Obama connected to fugitive Mr. Alsammarae and Rezko

indimuse

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Mon Mar-03-08 07:58 AM
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Obama connected to fugitive Mr. Alsammarae and Rezko

It's Mon the 3rd of March..first day of the Rezko trial...let's see what unfolds from here.

Update:
Rezko Connections: More questions for Obama
by John Batchelor

A mysterious fugitive from Iraqi justice named Aiham Alsammarae, who is also a Chicago resident, is the focus of a politically fraught episode in the association between accused political fixer Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who goes on federal trial today in Chicago for graft, and Senator Barack Obama, the most spectacular Illinois presidential candidate in half a century.:wow:

"We want him back to serve his sentence of fourteen years," said an Iraqi government official in Baghdad last week. "He stole $650 million from the people of Iraq,:wow: and from the people of the United States, and he was tried and convicted in an Iraqi court in October 2006 for his crimes. We have a four-inch-thick file of his crimes. He plundered the Ministry of Electricity. Dates, bank accounts, dummy companies, a lot of them in the States. We want him, and we want the money back."

When asked why an American citizen with a dual Iraqi citizenship, who had served as the Iraqi Minister of Electricity from 2003 to 2005, after being convicted in an Iraqi court was living openly in Chicago in 2008 rather than in Abu Ghraib, the official said, "That's what we want to know. Armed men broke him out of jail in the Green Zone. He escaped without his U.S. passport to Amman, Jordan, where he hid in the U.S. Embassy, and then to Turkey, where he called us up and bragged he had pizza and a cold beer in his hotel room. We've asked the FBI to help us. They sent us to Interpol. We filed a report. And nothing. It's been a year. We want him back."

What connects the fugitive Mr. Alsammarae to the candidate Barack Obama? The short answer is Mr. Obama's entanglement with his long-time fundraiser and friend Mr Rezko, who was linked to Mr. Alsammarae in at least two aborted, fraudulent contracts with the CPA and the Iraqi government before Mr. Alsammarae's conviction and flight.:wtf:

Obama has lot'o explaining..:spank:

Continued >>
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=25282

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http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=145996&src=109

(((Rezko trial may have far-reaching effects)))

By Rob Olmstead | Daily Herald StaffContact writerPublished: 3/3/2008 12:01 AMSend To:

Former political fundraiser Tony Rezko may be the man in court today as jury selection starts in his corruption trial, but there is little doubt that his court proceedings

are just as much about Illinois' current governor.:eyes:

Whether Tony Rezko is found innocent or guilty will go a long way toward relieving or ratcheting up the pressure on his one-time bosom buddy, Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

And he's not the only politician with something to lose.

For Blagojevich, the glare of the spotlight flashed even brighter last week after U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve removed any doubt that he is the "Public Official A"

identified in court papers as having benefited from the hundreds of thousands of dollars of campaign cash raised by Rezko.

Blagojevich, for his part, says it doesn't matter one whit what comes out of the trial; he himself did nothing wrong.

And indeed, government prosecutors have not charged Blagojevich with breaking any laws.

But at a minimum, a guilty finding in the trial would show that Blagojevich had the same type of pay-to-play shenanigans going on in his administration as that of

George Ryan, the former governor now in prison.:spank:

That is politically damaging -- if not devastating -- for someone who campaigned on cleaning up state government, even if Blagojevich had no idea it was going on,

experts say.

"I expect (the trial) to probably end the governor's career. … I don't think he can be re-elected," said Dick Simpson, a political science professor at University of Illinois

at Chicago.

But Blagojevich is not the only politician at risk from his trial. Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, the freshman Illinois senator, has a lot to lose, even if

he's never accused of wrongdoing in the case, simply because of his past relationship with Rezko.

Obama has returned thousands of dollars that Rezko raised for his political fund. Obama also purchased a piece of land next to his Chicago home from Rezko -- a

deal that's been a point of sharp criticism against Obama,:eyes: who has said he never did any favors for Rezko in return.

And Chicago and Cook County

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=145996&src=109 :eyes: