"Obama's Iraqi Oil for Food connection". We seem to learn more of Rezko every day

[Freida5]

http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/03/obamas_iraqi_oil_for_food_conn.html


Obama's Iraqi Oil for Food connection
By Andrew Walden
Out on bail awaiting trial, dual US-Syrian citizen, Antoin ‘Tony' Rezko, was rousted out of bed by police pounding on the doors of his Chicago mansion the morning of Monday, January 28. According to the Associated Press:


"U.S. District Judge Amy J. St. Eve jailed Rezko...saying he had disobeyed her order to keep her posted on his financial status. Among other things, he failed to tell her about a $3.5 million loan from London-based Iraqi billionaire Nadhmi Auchi -- a loan that was later forgiven in exchange for shares in a prime slice of Chicago real estate. Rezko gave $700,000 of the money to his wife and used the rest to pay legal bills and funnel cash to various supporters."


Funds from Auchi's loan may have helped finance a complex series of transactions between Rezko and Democratic Presidential candidate Illinois Senator Barack Obama involving the 2005 purchase of Obama's Chicago mansion and Rezko's purchase of an adjoining landlocked

[BeatleBoot]

1. Quit Beating a Live Horse, will ya?

Especially one with legs!

And this one has legs.

Great post!

[zabet]

8. "Obama's Name Surfaces in Rezko Trial"

"March 06, 2008 3:13 PM

Justin Rood Reports:

That didn’t take long.

Barack Obama’s name just surfaced in today's opening arguments of the federal corruption trial of Antoin "Tony" Rezko, according to our ace reporter Melissa Murphy, who's at the trial.

Joe Duffy, a lawyer for Rezko, told jurors that his client met Obama when the presidential aspirant was a Harvard Law student, and that he tried to hire him to be general counsel for his construction company, an offer Obama apparently turned down.

Rezko supported many politicians, Duffy explained, as he laid out his argument against the government's laundry list of corruption charges"

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2008/03/obamas-name-flo.html

-----------------------------

The tugging on the curtain
has begun.

[sandnsea]

2. This has been posted ten times a day

Maybe you want to check into Burkle, Giustra, Gupta, Chatwal, since you're so concerned about corruption. Let me know what you find out. Thanks!

[NYCGirl]

3. Please stop posting articles from right wing publications.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=American_Thinker

American Thinker (AT) is a conservative daily internet publication. According to it website, American Thinker presents a "thoughtful exploration of issues of importance to Americans." <1>

[jody]

4. You can't possibly believe that a cash-strapped politician like BO would accept a financial handout?

That's something politicians like Duke Cunningham would do.

[HeraldSquare212]

5. Is it worse than Bill's uranium contract for foundation donations connection?

[DURHAM D]

19. By far.

Actually I hope you are joking. You must know the difference between personal gain and charitable donations.

[Double T]

6. Any bets on when BO will resign his Senate seat and drop out..........

of the Presidential race in disgrace?

[NYCGirl]

9. How about three weeks after

NEVER!

[tabatha]

14. OK - you are missing a few things here.

Discovery via subpoenas is done BEFORE the trial starts.

From this discovery, witness lists are compiled, defendants identified.

If Patrick Fitzgerald, who is very smart, found one tiny bit of problematic evidence about Obama, he would be on the witness list or would be a defendant in the trial

Obama is not on the witness list. Obama is not a defendant.

Patrick Fitzgerald has said that Obama has done nothing wrong.

Read this 10 times and absorb.

[Windy]

16. Thank you!!! and you made it easy for the peabrain hillary robots to grasp!

I'm so damn sick of this crap.

[Double T]

24. I GUARANTEE over-sized craniums are working day and night.............

to scrutinize EVERYTHING BO has done since birth, and THEY're NOT even registered Democrats.

[Double T]

20. Sounds like you're talking about KKKarl Rove or BO's cousin.........

uncle dick. Yep, beginning to look like this story has four strong legs.

[BeatleBoot]

22. No Obama just has a personal attorney sitting through deliberations.

"Just in Case"

[tabatha]

25. No, to make sure that they know everything that is said

so that Hillary and her nefarious group cannot twist/take out of context/lie/mislead/smear anything that is said.

[ossman]

7. Lets talk real estate Bill and Hill! Whats next, Obama says PARDON me too much?

[FrenchieCat]

10. Right Wing sources?

Here's what they published just in part in August!

How shameful that you spread this shit over here!

August 31, 2007
Patriots Vs. Professional Demonstrators
Kyle-Anne Shiver
Nobody had to pay the anti-war demonstrations of the Vietnam era. Times have changed. More

August 31, 2007
Iran's Big Plans
Jeff Emanuel
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Tuesday said that "a huge power vacuum" was imminent in Iraq and promised that Iran would be ready to fill it. More

August 31, 2007
What's a Reputation Worth?
Bob Weir
Do you ever get the feeling that customer service is as much a part of the past as drive-in movies and typewriters? More

August 30, 2007
The Art of (the Long) War
David J. Rusin
The technology of war may change, but the nature of war is immutable. More

August 30, 2007
The Cost of Democrats' Defeatism
Vasko Kohlmayer
Deborah Haynes, the UK Times' correspondent in Baghdad, has recently put her finger on perhaps the greatest difficulty we face in Iraq today: The reluctance of many pro-American Iraqis to help us, because they fear we may cut and run. More

August 30, 2007
The War Lesson Still Unlearned
Gerald McOscar
Much of the history of the 20th century is the history of the inexplicable propensity of civilized people to deny the existence of evil which time and again threatens to destroy them. More

August 29, 2007
Testing Congress: Tone Deaf
Michael J. O'Shea
At least twice Al Qaeda leaders massed in Afghanistan but weren't taken out, loss of innocent lives the concern. Now Iraq: Al Qaeda elites ganged with Iraqi terrorists, but Congress says, Halt. More

August 29, 2007
Too Soon To Give Up: A Report From Iraq
Jeff Emanuel
On this, my latest trip to Iraq, I have been embedded with the US military on the front lines for the last month More

August 29, 2007
Domestic Slaughter in Iran
Amil Imani
The world's most notorious state exponent of anti-Semitism, the Islamic Republic of Iran, is on a path to uproot and slaughter large numbers of the greatest threat to its existence, the Iranian people More

August 28, 2007
The Racial Engineering of San Francisco
Thomas Lifson
One of the ugliest aspects of contemporary "progressive" thought is a thoroughly patronizing attitude toward African-Americans. The latest insult comes from America's most stridently left wing big city government, San Francisco. More

August 28, 2007
Hillary's Ironic Use of the Word 'Unscrupulous'
Kyle-Anne Shiver
Hillary Clinton is now pitching her multi-billion dollar bailout plan for the "victims" of "unscrupulous" mortgage brokers who act "dishonestly and try to take advantage of people". More

August 28, 2007
Failing Schools
Christopher Chantrill
In left-coast Washington State half the kids entering community college can't do seventh-grade math. More

August 27, 2007
Russia Confronts NATO and the US
Douglas Hanson
We can no longer whitewash the obvious: Russia is now conducting a low-intensity conflict in the Caucasus in its bid to turn back NATO expansion and to maintain connections to terror-supporting states. More

August 27, 2007
NASA's Hansen Reaches Escape Velocity
James Lewis
James Hansen, NASA's True Believer in the global warming credo, has not just jumped the shark, he's achieved escape velocity. More

August 27, 2007
The New York Times and Taxes
Randall Hoven
Do the rich really escape paying their "fair share of taxes? According to a prominent New York Times writer, they do. More

August 26, 2007
The Haditha Libels Require Investigation
Denis Keohane
If Democrats really do support the troops, they will use their control of Congress to launch one more investigation -- into a series of statements and reported leaks by officials that have severely harmed our troops More

August 26, 2007
Jimmy Carter's Human Rights Disaster in Iran
Slater Bakhtavar
In accord with the pleasant US-Iran relations then-existing, President Carter spent New Year's Eve in 1977 with the Shah and toasted Iran as "an island of stability in one of the more troubled areas of the world". More

August 26, 2007
Congress Must Recognize the Armenian Genocide
Andrew G. Bostom
A combination of official diplomatic correspondence, and private memoirs provides lucid, often repellently detailed historical accounting of what the U.S. government knew regarding the Ottoman Empire and the Armenian genocide More

August 25, 2007
The Return of the Old Gods: A Challenge to Green Evangelicals
Timothy Birdnow
The gods and goddesses of the earth, of nature, the old rulers of the ancient world are back. More

August 25, 2007
Iraq Anti-War Movement: A Pop Quiz for Americans
Kyle-Anne Shiver
Beginning August 28, America will witness the new thrust of Anti-Iraq War Protests. More

August 24, 2007
Courage, Cowardice and the Wordsmiths
Stephen Rittenberg, MD
When I served as a Navy psychiatrist during the Vietnam War, one of my weekly duties was interviewing and assessing potential draftees who were seeking to avoid service by claiming mental illness. More

August 24, 2007
Libs Say the Darndest Things
James Lewis
Libs believe the darndest things. They're not as cute as the things kids come out with, but having millions of adults who are stuck in false beliefs puts our society at a lot greater risk. More

August 24, 2007
A Palestinian Star is Born
Steve Feldman
Why humanize someone with murder in her heart? Why take a child who helps inspire untold numbers of kids to kill innocent other kids and try to make her seem like the girl next door? More

August 23, 2007
Shooting Michael Moore
Henry P. Wickham, Jr.
In a variant of the Golden Rule, Kevin Leffler has recently done to Michael Moore what Michael Moore has done to so many others. More

August 23, 2007
Who Is Allah?
Soeren Kern
Europeans love to mock the salience of religion in American society, but they won't be laughing for very long. More

August 23, 2007
The Future of Western Civilization Depends on Two Things
Joseph Rosenberger
The current political squabbles in America between the liberal, socialist left and the moral capitalist conservative right are merely a skirmish line on the edge of two colliding civilizations. More

August 22, 2007
Testing Congress: Faith and Face
Michael J. O'Shea
Bored by playing God, Congress now plays admiral and general. More

August 22, 2007
Mullahs and Opiates
Amil Imani
What is the source of power that positions the Mullahs to be such a large threat? More

August 22, 2007
Diversity, Nihilism, and the Anti-Rational Mind
Gary Wolf
Contemporary Western society is tumbling further and further into the abyss of undifferentiated mediocrity. Much of the blame is due to the ideology of Diversity More

August 21, 2007
The Moral Hazard of Regulating Sub-Prime Mortgage Lending
Ralph Alter
The term "moral hazard" is being bandied about in commentary about the sub-prime mortgage woes currently roiling our financial markets. More

August 21, 2007
The Media Mob
James Lewis
When Karl Rove resigned from his White House job last week, some scribblers were particularly offended that he said, "I'm not going to stay or leave based on whether it pleases the mob." More

August 21, 2007
After Rove There's Work to Be Done
Christopher Chantrill
The people who run political campaigns are a special breed. It is a measure of their importance that they become political lightning rods. More

August 20, 2007
It's Not Just Scott Beauchamp (II)
Randall Hoven
Without too much extra effort, it was fairly easy to add 21 more names to the Media Hall of Shame list, bringing the total to 83. More

August 20, 2007
Global Warming Bureaucrat Hansen Lashes Out at Critics
Christopher Alleva
Ward Churchill could tell NASA's James Hansen what it is like when your work goes under a microscope. More

August 20, 2007
America's Nuclear Military Dilemma with China
Peter B. Martin
A year from now China will be on its benevolent best conduct, two years from now that could all change. More

August 19, 2007
Lost Posterity
Thomas Lifson
Posterity was once a central concept of American Civilization. We sacrificed our welfare, even our lives, for the sake of future generations, especially for our descendants More

August 19, 2007
Don't Tug on Superman's Cape
Bob Weir
I had been working radio motor patrol in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant area for about a year and had come across what I thought was every conceivable challenge a cop could imagine. More

August 18, 2007
Appeasement Finds a Home in the Academy
Cinnamon Stillwell
Instead of providing moral clarity in a time of war, too many academics busy themselves inventing strategies to get along peaceably with genocidal terrorist groups and the governments that aid and abet them. More

August 18, 2007
What to do to with Hostages to Islamists
James M. Arlandson
Islamists are in a global war. They would like to impose their religion on the world. In Afghanistan, they are at war with non-Muslims, and they include Koreans among those with whom they struggle. More

August 18, 2007
Why not Newt?
Bob Weir
Newt Gingrich is a possible late entrant into the 2008 presidential race. More

August 17, 2007
Why Would Anyone Trust NASA's Climate Data Now?
Marc Sheppard
Last week's disclosure of a critical temperature data revision by NASA climate experts under cover-of-darkness poses as many questions as it answers. More

August 17, 2007
NASA Flacks for Global Warming and Skirts Scientific Ethics
James Lewis
The more time that is allowed to pass before NASA makes a formal acknowledgement of error commensurate with the attention focused on the original announcement, the more it will be vulnerable to genuine charges of purposeful misconduct, as opposed to inadvertent error. More

August 17, 2007
Understanding the Limits of Health Insurance
Steven M. Warshawsky
A tragic case of murder is being exploited by the media as propaganda pushing national medical insurance schemes. The ghoulish socialism-by-bathos strategy rests on the implicit unrealistic notion that we somehow can provide the best of everything for everyone. More

August 16, 2007
Spain's Bluster Masks an Immigration Crisis
Soeren Kern
Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero deserves a special award for transatlantic chutzpah. More

August 16, 2007
The Real Lesson of the Beauchamp Affair
Douglas Hanson
The apparent fraud perpetrated by Scott Beauchamp has resulted in plenty of finger-pointing. However, there is another largely unnoticed direction in which to look as well, in assessing blame for the disgrace. More

August 16, 2007
It's Not Just Scott Beauchamp
Randall Hoven
Scott Beauchamp was the last straw. I realized that I need a scorecard to keep track of all the fallen journalists, journalistic mistakes and major and minor screw-ups in the media. More

August 15, 2007
Why the Brits are Losing Basra
James Lewis
Why is the most best European fighting army, the British, losing the battle for Basra in southern Iraq? Because the UK Ministry of Defense supplied its soldiers with the wrong equipment More

August 15, 2007
Stare Decisis: Eight Recent Cases
Clarice Feldman
The recent claims that newly-confirmed Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito were ignoring precedent, contrary to their confirmation hearings pledges, are partisan chum hurled into the waters where swim the most radical members of the Democratic base. More

August 15, 2007
Sword Swallowing to Oblivion
Andrew G. Bostom
Robert Spencer's sobering new book, Religion of Peace? reveals how the prevailing multicultural orthodoxy in the West -- rooted in self-hatred, uncritical, blanket pacifism, and complacency -- negates the profound differences between Judeo-Christian and Islamic civilization More

August 14, 2007
The Shape of a Hillary-Rudy Race
Richard Baehr
Current national polls show both Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani with solid leads for their respective party's nominations. More

August 14, 2007
A Straw In The Wind
Rick Moran
A good turn of the phrase and an attitude will bring you stardom in punditland. This is important to keep in mind when looking at the gigantic block party the Republicans threw in Ames, Iowa on Saturday More

August 14, 2007
Testing Congress: General Ignorance
Michael J. O'Shea
That Congress spurns the 9/11 Commission should be no surprise: it approves every general sent to them then snubs them, too. More

August 13, 2007
The Left's Lust for Revolutionary Transformation
James Lewis
"Everything must be different!" or "Alles muss anders sein!" was a slogan of the Nazi Party. It is also the heart's desire of every Leftist since Karl Marx. More

August 13, 2007
Democrats Abandoning the Middle?
Jeffrey Schmidt
Will the Democrats abandon the middle in next year's election? But how can the Democrats abandon what they haven't occupied since, oh, the Kennedy Administration? More

http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/08/

[ProSense]

11. Digging the RW pubs for stories now, huh?

About Us

The American Thinker is a daily conservative internet publication with articles on the topics of national security, economics, diplomacy, culture, and military strategy.<1> The articles published are often mentioned on The Rush Limbaugh Show. The site frequently endorses controversial conservative commentators such as Michael Savage and Rush Limbaugh.<2><3>.

link

Obama has nothing to do with Rezko. It's still a non-story.

Not much about Obama at Ill. fraud trial

By MIKE ROBINSON, Associated Press Writer Fri Mar 7, 7:05 PM ET

CHICAGO - Two things already are clear in the $7 million federal fraud trial of a fundraiser for some of presidential hopeful Barack Obama's earlier political campaigns.

The fraud, attempted extortion and money laundering charges against businessman Antoin "Tony" Rezko have little if anything to do with Obama. But they have a lot to do with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and allegations of an influence-peddling scheme within his inner circle.

Even so, as a presidential contender, Obama was guaranteed to feel the heat when a longtime friend and supporter went on trial in a political scandal.

Neither Obama nor Blagojevich are accused of wrongdoing in the trial, which began with opening statements Thursday and took a break Friday. But Obama's Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton has raised questions about his long ties to Rezko, and if the Illinois senator wins the nomination Republicans are likely to do the same.

"I think the national and international press have repeatedly done a calculation that says Rezko gave to Obama, Rezko was indicted, hence Obama is implicated, and that's a false calculation," says Cindi Canary, head of the nonpartisan, foundation-funded Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.

"This trial is about allegations of improper influence in the Blagojevich administration," she says.

link

[Cali_Democrat]

12. American Thinker is a right wing neocon source

Why do Hillary supporters love these right wing sources?

[ProSense]

13. They don't care. Bill was on the Limbaugh show.

Guess they're taking their cues from him.

[keep_it_real]

15. Yea, what about the trial in which the Clitions will be called in November?

Regarding STAN the man from Marvel comects and the over one MILLION that the Clinto's took from Peter Paul.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C9kP6wz5l4

[keep_it_real]

23. Obama campaign should throw this up in Hillary's face

The MSM is covering this up; they are supporting Hillary.

[kikiek]

17. Haha..apparently rw sources are only allowed if it slams Hillary. Big trouble brewing I think

and it needs to all come out asap.

[stillcool]

18. Recycling again?

http://illinoisreason.wordpress.com/2008/01/23/illinois-blogs-recap-rezko-obama-not-much-there-there/


Illinois Blogs Recap Rezko & Obama: Not Much There There, UPDATED

January 23, 2008 in Obama by robnesvacil

Tags: Barack Obama, President 2008, Tony Rezko

Two Illinois poliblog institutions, The Capitol Fax Blog (by political journalist Rich Miller) and ArchPundit (by political blogger Larry Handlin), are producing primers for the American people and the self-proclaimed media of record (not that the “national” media feels a need to be bothered with actual details when there’s a good soap opera to splash some ink on).

For those interested in learning just what Sen. Barack Obama’s not-very-much-of-a-relationship with Chicago developer Tony Rezko is, read up…

CapFax’s In defense of the locals reviews the Illinois political media’s coverage of Sen. Obama and attempts by the Tribune, Sun-Times, etc. to find skeletons in his closet over the years. Of note: the Chicago Tribune discovered two instances of what might be of interest to those hoping to turn Tony Rezko into Obama’s Marc Rich or Norman Hsu.

First, the Trib uncovered the property purchase in which the Obama family bought a home and Mr. Rezko’s wife bought an adjoining piece of property from the same seller on the same day. Sen. Obama has apologized for this event and acknowledged how, from the outside looking in, it appears unseemly even though everything was done legally and legitimately.

Second, the Trib also found that Sen. Obama’s staff gave an internship to a kid whose father was connected to Rezko and who had donated money to Obama’s previous campaigns. Ummm… ok.

Mr. Miller also writes that the Trib explained the research they did to investigate the connections between the law firm Sen. Obama used to work for and Rezko. Would that more media would bother to actually “work” a story as the Chicago papers have with regards to any sort of ties between Obama and Rezko (and most, if not all, of those ties seem to be perfectly legit based on that rather exhaustive research).

In his post, Mr. Miller also notes that an oppo-research consultant from one of Sen. Obama’s US Senate primary opponents, Mike Henry, was hired by the Clinton campaign and that since his hiring Clinton’s attacks have mirrored the earlier attacks from that 2004 primary opponent. Go figure.

UPDATE: Rich Miller has posted a follow-up today in “Present votes and Rezko“.

ArchPundit also currently has a series of five eight “Rezko primers” up on his blog (don’t know if he’ll add more so check his site for the latest UPDATE: Arch did add a few more and has a summary/linky post on all eight in “The Rezko Primer“). His posts’ titles are rather self-explanatory:

* Rezko Primer I: Job Offer and Friendship Begins
* Rezko Primer II: Political Donations
* Rezko Primer III. Legal work on projects Rezko was involved
* Rezko Primer IV. Letters of Support for projects Rezko was involved
* Rezko Primer V. Intern-son of Rezko ally/Obama donor
* New: VI. House Purchase
* New: VII. Land Strip Purchase from Rezko
* New: VIII. Landscaping and Property Maintenance Arrangement

Don’t get me wrong. Rezko is going to court after having been accused of some pretty serious white collar crimes. If convicted he ought to pay his debt to society.

But guilt by association witch hunts are damn weak — just ask the Clintons their thoughts on Kenneth Starr and his investigation of the, ahem, Whitewater Land Deal… — even if the national media is willing to lazily regurgitate an opponent’s spin on their front pages and TV news crawlers.

If some sort of quid pro quo had ever surfaced there’d be something to talk about but as it stands there’s really no there “there” between Rezko and Obama. No one has ever found any instance of Obama doing anything as a legislator that would have illegally (or even unethically) benefited Rezko. (That said, journalist Miller correctly notes that something about Obama may yet surface during Rezko’s trial but given the boxes of files the Illinois media has analyzed it seems unlikely.)

(c/p Daily Kos)

UPDATE 2: DKos diarist and Obama biograper John K Wilson has written “The Real Story of Rezko and Obama: 10 Myths Debunked“… (He even clarifies the debunked attacks surrounding the “house deal” noting that Obama’s bid for his home was the higher of two bids, even though his winning bid was below the seller’s asking price. Usually, that’s called a good deal.)

[keep_it_real]

21. Clinton' s wil be forces to testify in November: MSM keeping quite

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/04/AR2005100401150_pf.html