Be My Friend, Godfather
By MBolack and SusanUnPC on April 26, 2008 at 5:32 PM in Barack Obama, Chicago politics, Nadhmi Auchi, Tony Rezko
Over the last few months, Barack Obama has often stated that it was Chicago politics that made him tough enough to beat John McCain. Obama’s name has even come up a few times in the corruption trial of Tony Rezko, most recently in reference to toasting a man named Nadhmi Auchi at a Chicago party.
Just who is this Auchi character, and does it really matter that Obama gave toasts to him at a party?
Yes, it matters a lot.
First, it matters because, once again, Obama did an “Alberto Gonzales” on us. He couldn’t recall attending a party given in Auchi’s honor at the home of Tony Rezko in April of 2004, nor does he recall making “a few toasts.” (”Which is it? Obamarama . . .,” Chicago Sun-Times, April 16, 2008)
Once again, Obama refuses to share his history with the American public. That bothers me.
But, back to the question… why should I care about Auchi?
I begin with the Wikipedia entry entry on this man.
“Nadhmi Auchi was charged along with Saddam Hussein for conspiring to assassinate Iraqi President Abdul-Karim Qasim in 1959.”
“Mr. Auchi is a business partner of Syrian-born businessman Antoin “Tony” Rezko, who has supported US Presidential candidate Barack Obama financially since his first run for the Illinois state senate in 1996.”
According to an article at Raw Story — “Firm linked to Obama patron scrubs ‘04 visit from website“:
“Auchi, a native of Iraq who lives in Great Britain, has a colorful past of his own. The businessman 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).”
See also:
- “The Food for Oil Connection, it’s Tony again!,” Democrats.org, March 12, 2008
- “Oil scandal billionaire tells French court of bribes,” The Guardian, London, May 7, 2003
As if this were not enough, Auchi may have actually enabled — by providing some of the funds – the purchase of Obama’s Chicago mansion:
- “Mansion ‘mistake’ piles the pressure on Barack Obama,” The Times Online, London, February 26, 2008
- “How to Buy A Mansion You Can’t Afford, No Quarter, February 4 , 2008
- “From the Tribune archives: Rezko owns vacant lot next to Obama’s home,” Chicago Tribune, November 1, 2006
But there is much more to this story.
Auchi acted as Tony Rezko’s proverbial banker: He is reported to have loaned/invested more than $27.8 million to Rezko and his various projects. And there is no denying that Barack Obama is one of those “projects.”
Read “Timeline: British billionaire and Barack Obama” in The Times Online, London, February 25, 2008. The article provides a summary of some of the interactions between Auchi — and his company, General Mediterranean Holding (GMH) — and Tony Rezko.
So what did Rezko and his cohorts do with all of this money? Well, the list is too long to detail here. But read Rezko’s Wickipedia entry, and you’ll get the idea.
According to Salon.com’s story, “How close were Barack Obama and Tony Rezko?” February 1, 2008:
In 1989, Rezko and a business partner founded Rezmar Inc., a real estate company that aimed to rehabilitate South Side apartment buildings. Partnering with community groups that could help them win government loans, Rezmar purchased 30 properties.
At first, Rezmar had a golden reputation. But many of its tenants would have been better off in housing projects. During the winter of 1997, a Rezmar building was without heat for five weeks, until the city took the company to court.
It was one of a dozen cases in which the city had to force Rezmar to turn on heat for its tenants. More than half of Rezmar’s buildings went into foreclosure, and several have been boarded up. According to a Chicago Sun-Times investigation, Rezmar properties were ‘riddled with problems — including squalid living conditions, vacant apartments, lack of heat, squatters and drug dealers. ….
Rezko, after all, built part of his fortune by exploiting the black community that Obama had served in the state Senate, and by milking government programs meant to benefit black-owned businesses.
But Obama took Rezko’s money even after the businessman was sued by the city of Chicago for failing to heat his low-income apartments, and even after Rezko was caught using a black business partner to obtain a minority set-aside for a fast-food franchise at O’Hare Airport.
See also: “Broken promises, broken homes,” Chicago Sun-Times, April 24, 2007.
Obama had, in fact, written letters to the Illinois Dept of Housing, recommending Rezco’s company for some of these these very projects.
See: Obama’s letters at The Chicago-Sun-Times (PDF format).
There is much more to know about the relationship between Obama, Rezko and Auchi. An Internet search reveals an abundance of information from reliable sources. But this is enough to make my point. Obama has had the benefit of lots of money that came to him by way of many corrupt individuals.
So far, Obama has admitted to $250,000, though it is unclear whether he has returned more than $150,000 of it. And he seems to have been willing, at the very least, to ignore — and even enable — the actions of these vile characters.
Isn’t it sad, but ironic, that it took a non-MSM online newspaper, OpED News to do one of the most thorough studies on the corruption that begat Barack Obama and his involvement in it?
Read Evelyn Pringle’s articles:
- “Barack Obama - The Wizard of Oz”
- “Barack Obama - Operation Board Games For Slumlords”
- “ Barack Obama - Subplots of Operation Board Games - Part I“
There can be very little doubt, after all, that Obama knew about this, and that he spent a lot more time with Rezko than he has admitted. The FBI, in fact, logged many Obama visits to Rezko’s offices in 2004 and 2005, contradicting Obama’s assertions that he didn’t know Rezko well.
Curiously, although a Chicago Sun-Times article entitled “My Life as an FBI Mole,” is quoted identically in all 3 of the articles below, that story has been removed from the Sun-Times website. The fifth link below purports to contain the entire text from the article.
See:
- “FBI MOLE SHOWS FACE,” Illinois Review, February 10, 2008
- “One-degree of separation: Rezko-Obama—When is a coincidence not a coincidence? (Updated),” Rezko Watch, February 12, 2008
- “Follow the Money: Obama “dropped in” to do Rezko favors,” Avid Editor, March 13, 2008
- “My life as an FBI mole (Real estate broker convicted of fraud becomes a mole for feds to nail Rezko),” Chicago Sun-Times, February 10, 2008
Further, quite a few of Rezko’s housing projects, which indeed became slums, were in the district Obama represented as an Illinois Senator. One or two were little more than a mile from Obama’s home. Surely a responsible Illinois Senator would have made numerous efforts to intervene on behalf of the victimized residents. But I could find no indication that Obama even tried.
See:
- “Irrefutable Proof That Obama’s Own District Was Home to 11 Rezko Foreclosed Properties, No Quarter,” No Quarter, March 12, 2008
- “It Is ‘Possible’ Obama Was Aware of Rezko’s Financial and Legal Woes,” No Quarter, January 28, 2008
If Auchi was The Godfather and Rezko was a caporegime — to use an analogy from The Godfather — does that make Obama the equivalent of a faithful soldier? I certainly hope not. But I have to admit, as I did the research for this article, lines from that movie kept going through my head.
“Be my friend… Godfather.”
[kisses Don Corleone’s ring]Don Corleone: “Good. Someday, and that day may never come, I’ll call upon you to do a service for me. But, until that day, accept this justice as a gift on my daughter’s wedding day.”
I believe Barack Obama still has a lot of questions to answer. I fervently hope that the mainstream media will ask them before the primaries are over. If he doesn’t answer them now, he will certainly be subject to major attack from Republican-oriented organizations before the November election. And it will be nobody’s fault but his own.
I’m afraid, however, that recent media comments that Obama “has stepped in it,” aren’t adequate. He may never really have been out of it.
We already have one President right now who can’t remember things that he did. America doesn’t need another.
Hey! Tony is gonna need a pardon so he can skim more government money and turn off the heat on the poor.
You have no clue how angry that makes me. The story of the grandmother with the year old grandchild and putting plastic in the windows to keep the cold out.
They funneled over $100 million to him over a ten year period. One office in the Daley Jungle was trying to shut Rezko down and the other ‘good old boy’ office kept shoveling the cash out. $100 million.
It takes a while to realise slumlording is such a profitable business. Because you’re not hoodwinking ordinary corporations - you’re hoodwinking taxpayers. And your coconspirator is some crook inside city hall.
The FBI today just increased their local staff by 50%. Their Chicago crime unit is the biggest in the entire country. They’ve busted hundreds already. Hundreds more can go down.
And Barry isn’t just associated with them - he’s one of the instigators.
it makes one wonder what fitzgerald might know.
I would think everything — all the way up to the white house.
Gosh, he must have been appalled at the level of rot, and then amazed at the stupidity.
Aren’t we all?
Hmmm……Has Michelle paid her property taxes yet ?…..Good Post…
Someone PLEASE email this article to Lou Dobbs, hannity@foxnews.com and oreilly@foxnews.com. I don’t know how, but they are the only MSM interested in vetting Obama.
Thanks!!!
CHICAGO POLITICS. Can someone put a video around this song and get it on YouTube?
http://www.ecivic.us/chicagopolitics.html
Elephants on the left and donkeys on the right - And in the center ring it’s pistol beating, money grabbing, bribe taking, garbage cleaning, art snatching, vote stealing and..
Chicago Politics, most interesting politics
The circus is coming to your town
With jerks, buffoons and elephants
From the House of Delegates
And certified administrative clowns
Infrain:
When I was young I must have had a mental embargo
About taking jobs or money for my vote
So when I’m dead please bury me in downtown Chicago
So I can still keep casting my vote (when I’m dead)
I can make up all those years I didn’t vote
In the center ring the fun begins
When pot-hole jumping citizens
Join in and dance with the clowns
There’s a party here - a party there
There’s a three-ring circus everywhere
And political reporters all around
The pooper scopper’s a friend of mine
He’s the precinct captain from 49
He’s got himself a job can’t you see
Vote early - often as you can
Vote absentee then vote again
Here’s a dollar bill - go vote for me
Refrain:
From: http://www.ecivic.us/chicagopolitics.html
Cross posted at TM.
Isn’t it sad, but ironic, that it took a renowned New Zealand Online Newspaper to do one of the most thorough studies on the corruption that begat Barack Obama and his involvement in it?
I believe these are reprints from OpEd News. Pringle regularly writes for OpEd News. Please give credit as well to David Axelrod’s former colleagues at tribune.com who are covering the board games trial and whose work is the underbody to the Pringle articles.
But above all: please keep featuring these links - they are the most important links for this election campaign today. As Pringle says: if the Dems did the research they would dirty their knickers.
It’s incumbent this information - and these sources of information - reach the DNC and the MSM ASAP.
See: Obama’s letters pdf from The Chicago-Sun-Times
I suppose everyone’s noticed Barry’s English is shit and he didn’t proofread too well.
You can’t ask him about Auchi!. It’s a distraction, old politic.
No! You are racist!
Let’s see when kevin or autopilot will come and make one of the above deflective comment.
Aren’t you supposed to wait until after they come to point out this? Troll prophylactic?
Part of the reason they get so hostile is they’re starting to understand they’ve been gullible fools. When they get that fear coming over them they panic - and get aggressive.
Yeah, the blog “Rezko Watch” has so many “one degree of separation” ties of obama to his corrupt patrons.
This might be the deal breaker, considering how close Blago is to indictment now that they are all fingering him. When Rezko and Blago start to squeal they will be bringing up the presidential nominee…
“Sources said Thomas [the FBI mole] helped investigators build a record of repeat visits to the old offices of Rezko and former business partner Daniel Mahru’s Rezmar Corp., at 853 N. Elston, by Blagojevich and ***Obama*** during 2004 and 2005. In one case, sources said, Thomas told authorities he saw a Rezmar employee pass an envelope with a visible wad of bills to an unidentified Blagojevich aide.”
His cesspool overfloweth.
rezkowatch does an excellent job, as always, helping to connect the dots, and the players, as does the Chicago Sun Times, and Tribune.
I would think it must be difficult for a reporter, trying to tell the truth, when your publisher wants it killed.
Help dig this story.
http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/Be_My_Friend_Godfather
Any good PI knows this information about Obama, and more, the whole nine yards.
Why are Dean and Pelosi still pushing his candidacy?
In addition, the Pentagon published a paper detailing Auchi’s ties to weapons dealing, very instrumental in regard to the terrorist attacks we see on the news:
from the washington times:
i think the short fast answer is they are greedy for what they think are the new democrats ie the young and aa community that hasn’t voted before now. they are losing the latino community and the core democrats but these people don’t think. they are fearful of the loss of power with clinton so they cling to their self involved fantasies. and the obama supporters for sure won’t remain for the most part with the democratic party. their ipods are calling.
You know, with advice coming from a sub par “consultant class,” you’re probably right.
Isn’t that sad?
Rolling Stone had an excellent article abut this, poltical consultants, and democrats, and how both exploited the war in ‘06 for seats.
They’re too cloisterd, they’re not seeing the truth. In this instance, the republicans do much better. And it goes to that elitism, Obama’s remarks, and the inabilty of that group to understand just how serious the damage is…
I fiigure that, and corruption.
And now I wonder just how corrupt someone like Pelosi is, when before, I just figured her for stupid.
Hey, very cool. Every Hussein should have an international financial manipulator and bagman. Saddam used Auchi, why shouldn’t Barack?
Excellent post. Ties together quite a bit of what you’ve uncovered and made known to date. I will be linking to it as a primer about ‘Barry the Crook’.
We can call him that now, right?
I’ve always thought that Auchi is the ‘put-out’ pitch. That McSame will save it for the most damaging moment in their fight, if it comes to that, perhaps in the closing moments of a debate.
McSame will ask, all innocence, ‘We’ve all heard about your explanations of your ‘relationship’ with Mr. Rezko. How would you characterize your political, business and personal dealings with Mr. Nahmi Auchi, Senator?’
Pandemonium as Charles Gibson has a stroke on the set and Barry the Crook glass jaw and all measures his length on the ‘American Blue’ carpet of the platform. Out cold.
As headlines from coast to coast blare:
‘Obama Business Associate Known Terrorist’ the Magic Man’s Children’s Crusade comes to it’s end.
Game, set and match to those Republicans prescient enough to see that in Barry the Crook they had the perfect ‘Black Trojan Horse’ to destroy the Democratic Party.
Eh, depends on who is holding the laser.
Maybe Barry can just get rid of the Dean’s and Pelosis, you know, trojan the trojan…
I’m going to rofl when Dubya attacks Iran turning the Mid east into a shit storm and declaring himself Commander Guy until the “war” is over.
Wouldn’t surprise me. Disgust, yes. But not surprise.
I’ll head to Canada…( sigh )
There is a lot riding on this presdency in the way of pardons of for some pretty nasty folks.
Makes me think of that R68 group and worry.
MBolack, Well done laying out what, as Rep Tubbs, said recently is “in the public domain”.
Isn’t that the RICCO statutes are for?
27 million in small bills.
What do you figure the oppo budjet is for the RNC/BlackwaterUSA?
And what do Hillary supporters have that you, Obama never will?
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On February 1 the London Times reported uncovering state documents in Illinois recording that Fintrade Services, a Panamanian company under Auchi’s umbrella. lent money to an Obama fundraiser in May 2005. Has there been any further investigation of this loan?
The fact that we can tie Obama to Saddam Hussein’s bagman should take the DNC’s collective breath away.
Auchi is trying to tie up the London press in the courts…But they’re still digging….
When they say Obama fundraiser, they mean Rezko. They don’t mean to an Obama event. Yes, I looked into it thoroughly, as best as I could, and that is what they mean.
Thank you for digging into this story and exposing the rot on the vine. You must continue to make headlines for this must be published for all citizens to see. And it must be done before the Democratic primaries end.