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Obama invite for dictator who has stolen billions from his impoverished African nation
dailymail.co.uk ^ | 06/10/2011 | DANIEL BATES

Posted on 06/10/2011 9:32:20 AM PDT by massmike

Barack Obama has come under fire for extending a formal invitation to a shamed African dictator who has ruthlessly plundered billions of dollars from his own country.

The U.S. President is today having a coveted private meeting with President Ali Bongo of Gabon in the Oval Office despite his appalling track record.

Bongo’s family has ruled the impoverished African nation with an iron fist for five decades and have used its oil riches to fund a life of outrageous luxury.

Jack Blum, a United Nations consultant and expert on offshore banking, told ABC News that the meeting with Mr Obama sends out the wrong message.

He said that over the years the Bongos had siphoned off a quarter of Gabon’s GDP which has made them ‘incredibly rich’.

‘There's absolutely no shame,’ Blum said of Bongo and his cronies. ‘I would say that the people who are running the country are guilty of grand theft nation’.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: alibongo; gabon; obama4dictators
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Barack Obama today had a coveted private meeting with President Ali Bongo of Gabon in the Oval Office despite his appalling track record

1 posted on 06/10/2011 9:32:24 AM PDT by massmike
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To: massmike

Their meeting will be almost like looking into a mirror for both of them.


2 posted on 06/10/2011 9:34:07 AM PDT by Kartographer (".. we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.")
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To: massmike
Spud Obama
3 posted on 06/10/2011 9:35:20 AM PDT by FrankR (A people that values its privileges above its principles will soon lose both.)
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To: massmike
What IS it with this guy hobnobbing with dictators and murderers, but disrespecting and slighting leaders of democratic and free countries?

Wait. Don't answer. I know.

He respects dictators and wants to be one.

4 posted on 06/10/2011 9:35:25 AM PDT by Lazamataz (Anthony Weiner is a little cocky.)
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To: massmike

Obamajad strapped for campaign money, is he?


5 posted on 06/10/2011 9:35:29 AM PDT by RowdyFFC
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To: massmike

If Idi Amin Dada were alive, I am sure he would be inviting him to the White House too for fried chicken and watermelon.


6 posted on 06/10/2011 9:37:19 AM PDT by NWFLConservative (Game On!.................Saracuda 2012)
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To: Kartographer

Bongo envies Obama being leader of such a rich country; a ripe plumb. Obama envies Bongo’s ability to jail and shoot his critics. Neither one of them gets it. America prospers because it controls the evil impulses of its leaders-so far.


7 posted on 06/10/2011 9:37:45 AM PDT by Spok
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To: massmike

Birds of a feather...


8 posted on 06/10/2011 9:38:04 AM PDT by Argus
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To: massmike

“Qui es muy corrupto?”

Between Obama and this other clown?

Thinking, thinking.........


9 posted on 06/10/2011 9:43:18 AM PDT by Da Coyote
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To: massmike
Give Zero a break, he probably just wanted to keep score, you know, who plundered the most from their own country and all.

USA!,USA! We're Number One! ...at least in the "most plundered" category

10 posted on 06/10/2011 9:47:50 AM PDT by NativeSon
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To: All
Gabon's First Lady Lives on Food Stamps in California
ABC NEWS By DANA HUGHES

Photo Courtesy Inge Bongo. Ali Ben and Inge Bongo married in 1994. Inge now lives on food stamps in California. Ali Ben Bongo was recently elected president of Gabon; Ali converted to Islam so that he could have multiple wives.

EXCERPT The new president of Gabon, Ali Ben Bongo, is the son of the country's ruler for the last 42 years and a member of one of the wealthiest families in Africa. Gabon's new first lady is American-born Inge Bongo. But there'll be no inauguration ceremony or redecorating of the presidential palace for her. Inge Bongo lives in California and is on food stamps.

The new president is confronting angry demonstrations in the streets of the country's capital, Libreville, and other cities protesting what they claim was a rigged election. The beleaguered president-elect is also facing demands from his estranged wife to be allowed to take her place as first lady and to reform what she says is a lack of human rights.

Inge Bongo makes it clear that she doesn't expect her husband to quickly agree. "I'm going to claim my right as first lady. I'm going to make a lot of noise. I'm going to take this opportunity to make some changes, whether he likes it or not," Inge Bongo told ABC News. "He can deny a settlement and a divorce. But he's a young man, he's 50. And I'm relatively young. I can just keep doing this forever."

Inge and Ali have had a tempestuous relationship after meeting 23 years ago on a blind date in California. It was love at first sight. "We met on a Sunday morning before he was supposed to take a flight out," she says. "He ended up not taking the flight. We fell in love." A worldwide whirlwind romance ensued with meetings in California, Paris and Gabon, until the couple married in Madrid in 1994. The marriage was made legal in the United States, according to documents obtained by ABC News. Inge was allowed to make her primary residence with their three children in California, visiting Gabon often while Ali would remain in the country carrying out his duties.

Inge says throughout her 23-year relationship with Ali Bongo, she travelled to Gabon often but could never adjust to the disparity between the rich lifestyle of the Bongos and the abject poverty the general population lived in. "Gabon is a country of the haves and the have nots, and the haves were all Bongos," she says. "When I would complain, they literally laughed at me. They thought Americans were kind of foolish, that they didn't have time to worry about human rights."

Gabon is a small country in West Africa, with major oil reserves, and that means oil money. The country also had the same president for over 40 years, Omar Bongo, Ali's father. Inge's husband served as the country's minister of defense and was widely expected to succeed his father in the presidency.

Omar Bongo died in June, and the campaign to elect the next president began, with the election Aug. 30. There were 17 candidates, but Ali Ben Bongo, the most visible and best financed, was declared the winner. Accusations of election fraud and voter intimidation have prompted street demonstrations in recent days. Over Omar Bongo's 42-year reign, he and his family amassed a large amount of wealth. The country enjoyed strong ties with its former colonizer France, and the Bongo family owns several homes in France, including a $21 million apartment in one of Paris' plushest neighborhoods.

The French government has frozen $900 million of the family's assets in response to a lawsuit filed by the anti-corruption group Transparency International on behalf of a Gabonese citizen, who's accused the family of corruption, embezzlement and fraud.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/gabons-lady-lives-food-stamps-california/story?id=8494060

==========================================

Residence of Ali's 4'11" dad (now deceased).
Gabon citizens live on $2 a day and forage garbage dumps for food.

11 posted on 06/10/2011 9:52:13 AM PDT by Liz ( A taxpayer voting for Obama is like a chicken voting for Col Sanders.)
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To: Liz

>> she travelled to Gabon often but could never adjust to the disparity between the rich lifestyle of the Bongos and the abject poverty the general population lived in. “Gabon is a country of the haves and the have nots, and the haves were all Bongos,” she says.

“African-Americans” just don’t get it. In the mid ‘70s, I was a pilot for Transamerica, a charter airline, and when Alex Haley’s “Roots” series came out, the company was all ginned up for running “Back to Africa” trips. They failed - miserably. Can you guess why? I lived in Africa; I can.


12 posted on 06/10/2011 10:14:30 AM PDT by QBFimi (When gunpowder speaks, beasts listen.)
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To: massmike

And.......just what do you think POTUS Obama of Kenya is doing to American Blacks??? Have you folks noticed the unemployment, underemployment, abortions, foreclosures, drop out rates, unwanted pregnancies, poor education, no opportunity, no jobs, stuck at the bottom of the economic totem pole, etc. that POTUS Obama has bequeathed and passed on to “his” brothers and sisters of color. USA, Gabon, what is the difference?? Two dictators, two “dirt bags”!!! Wake up, Black folk, Obama is your worst enemy!!!


13 posted on 06/10/2011 10:16:39 AM PDT by JLAGRAYFOX
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To: massmike
Barack Obama has come under fire for extending a formal invitation to a shamed African dictator who has ruthlessly plundered billions of dollars from his own country.

Birds of a feather!! The only question is how much taxpayer money Obama will promiseto give him so that he will have more money to squander.

14 posted on 06/10/2011 10:22:19 AM PDT by DustyMoment (Go green - recycle Congress in 2012!!)
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To: QBFimi

Thanks for the realtime input.


15 posted on 06/10/2011 10:25:44 AM PDT by Liz ( A taxpayer voting for Obama is like a chicken voting for Col Sanders.)
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To: massmike

"Hey, nice move, Bingo, converting to Islam to have more wives. Me too, when I get out of the friggin' WH."

16 posted on 06/10/2011 10:35:38 AM PDT by Liz ( A taxpayer voting for Obama is like a chicken voting for Col Sanders.)
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To: DustyMoment
....... how much taxpayer money will Obama give Bingo to squander....

Heck, Bingo may need to add-on to the family residence, and reupholster the limo.

17 posted on 06/10/2011 10:41:38 AM PDT by Liz ( A taxpayer voting for Obama is like a chicken voting for Col Sanders.)
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To: Liz
Gabon citizens live on $2 a day and forage garbage dumps for food.

Sounds like Barry's future for us here in the USA.

18 posted on 06/10/2011 10:57:41 AM PDT by WOBBLY BOB ( "I don't want the majority if we don't stand for something"- Jim Demint)
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To: WOBBLY BOB
Obama traveled to his father's country of Kenya, to a tiny native village
called Alego, where his stepmother still lives in the house where he grew up.

"When I become president, I'll turn superpower America into a Third World
backwater----as payback. I'll make sure Americans live in hovels like this."

19 posted on 06/10/2011 11:13:05 AM PDT by Liz ( A taxpayer voting for Obama is like a chicken voting for Col Sanders.)
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To: massmike
Obama is a communists black Muslim criminal. When will impeachment begin?
20 posted on 06/10/2011 11:18:36 AM PDT by Logical me
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