Obama's Mansion, Saddam's Money..............(connection to Obama, who personally benefited )

FrontPageMagazine ^ | Tuesday, October 28, 2008 | Daniel Pipes

[IrishMike]

Barack Obama appears to have personally benefited from funds originating in Saddam Hussein's regime. It's a complicated connection, but one that deserves the consideration of Americans voters.

Two similar figures, Nadhmi Auchi and Antoin S. "Tony" Rezko, served as the intermediaries. Both are Middle Eastern males of Catholic Christian heritage who left Baathist dictatorships for Western cities (Auchi from Iraq to London, Rezko from Syria to Chicago). Both became successful businessmen who hobnobbed with politicians and promoted Arab interests. Both have been convicted of taking kickbacks and both stand accused of other shady dealings.

Auchi, born in 1937, is the more successful. When young, he joined Saddam in the Baath Party. He founded his main financial instrument, the General Mediterranean Holding SA in 1979 – revealingly, while still in Iraq. A year later, he emigrated to the United Kingdom. GMHSA now describes itself as a diverse group of 120 companies with consolidated assets of over US$4.2 billion. The Sunday Times (London) recently estimated Auchi's personal wealth at £2.15 billion, making him the 27th richest person in Britain. He garnered many honors along the way.

On the dark side, a French court in 2003 convicted Auchi of taking kickbacks in the Elf Affair and handed down a suspended jail sentence and fine. One analyst, Hector Igbikiowubo, calls this "probably the biggest political and corporate sleaze scandal to hit a western democracy since World War II." Also in 2003, one of Auchi's firms was accused of taking part in a price-fixing cartel of prescription medicines. In 2004, a report by the Pentagon's International Armament and Technology Trade Directorate found "significant and credible evidence" that Auchi organized a conspiracy to offer bribes to win mobile telephone licenses in Iraq. He was barred from entering the United States in 2005.

Tony Rezko (left) with Illinois' junior senator, Barack Obama.

Rezko, born in 1955, arrived in the United States in 1974 to study civil engineering. After some work on road construction projects, he went into the fast-food business, then into real estate, with help from Auchi. His political involvement began in 1983 with a mayoral campaign, after which he acquired a taste for cultivating up-and-coming politicians, notably Obama and the current governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich.

Rezko too has extensive legal problems, starting with a June 2008 conviction on sixteen counts of taking kickbacks from companies wanting to do business with the State of Illinois. He also stands accused of evading Las Vegas gambling debts and using false information in the sale of his pizza businesses. In contrast to Auchi's wealth, Rezko is said to be over $50 million in debt.

In three steps, these corrupt businessmen tie the Democratic Party presidential candidate to the executed Iraqi tyrant:

Saddam Hussein made use of Auchi: Auchi's fortune largely grew through his Iraq government connection, much of it sub rosa. In the 1980s, he procured Italian military ships. By 1993, the Italian banker Pierfrancesco Pacini Battaglia testified about Auchi bribing Iraqi officials for an Italian engineering company and called Auchi "one of the most important intermediaries in the affairs of Middle Eastern countries." Auchi is also a major shareholder in BNP Paribas, the French bank deeply implicated in the U.N.'s corrupt Iraq oil-for-food program.

Auchi made use of Rezko: Rezko lobbied for Auchi to be allowed into the United States. A wholly-owned GMHSA subsidiary, Fintrade Services Inc., transferred a loan of $3.5 million on May 23, 2005 to Rezko.

Rezko cultivated Obama: Rezko offered Barack Obama a job in 1990, which Obama declined. Still, Rezko persisted, hiring him for legal work and hosting in 2003 an early fundraiser that, writes David Mendell in Obama: From Promise to Power, proved "instrumental in providing Obama with seed money" for his nascent U.S. Senate campaign. Then, on June 15, 2005, just twenty-three days after receiving Auchi's $3.5 million, Rezko partnered with Obama in a real estate deal: while Rezko's wife paid the full asking price, $625,000, for an empty adjoining lot which they then improved, subdivided, and partially sold to Obama, Obama acquired a mansion for $1.65 million, $300,000 under the asking price.

Summing up: Barack Obama's house purchase depended on favors from Rezko, flush with a "loan" from Auchi, whose fortune derived in part from Saddam Hussein's favor.

When seen in the context of Obama's other dubious connections (Ayers, Davidson, Wright, Khalidi, et al.), this network is all the more alarming.

[Ken522]

If a Republican was guilty of even a sense of all this corruption, he would immediately be hounded from public office - for a Democratic Party member, it's just par for the course ....

[gov_bean_ counter]

As I have posted before, dictators are meticulous record keepers. There is a reason the Dems shut down public access to the captured Iraqi documents. Much in there to incriminate the Democrats.

[Cindy]

WASHINGTON TIMES.com: "EX-SUBPRIME BANK EXECUTIVES FINANCES OBAMA Customers who lost savings note he slams housing crisis" by Jerry Seper (October 29, 2008)

WSJ.com - Opinion: "BARACK WROTE A LETTER..." (October 29, 2008)

CNS NEWS.com: "OBAMA SEES SUPREME COURT JUSTICES AS CHAMPIONS OF THE WEAK OVER THE STRONG" by Matthew Cover (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "In both speeches, the Illinois Democrat chastised the nominees not for their positions on specific constitutional issues or matters of law but for what he perceived as too often siding with the strong instead of the weak. He chargied Roberts, for example, with being dismissive of claims of racial and gender discrimination and criticized Alito for making a habit out of siding with government and corporations against plaintiffs and workers.") (October 29, 2008)

THREATSWATCH.org - blog: "ENTERING A NEW ERA" by Jay Fraser (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "However, to consider that the War on Terrorism and its battles are over simply because the United States has not had to withstand another direct attack on our soil would be naive.") (October 28, 2008, 6:19 pm)

NEWSMAX.com: "EXPECT FEWER LIBERTIES IF OBAMA WINS" by David Limbaugh (COMMENTARY SNIPPET: "I am sincerely worried that if Obama wins, the checks and balances incorporated into our Constitution may not be enough to prevent a radical and irreversible diminution of our individual liberties because a confluence of factors has emerged to create a climate conducive to fundamental change. These are the factors:") (October 28, 2008, 8:40 am)

FRONTPAGE MAGAZINE.com (FOX NEWS): "THOSE MARXIST COLLEGE YEARS" by Bill Sammon (October 29, 2008)

FRONTPAGE MAGAZINE.com: "PALESTINIANS CAMPAIGNING FOR OBAMA" by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook (October 29, 2008)

JIHAD WATCH.org (GLOBE AND MAIL.co.uk): "GAZA STUDENTS CALL U.S. VOTERS, ASKING THEM TO SUPPORT OBAMA" (October 27, 2008)

DANIEL PIPES.org (HUDSON INSTITUTE): "PLO ACKNOWLEDGES: STILL AT WAR WITH ISRAEL" by Daniel Pipes (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Yasir Arafat may have shaken Yitzhak Rabin's hand in 1993 and signed solemn declarations about ending the war to eliminate Israel, but late last month, in a New York City courtroom, the Palestine Liberation Organization formally confirmed that it still sees terrorism against Israelis as legitimate acts of war.") (October 28, 2008)

FAMILY SECURITY MATTERS.org: "BARACK OBAMA'S ANTI-ISRAEL ALLIANCES" by Rachel Neuwirth (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Rashid Khalidi was the director of the PLO's press agency WAFA from 1976 to 1982, at a time when the PLO was conducting a massacre of 37 Israeli civilians in a bus on Israel's coastal road, the brutal murder of a four-year-old Israeli girl in Nahariya, and numerous other terrorist killings of Israeli civilians. The PLO was also waging a brutal war against the Lebanese Christian community during this period, and carried out numerous massacres of Lebanese Christians; the worst of these was the killing of about 500 people in the village of Damour.") (October 24, 2008)

Elections.FOX NEWS.com: "LA TIMES REFUSES TO RELEASE TAPE OF OBAMA PRAISING CONTROVERSIAL ACTIVIST Video of farewell party for alleged PLO worker shows Obama toasting 'friend and dinner companion' with questionable past." (October 28, 2008)

AMERICAN THINKER.com - blog: "THE SAID-KHALIDI-OBAMA CONNECTION" by Ed Lasky (October 22, 2008)

stepping back in time...CAMPUS-WATCH.org - Campus Watch Research: "COLUMBIA U. RELEASE EDWARD SAID CHAIR DONORS: NAMES ARAB GOVERNMENT" (March 19, 2004)

stepping back in time...CAMPUS-WATCH.org (FRONTPAGE MAGAZINE.com): "SECRETS, DONORS AND THE EDWARD SAID CHAIR" by Jonathan Calt Harris (November 19, 2003)

stepping back in time...MARTIN KRAMER'S SANDBOX - blog: "RASHID REDUX" (Posted Janurary 29, 2003)

[Post no. 2] - ARCHIVES - Topic: BIDEN & OBAMA (aka B & O) (October 28, 2008 -- Click Here TO VIEW MY ARCHIVED LINKS.)

JEFF HEAD.com - Videos: "THE AUDACITY OF TRUTH - Obama In His & His Supporters Own Words"

[Calpernia]

Thank God someone started picking up on this!

BUMP!

There is a little more though. Maybe the writer can do a part two~!

http://blog.barofintegrity.us/2008/10/03/barack-hussein-obama-antoin-rezko-nadhmi-auchi-saddam-hussein—strange-bedfellows.aspx
Barack Hussein Obama, Antoin Rezko, Nadhmi Auchi, Saddam Hussein = Strange Bedfellows

Excerpt:

The Times has, however, discovered state documents in Illinois recording that Fintrade Services, a Panamanian company, lent money to Mr Obama’s fundraiser in May 2005.

Fintrade’s directors include Ibtisam Auchi, the name of Mr Auchi’s wife. Mr Auchi’s spokespeople declined to respond to a question about whether he was linked to this business. as a close friend of Mr Auchi, although Mr Auchi disputes this. The two are involved in a large Chicago land development together. But it is unclear how long the two men have known each other or whether they were linked before the 2003 Iraq war. Neither side would discuss their relationship.

(snip)

Nadhmi Auchi co-conspired with fellow Baathist Saddam Hussein in 1959 to assassinate then Prime Minister Abd al-Karim Qasim. Rezko and Obama are both financially connected to him.

[Calpernia]

Phil, you have your Auchi/Rezko graphic?

Lucy, can you ping?

[libertarian27]

Here’s Obama’s house zillow page:
http://www.zillow.com/Charts.htm?chartDuration=10years&zpid=50904051

Question:
Who owned the house in 2000?

Sale History
06/21/2005: $1,650,000
08/25/2000: $1,650,000 *
No other sale data is available
* Transaction not included in Zestimate. More info

Transaction Not Included in Zestimate
This transaction was not used in computing the Zestimate for this house due to anomalies we detected with this transaction. These anomalies can include unusual document or transaction types, sales between possibly related parties, unusually high or low transaction prices, or other data irregularities that might indicate the transaction is not a full-value, arms-length transaction.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

All — I misfiled an important link this morning. Sorry for needing a second ping. Too important to miss:

Did Saddam bagman help Obama purchase mansion?
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/
Photo confirms Rezko financier in bed with late Iraqi tyrant

[Impy]

Will the wealthy Obama share his wealth with poor Impy?

[LucyT]

Thank you, Calpernia.

Another day, another Ping.

(See new tag line.)

[M. Espinola]

Great find!

[TigersEye]

The Husseins stick together.

[TigersEye]

Here's the result of 0bama's working with "developers" like Rezko.

Obama's "community organizing" left Chicago neighborhoods in ruins.

Grim proving ground for Obama's housing policy

"About 99 of the units are vacant, many rendered uninhabitable by unfixed problems, such as collapsed roofs and fire damage. Mice scamper through the halls. Battered mailboxes hang open. Sewage backs up into kitchen sinks. In 2006, federal inspectors graded the condition of the complex an 11 on a 100-point scale - a score so bad the buildings now face demolition."

[pandoraou812]

Shaking my head again.

[Jersey Republican Biker Chick]

Thanks for the PING, Pandy!!

PING!!!!!!

[Gondring]

ping

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

“Will the wealthy Obama share his wealth with poor Impy?”

Obama’s Minuscule Charity Contributions
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2114992/posts

[freema]

Have you seen this?
http://theunionnews.blogspot.com/2008/10/acorn-embezzlement-case-delayed-for.html

[SunkenCiv]

Note: this topic is from October 2008.