Obama supporters, ask yourself these questions regarding Senator Obama:
Why did he get a cheaper price on his house? (While Rezko's wife paid the full asking price for the land, Obama paid $300,000 under the asking price for the house.
The house sold for $1,650,000 and the price Rezko's wife paid for the land was $625,000.)
Why did he do business with a man he knew was under investigation by the FBI? (Rezko had been widely reported to be under investigation by the U.S. attorney and
the FBI at the time Obama contacted him and has since been indicted on corruption charges by a federal grand jury in a case that prosecutors say involves bribes,
kickbacks and "efforts to illegally obtain millions of dollars." )
Why did he write letters for this same man to get government contracts?
"For more than five weeks during the brutal winter of 1997, tenants shivered without heat in a government-subsidized apartment building on Chicago's South Side. It
was just four years after the landlords -- Antoin "Tony'' Rezko and his partner Daniel Mahru -- had rehabbed the 31-unit building in Englewood with a loan from Chicago
taxpayers."
"But Obama's ties with Rezko go beyond those two real estate sales and the political support, the Sun-Times found. Obama was an attorney with a small Chicago law
firm -- Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland -- that helped Rezmar get more than $43 million in government funding to rehab 15 of their 30 apartment buildings for the poor."
http://wizbangblue.com/2008/01/21/obama-revealed-in-rez... http://rezkowatch.blogspot.com/2008/02/rezkos-power-plant-in-iraq.html ezkoWatch will follow the adventures -- and misadventures -- of indicted Chicago political friendster-fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko and his relationship with
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Rezko-Auchi-Alsammarae: power plant in Iraq (renamed w/Updates)
Chicago Business reported July 29, 2005, that Chicago-based Rezmar Corp., owned by indicted political fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko, had "entered into a joint
venture with a British firm in a $150-million deal to build a <250-megawatt> power plant in Iraq," with construction to begin in the fall. However, construction did not
commence in 2005.
The unnamed "British firm" was General Mediterranean Holding SA which belongs to Nadhmi Auchi, the corrupt Iraqi-British billionaire who provided Rezko with the
$3.5 million that caused him to lose his bond and wind up in jail to await his March 3, 2008, trial date.
The contract for the power plant had been negotiated in 2004. The agreement was signed with Aiham Alsammarae, the head of Iraq's ministry of electricity, who called
for "the soon-to-be named joint venture" to be based in Jordan. The plant was to "supply power to Iraq for 10 years," according Michael Rumman, who speaks Arabic
and who was Rezmar's spokesman, Chicago Business reported.
During a summer 2005 Chicago Sun-Times interview, Rumman, Rezko’s point man on his proposed power plant in Iraq said "Rezko used his 'formidable overseas
network of business relationships' to join energy consulting companies and win the contract."
On December 3, 2006, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that Rumman "already had been to Jordan, where 'most of the negotiations and deal structures are done.' He
had hoped to begin construction on the Chamchamal plant in January of this year."
In the same article, the Sun-Times reported that, when it reached Rumman for comments, he "declined to discuss the plant or Alsammarae. The U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers confirmed that the contract for the Chamchamal project no longer is in effect." Chamchamal is a Kurdish city located to the east of Kirkuk and west of
Suleimania in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Additionally, the Sun-Times reported that
Federal authorities are investigating an Iraqi power plant deal involving Antoin 'Tony' Rezko, a former top fund-raiser for Gov. Blagojevich charged with defrauding Illinois
taxpayers.
Investigators want to talk to Iraq’s jailed former electricity minister, Aiham Alsammarae, about how Rezko landed the potentially lucrative contract, a source familiar
with the probe told the Chicago Sun-Times. ...
helped Rezko get the deal