Chapter IX: The Arab American Network Behind Obama
President Obama's controversial relationships with radical figures like Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi have been well-publicized in recent years.
President Obama's controversial relationships with radical figures like Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi have been well-publicized in recent years.
Prior
to his academic career in the United States, Khalidi worked for Yasser Arafat's
Palestine Liberation Organization when it was classified by the State
Department as a terrorist group.
Less
well-known is a cluster of Chicago businessmen who formed an Arab-American
network at the heart of Obama's political apparatus. Ray Hanania, a
Chicago-based Arab-American journalist and activist, described the network in a
2007 interview with Chicago magazine as "a small cluster of
activists" in the business
community who were politically involved.
community who were politically involved.
Chief
among them was Obama mentor Tony Rezko. Born in Aleppo, Syria, home of
strongman Bashar al-Assad, Rezko migrated to the U.S. in the late 1970s and built
a political and financial empire in Chicago and Springfield, the Illinois
capital.
Rezko
is now serving a 10-year federal prison sentence following his convictions on
federal fraud and bribery charges related to disgraced Gov. Rod Blagojevich and
state contracting.
Rezko
offered Obama a job at his Rezmar Corp. after he finished at Harvard Law
School, but the new lawyer instead accepted a position at a Chicago firm with
close personal and professional ties to Rezko. Their relationship steadily
deepened in the years thereafter.
For
example, Obama asked Rezko to assess the $1.6 million Hyde Park/Kenwood home
that he and Michelle were considering buying in 2005, a controversial
transaction that Rezko's wife assisted by purchasing an adjoining lot for $625,000.
(The owner of the home and adjoining lot insisted that they be sold together.)
Rezko
and his Arab-American business associates have contributed hundreds of
thousands of dollars to Obama's political campaigns. Following Rezko's
conviction, though, Obama donated to charity at least $85,000 in Rezko
contributions to his 2008 presidential campaign.
The
Chicago Sun-Times estimated Obama received at least "$168,308 from Rezko
and his circle," while ABC News put the total to be as much as $100,000
higher than the amount claimed by Obama.
While
he was in the Illinois Senate, Obama helped key Rezko associates gain
appointments to the state board that controlled health facility contracting for
building expansions.
Once
his associates were appointed, Rezko sought kickbacks from contractors favored
by his friends in a process that became the heart of the federal case against
him.
When
Obama became chairman of the state Senate health committee that oversaw
appointments to the medical board, among his first acts was to gain fast-track
passage of a bill to reduce the board from 15 to nine members, thus making it
somewhat easier to gain the panel's approval for contracts.
Rezko
then used his connections with Blagojevich to stack the restructured board with
his political cronies. Their appointments were confirmed by Obama's committee,
then sent to the Senate floor.
Soon
thereafter, contributions from Rezko and his health board allies began pouring
into Obama's campaign coffers, according to federal and state campaign finance
data.
Rezko
associate Dr. Michel Malek, for example, donated $15,000 to Obama after gaining
appointment to the health board.
Dr.
Imad Almanaseer, another Rezko ally appointed to the health board, initially
gave Obama $3,000. Over the next three years, he and members of his family
donated nearly $10,000 more to Obama.
Fortunee
Massuda, another Rezko associate, donated $2,000 in January 2004 shortly after
winning her assignment to the key panel.
Other
Rezko allies who were not on the health board also contributed to Obama. Elie
Maloof was granted immunity by federal prosecutors after he told U.S. attorneys
he funneled two $10,000 contributions to Obama through Rezko. Prosecutors noted
Maloof's assertion in their opening arguments at Rezko's trial, but no
additional charges were filed.
Rezko
business partner Abdelhamid Chaib donated $10,000 to Obama, then was convicted
on federal corruption charges in 2010 after trying to pressure a Chicago
hospital executive to steer contracts to Rezko companies.
Another
Rezko partner, Ali Ata, was a key witness during Rezko's 2008 federal corruption
trial. He donated $5,000 to Obama's campaign and claimed to have given an
additional $10,000 in "straw donations."
Ata
was a former president of the Chicago Chapter of the Arab-American
Anti-Discrimination Committee.
Ata
also was an investor with Rezko and Nadhmi Auchi, an Iraqi-British businessman
and former Iraqi Baathist who was on a terror watch list and thus barred from
entering the United States.
Rezko
asked federal authorities in 2004 to permit Auchi to join him in Chicago for a
business deal, according to the New York Times.
Stuart
Levine, Rezko's former partner and the government's star witness in the Rezko
trial, testified that Obama met Auchi at a private Rezko reception held at
Chicago's Four Seasons hotel.
Auchi
wired $3.5 million to Rezko during the 2008 trial. Federal prosecutors asked
for Rezko's bail to be revoked when they discovered the Auchi wire transfer.
Another
Rezko supporter was Mustafa Abdalla, who donated $1,000 to Obama. Abdalla put
up property as collateral for Rezko's bail.
Rezko
was a generous financial supporter of Chicago-based Arab-American activist
groups, including the Arab American Democratic Club, or AADC, and the Arab
American Action Network, or AAAN.
Rezko
was involved in the AADC with Khalil Shalabi. Shalabi was fired from a state
government job in 2007 after the Illinois inspector general reported he had
been fundraising at work for Rezko and Blagojevich.
The
Obamas attended several AAAN dinners, including one honoring Khalidi. More
recently, Hatem Abudayyeh, AAAN's executive director, attended an April 22,
2010, Obama policy briefing, according to White House visitor logs.
In
September 2010, FBI investigators raided Abudayyeh's Chicago home reportedly
seeking evidence of AAAN being used as a conduit for funding to the Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine and other Middle Eastern terrorist
groups.
Next: Chapter X: Obama Brings Chicago Politics to Washington
Back: Chapter VIII: Obama's State Pension Scheme
Next: Chapter X: Obama Brings Chicago Politics to Washington
Back: Chapter VIII: Obama's State Pension Scheme
Sponsored by Accurate Mailing Services, Phoenix AZ 85015
Posted here for easier reading, Read the original series at: Washington Examiner
No comments:
Post a Comment