by a coalition led by Chicago’s Communist Party and the local branch of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
DSA member and socialist historian Paul Buhle, wrote in a 1992 article for the Encyclopedia of the American Left;
Communists also gained from long-standing political contacts in the black community. Victories of black mayoral and congressional candidates with decades — old ties to the CP — a short list would include Coleman Young and George Crocket in Detroit, Gus Newport in Berkeley, and somewhat more ambiguously, Harold Washington in Chicago
Washington was actively involved in Communist Party fronts such as the US Peace Council and the Chicago Committee on Southern Africa, right up to winning the mayoralty-with Party support. After victory he stacked his administration full of communists, socialists and sympathisers to create one of the most far left administrations in US history-cut short only by his pre-mature death after four years in office.
I quote from remarks by Illinois Communist Party organiser John Bachtell to a “Special District Meeting on African American Equality and Building the Communist Party and Young Communist League, Chicago”, IL September 30, 2007.
The legacy of Harold Washington’s election and his administration is in the collective consciousness not only of the African American community, but the entire city. Many of his democratizing achievements endure 20 years later.
The historic election of Washington was the culmination of many years of struggle. It reflected a high degree of unity of the African American community and the alliance with a section of labor, the Latino community and progressive minded whites. This legacy of political independence also endures...
This was also reflected in the historic election of Barack Obama. Our Party actively supported Obama during the primary election. Once again Obama’s campaign reflected the electoral voting unity of the African American community, but also the alliances built with several key trade unions, and forces in the Latino and white communities.
It also reflected a breakthrough among white voters. In the primary, Obama won 35% of the white vote and 7 north side wards, in a crowded field. During the general election he won every ward in the city and all the collar counties. This appeal has continued in his presidential run.
Barack Obama has stated that Harold Washington’s victory in 1983 was the spur that made him leave New York to move to Chicago.
Vernon Jarrett was also a fan of Barack Obama. He watched his career from its early stages and became an ardent supporter.
In 1992 Obama worked for the ACORN offshoot, Project Vote to register black voters in aid of the Senate Campaign of Carol Moseley Braun. Unsurprisingly Moseley Braun also had strong Communist Party ties and was Harold Washington’s legislative floor leader.
Obama helped Moseley Braun win her Senate seat, then took it over himself in 2004-backed of course by the same communist/socialist alliance that had elected his political predecessors Harold Washington and Carol Moseley Braun.
Commenting on the 1992 race, Vernon Jarrett wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times of August 11th 1992;
Good news! Good news! Project Vote, a collectivity of 10 church-based community organizations dedicated to black voter registration, is off and running. Project Vote is increasing its rolls at a 7,000-per-week clip...If Project Vote is to reach its goal of registering 150,000 out of an estimated 400,000 unregistered blacks statewide, “it must average 10,000 rather than 7,000 every week,” says Barack Obama, the program’s executive director...
Dee Myles is a Chicago activist and chair of the Education Commission of the Communist Party USA. In 2004, after Vernon Jarret’s death from cancer she penned this tribute for the People’s Weekly World of June 5th.
Readers like me can be extremely selective of the journalists we read habitually... We are selective about the journalists to whom we become insatiably addicted, and once hooked we develop a constructive love affair without the romance...
Such was my experience with Vernon Jarrett, an African American journalist in Chicago who died at the age of 86 on May 23. I became a Vernon Jarrett addict, and I am proud of it!
Vernon Jarrett’s career as a journalist in Chicago began and ended at the Chicago Defender, the African American daily paper. In between, he was the first Black journalist at the Chicago Tribune, and I first began to read his articles during his tenure at the Chicago Sun-Times
Jarrett’s claim to fame is that he was a partisan of the cause of African Americans in the broad democratic tradition of Paul Robeson and W.E.B. DuBois...
Robeson and DuBois were both Communist Party members. On April 9th, 1998 at Chicago’s South Shore Cultural Center, Jarrett hosted a Paul Robeson Citywide Centennial Celebration event, with his old comrade and Party sympathiser Margaret Burroughs and former Communist Party members Studs Terkel and his old friend Oscar C.Brown.
Dee Myles continues;
Jarrett was fanatical about African Americans registering and voting in mass for socially conscious candidates. He championed Harold Washington like a great warrior, and this March, from his hospital bed, wrote an article appealing to Black Chicago to turn out to vote for Barack Obama in the Illinois primaries. Obama astounded everyone with an incredible landslide victory as the progressive, Black candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for the U.S. Senate seat from Illinois. From his sickbed, Vernon Jarrett issued a clarion call, and the people responded.
The Jarrett/Obama conection did not end with Vernon Jarrett’s death-it moved to a higher level with his famous daughter-in-law Valerie Jarrett.
A former Deputy Corporation Counsel for Finance and Development under Harold Washington, Jarrett continued to work in the mayor’s office into the 1990s.
In 1991, while Deputy Chief of Staff for Mayor Richard Daley, Jarrett hired Michelle Robinson, then engaged to Barack Obama.
Later Valerie Jarrett ran the finances for Obama’s 2004 Senate bid and served as treasurer of Obama’s HOPEFUND.
The relationship is more than professional-Jarrett is regarded as one of the Obamas’ closest friends and advisors.
According to Take Political Action May 24th 2008;
“She’s always been the other side of Barack’s brain.” That’s how an Obama insider described Valerie Jarrett as an Obama campaign aide announced Thursday night the former CTA chief and current Habitat Co. CEO is taking on a larger role to help her close friend win his White House bid.
The development comes as Jarrett, a charter member of Sen. Barack Obama’s kitchen cabinet, has been formalizing her portfolio and stepping up the pace within the past few weeks as a top advisor within the campaign.
Though she will be part-time, Jarrett will be one of the most visible and powerful African-Americans in the top rungs of the Obama operation...
Today Valerie Jarrett serves as one of three Senior Advisors to President Obama. She is Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement, and Chairs the White House Commission on Women and Girls.
Frank Marshall Davis works closely in communist causes with Vernon Jarrett in Chicago. Davis moves to hawaii where he eventually meets and mentors a young Barack Obama. Then Obama moves to Chicago where his career is promoted by both Davis’s old colleague Vernon Jarrett and the Communist Party. Vernon Jarrett’s daughter-in-law employs Barack Obama’s fiance, befriends the family and becomes one of President Obama’s most trusted advisors. The Communist Party throws its entire weight behind Obama’s presidential campaign.
Are we expected to believe that this is all mere coincidence?
Would there be an Obama/Jarrett relationship today, if there had been no Frank Marshall Davis/Jarrett connection through the Communist Party of post war Chicago?
What role, if any, has the modern Communist Party USA played in fostering that relationship in more recent times?
The Communist Party USA continues to back their “friend” Barack Obama.
How deeply has the Communist Party been involved in advancing Obama’s political career-through the Jarrett family, or by other means?
The answers to these questions will have major implications for the future of what’s left of the free world.
associations to toe the line”...........
“Shadow Government: What Obama Doesn’t Want You To Know About His Czars”
reuters.com | Sep 2, 2009 | reuters
FR Posted 09/06/2009 by Berlin_Freeper
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2333371/posts
ARLINGTON, Va, Sept. 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/
The founders of the National Republican Trust PAC (NRTP), Scott Wheeler and Peter Leitner, are set to release a powerful expose on Barack Obama’s unelected shadow government.
The book, “Shadow Government: What Obama Doesn’t Want You To Know About His Czars,” scheduled for release in mid-September is available for order at GOPTrust.com. Several thousand copies have been pre-ordered by the public.
— Adolfo Carrion, former Bronx Borough President with a history of taking bribes and putting the interests of his donors above those of the community was named Director of Urban Affairs by Obama.
— Ron Bloom, labor leader, is at the helm of the unprecedented government interference into the private sector. With no real experience in the auto industry, Bloom is the successor of the even less qualified Steven Rattner, who left his post amidst an SEC investigation into his private equity firm. Bloom is a former investment banker who made his name working with the United Steelworkers union.
— Van Jones, a self-avowed communist, was appointed Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality (Green Jobs Czar).
— Kevin Jennings was appointed to be Safe Schools Czar. Jennings has actively promoted homosexuality in elementary schools, middle schools, high schools and on college campuses and has distributed graphic material to children as a way to support his crusade.
— Carol Browner, Obama’s Energy Czar, was listed as a commissioner in Socialist International, the worldwide organization of social democratic, socialist and labour parties. (Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
88 posted on Sunday, September 06, 2009 5:43:27 PM by Liz (When people fear govt, we have tyranny; when govt fears the people, we have freedom.)
trying to keep the chicago information in one spot....Great info.
http://newzeal.blogspot.com/2009/06/obama-file-78-smoking-gun-proof-that.html
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2332626/posts
It is now well established that Barack Obama was linked to the Hawaiian Communist Party network through his boyhood/teenage mentor Frank Marshall Davis.
It is also well known that after moving to Chicago, Obama linked up with the local communist networks.
Manning Marable, a leader of the Communist Party offshoot Committees of Correspondence for Democracy&Socialism claims that Obama “understands what socialism is. A lot of the people working with him are, indeed, socialists with backgrounds in the Communist Party or as independent Marxists. There are a lot of people like that in Chicago who have worked with him for years...”
This leads to two key questions.
A Were the Hawaii and Chicago networks connected?
B Did Obama’s connection to Frank Marshall Davis in any way influence his progress up the Chicago political ladder?
If the answer is yes to both, there are significant implications.
It means that that the Communist Party USA was watching Obama from an early age and was willing to help his political career.
Frank Marshall Davis was active in the Chicago Communist Party until he moved to Hawaii in late 1948.
I speculated in this post that Davis may have known left wing journalist Vernon Jarrett in post war Chicago. A connection would be significant because the Jarrett family has played a very important role in Obama’s rise to power.
Both Jarrett and Davis worked in the communist dominated South Side Community Art Center and on the communist influenced Chicago Defender newspaper, in late 1940s Chicago.
I have since found conclusive evidence that Davis and Jarrett not only knew each other, but worked together in another Communist Party dominated organisation-The Citizen’s Committee to Aid Packing House Workers.
“organized to support the united packing-House workers of America C.I.O. now on strike”
The letter above is dated April 12, 1948. Note that CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations) was at the time a communist controlled labor federation.
To the left is a partial list of Citizen’s Committee to Aid Packing House Workers officials.
Note the names Oscar C. Brown (Treasurer) and Louise T. Patterson (Assistant Treasurer), F.M. Davis and Vernon Jarrett.
To confirm the connection, below is a close-up of the committee’s publicity committee. Note that it is chaired by Vernon Jarrett and includes Frank Marshall Davis.
That the Citizen’s Committee was communist influenced is beyond doubt.
Louise T Patterson was the wife of Illinois Communist Party vice-chairman and attorney William Patterson and a prominent Party member in her own right. Louise Patterson was still a leader of the Illinois Communist Party well into the 1970s.
Further down the page was list of the organization’s “Food and groceries committee”. Named among them was Ishmael Flory, a leader of the Illinois Communist Party from the late 1930s until his death in 2004.
Incidentally, one of the eulogists at Flory’s funeral was Timuel Black, a well known member of Committees of Correspondence for Democracy&Socialism and a long time friend and political supporter of Barack Obama.
Oscar C Brown-later a famous jazz musician under the name Oscar Brown jnr, was also at the time a Communist Party member. he joined in 1946 and was expelled around 1954.
In 1948 Vernon Jarrett left his job as journalist at the Chicago Defender to start a black oriented radio show “Negro Newsfront” with Oscar Brown.
Jarrett was clearly on the far left and almost certainly, like his colleague Frank Marshall Davis, a covert member of the Communist Party.
Jarrett worked hard promoting socialist causes including the communist controlled Progressive Party.
Vernon Jarrett went on to become the Chicago Tribune’s first black syndicated columnist and was a founder of the National Association of Black Journalists.
According to a Washington Post obituary May 25th 2004
Mr. Jarrett continually shone a light on African American history and pertinent issues in Chicago and throughout the country. He stoked the political embers in Chicago that led to the 1983 election of the city’s first African American mayor, Harold Washington.
Vernon Jarrett was a key influence in Washington’s decision to run for the Chicago mayoralty and remained a key supporter through his four year tenure.
Harold Washington defeated the Daley machine to win the mayoralty backed by a coalition led by Chicago’s Communist Party and the local branch of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
DSA member and socialist historian Paul Buhle, wrote in a 1992 article for the Encyclopedia of the American Left;
Communists also gained from long-standing political contacts in the black community. Victories of black mayoral and congressional candidates with decades — old ties to the CP — a short list would include Coleman Young and George Crocket in Detroit, Gus Newport in Berkeley, and somewhat more ambiguously, Harold Washington in Chicago
Washington was actively involved in Communist Party fronts such as the US Peace Council and the Chicago Committee on Southern Africa, right up to winning the mayoralty-with Party support. After victory he stacked his administration full of communists, socialists and sympathisers to create one of the most far left administrations in US history-cut short only by his pre-mature death after four years in office.
I quote from remarks by Illinois Communist Party organiser John Bachtell to a “Special District Meeting on African American Equality and Building the Communist Party and Young Communist League, Chicago”, IL September 30, 2007.
The legacy of Harold Washington’s election and his administration is in the collective consciousness not only of the African American community, but the entire city. Many of his democratizing achievements endure 20 years later.
The historic election of Washington was the culmination of many years of struggle. It reflected a high degree of unity of the African American community and the alliance with a section of labor, the Latino community and progressive minded whites. This legacy of political independence also endures...
This was also reflected in the historic election of Barack Obama. Our Party actively supported Obama during the primary election. Once again Obama’s campaign reflected the electoral voting unity of the African American community, but also the alliances built with several key trade unions, and forces in the Latino and white communities.
It also reflected a breakthrough among white voters. In the primary, Obama won 35% of the white vote and 7 north side wards, in a crowded field. During the general election he won every ward in the city and all the collar counties. This appeal has continued in his presidential run.
Barack Obama has stated that Harold Washington’s victory in 1983 was the spur that made him leave New York to move to Chicago.
Vernon Jarrett was also a fan of Barack Obama. He watched his career from its early stages and became an ardent supporter.
In 1992 Obama worked for the ACORN offshoot, Project Vote to register black voters in aid of the Senate Campaign of Carol Moseley Braun. Unsurprisingly Moseley Braun also had strong Communist Party ties and was Harold Washington’s legislative floor leader.
Obama helped Moseley Braun win her Senate seat, then took it over himself in 2004-backed of course by the same communist/socialist alliance that had elected his political predecessors Harold Washington and Carol Moseley Braun.
Commenting on the 1992 race, Vernon Jarrett wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times of August 11th 1992;
Good news! Good news! Project Vote, a collectivity of 10 church-based community organizations dedicated to black voter registration, is off and running. Project Vote is increasing its rolls at a 7,000-per-week clip...If Project Vote is to reach its goal of registering 150,000 out of an estimated 400,000 unregistered blacks statewide, “it must average 10,000 rather than 7,000 every week,” says Barack Obama, the program’s executive director...
Dee Myles is a Chicago activist and chair of the Education Commission of the Communist Party USA. In 2004, after Vernon Jarret’s death from cancer she penned this tribute for the People’s Weekly World of June 5th.
Readers like me can be extremely selective of the journalists we read habitually... We are selective about the journalists to whom we become insatiably addicted, and once hooked we develop a constructive love affair without the romance...
Such was my experience with Vernon Jarrett, an African American journalist in Chicago who died at the age of 86 on May 23. I became a Vernon Jarrett addict, and I am proud of it!
Vernon Jarrett’s career as a journalist in Chicago began and ended at the Chicago Defender, the African American daily paper. In between, he was the first Black journalist at the Chicago Tribune, and I first began to read his articles during his tenure at the Chicago Sun-Times
Jarrett’s claim to fame is that he was a partisan of the cause of African Americans in the broad democratic tradition of Paul Robeson and W.E.B. DuBois...
Robeson and DuBois were both Communist Party members. On April 9th, 1998 at Chicago’s South Shore Cultural Center, Jarrett hosted a Paul Robeson Citywide Centennial Celebration event, with his old comrade and Party sympathiser Margaret Burroughs and former Communist Party members Studs Terkel and his old friend Oscar C.Brown.
Dee Myles continues;
Jarrett was fanatical about African Americans registering and voting in mass for socially conscious candidates. He championed Harold Washington like a great warrior, and this March, from his hospital bed, wrote an article appealing to Black Chicago to turn out to vote for Barack Obama in the Illinois primaries. Obama astounded everyone with an incredible landslide victory as the progressive, Black candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for the U.S. Senate seat from Illinois. From his sickbed, Vernon Jarrett issued a clarion call, and the people responded.
The Jarrett/Obama conection did not end with Vernon Jarrett’s death-it moved to a higher level with his famous daughter-in-law Valerie Jarrett.
A former Deputy Corporation Counsel for Finance and Development under Harold Washington, Jarrett continued to work in the mayor’s office into the 1990s.
In 1991, while Deputy Chief of Staff for Mayor Richard Daley, Jarrett hired Michelle Robinson, then engaged to Barack Obama.
Later Valerie Jarrett ran the finances for Obama’s 2004 Senate bid and served as treasurer of Obama’s HOPEFUND.
The relationship is more than professional-Jarrett is regarded as one of the Obamas’ closest friends and advisors.
According to Take Political Action May 24th 2008;
“She’s always been the other side of Barack’s brain.” That’s how an Obama insider described Valerie Jarrett as an Obama campaign aide announced Thursday night the former CTA chief and current Habitat Co. CEO is taking on a larger role to help her close friend win his White House bid.
The development comes as Jarrett, a charter member of Sen. Barack Obama’s kitchen cabinet, has been formalizing her portfolio and stepping up the pace within the past few weeks as a top advisor within the campaign.
Though she will be part-time, Jarrett will be one of the most visible and powerful African-Americans in the top rungs of the Obama operation...
Today Valerie Jarrett serves as one of three Senior Advisors to President Obama. She is Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement, and Chairs the White House Commission on Women and Girls.
Frank Marshall Davis works closely in communist causes with Vernon Jarrett in Chicago. Davis moves to hawaii where he eventually meets and mentors a young Barack Obama. Then Obama moves to Chicago where his career is promoted by both Davis’s old colleague Vernon Jarrett and the Communist Party. Vernon Jarrett’s daughter-in-law employs Barack Obama’s fiance, befriends the family and becomes one of President Obama’s most trusted advisors. The Communist Party throws its entire weight behind Obama’s presidential campaign.
Are we expected to believe that this is all mere coincidence?
Would there be an Obama/Jarrett relationship today, if there had been no Frank Marshall Davis/Jarrett connection through the Communist Party of post war Chicago?
What role, if any, has the modern Communist Party USA played in fostering that relationship in more recent times?
The Communist Party USA continues to back their “friend” Barack Obama.
How deeply has the Communist Party been involved in advancing Obama’s political career-through the Jarrett family, or by other means?
The answers to these questions will have major implications for the future of what’s left of the free world.
Is there a Valerie Jarret link?
FROM:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2343996/posts?page=16
HSBC sues accused Democratic fund-raiser in New York
Al-Reuters ^ | 09-18-2009 | Reporting by Grant McCool; Editing by Ted Kerr
Posted on Saturday, September 19, 2009 11:26:42 PM by grey_whiskers
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A fund-raiser for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and other Democrats who was charged last month with defrauding Citigroup Inc is being sued by HSBC for deceiving it into lending him $100 million.
snip.....
The lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court in early September accused private equity firm head Hassan Nemazee, 59, of engaging in an elaborate scheme to make HSBC Bank USA believe that its loan was secured by collateral in the form of U.S. Treasury Notes when it was not.
snip.....
The cases are HSBC Bank USA NA v Hassan Nemazee 602735/2009 in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan and U.S. v. Nemazee, 09-mj-1927 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
(Excerpt) Read more at
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE58H5Z820090918?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&rpc=22&sp=true
Feel free to connect dots and/or post anything you want on this thread.
Posted on 09/25/2009 11:21:32 AM PDT by Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2348280/posts
tanks...Keeping it all together....Now if Soros could just join him in the ....naw we couldn’t be that lucky. (Liz is ther any possibility that They are all using those “foundation techiques” posted yesterday....)
From:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2362974/posts
Wasserstein dead (the guy that made Rahm Emanuel a multi-millionaire)
NY POST ^ | 10/15/09 | MARK DeCAMBRE, PAUL THARP and JOSH KOSMAN
Posted on Thursday, October 15, 2009 7:57:39 AM by Liz
Wall Street bids adieu to famed Lazard dealmaker: Bruce Wasserstein died at age 61 after being hospitalized with an irregular heartbeat....the exact cause could not be determined. A Brooklyn native, Wasserstein amassed a fortune of about $2.3B doling out merger advice to players Carl Icahn and Ron Perelman. According to former Lazard banker, William Cohan, author of “The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Freres,” Wasserstein made more money from investment banking than anyone else on Wall Street. “While everyone else was fighting the Vietnam War, he was studying English takeover law at Cambridge.” Lazard Deputy Chairman Jeffrey Rosen saw him slightly differently: “.....one who will be remembered as having the greatest impact on the investment banking business over the last 30 years.” Just nine months ago, Wasserstein took his fourth wife, shipping heiress Angela Chao, 29 (sister Elaine was Labor Secy for George W. Bush). One of five children of wealthy textile executive Morris Wasserstein, his grandfather was acclaimed Polish playwright Simon Schleifer; his sister was Pulitzer Prize playwright Wendy Wasserstein, who died in 2006. A graduate of U of Michigan, Wasserstein earned a law degree and MBA at Harvard. He started as a lawyer at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, but switched to investment banking.
RAHM TIMELINE: BALLETOMANE, CHICAGO OPERATOR, FOUNDED Rahm Emanuel and Amy Rule Charitable Trust TAX DODGE, CLINTON ADVISOR, WALL STREET MULTI-MILLIONAIRE, CONGRESSMAN, WHITE HOUSE COS (was not even voted most likely to succeed).
1992 Emanuel’s knowledge of the top Dem donors, and his affinity rapport with potential donors within the Jewish community, who were making zillions with Bernie Madoff, helped Clinton amass a then-unheard-of sum of $72 million which nailed the Billary victory.
1993 Emanuel became a senior advisor to Clinton 1993-1998. Emanuel was initially Assistant to the President for Political Affairs and then Senior Advisor to the President for Policy and Strategy. He was a leading strategist in the unsuccessful White House efforts to institute universal healthcare and many other Clinton initiatives.
1993 One of Rahm’s proudest moments was an event that touched his political sensibilities and his personal ties to Israel as a dual citizen and a volunteer in the Israeli military: the 1993 Rose Garden signing ceremony after the Oslo Accords between Israel and the PLO which cost US taxpayers several hundred billion dollars. Emanuel directed the details of the ceremony, down to the choreography of the famous handshake between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat (as terrorism resumed shortly thereafter).
1998 While official Washington was in the throes of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Rahm Emanuel, a senior political aide to Pres Bill Clinton, ventured out to an elegant restaurant in Dupont Circle for something of a job interview, The New York Times’s Michael Luo writes.
John Simpson, who ran the Chicago office of the investment banking boutique Wasserstein Perella & Company, had flown to Washington to meet with Mr. Emanuel at the behest of Mr. Simpson’s boss, Bruce Wasserstein, a major Democratic donor and renowned Wall Street dealmaker who had gotten to know Mr. Emanuel.
“I had this idea that this could work and that it had upside,” Mr. Wasserstein, now chairman and chief executive of Lazard, the investment bank, told The Times. “It worked out better than I could have hoped.” And better than Mr. Emanuel could have imagined as well.
Over the course of a three-hour-plus dinner, Mr. Simpson and Mr. Emanuel discussed how they might work together. Shortly afterward, Mr. Emanuel accepted an offer, nudging him down what has by now become a well-trodden gilded path out of politics and into the lucrative world of business.
1998 Wonder Boy Rahm resigned his position as an advisor to Bill Clinton, to become a Wall Street investment banker with Wasserstein Perella, (now Dresdner Kleinwort), where he worked until 2002.
1999 Just like that (snaps fingers)——in 1999, Rahm became managing director at their Chicago office. According to Congressional disclosures, Emanuel made $16.2 million in his 2 1/2 year stint as a Wasserstein Perella banker (AND probably paid all his taxes).
Amazingly, with those contacts, Rahm became a multi-millioniare overnight——and he wasn’t even voted “Most Likely To Succeed.”
At Wasserstein Perella, Rahm worked on eight deals, including the acquisition by Commonwealth Edison of Peco Energy and the purchase by GTCR Golder Rauner of the SecurityLink home security unit from SBC.
2002 Rahm then ran for Congress (successfully, OF COURSE). Luckily (/snic) members of the securities and investment industry became Rahm’s biggest backers, donating more than $1.5M up to 2002, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
2006 Rahm also leaned heavily upon the financial industry as 2006 Dem Congressional Campaign Committee Chair. Financial industry donors contributed more than $5.8M to the Dem committee (behind only retirees).
Remember, the point of Obama bringing Rahm in was so that “tolerant and compassionate bi-partisan Rahm” could work constructively w/ Congress to pass an ambitious agenda.......
Here’s tolerant Rahm expressing his feelings for America on inauguration day.
Another close aide turns on Blagojevich (Lon Monk)
from:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2367182/posts
Posted on Tuesday, October 20, 2009 10:12:17 PM by STARWISE
Even before he was elected governor in 2002, Rod Blagojevich and three of his closest friends schemed about ways to enrich themselves by controlling state government, the former governor’s former chief of staff alleged as part of a plea agreement today with federal prosecutors.
When Blagojevich took office, his three friends became key players in his administration and met repeatedly with the governor to share moneymaking ideas and get updates on their plans to bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars that they could split up later, former top aide Alonzo “Lon” Monk alleged.
Monk, who also was a groomsman at Blagojevich’s wedding and twice his campaign manager, pleaded guilty in the sweeping corruption case and agreed to testify against the former governor in exchange for a recommended sentence of two years in prison.
The picture Monk gave prosecutors is in sharp contrast to the image Blagojevich has been trying to present since his Dec. 9 arrest. Portraying himself as the victim of overzealous prosecutors, Blagojevich has crisscrossed the nation touting his book about the ordeal, watched his wife on a reality TV show and agreed to be on one himself.
Pulling back the curtain on how Blagojevich and his cohorts allegedly went about their plan, Monk’s plea suggests a possible pattern of political crimes that took place well before Blagojevich allegedly offered the Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama to the highest bidder.
As part of his deal, Monk told prosecutors that he, Blagojevich and key fundraisers Antoin “Tony” Rezko and Christopher Kelly repeatedly met about how the four of them could secretly make money through state deals, offering the most specific account yet of how the alleged conspiracy in the case formed.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagobreakingnews.com ...
Chicago...the town of big shoulders and Big Crime!!!
One-degree of separation: The “Nadhmi Auchi Scrub Gallery” grows ... again - April 22, 2008
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2395729/posts
The Nadhmi Auchi webscrubbing continues. Martin Bright of The New Statesman reported April 22, 2008,
that the UK’s Guardian/Observer “has been forced to pull down five articles about Nadhmi Auchi,
the Iraqi businessman convicted of fraud in France in 2003.
Auchi has been on the warpath since his name was connected with Tony Rezko, the Illinois fundraiser currently
on trial in America, who was one of Barack Obama’s earliest backers. In the UK, The
Times has been pursuing the story with impressive tenacity.”
*snip*
Here is list of the articles. Bright plans to post links from elsewhere on the internet, so
check back to the original article link.
# 1. “Labour blocks extradition of Iraqi tycoon”, Observer, February 2, 2003
# 2. “Billionaire linked to Labour arrested in London”, Guardian, April 2, 2003
# 3. “So, Norman, any regrets this time?”, Observer, April 6, 2003
# 4. “Tycoon in quiz over ties to Labour”, Observer, April 6, 2003
# 5. “Politics of sleaze”, Observer, November 16, 2003 # 6. “MP questions Iraq role of Briton tainted over Elf”
(this has also been titled “British fraudster to profit from Iraq contract”), Observer, November 16, 2003
~~~~~~~~
Obama surfaces in Rekzo’s federal corruption case -
Source confirmed Obama is the unnamed “political candidate”
referred to in document which outlines case against Rezko
###
For the first time, Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama has surfaced in the federal
corrupton case against his longtime campaign fund-raiser, Tony Rezko, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
The Illinois senator isn’t accused of any wrongdoing. And there’s no evidence Obama knew contributions
to his 2004 U.S. Senate campaign came from schemes Rezko is accused of orchestrating.
The allegations against Rezko that involve Obama are contained in one paragraph of a
78-page document filed last month in which prosecutors outline their corruption and fraud case against Rezko,
who was also a key money man for Gov. Blagojevich and other politicians.
Rezko is set to go to trial Feb. 25. The revelation that Obama’s name could come up in court is a
political headache he doesn’t need as he heads into a round of primaries that are likely to determine his
party’s nomination for president.
Obama is not named in the Dec. 21 court document. But a source familiar with the case
confirmed that Obama is the unnamed “political candidate” referred to in a section of the
document that accuses Rezko of orchestrating a scheme in which a firm hired to handle
state teacher pension investments first had to pay $250,000 in “sham” finder’s fees.
From that money, $10,000 was donated to Obama’s successful run for the Senate in the name of
a Rezko business associate, according to the court filing and the source.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Guardian, Observer agree to remove defamatory articles on British tycoon
British sister publications agree to withdraw inaccurate reports on Nadhmi Auchi.
LONDON – British sister newspapers The Guardian and The Observer have agreed to delete six articles
on British tycoon Nadhmi Auchi from their Web content and databases as
part of a settlement in a defamation case.
The British papers also pledged to contact Web search engines to inform them of the
articles’ removal.
~~~~~~~~~~
Follow the Money: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? Part 2
Based on testimony given March 20, 2008, by star witness Stuart Levine in the federal fraud trial
of indicted political fixer Antoin “Tony” Rezko, RezkoWatch expanded on the possible guest list for
the April 3, 2004, dinner at Chicago’s Four Seasons hotel arranged by Rezko on behalf of Iraqi-British
billionaire businessman Nadhmi Auchi.
Based on this new information, the guest list includes, of course, the guest of honor, Nadhmi Auchi
(left in photo), and the host, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (center in photo), as well as the following:
# Aiham Alsammarae (convicted of major theft-Iraq)
# Christopher Kelly (recent suicide0
# Jack Lavin (now top aide to Gov. Quinn)
# Stuart Levine (jail)
# Pat Quinn, Lt. Gov. of Illinois (Gov. of IL) # Rita Rezko
# Tony Rezko (jail)
# Michael Rumman
(Related: Who is protecting Aiham Alsammarae and why?”
RezkoWatch, Illinois blogger Bill Baar, 77WABC Radio’s John Batchelor, OpEd News contributor Evelyn Pringle, Pundita,
World Net Daily’s Aaron Klein, and a number of others would like to know why it is
that Chicago’s own resident international fugitive and former Iraqi minister of electricity, Aiham Alsammarae,
convicted by the Iraqi government in October 2006 for the theft of $650 million of Iraqi reconstruction funds,
U.S. tax dollars, that is, and wanted by Interpol as recently as April 26, 2008, is not
in jail—or at least answering questions.
Who is protecting Alsammarae and why?
Baar pointed out that Senators Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) had written
a letter to the U.S. Treasury addressing concerns about corruption in Iraq and the very real
possibility that unknown amounts of U.S. taxpayer dollars destined for reconstruction in Iraq may have wound up in
the hands of the same militias in Iraq that our troops are having to engage in combat.
“All it takes is a hearing Senators,” Baar commented.
Who is protecting Alsammarae and why?
In the comments to RW’s article, Baar also stated that the “sad thing about the
Alsammarae story is so many people in the Administration and Obama’s campaign (and
his supporters in Congress!) have an interest in keeping the story buried.”
*snip*
Who is protecting Alsammarae and why?
As John Batchelor reported March 3, 2008, Alsammarae was still wanted by the Iraqi government. On April 10, 2008,
Batchelor wrote that Alsammarae had been sighted around the last week of March in “the first-class
lounge at the Queen Alia International Airport at Amman, Jordan.” Although seen in
the company of “Jordanian plain-clothes security men,” he did not enjoy the protection of Iraq.
On April 26, 2008, the Chicago Sun-Times wrote that an outstanding Interpol warrant for Alsammarae
“remains active, but U.S. authorities have shown no interest in arresting him” and that
the State Department “declined to comment” why he had not yet been arrested.
*snip*
The next day, on April 27, 2008, the Chicago Sun-Times stated that Alsammarae was not only NOT
in custody by U.S. or Iraqi authorities but had actually made a personal appearance at
the federal courthouse in Chicago to put up three of his properties as surety for his
friend and business partner, Tony Rezko.
If Aiham Alsammarae is not being returned to Iraq to complete his sentence or to be retried,
and if he is not being detained or questioned by U.S. authorities, the most likely conclusion
is that he is being protected in this country as well as several others in the Middle East—with the
obvious exception being Iraq.)
Additionally, on his website, Auchi posted this now-deleted narrative about his 2004 visit to
Illinois and Michigan in addition to a number of photographs, which have also been removed.
Herein are named three other individuals who attended the “reception”: Emil Jones, Jr., President of
the Illinois State Senate; Kwame Kilpatrick, Mayor of Detroit; and L. Brooks Patterson, Chief Executive Officer
of Oakland, Michigan.
This photograph of Emil Jones, Jr., with billionaire investor
Nadhmi Auchi points to an interesting tale about Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Jones. In a
multi-part
biographical series about Obama’s remarkable ascendance on the U.S. political scene, the
Chicago Tribune reported
Long before maverick Republican Sen. Peter Fitzgerald decided not to run for re-election in 2004, Obama approached
his mentor, Emil Jones, who was preparing to lead a new Democratic majority in the state Senate.
“You’re a very powerful guy,” Obama told Jones.
“I’ve got the power to do what?” Jones responded.
“You could help elect a U.S. senator,” Obama said.
Jones asked his protege if he had anyone in mind.
“Yeah,” Obama replied. “Me.”
Obama’s ambitions for higher office were an open secret in Springfield, but trying to make
the leap to the U.S. Senate seemed a long shot. He was an unknown
to most Chicago voters, let alone to those in the rest of the state. His loss to
Rush was so lopsided even Obama described it as “a spanking.”
He couldn’t count on the support of some prominent Black Caucus members, including Hendon.
In a recent interview, he said Obama was so ambitious that if the position were up for a vote, Obama would
run for “king of the world.”
Obama formally announced his campaign in January 2003, more than a year ahead of the primary.
Jones, of course, was there. Link, Walsh and Jacobs (see below) also attended, illustrating
that his support transcended the black community.
Hendon and Trotter (see below) were a tougher sell. Jones eventually got them to endorse Obama. Hendon
said it took “seven or eight” talks with Jones before he finally decided to go along. And,
Hendon said, he only did it out of loyalty to Jones.
Obama wasn’t expecting the endorsement of either Trotter or Hendon. He asked Jones how he pulled it off.
“I made them an offer,” Jones recalled telling Obama. “And you don’t want to know.”
# The Chicago Tribune wrote that “Link, Walsh and Jacobs” were Obama’s poker-playing pals: “blunt-talking
Denny Jacobs from the Quad Cities, and Larry Walsh from Elwood, whose ‘aw-shucks’ demeanor belied
deft political skills. ... Terry Link of Waukegan, who also was Lake County Democratic chairman.”
Additionally, Sen. Rickey Hendon is a “streetwise West Sider nicknamed ‘Hollywood’ who
once hoped to be a movie producer” and Sen. Donne Trotter “the Democratic point man on budget issues.
In 2000, Trotter and Obama vied to unseat U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, but didn’t come close to toppling
the South Side congressman.”
Viewed in the light of his newly-launched campaign to become the next U.S. Senator from Illinois, and
the presence of both his political patron—Rezko—and his political mentor—Jones—the
chances that Obama may have dropped in at this particular reception at the request of
his friend Tony Rezko increase winningly.
~~~~
Obama’s Auchi Problem
Excerpt:
Who is Nadhmi Auchi and why is he important to Barack Obama? Let’s take a look.
*
Contrary to Obama’s persistent claims, he indeed did favors for Tony Rezko, including this one:
“While Mr. Obama was running for the Senate, Mr. Rezko was also raising money for a
huge development in the South Loop of Chicago, often playing host to dinners
in a private room at the Four Seasons Hotel here.
“Former Rezko associates said that Governor Blagojevich attended one of the dinners, and
that at Mr. Rezko’s request, Mr. Obama dropped in at one for Middle Eastern bankers in early 2004,
just as he was starting to pull ahead in the Senate primary. The visits, Mr. Rezko’s
partners said, helped impress foreign guests.
“’I remember that he had been on the campaign trail, and he was completely wiped out and exhausted,’
said Anthony Licata, a lawyer who represented Mr. Rezko on real estate deals. ‘My recollection
is that he drank ice tea, and he talked about how he was really making progress, and we were all
excited to see him.’”
Last March, I asked: Was Nadhmi Auchi there?
Stuart Levine’s testimony on Monday didn’t answer that question, but no matter. Levine testified that
both Barack and Michelle Obama attended a reception Rezko held at his Wilmette home for Auchi. “News reports
from the courtroom said Mr. Rezko wanted to impress Mr. Auchi, who ultimately poured nearly $170 million
into the real estate venture,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Rezko’s lawyers have raised questions about Mr. Levine’s credibility on other issues, and Mr. Levine
offered few details on Monday about the party at Mr. Rezko’s house. Mr. Levine said Mr. Obama’s wife,
Michelle, was there. Mr. Obama’s campaign said she had no recollection of the event. Mr. Auchi’s
lawyer, Alasdair Pepper, has said that his client does not remember meeting Mr. Obama.”
The Sun-Times, however, reports that “according to two sources familiar with the gathering, the Obamas attended
the Wilmette reception, which came less than a month after Obama’s Democratic primary win for
his U.S. Senate seat.”
Let’s be clear then: The Obamas attended the Rezko party, and it’s not like Auchi
was just another guest. He was the guest of honor. The party was for him, as part of
Rezko’s effort to get him to invest in a real estate venture in the South Loop.
Surely Obama would know the purpose of a party and why the guest of honor was the
guest of honor (even as he somehow didn’t know that Rezko had slum properties in
his state senate district at the same time).
So that is established. Now, why does it matter?
*
First, who is Nadhmi Auchi?
A lot of folks have been asking that question.
Short story: He’s a controversial Iraqi-born, British billionaire who,
according to one report, “set up a variety of deals with Saddam Hussein’s
regime prior to the 1991 Gulf War, and was one of the largest private
shareholders in BNP Paribas, the bank that trafficked most of the funds involved in the UN
Oil-For-Food scandal. He also admitted taking kickbacks from the French petroleum
company TotalFinaElf in the 1990s (Auchi later sued Elf for entangling him in their criminal activities,
according to Forbes).”
Auchi is apparently still appealing a 2003 fraud conviction in France. He
visited Chicago and Detroit in 2004, but wasn’t allowed back in the country in 2005.
“Prosecutors in Mr. Rezko’s case have said that Mr. Rezko asked Illinois officials to help obtain a
visa for Mr. Auchi’s visit to Chicago,” the Times says. “The officials
have not been identified, and Mr. Obama’s campaign has said he was not involved in that effort.”
Let me ask you a question:
You’re Tony Rezko and you’ve bankrolled Barack Obama’s entire political
career. You helped him buy his house and you and your wife socialize with him and
his wife. You’ve held a reception for a potential investor to which you invited Obama,
who had just been elected to the United States Senate, to impress your business partner.
And you appeal to Illinois officials to help him get a visa. Are you telling me you do
not ask for Obama’s help?
*
Obama’s campaign says the senator “does not recall” meeting Auchi.
There’s a lot he didn’t “recall” about Rezko either for quite awhile.
You know, like actually knowing him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Not hard to imagine where the millions of campaign donations and the illegal foreign contributions to
0’s warchest came from and how our country is being sold down the river.
This despicable blight on our country, .. endangering us exponentially, destroying our precious American way
of life was purchased outright by evil people who wish us ill.
I pray for my country and our brave military suffering under these indescribable conditions..
/Chicago Way) -Monk,Guilty plea background,Obama,
When/where will it ever end?...Thanks for the heads up AGAIN!
Blagojevich,Rezko,Levine,Kelly,Harris,Cellini..
Citizen Wells ^ | 11-2-09
Posted on Wednesday, December 16, 2009 10:25:32 AM by STARWISE
From:http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2408732/posts
###
Lest we forget about crime and corruption in Chicago
and the involvement by
Rod Blagojevich
Tony Rezko
Stuart Levine
Christopher Kelly
William Cellini
John Harris
Alonzo Monk
et al
and Obama’s ties to these corruption figures
Alonzo Monk Guilty Plea
Part II
In part I of this two part series on Alonzo Monk’s guilty plea, the Citizen Wells blog presented background on Monk’s involvement in corruption and how it impacted health care in Chicago and Illinois.
October 26, 2009
“It was further part of the conspiracy that defendants ROD BLAGOJEVICH and KELLY, along with Monk, Cellini, Robert Blagojevich, Harris, Rezko, and Levine, and others, used and attempted to use the powers of the Office of the Governor and of certain state boards and commissions subject to the influence of the Office of the Governor, to take and cause governmental actions, including: appointments to boards and commissions; the awarding of state business, grants, and investment fund allocations; the enactment of legislation and executive orders; and the appointment of a United States Senator; in exchange for financial benefits for themselves and others, including campaign contributions for ROD BLAGOJEVICH, money for themselves, and employment for ROD BLAGOJEVICH and his wife.”
The article reveals:
* Just as Obama is politicizing now, Blagojevich touted health care for all in IL.
* The IL Health Planning Facilities Board was rigged thanks to Obama.
* Mercy Hospital construction was rigged for kickbacks.
* Children’s Memorial Hospital was a corruption target.
* Michelle Obama’s hospital pay nearly tripled after Barack was elected US Senator.
Alonzo Monk, et al corrupt IL Health Care
Now for more background on Alonzo Monk’s involvement in corruption.
From the Chicago Tribune, December 23, 2007.
“For years, Rod Blagojevich has projected two distinct images that define his tenure as Illinois’ governor.
In one, he is a populist champion with an agenda of “putting people first” by pushing causes like health care for all.
In the other, he is a consummate politician with cronies who offer advice while raising campaign cash and asking for favors.
Now, under the lights of a federal investigation, the distinctions are blurring, and the crony image is threatening to wash out the populist one.
Federal prosecutors for the first time have put Blagojevich inside their widespread investigation of pay-to-play in his administration.
Blagojevich told one convicted federal informant, “You stick with us and you will do very well for yourself,” according to a court document prosecutors filed.”
“Nix, however, disputed that Knapp’s influence is overriding. Instead, she said Blagojevich long has used a team approach to politicking and governing. In this vein, he is a public official heavily reliant on his aides.
His team has a core nucleus of Nix, chief of staff John Harris, former chief of staff Alonzo Monk, longtime political aide John Wyma, state Rep. Jay Hoffman (D-Collinsville), state Sen. James DeLeo (D-Chicago) and campaign spokesman Doug Scofield.
But Monk, Scofield and Wyma are lobbyists, and their clients have won millions in state contracts under Blagojevich’s stewardship. And Kelly, another close adviser and friend, was indicted this month on federal tax fraud charges.” (((LATER COMMITTED SUICIDE, WHEN FACED WITH JAIL)))
Citizen Wells Note – I found this next statement interesting
***Remember, originially, Blagojevich was going to be the presidential candidate, not Obama.
“Instead of concentrating heavily on winning votes for his health care plan, Blagojevich crafted a strategy to initially sell his idea via a media blitz—a strategy that quickly fell on its face.
Critics, and even some of his allies, said the fatal flaw in this plan was funding the expansion through a gross receipts tax on businesses. True to political form, Blagojevich found his enemy—corporations—and railed against them.”
Read more:
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2007/12/gov-blagojevich.html
From the indictment of
ROD BLAGOJEVICH, CHRISTOPHER KELLY, ALONZO MONK, WILLIAM F. CELLINI, SR., JOHN HARRIS, and ROBERT BLAGOJEVICH
“Alonzo Monk was a long-time associate of defendant ROD BLAGOJEVICH, and among other things served as his general counsel while a Member of Congress, as campaign manager for his 2002 and 2006 gubernatorial campaigns, on his transition team after his election in November 2002, and as his Chief of Staff from in or about January 2003 until in or about December 2005.
Beginning in or about early 2007, Monk worked as a lobbyist, doing business as AM3 Consulting, Ltd.
As a lobbyist, Monk principally represented businesses with interests involving Illinois state government, including businesses in the horse racing industry. In addition, Monk served as Chairman of Friends of Blagojevich from in or about December 2006 to in or about July 2007.”
“Means and Method of the Conspiracy
***
6. It was part of the conspiracy that defendants ROD BLAGOJEVICH and CHRISTOPHER KELLY, as well as co-conspirators Alonzo Monk, William F. Cellini, Sr., John Harris, Robert Blagojevich, Antoin Rezko, and Stuart Levine, and others, engaged in a scheme to deprive the people of the State of Illinois and the beneficiaries of TRS of their intangible right to the honest services of defendant ROD BLAGOJEVICH, Alonzo Monk, John Harris, and Stuart Levine, as more fully described in Count Two, paragraphs 3 through 44 of this indictment.
***
7. It was further part of the conspiracy that defendants ROD BLAGOJEVICH and KELLY, along with Monk, Cellini, Robert Blagojevich, Harris, Rezko, and Levine, and others, used and attempted to use the powers of the Office of the Governor and of certain state boards and commissions subject to the influence of the Office of the Governor, to take and cause governmental actions, including:
appointments to boards and commissions; the awarding of state business, grants, and investment fund allocations; the enactment of legislation and executive orders; and the appointment of a United States Senator; in exchange for financial benefits for themselves and others, including campaign contributions for ROD BLAGOJEVICH, money for themselves, and employment for ROD BLAGOJEVICH and his wife.”
***
“Defendants ROD BLAGOJEVICH and KELLY, along with Rezko and Monk, agreed to direct lucrative state business relating to the refinancing of billions of dollars in State of Illinois Pension Obligation Bonds to a company whose lobbyist agreed to provide hundreds of thousands of dollars to Rezko out of the fee the lobbyist would collect, and Rezko in turn agreed to split the money with ROD BLAGOJEVICH, KELLY, and Monk;”
Regulators clamp down on Giannoulias’ Broadway Bank
Chicago Business ^ | 01/27/10 | Steve Daniels
From:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2439453/posts?page=1
Posted on Thursday, January 28, 2010 3:00:12 PM by AtlasStalled
Broadway Bank, the troubled Chicago lender owned by the family of Illinois Treasurer and U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias, has entered into a consent order with banking regulators requiring it to raise tens of millions in capital, stop paying dividends to the family without regulatory approval, and hire an outside party to evaluate the bank’s senior management. * * * This is not the first time the bank has been a source of embarrassment for Alexi Giannoulias. Three years ago, bank loans to several organized crime figures came to light. The bank foreclosed on properties held by two of those borrowers last year.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagobusiness.com ...
Thanks.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2467531/posts
Obama and Giannoulias) Banking on Corruption In The Windy City
Investor’s Business Daily ^ | March 9, 2009 | Investor’s Business Daily staff
Posted on Tuesday, March 09,
Politics: Another bank failure is nothing new these days — except if the bank is run by the family of a U.S. Senate candidate who profited handsomely and lent millions to a convicted felon. But then, that’s the Chicago way.
‘I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat-cat bankers on Wall Street,” President Obama said in a recent interview with “60 Minutes.” Speaking to those bankers, he said: “You guys are drawing down 10, 20 million dollar bonuses after America went through the worst economic year that it’s gone through in — in decades, and you guys caused the problem.”
Not all those fat cats, apparently, are on Wall Street. Some are on Main Street in the president’s hometown. One of those “guys” recently won the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat once held by Obama.
He’s an Obama protege and fundraiser. His name is Alexi Giannoulias, and his family runs the Broadway Bank in Chicago, a financially troubled institution that the feds appear ready to seize and shut down. He is running for U.S. Senate from Illinois.
Last Friday, Crain’s Chicago Business reported that the Giannoulias family stood to collect more than $10 million in federal tax refunds even if the bank does fail. “It’s quite likely the bank will fail,” the Chicago Tribune reported Giannoulias as saying last Wednesday, unless “they can raise the capital to keep the bank going,” an amount estimated at $85 million
FROM:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2508860/posts
UPDATE:Metra Director Pagano Throws Himself Front Of Train Sources Say[Feds Durbin Probe Rail Boss]
SunTimes ^ | May 7, 2010 | MICHAEL SNEED
Posted on Friday, May 07, 2010
Embattled Metra Executive Director Phil Pagano, under investigation by his own agency for financial issues, threw himself in front of a Metra train this morning and was killed, sources said.
It happened in an unincorporated area near Crystal Lake just after 8 a.m.
FROM:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2509155/posts
Feds trace flash crash to Chicago
politico ^ | 5/7/10 | EAMON JAVERS
Posted on Friday, May 07, 2010
Federal investigators probing the “flash crash” that briefly sliced nearly 1,000 points off the Dow Thursday are zeroing in on a series of “unusually high-volume” trades in S&P futures that originated in Chicago, a government official told POLITICO.
Those trades set off a chain reaction of trades that caused the biggest drop within a single day in the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s storied history.
Chicago Communist Paradise,,,
http://gunnyg.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/chicago-communist-paradise-of-the-midwest-by-al-benson-jr/
RepubParty...
http://gunnyg.wordpress.com/2010/05/18/republican-party-red-from-the-start-by-alan-stang-2/
Birthplace of Communism In USA...
http://gunnyg.wordpress.com/2009/09/14/obama%E2%80%99s-numerous-links-with-international-marxism-exposed-re-tom-fife-john-charlton/
Somewhere on this thread there is an article about the Parking wars going on in CHicago...Or should I say control of the parking/money. Feel free to connect dots or add anything else you find to the thread...Keeping it all together for easy research.
Nesbitt was appointed as a Commissioner of the Authority on July 9, 2003. He served as Vice Chairperson of the Board since January 17, 2006. Chairman Nesbitt is president of PRG Parking Management, also known as the Parking Spot, and manages the strategic and operating services of the off-airport parking facilities.
The chairman is also vice president of the Pritzker Realty Group, L.P. where he procures new real estate investment opportunities, retail investments and developments for the Pritzker Group. Prior to joining Pritzker, Chairman Nesbitt was a partner and investment manager at LaSalle Partners and was responsible for the firm’s parking assets. He acquired, financed and managed a $100 million portfolio of parking assets in preparation for its public offering. While at LaSalle, Chairman Nesbitt also managed several specialty fund portfolios of non-traditional real estate investments with a combined market value of more than $1 billion.
Prior to joining LaSalle Partners, Chairman Nesbitt was employed by General Motors Corporation in the area of borrowing and financial planning. There, he was responsible for managing the company’s long-, short- and medium-term borrowing requirements which included the placement of more than $25 billion in debt annually. While at General Motors, Nesbitt was also involved in the securitization and sale of $4 billion in auto loans, an industry first. He was quickly recognized and rewarded at General Motors with one of the company’s GM Fellowships which sponsored his graduate education.