Obama Illegal Campaign Donors

Obama and his Illegal Campaign Donors

WorldNetDaily Exclusive
Illegal Obama donors: Middle Eastern Arabs
Gazan brothers' illicit contributions listed in government campaign filings

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JERUSALEM – Palestinian brothers inside the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip are listed in government election filings as having donated $29,521.54 to Sen. Barack Obama's campaign.
By Aaron Klein Posted: August 04, 2008

Donations of this nature would violate election laws, including prohibitions on receiving contributions from foreigners and guidelines against accepting more than $2,300 from one individual during a single election, Bob Biersack, a spokesman for the Federal Election

Commission, told WND in response to a query.

The contributions also raise numerous questions about the Obama campaign's lax online donation form, which apparently allows for the possibility of foreign contributions.

Last week, the Atlas Shrugs blog outlined a series of donations in 2007 made to Obama's

campaign from two individuals, Monir Edwan and Hosam Edwan, totaling $29,521.54.

In an online form on Obama's campaign site, the Edwans listed their street as "Tal Esaltan," which they wrote was located in "Rafah, GA."

Rafah is not a city in Georgia. The Atlas blog immediately raised concerns that the money may have been donated from the Gaza Strip town of Rafah.

The Edwans' donations are listed in both FEC filings and other election filing sites, such as CampaignMoney and donordata.org.

Monir made 20 donations ranging from $717 to $2017.50 from October through November 2007. His donations totaled $24321.41. Hosam made seven donations ranging from $508.63 to $1725.96, totaling $5,200.13, all in October 2007.

A WND investigation tracked down the Edwans, who are brothers living in the Tal Esaltan neighborhood of Rafah, a large refugee camp in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

The Edwans are a large clan that include top Hamas supporters.

Speaking to WND, the two brothers praised Obama and admitted giving the money online to his campaign. They said they are not U.S. citizens or green card holders but are citizens of "Palestine."

The Edwans denied they are affiliated with Hamas. Palestinian sources in Gaza confirmed the Edwans in question are secular, but could not say whether they supported Hamas.

Monir and Hasam Edwan denied their financial transactions online – listed as donations in U.S. government election filings – were actual donations to Obama's campaign. Instead they claimed they purchased about $30,000 in Obama T-shirts from the presidential candidate's online store – a contention that did not hold up during a WND interview, when they changed their story several times.

"My brother Hosam and I knew that Obama will be a big hit even before he became a candidate. We knew the guy would be a celebrity in Gaza so we decided to invest the amount of $29,000 to buy Obama T-shirts from his website and sell them in Gaza," Monir Edwan told WND, speaking by cell phone from Gaza.

"I know on the back of this story Obama rivals will present our business as a donation and they will try to use this story to let Obama fall, but I'm telling you, we bought T-shirts," Edwan maintained.

Edwan said any profit made from purportedly selling the Obama T-shirts was not returned to the Obama campaign.

"We have nothing to do with the Obama campaign. We just like Obama and believe he will be the best for the Palestinians and for the world."

At first Monir Edwan claimed he sold the T-shirts in Gaza for around $9 and that a profit was made.

"Some young men even bought the T-shirts for 60 shekel ($17.29), which is a lot to spend in Gaza on a T-shirt, but that is how much Gazans like Obama," Edwan claimed.

But it was pointed out to Edwan the T-shirts for sale on Obama's website are listed as $20.08 and that selling the merchandise for less would not yield a profit.

"Maybe we sold the shirts for a lot more. I can't remember now," said Edwan.

Asked why he would purchase T-shirts at such a high rate and pay the cost of shipping when he could pay a company to produce T-shirts for less, Edwan replied, "We wanted the shirts to come from the campaign."

But Edwan could not explain how he managed to get shipments of T-shirts into the Gaza Strip during the months he claimed to have purchased the merchandise, since Israel imposed a tight closure of the Gaza Strip starting in June 2007 that lasted until June 2008, when the Israeli government agreed to a cease-fire with Hamas in Gaza.

"We don't want to cause any damage to Obama's campaign," was Edwan's reply.

Edwan said he wants Obama to be president.

"Not just the people in Gaza but people from all over the world are rooting for this great man," he told WND.

FEC spokesman Biersack told WND contributions from overseas are allowed if the donations are coming from U.S. citizens or green card carriers. But he said accepting money from foreigners would violate election provisions.

He said there are strict guidelines against accepting more than $2,300 from one individual during a single election.

"I am not familiar with the particulars of the case, so I am commenting in general. The FEC will have to examine all the circumstances before determining any wrongdoing," Biersack clarified.

Obama's campaign did not return WND phone calls or e-mail queries.

That the Edwans were able to contribute any money to Obama's campaign from Gaza opens questions into the methods used by the presidential candidate's website to accept online donations.

The website donation form asks each donor to affirm he or she is a U.S. citizen and is above the age of 16 but doesn't require donors to prove their citizenship status, such as providing a social security number. The form further requires the donor to affirm the contribution is not coming from a corporation, political action committee or lobby group.

Atlas reader Cathy and others have been indispensable in helping to track Obama's very questionable campaign donations. A number of Atlas readers have been helping me go through thousands upon thousands of docs relating to Obama's bizarre illegal activity, foreign and domestic.

The latest jawdropper: there is a large contributor in the 'G's'. Largest. Name is Monir Edwan. City is Rafah and the State is GA. You'd think GA is for Georgia. IT'S NOT! There is no Rafah, Georgia. It's Rafah, GAZA. Although election donor data indicate Georgia, USA.

File here: Donation Details: Adwan, Monir Rafah, Georgia. There ain't no such place in the land of Georgia peaches.

It's a Gaza refugee camp.

The file attached has both Monir & Hosam Edwan. Both from Rafah. Both over the allowed spending limit. Here is the file: Download EdwanDetail.xls.

It details Edwan's contributions, totaling $24,321.41. The contributions are all to Obama the candidate. Different files for the party or committees.

Our source of the data is from the FEC site. Presidential download file zip. Named ALL. Dated 6/30. Here is the link unzipped. It is the basis for everything submitted. Thanks, Cathy!

How much money was raised from the phone banks in Gaza (see video)?

More on Obama's Foreign Contributions.

UPDATE: First off, I will be filing a complaint with the FEC - either alone or through an organization. Cathy found more detail:

There's more: Note these receipts are not inclusive of all the information in the FEC detail file.

In October of 2007:

Hosam receipt dated 10/30/07 is for $956.52 (general contribution) his Election Cycle total as of this date is $5,387.13. On the database this amount is redirected (where is not known), but his total is still above allowed amounts (IF HE'S AMERICAN).

Monir has two receipts. One dated 10/27/07 for $1,290.63 (primary - this is in the FEC file), the second dated 10/30/07 for $1,671.85 (primary - this is in the FEC file). The total on the receipt for Election Cycle is $9,598.54 (above allowed). NOTE THE TOTAL HE GAVE JUST ON 10/30/07, ACCORDING TO THE FEC FILE, IS $7,435.81.

The phone banks were buzzing?

Obama's letters for Rezko
NOT A FAVOR? As a state senator, he went to bat for now-indicted developer's deal

June 13, 2007

BY TIM NOVAK Staff Reporter/tnovak@suntimes.com
As a state senator, Barack Obama wrote letters to city and state officials supporting his political patron Tony Rezko's successful bid to get more than $14 million from taxpayers to build apartments for senior citizens.

The deal included $855,000 in development fees for Rezko and his partner, Allison S. Davis, Obama's former boss, according to records from the project, which was four blocks outside Obama's state Senate district.

The deal included $855,000 in development fees for Rezko and his partner, Allison S. Davis, Obama's former boss, according to records from the project, which was four blocks outside Obama's state Senate district.

Obama's letters, written nearly nine years ago, for the first time show the Democratic presidential hopeful did a political favor for Rezko -- a longtime friend, campaign fund-raiser and client of the law firm where Obama worked -- who was indicted last fall on federal charges that accuse him of demanding kickbacks from companies seeking state business under Gov. Blagojevich.

Monir Edwan and Hosam Edwan

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/tunes59/moveon-asks-doj-to-launch_n_751534_62781109.html

http://fec.gov/DisclosureSearch/MapAppRefreshTran.do?cand_nm_title=Obama,+Barack&tranType=search&searchType=donorNameSearch&tranComeFrom=mapApp&d-16544-p=2&cand_id=P80003338&searchSQLType=contain&searchKeyword=edwan

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/07/obamas-gazan-co.html

http://www.fec.gov/DisclosureSearch/MapAppDownload.do?cand_id=P80003338&cand_nm_title=Obama,%20Barack&downloadComeFrom=mapApp
Barack Obama backed the effort by Tony Rezko (inset) and Allison Davis - Rezko's partner and Obama's former boss - to win taxpayer funds to build the Cottage View Terrace apartments.
(AP/Sun-Times files)

Barack Obama and his Rezko ties
Sweet blog: Barack Obama
RELATED PDF
Letters from Obama
Obama's letters, written nearly nine years ago, for the first time show the Democratic presidential hopeful did a political favor for Rezko -- a longtime friend, campaign fund-raiser and client of the law firm where Obama worked -- who was indicted last fall on federal charges that accuse him of demanding kickbacks from companies seeking state business under Gov. Blagojevich.

The letters appear to contradict a statement last December from Obama, who told the Chicago Tribune that, in all the years he's known Rezko, "I've never done any favors for him.''

On Tuesday, Bill Burton, press secretary for Obama's presidential campaign, said the letters Obama wrote in support of the development weren't intended as a favor to Rezko or Davis.

"This wasn't done as a favor for anyone," Burton said in a written statement. "It was done in the interests of the people in the community who have benefited from the project.

"I don't know that anyone specifically asked him to write this letter nine years ago," the statement said. "There was a consensus in the community about the positive impact the project would make and Obama supported it because it was going to help people in his district. . . . They had a wellness clinic and adult day-care services, as well as a series of social services for residents. It's a successful project. It's meant a lot to the community, and he's proud to have supported it.''

The development, called the Cottage View Terrace apartments, opened five years ago at 4801 S. Cottage Grove, providing 97 apartments for low-income senior citizens.

Asked about the Obama letters, Rezko's attorney, Joseph Duffy, said Tuesday, "Mr. Rezko never spoke with, nor sought a letter from, Senator Obama in connection with that project."

Davis couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday.

'Boneheaded' deal in 2005
Since announcing his presidential bid, Obama has faced repeated questions about his 17-year relationship with Rezko, one of his earliest political contributors, who has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Obama.
Rezko backed Obama's election to the Illinois Senate in 1996, his successful re-election bids and his 2004 election to the U.S. Senate.

Two years ago, the two men were involved in a real estate deal that Obama later apologized for, calling it "boneheaded'' and a "mistake'' because the transaction occurred while Rezko was widely known to be under federal investigation. Rezko's wife paid full price for a vacant lot in Chicago's historic Kenwood district on the same day Obama bought the mansion next door from the same property owner for $300,000 below the asking price. Rezko's wife subsequently sold a sliver of the land to Obama.

Obama's relationship with Rezko dates to the senator's days as a student at Harvard Law School, when Rezko offered him a job, which Obama turned down.

After graduation, Obama returned to Chicago and joined Davis' small law firm -- then known as Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland -- which specialized in helping developers build housing for the poor. Five of those deals included Rezko's company, Rezmar Corp. Those Rezmar projects ran into trouble. Some buildings ended up being boarded up. Some went into foreclosure.

While Obama served in the Illinois Senate, he continued to work for the law firm, which Davis left in 1997 to become a developer.

Davis soon went into business with Rezko, creating a company called New Kenwood LLC to build the seven-story apartment building for senior citizens on a vacant stretch of land once occupied by a gas station at 48th and Cottage Grove. The city of Chicago owned the land -- nearly two acres tainted by lead, benzene and other toxic chemicals.

Davis is a member of the Chicago Plan Commission. He was originally appointed to the commission in 1991 by his friend, Mayor Daley. Davis, like Rezko, has been a prolific campaign fund-raiser for politicians including Daley and Obama.

Soon after they incorporated New Kenwood in 1998, Davis and Rezko got letters of support from elected officials -- Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th) and state Rep. Lou Jones (D-Chicago), whose districts included the proposed project.

Firm paid city $1 for land
New Kenwood LLC also got letters of support from Obama, who represented a nearby Senate district.
"I am writing in support of the New Kenwood LLC's proposal to build a ninety-seven unit apartment building at 48th and Cottage Grove for senior citizens,'' Obama wrote in separate letters, each dated Oct. 28, 1998, to city and state housing officials. "This project will provide much needed housing for Fourth Ward citizens.''

At the time he wrote the letters, Obama was also a lawyer with Miner Barnhill & Galland, the law firm Davis formerly headed. Among the firm's clients were several companies owned by Davis and Rezko. The firm did not represent New Kenwood.

Davis and Rezko hired Daley & George, the law firm of the mayor's brother Michael, to help them get $3.1 million from bonds issued by the city of Chicago.

Rezko and Davis paid the city $1 for the land and spent more than $100,000 to clean it up, including the removal of an underground storage tank. Some tainted land was left behind, but state environmental officials approved construction after Rezko and Davis agreed to cover the polluted areas with parking lots, sidewalks or three feet of dirt, records show.

The $14.6 million Cottage View Terrace was funded entirely by city, state and federal taxpayers.

The project included $855,000 in development fees for New Kenwood. Records don't show how Davis and Rezko split the money. Davis owned 51 percent of New Kenwood, Rezko 49 percent, according to the records.

In addition to the development fees, a separate Davis-owned company stood to make another $900,000 through federal tax credits.

Cottage View Terrace was supposed to be managed by Davis' longtime business partner, William Moorehead. But Moorehead said last week that his company was dumped before the apartments opened in 2002. The apartments are now managed by Urban Property Advisors, a company owned by Davis' son, Cullen Davis.

Moorehead is due to report to prison next month to begin serving a four-year sentence for stealing more than $1 million from the Robert Taylor Homes and other public housing projects he managed for the Chicago Housing Authority and the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department, as well as from two developments he co-owned with Davis near Cabrini-Green on the North Side.

What You Didn’t Know About Obama and Rezko
Rick Moran explains how the "Agent of Change" got involved with a real estate developer indicted for political corruption and fraud.
February 28, 2008 - by Rick Moran Share
Do you feel lost and left out because when someone mentions “Rezko” you think it’s that company that makes frisbees? (Sorry, but you’re confusing “Wham-O” who make that backyard widow-maker “Slip ‘n Slide” with a political fixer who’s just plain slippery.)

Are you confused by the head spinning machinations of Barack Obama that allowed him to purchase a house worth $2.6 million (with a vacant lot next door that can be accessed only through the property where the house sits) for around $1.65 million? (Don’t worry, so is most of the press.)

Do you wonder why this “Agent of Change” and modern day prophet Barack Obama would have gotten himself involved with a man indicted for political corruption and fraud?

Well, allow me to clear things up for you. Following is a little primer on Rezko, Obama, and how Windy City politics can have its way even with new messiahs.
To set the stage, you have to remember that we’re talking about Chicago. This is “The City That Works.” No one disputes that. The question is who it “works” for. If you’re a member of the Democratic Machine, it works wonderfully.

First of all, you have no Republican opposition to speak of. That’s because (little known fact) there is an elixir added to the city water supply that alters the brain chemistry of smart, independent thinking kids and turns them into slavish Machine voters by the time they’re 18 years old.

The enthusiasm for the Democratic Machine is incredible. There are even documented instances where the desire to vote Democratic in Chicago carries on even beyond death. Having voted on Election Day all their adult lives, the dead have been known to rise from their graves in cemeteries all across the city, answering some irresistible urge not understood by science, and pull the lever for whoever the Machine tells them to.

So to be a part of this Machine is to belong to something special. And the Machine doesn’t just embrace politicians. It also nurtures an army of businessmen, contractors, entrepreneurs, shady operators, sleaze balls, and outright criminals who feed off city contracts and depend on politicians to grease the system to funnel the goodies their way. In return, the politicians get campaign contributions, fancy dinners at 5-star restaurants, sweetheart deals on everything from cars to houses, and occasionally cold, hard cash.

This is a city where the politician, the businessman, and the criminal element constantly rub shoulders and have been known to exchange hats on occasion. Every once and a while, an “insurgency” rears its head and runs an independent slate of candidates. Sometimes, they meet with limited success – especially after some mind-blowing example of sleaze has been splashed across the papers for a couple of months prior to the election.

But the Machine goes on. It either absorbs the newcomers or ignores them. Eventually they tire of bucking the tide and either quit or are defeated.

This then is the political world where Prophet Barack began his career. Now for your Rezko-Obama Primer.

WHO IS TONY REZKO

Antoin “Tony” Rezko is a Syrian born businessman who was known in Chicago political circles as “a fixer.” Need to get a waiver of some kind of regulation to close a real estate deal? Call Tony. Want your kid to intern in the office of a United States senator? Call Tony. Are the wheels of government turning too slowly and need to have a legislator or two goose the bureaucracy? Call Tony.

Rezko had a lot of friends and associates because he collected politicians like a kid collects baseball cards. He was a fundraiser with the ability to shake the money tree for his political friends.

Entrepreneur, real estate tycoon, developer, and pal of the powerful, by all accounts Tony Rezko had his fingers in many pies.

He was also, according to Sun Times political reporter Carol Marin, a “staggeringly talented shakedown artist”:

Carol Marin wrote in the January 3, 2007, Chicago Sun-Times that the “feds believe that Rezko was a staggeringly talented shakedown artist who traded plum appointments for large donations” to Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, “got massive ‘consulting fees’ for himself and his friends in exchange for state investment business, and, along the way, wiggled his way into all manner of lucrative deals and contracts, some of which came with government tax breaks or subsidies.

“If that was the extent of Rezko’s magic, he would still be just another accomplished but mundane player in the riotous world of Chicago corruption. But that isn’t the end of his story. It seems, today, like it’s only the beginning.

“Rezko, let’s remember, was ‘traveling’ internationally when his indictments were handed down. He has interesting friends the world over. The emir of Qatar is a pal. The former Iraq electricity minister, Aiham Alsammarae, who resides in west suburban Oak Brook when he’s not on the lam from a Baghdad lockup, is a Rezko business colleague who’s been indicted in connection with $2 billion in missing money meant to rebuild Iraq’s infrastructure. The feds are investigating what role Rezko may have had in that deal.

The Feds are also looking at Rezko’s long time business relationship with Patti Blagojevich, the governor’s wife, as well as minority contracts won by Rezko’s various businesses.

In short, Tony Rezko is as shady as they come in Chicago politics.

WHAT ARE THE CHARGES AGAINST REZKO?

Rezko was indicted on October 11, 2006 on 24 fraud related counts:

A 24-count indictment unveiled Wednesday by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald charges Mr. Rezko, 51, in an “extensive” fraud scheme in which he allegedly demanded payments from firms wanting work from a huge state pension fund and favorable rulings from a state board that regulates hospital developments.
Mr. Fitzgerald said the illegal activities constituted “a pay-to-play scheme on steroids.

“It was a feeding frenzy. People were feeding at the trough for millions of dollars,” he said.

How extensive was this kickback scheme? After Governor Blagojevich was elected, Rezko handed him a 26 page list of people he was recommending for jobs in the new administration. Contained in that list were people being recommended by Barack Obama. One of those names was the real estate agent who handled the controversial sale of a house to Obama.

How many of the people on that list actually got a job in state government? Jack Lavin, the CFO of Rezko’s company Rezko Enterprises, was named head of the Illinois Department of Economic Opportunity. And Kelly King Dibble, who was in charge of business development for Rezko’s real estate development company, got a real plum; executive director of the Illinois Housing Development Authority.

Gee. No conflict of interest there.

OBAMA AND THE SLUMLORD

Tony Rezko created a real estate development company in 1989 called Rezmar. Their intent was to purchase decrepit housing, renovate it, and turn it into low income rentals for the poor. At the time, there was a city wide effort to rehab older structures instead of building new low income housing. Over the next 9 years, Rezmar purchased 30 buildings and got $43 million in city funds for rehab.

Eventually, Rezmar turned to a small, left wing law firm Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland to assist in the paperwork associated with government contracts and other real estate legalities. DMB & G employed a young lawyer named Barack Obama. By this time, Rezko was aware of Obama – having offered him a job at Rezmar following Obama’s graduation from Harvard.

The only problem was that Rezko didn’t care about maintaining the buildings:

Rezko and Mahru had no construction experience when they created Rezmar in 1989 to rehabilitate apartments for the poor under the Daley administration. Between 1989 and 1998, Rezmar made deals to rehab 30 buildings, a total of 1,025 apartments. The last 15 buildings involved Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland during Obama’s time with the firm.

Rezko and Mahru also managed the buildings, which were supposed to provide homes for poor people for 30 years. Every one of the projects ran into trouble:

•Seventeen buildings — many beset with code violations, including a lack of heat — ended up in foreclosure.

•Six buildings are currently boarded up.
•Hundreds of the apartments are vacant, in need of major repairs.
•Taxpayers have been stuck with millions in unpaid loans.
•At least a dozen times, the city of Chicago sued Rezmar for failure to heat buildings.
This would be a classic definition of a slumlord. And Obama’s involvement with Rezmar during this period? The “Yes we can” man isn’t saying much:

For five weeks, the Sun-Times sought to interview Obama about Rezko and the housing deals. His staff wanted written questions. It responded Sunday but left many questions unanswered. Other answers didn’t directly address the question.

Among these: When did Obama learn of Rezmar’s financial problems? “The senator had no special knowledge of any financial problems,” Gibbs wrote.

Did the senator ever complain to anyone — government officials, Rezmar or Rezko — about the conditions of Rezmar’s buildings? “Senator Obama did follow up on constituency complaints about housing as [a] matter of routine,” Gibbs wrote.

Did the senator ever discuss Rezmar’s financial problems with anyone at his law firm? “The firm advises us that it [is] unaware of any such conversations,” Gibbs wrote.

The campaign claims that Obama was a “junior lawyer” whose jobs included “reviewing documents, collecting corporate organizational documents, and drafting corporate resolutions.” But Obama was with the firm for nine years. Are we to believe he was still doing scut work while Rezko was giving the city the runaround regarding the condition of those properties?

WHY WOULD OBAMA GET INVOLVED WITH THIS SLEAZE?

Obviously, Saint Barack wouldn’t be caught dead with a crook like this.

But Obama the ambitious politician? That’s another story.

If you listened to Obama, you would think that he barely knows Rezko. He has told the press he had lunch with him “a couple of times a year” and that he and his wife socialized with the Rezkos “2 to 4 times a year.”

This may be true. But wouldn’t you love to pull his phone records for the last 17 years and find out how many times he spoke with Rezko?

Rezko saw something in Obama right off the bat, donating $2,000 to Obama in his first race for state senate. In fact, he was one of the first donors to that campaign. Through the years, Obama estimates that Rezko donated around $60,000 to his campaigns. That doesn’t include monies the rainmaker made fall from heaven.

At the end of Obama’s failed attempt to unseat Congressman Bobby Rush, he was in desperate need of cash. A quick call to Tony and thousands of dollars showed up as Rezko tapped his business friends for his pal. This is a man Obama described as a “one time fundraiser” who over the years may have raised as much as $150,000 for Obama. (Note: Rezko also raised money for George Bush and a few other Republicans.)

JUST WHAT DID OBAMA DO IN RETURN FOR REZKO’S SUPPORT?

There were small things, such as hiring the son of one of Rezko’s associates as an intern in his senate office. And there were a little larger favors:

As a state senator, Barack Obama wrote letters to city and state officials supporting his political patron Tony Rezko’s successful bid to get more than $14 million from taxpayers to build apartments for senior citizens.

The deal included $855,000 in development fees for Rezko and his partner, Allison S. Davis, Obama’s former boss, according to records from the project, which was four blocks outside Obama’s state Senate district.

Obama’s letters, written nearly nine years ago, for the first time show the Democratic presidential hopeful did a political favor for Rezko…

The fact that the proposed housing was outside of the district he represented as a state senator is an interesting addendum to the story. With no real political interest of his own or any benefit for his constituents, Obama (playing the oldest and most cherished of political games) rubbed the back of a man who had rubbed his – to the tune of $855,000.

Obama has denied doing any favors for Rezko. He is right. Putting pressure on bureaucrats to give a crony a contract worth $855,000 in personal fees is beyond “favor” and enters the realm of corrupt deal.

Then there was the strange case of Obama intervening with the State Department on behalf of one of Rezko’s business associates who was being denied entry to the US because he was considered an “undesirable alien.”

One of the richest men in the world, Nadhmi Auchi, who Rezko owed more than $27 million in “loans,” was looking to come to Chicago. After receiving another “loan” from Auchi, Rezko told prosecutors that he approached Senator Obama to try and get a visa for the billionaire. Obama denies he was approached and there is no record (yet) of any entreaties he made to the State Department on Auchi’s behalf.

Auchi himself stands convicted in a French court of fraud as part of the most spectacular corporate scandal in Europe since the end of the war; the “Elf Affair” where dozens of executives of the French oil company Elf stole 2 billion francs for houses, yachts, jewelry, and other expensive gewgaws.

It was Auchi who, in the end, probably made it possible for Obama to purchase his current house.

HOW DID REZKO HELP OBAMA PURCHASE HIS HOUSE?

Three weeks prior to Obama’s purchase of a fine, old Georgian mansion in the city’s Kenwood area, Auchi “loaned” Rezko another $3.5 million. The loan came through one of Auchi’s offshore holding companies. All of these loans to Rezko would eventually be “forgiven” when Rezko gave Auchi a bigger stake in a huge 62-acre development near Riverside Park.

The sellers of the house also owned a vacant lot adjacent to the property. But since the lot could only be accessed through the property where the house sat, it would have been pretty worthless to anyone except the owner of the dwelling. Offering price for both: $2.6 million.

This turned out to be a little steep for Obama who had just received a $1.2 million advance on a book. No problem for Mr. Fixit. Obama went in on a deal where Mrs. Rezko plunked down $125,000 for the $625,000 vacant lot. The sellers say that they gave Obama a $300,000 discount because his was the highest bid. The fact that Obama was the only one bidding on the house raises some eyebrows considering the neighborhood and the market at the time. Obama claims the house had been on the market 3 months which is not a long time considering the $2 million asking price and the complication of the vacant lot next door.

By paying full freight for the vacant lot – a lot that could never be developed unless bought by Obama – Rezko got his pal his dream house at a substantial discount.

The sellers have declined to talk directly to the media and have answered questions through Obama campaign headquarters. This might be considered strange in some quarters. But not if you’re considered the new messiah of politics.

The Auchi “loan” could very well have financed the whole deal. Court documents a year later show Mrs. Rezko making a salary of $37,000 with $35,000 in assets. Poor Tony reported that he had “no income, negative cash flow, no liquid assets, no unencumbered assets [and] is significantly in arrears on many of his obligations.”

And that brings us to the final finagle; the sale of part of that vacant lot by Rezko to Obama.

It seems that Tony was in dire straits financially. He offered to sell a 10 X 150 foot parcel of the lot, valued at $40,500 dollars to Obama. His long time pal agreed, paying more twice the appraised value – $104,000. Obama claims it was to increase the size of his garden.

Some garden, huh?

For someone he supposedly barely knew, Obama and Rezko sure did each other a lot of favors.

DID OBAMA DO ANYTHING ILLEGAL?

There is no evidence that in any of his dealings with Rezko that Obama broke any law. The question is one of ethics. And judgment, of course. And truthfulness. Obama’s relationship with Rezko is much more extensive than he has ever admitted. Their 17-year relationship went beyond “one fundraiser” as Obama claims, and a few social dates with the gals.

Rezko was a patron, a valued supporter, and a business partner. And almost certainly a close friend as well.

The significance of this relationship is that it proves that Barack Obama is not who he claims to be – a new kind of politician who will lead us all to the Promised Land. Obama can lie like any normal politician. He can do favors for his supporters who give him money. He can do business with scam artists like Rezko whose illegal activities authorities are still trying to unravel.

Given what we know already, there doesn’t seem to be a “bottom” to this story yet. And what we find when we get there may yet prove to be Barack Obama’s undoing as a candidate for President of the United States.

Obama Turns Blind Eye to Credit Card Donation Fraud
http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/obama_illegal_donations/2008/10/21/142761.html
What do Bart Simpson, Family Guy, Daffy Duck, King Kong, O.J. Simpson and Raela Odinga have in common?
All are celebrities; and with the exception of Odinga and O.J. Simpson, they also are fictional characters. And yet, all of them gave money earlier this month to the campaign of Barack Obama, without any apparent effort by the campaign to screen them out as suspect donors.
The Obama fundraising machine may owe its sensational success in part to a relaxation of standard online merchant security practices, which has allowed illegal donations from foreign donors and from unknown individuals using anonymous “gift” cards, industry analysts and a confidential informant tell Newsmax.
**“OBAMA’S FOREIGN DONORS: THE MEDIA AVERTS ITS EYES”**
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/08/obamas_donor_contributions_sil.html
(He accepts credit cards including Macy’s.)
**Fictitious Donors Found in Obama Finance Records**
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/10/us/politics/10donate.html?ref=politics
Last December, someone using the name “Test Person,” from “Some Place, UT,” made a series of contributions, the largest being $764, to Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign totaling $2,410.07.
Someone identifying himself as “Jockim Alberton,” from 1581 Leroy Avenue in Wilmington, Del., began giving to Mr. Obama last November, contributing $10 and $25 at a time for a total of $445 through the end of February.
The only problem? There is no Leroy Avenue in Wilmington. And Jockim Alberton, who listed his employer and occupation as “Fdsa Fdsa,” does not show up in a search of public records.


August 14, 2008
Obama's Foreign Donors: The media averts its eyes
By Pamela Geller
I have been researching, documenting and studying thousands upon thousands of Obama's campaign donations for the past month. Egregious abuse was immediately evident and I published the results of my ongoing investigation. Each subsequent post built a more damning case against Obama's illegal contribution activity.

The media took little notice of what I was substantiating. I went so far as to upload the documents so that anyone could do their own research. I asked readers to download the documents and a number of folks pitched in.

Despite dropping the groundbreaking bombshell story of "Palestinian" brothers from the Rafah refugee camp in Gaza who donated $33,000 to Obama's campaign, no big media picked up the story. Jihadis donating to Obama from Gaza? Could there be a bigger story? Foreign donations are illegal, but this story was all that and so much more. The "Palestinian" brothers were proud and vocal of their "love" for Obama. Their vocal support on behalf of "Palestinians" spoke volumes to Obama's campaign.

And yet still no media.

But Obama pricked up his ears. He smelled trouble and while no media asked, he answered anyway. Sen. Obama's campaign immediately scrambled and contended they had returned the $33,500 in illegal contributions from Palestinians in Hamas-controlled Gaza, despite the fact that records do not show that it was returned and the brothers said they have not received any money. Having gone through all of Obama's refunds redesignations etc, no refund was made to Osama, Hossam, or Edwan Monir in the Rafah refugee camp. And still no media.

One of the Gazan brothers, Monir Edwan (identified here), claimed he bought "Obama for President" T-shirts off Obama's website and then sold the T-shirts in Gaza for a profit. All purchases on the Barack Obama website are considered contributions.

The Palestinians allegedly claimed "they were American citizens", so said Obama's people. They listed their address -- zip code 972 (ironically the area code for Israel) and they input "GA"the state abbreviation for Georgia (screen shot here) They actually lived in a Hamas controlled refugee camp. So if Obama's people thought it was "Georgia" why did they ship the tee shirts to the correct address in Gaza? Shipping overseas to a Gaza refugee camp is vastly different than the state next door.

Still no media.

"Some young men even bought the T-shirts for 60 shekel ($17.29), which is a lot to spend in Gaza on a T-shirt, but that is how much Gazans like Obama," Edwan claimed in a follow up article in the conservative websiet WorldNetDaily. And Hamas has publicly endorsed Obama.

And still no media.

Obama's campaign said the Palestinian brothers in the Middle East made $33,000 in illegal donations to the campaign via the internet.

The donations came in between Sept. 20 and Dec. 6 and virtually all of the money, about $33,500, was returned by December 6. But the refunds weren't reported to the Federal Election Commission due to a technical error, campaign officials said.

If McCain had been involved with something so dark and nefarious, taking money from Islamic jihad, his candidacy would never withstand the media blowback.

But it was the son of hope, the agent of change, the one we have been waiting for , so the media yawned.

The jihad donations were hardly the only bloody red flags. The first in my series of posts ran July 19th. The documents were so unwieldy, readers like John, Doc, and Cathy (who discovered Rafah) were working furiously to cross check our findings at the FEC site and then mine the data.

Obama's overseas (foreign) contributors are making multiple small donations, ostensibly in their own names, over a period of a few days, some under maximum donation allowances, but others are aggregating in excess of the maximums when all added up. The countries and major cities from which contributions have been received France, Virgin Islands, Planegg, Vienna, Hague, Madrid, London, AE, IR, Geneva,Tokyo, Bangkok, Turin, Paris, Munich, Madrid, Roma, Zurich, Netherlands, Moscow, Ireland, Milan, Singapore, Bejing, Switzerland, Toronto, Vancouver, La Creche, Pak Chong, Dublin, Panama, Krabi, Berlin, Geneva, Buenos Aires, Prague, Nagoya, Budapest, Barcelona, Sweden, Taipei, Hong Kong, Rio de Janeiro, Sydney, Zurich, Ragusa, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Uganda, Mumbia, Nagoya, Tunis, Zacatecas, St, Croix, Mississauga, Laval, Nadi, Behchoko, Ragusa, DUBIA, Lima, Copenhagen, Quaama, Jeddah, Kabul, Cairo, Nassau(not the county on Long Island,lol), Luxembourg (Auchi's stomping grounds), etc,etc,etc,

Half a million dollars had been donated from overseas by unidentified people "not employed".

Digging deeper, all sorts of very bizarre activity jumped at us. Dr and JJ continued to break it down and pull data from various sources. We found Rebecca Kurth contributed $3,137.38 to the Obama Campaign in 112 donations, including 34 separate donations recorded in one day,

How about this gibberish donor on the 30th of April in 2008.
A donor named Hbkjb, jkbkj
City: Jkbjnj Works for: Kuman Bank (doesn't exist)
Occupation: Balanon Jalalan Amount: $1,077.23

or the donor Doodad, The # of transactions = 1,044
The $ contributed = $10,780.00
This Doodad character works for FDGFDGF and occupation is DFGFDG

The more questions we answered the more questions we discovered.

Thousands of Obama's foreign donations ended in cents. The "cents" did not make sense. And we compared McCain donation documentss to Obama's. McCain's records are nothing like Obama's. McCain's are so clean. No cents, all even dollar amounts. But Obama's contained thousands of strange, odd amounts -- evidence of foreign contributors, since Americans living overseas would almost uniformly be able to contribute dollars. Still no media.

Julia Gorin told me a funny story two months ago. Her husband's co-worker wanted to see what would happen if he tried giving a contribution to the Obama campaign via a credit card. He used his Macy's card. The system accepted it. He tried the same with McCain's campaign, and the transaction wouldn't go through. Now, obviously, down the line, the Obama transaction would fail as well, but it goes to the point that there is no safety system in place -- it'll just accept any and all money, which helps explain how his campaign raised so much more money than everyone else's.

Despite the evidence of dirty campaign donations, crickets chirped in newsrooms across the country. The moment my Gaza story started to get some chatter on talk radio, the left and their supplicant handmaidens in the media sprang into action and created a McCain illegal campaign contribution "scandal". The Washington Post published an inaccurate allegation and then retracted not a day later, at the risk of looking stupid. They are jeopardizing the little credibility that they have left.

And that is meant to be a lesson to all of us, Whatever you find, whatever you discover about the Candidate of Mystery, they will blow it back in your face. And they did. Almost immediately.

The irony and the upshot of all this. John McCain is reviewing contributions. Ain't that a kick in the head. I can tell him he needn't bother. Been there, done that. Nothing to see, keep moving.

Obama's out there raising millions, some in illegal donations and the Washington Post jumps on McCain for a $50k, which hasn't been shown to be illegal, but merely "inappropriate." The left and their handmaidens, the mani stream media, were so quick to deflect this hit, it seems we have hit a raw nerve. I intend to keep digging. Stay tuned.,

http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/08/obamas_donor_contributions_sil.html
Pamela Geller is Editor and Publisher of the blog Atlas Shrugs.
on "Obama's Foreign Donors: The media averts its eyes"