Curtain Time For Barack Obama - Part I
By Evelyn Pringle
15 May,
2008
Countercurrents.org
Republicans have enough damaging
information against Barack Obama to knock him off the ballot before
the November election. Those at the top of the Democratic Party know
this by now and voters need to recognize that if they nominate him
they are throwing the election. Nothing else can explain why they
would allow this disaster to happen.
The investigation called "Operation Board Games" will lead
to Obama's downfall and it will begin with what he claims was a "boneheaded"
mistake in entering into real estate deal with the Syrian-born immigrant,
Antoin 'Tony' Rezko, less than a month after Rezko received a $3.5
million loan from the Iraqi-born billionaire, Nadhmi Auchi, who ended
up with Riverside Park, a $2.5 billion 62-acre development project
in the Chicago Loop.
Obama set his sights on a $2 million mansion the month after he was
elected to the US Senate. It's now known that Rezko got involved in
the house-buying endeavor early on, although his involvement would
not known until November 2006, the month after Rezko’s indictment
was unsealed in the Operation Board Games case.
Nadhmi Auchi owns General Mediterranean Holdings, a Luxemburg-based
conglomerate with investments all over the world in everything from
Iraq reconstruction contracts to pharmaceuticals to pizza parlors.
More than two solid months of investigation leads to the conclusion
that following the names linked to Riverside Park is the key to understanding
Operation Board Games.
Auchi ended up with the grand prize but the new owner can not set
foot on the development site in downtown Chicago because he is not
allowed in this country. In a January 26, 2008 Affidavit, filed by
an FBI Agent, the following description of Auchi and his company was
given:
“General Mediterranean is owned by Nadhmi Auchi, who public
source documents describe as a British-based Iraqi billionaire who
was convicted several years ago in France on fraud charges. Auchi
was sentenced to 15 months in prison and fined $2 million euros, but
the sentence was suspended as long as Auchi committed no new crimes.
“Thereafter, in November 2005, after Auchi was unable to enter
the United States, Rezko directly appealed to the State Department
to permit Auchi to enter the United States and, it appears, asked
certain Illinois government officials to do the same.”
Auchi's conviction was a part of the gigantic investigation into the
corruption of the Elf oil company, “the biggest fraud inquiry
in Europe since the Second World War. Elf became a private bank for
its executives who spent £200 million on political favours,
mistresses, jewellery, fine art, villas and apartments," according
to the November 16, 2003 Guardian.
At the time, Elf was a public company owned by the citizens of France
making them the victims of the fraud. Auchi, with all his billions
of dollars, claims he is appealing the conviction but obviously with
little success being it occurred five years ago.
However, more recent revelations about his funding the defense of
Rezko and others in the Board Game cases, as well allegations of bid
rigging in Iraq, have no doubt to the dilemma of his not being welcome
here.
Most important for connecting the dots in the Board Games investigation,
is the clarification that it is not the Rezko case. The only reason
it's always referred to as the “Rezko” case is because
he happens to be the first defendant to be brought to trial.
Also, the first trial is focused on the corruption of two Illinois
boards, the panel that approves investments from the $40 billion pension
fund of the Teachers Retirement System, and the Health Facilities
Planning Board, which approves all medical facility construction projects
in Illinois.
But the Operation Board Games cases involve corruption with officials
and employees in many other state agencies and real estate deals are
at the heart of most with Riverside Park front and center.
Confidential informant, John Thomas, began working undercover for
the Feds in 2003, when he pleaded guilty in federal court in New York,
to fraud charges involving a client of his former billboard leasing
company, according to an October 3, 2007 report by Thomas Corfman
in Crain's Chicago Business News.
Thomas began cooperating in the probe “with a focus" on
Rezko's financing deals "on 62 acres at Roosevelt and Clark and
vacant land at the southwest corner of Chicago and Hudson,”
according to the February 10, 2008 Chicago Sun-Times.
In other words, “financing deals” with a “focus”
on Riverside Park.
Corfman found that Thomas’ cooperation was revealed in court
on October 2003, when he entered a guilty plea in New York. He published
a portion of a transcript from an October 27, 2003 hearing in Crain's
on May 4, 2007, in which prosecutors state:
“We
just want to put on the record that the defendant has approached the
U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago to cooperate with the U.S.
attorney’s office in Chicago.”
“Should he provide substantial cooperation to another U.S. attorney’s
office, we will consider that at the time of sentencing . . . or if
the Chicago U.S. attorney’s office wants the case transferred
there, we’d be happy to transfer the case there,” prosecutors
said in the hearing.
At the
request of prosecutors, as a part of a plea agreement Thomas was given
permission by a federal judge to “engage in authorized criminal
activity at the direction of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,”
Corfman reports.
The former New Yorker, he wrote, "has been conducting an undercover
sting investigation for federal prosecutors while working in the Chicago
commercial real estate industry."
On May 4, 2007, the Chicago Sun-Times said Thomas was an informant
in the federal investigation into Rezko, his partner in the Rezmar
development company, Daniel Mahru and "other political corruption
cases."
The Chicago Tribune said it was aware of Thomas' role in May 2006,
but did not publish the story after US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald
asked editors to withhold the information because it would derail
the investigation and put people in danger.
This reporter is confident about the identities of all confidential
informants referred to in the documents filed thus far in the Board
Games cases but will not reveal the names in this report due to an
inability to determine whether the names are in fact known to the
many persons still under investigation.
Illinois
Governor Rod Blagojevich to be president in 2008
Operation Board Games must be viewed with a full understanding that
Governor Rod Blagojevich was supposed to be the candidate running
for president during this election cycle in order for the subplots
involving Obama to become clear.
The Illinois political mob already had a major fundraising operation
in place for Blagojevich by 2004, and its safe to assume that when
Obama and Rezko first started setting up the real estate deal for
the mansion and lot in December 2004, Obama never thought about any
repercussions on his run for president.
This report will show that the same political mob raising money to
make Blagojevich president in 2008, also funded Obama’s election
to the US senate in 2004, which is also discussed further in the earlier
articles in this series including:
Barack Obama - The Wizard of Oz
Barack Obama - Operation Board Games for Slumlords, and
Barack Obama - Subplots of Operation Board Games Part I
When announcing Rezko's indictment, the government made clear that
Rezko "was added as a new defendant in a pending federal corruption
case" that was brought against other co-schemers in 2005. The
government’s star witness in the trial, Chicago businessman,
Stuart Levine, pleaded guilty and testified to avoid a life sentence.
After jury selection began, the questionnaire for screening potential
jurors included a list of more than 230 "possible witnesses or
persons whose names might be mentioned," and included Barack
Obama.
Reporters, Bob Sector and Jeff Coen, provided outstanding coverage
of the trial on a bog called, “Gavel-to-Gavel,” on the
Tribune website. After nearly two months, on April 24, 2008, they
wrote: “Maybe it would be simpler to ask for a show of hands
from political heavyweights who haven't been mentioned in the Antoin
"Tony" Rezko corruption trial.”
Understanding what Tribune columnist, John Kass, has been referring
to for years as the “Illinois Combine,” are also crucial
to understanding the Board Game cases. In his March 28, 2008, column,
Kass invited basically anyone to start using the term Combine, particularly
“if they're having difficulty explaining how two parties can
be as one when there's money on the table,” he said.
In gathering comments for his column, Kass called former US Senator,
Peter Fitzgerald, who Kass describes as “the Republican maverick
from Illinois who tried to fight political corruption and paid for
it. For this sin, he was driven out of Illinois politics by political
bosses, by their spinners and media mouthpieces, who ridiculed him
mercilessly.”
He asked the Senator, “what do you call that connection that Stuart Levine describes from the witness stand, you know that arrangement across party lines, with politically powerful men leveraging government to make money—what do you call it?”
"The
Illinois Combine," he said. "The bipartisan Illinois political
combine.”
“And all these guys being mentioned, they're part of it,"
he told Kass.
"In
the final analysis,” the Senator said, “The Combine's
allegiance is not to a party, but to their pocketbooks.”
“They're about making money off the taxpayers," he added.
According to Kass, “the Rezko trial is part of the U.S. Justice
Department's attack on The Combine.”
“The "Operation Board Games" investigation is about
how appointments to state boards and commissions overseeing state
pension fund investments and hospital construction were leveraged
into paydays for the insiders,” he explains.
“And
what is playing out in the federal building is The Combine on trial,”
he says.
Levine served as finance chairman for Republican Jim Ryan in the campaign
for governor against Blagojevich. But an April 18, 2004, phone conversation
caught on tape by the FBI between Levine and Republican insider and
co-schemer, Robert Kjellander, shows the Republicans were very satisfied
with new leaders of the “Combine.”
"I am telling you that I have never been in a better position
than I am right now," Levine said. "Part of the reason is
there's never been such a tight control of the central apparatus.”
"This guy is making decisions and can get anything done that
he wants done . . . and I have a superb relationship" with him.
During the trial, Assistant US Attorney, Chris Niewoehner, asked Levine
what he meant by that. The "central apparatus," Levine said,
was Blagojevich's office and the guy "making decisions"
was Rezko. He told the jury he'd never seen anything like this.
One co-schemer testified that Rezko told him Republican insider and
co-schemer, William Cellini, had committed to raising $1 million for
Blagojevich's campaign.
Levine
even footed the bill for a private jet to fly Blagojevich and several
other co-schemers to New York in October 2003 and December 2003, where
Blagojevich met lawyers, investment bankers and media executives,
“many of whom wrote checks to his campaign fund,” according
to the September 22, 2006 Chicago Sun-Times.
For instance, HealthPoint Partners, a New York investment firm, held
a fund-raiser and 2 days later, the Teacher’s pension board
voted to invest $15 million with HealthPoint, “following up
on a $20 million investment it made with the firm in April 2003,”
the Times noted.
Rezko, Levine, Cellini and Kjellander were all major fundraisers for
Bush's reelection campaign in 2004, at the same time they were scheming
to raise money for Blagojevich's presidential fund for 2008.
On March 31, 2008, Niewoehner asked Levine, “What is your understanding
of why Mr. Rezko and Mr. Kelly would recommend investment firms?”
“In order to reward campaign contributors” to Blagojevich,
Levine answered.
He also told the jury that he used to funnel campaign money to other
Democratic candidates through straw donors at the request of Chicago
Alderman Edward Vrdolyak.
Levine testified that from 2000 to 2004, he made a combined $9 to
$10 million.
When the indictment against the Syrian-born immigrant, Rezko, was
unsealed in October 2006, Fitzgerald said, "The amounts of money
that were being shaken down in one . . . eight-week span was in the
millions."
“But Rezko and Levine collected only about $250,000 because
federal investigators tripped up their plans,” according to
the October 12, 2006 Sun-Times.
In the article, Chicago FBI chief Robert Grant called those named
in the indictment "parasites that have plagued our public institutions."
Rezko was not available for arrest when the indictment was announced
because he was off on a trip to the Middle East.
Illinois Combine corruption leads to Iraq
The “Illinois Combine,” now includes many members living
in the Chicago area of Middle Eastern descent and the trail of corruption
leads straight to the killing fields in Iraq. The front-page of the
April 26, 2008, Sun-Times provided the lead-in to the final subplot
found at the end of the Board Games investigation when it reports:
"An ex-international fugitive helped spring Tony Rezko from jail
earlier this month, putting up homes that comprise nearly one-third
of the $8.5 million in property and cash securing Rezko's bail."
"The three homes belonging to former Iraqi Electricity Minister
Aiham Alsammarae -- a dual U.S.-Iraqi citizen who broke out of a Baghdad
jail in 2006 -- are part of a long list made public ... following
a Sun-Times request."
Shortly after he escaped from a jail inside the Green Zone in December
2006, Alsammarae called New York Times reporter James Glatz, and said
he did it the "Chicago way."
Alsammarae is now living about a half-hour west of Chicago in a subdivision,
“where homes range in price from $1.5 million to $4 million,”
according to the December 21, 2006 New York Times.
The indictment against Rezko was unsealed in October 2006 in Chicago,
the same month that Alsammarae was found guilty in Bagdad of the first
charge in what would become a dozen convictions for corruption related
to deals he made as electricity minister between August 2003 and May
2005.
In his call right after he broke out of jail, Glatz says, Alsammarea
ridiculed American and Iraqi officials and claimed he fled because
he did not trust the police and received a tip that he would be assassinated
within days.
Alsammarae told Glatz that he was already outside Iraq after finagling
his way aboard a flight at the Baghdad Airport. However, Iraqi security
and justice officials disputed parts of his account, telling Glatz
that a figure as recognizable as Alsammarae could not possibly have
slipped onto a flight when he was the subject of a manhunt.
Alsammarae told Glatz those assertions were made by officials who
spent too much time inside the protected Green Zone and did not understand
how the country worked.
“Those suckers who are sitting in the Green Zone, they cannot
go out and see the people they are governing?” Alsammarae said.
“This is a joke." According to Glatz, Alsammarae stated:
“So why I cannot take the airport? It’s not because I
am a smart cookie. Any Iraqi can do it, even if they have 10,000 court
orders against him. This is Iraq.”
His escape was an embarrassment for the Interior Ministry and the
American-led forces that are guarding the Green Zone, Glatz said,
“Iraqi officials expressed consternation when informed that
Mr. Alsammarae had telephoned a reporter while on the lam.”
Despite the charges against him, Alsammarae told Glatz he did not
believe American authorities would arrest him when he arrived in Chicago.
“I hope they are smarter than that,” he said.
Apparently he was right because he flew right back into Chicago without
a hitch. In fact, a month later he gave an interview on PBS on January
17, 2007, and explained how easy it was to escape, stating:
"I called my friends, and the friends, they come. They brought
the car close to the police station, and I walk out to the car, and
I move out from the Green Zone. From the Green Zone, we change cars
many times.
"And after that, we reached the airport, Iraqi international
airport, and I just flew over the private jet to Amman. Simple. Two-hours-and-a-half,
I'd be in Amman."
Although his Iraqi passport was confiscated in jail, Alsammarae says
he hid a second one and renewed his American passport in Jordan. Those
who helped him, he claimed, were mostly Iraqi friends and supporters,
including the owner of the private jet.
According John Batchelor, in a March 3, 2008 Human Events report,
an Iraqi official in Baghdad says they want Alsammarae back and the
case against him is rock solid. "We have a four-inch-thick file
of his crimes," the official said.
He also said it has "Dates, bank accounts, dummy companies, a
lot of them in the States."
"We want him," he told Batchelor, "and we want the
money back."
An Iraqi politician, who Batchelor says has "extensive knowledge
of the Iraqi diaspora before and after the fall of Baghdad,"
told him:
"Alsammarae is the weakest link in the chain of people who stole
money from the CPA and the Iraqi people since 2003. The evidence against
him is strong and convincing. His conviction is a problem for the
people in his gang. The Baathists."
Auchi was reportedly involved in the power plant contract. Batchelor
says Iraqi officials in Baghdad speak bluntly of Auchi as a "Saddam
guy," and a member of the Baathist gang who has "beggared
Iraq for 50 years."
The first allegations of Auchi’s bid rigging date back to the
first telecommunications contracts awarded in 2003. On November 9,
2003, Time Magazine reported that the US was reviewing a decision
to grant the mobile license for Baghdad and central Iraq to a consortium
led by Egyptian telecom giant Orascom because of its ties to Auchi,
described as "an Iraqi-born billionaire who built his fortune
partly through arms deals with the Iraqi regime in the 1980s."
"Industry sources say Auchi provided Orascom with a $20 million
loan to help pay down its $500 million debt," Time wrote. "The
sources say the loan gave Auchi, who faced French prosecutors earlier
this year for his role in a corruption and embezzlement scandal, a
controlling stake in Orascom."
On February 25, 2005, a report by Charles Smith for NewsMax said,
"Newly released documents from the Bush administration show that
a former member of Saddam Hussein's inner circle has resurfaced inside
the new Iraqi government, bringing charges of corruption, bribery
and bid-rigging."
"As a result," he wrote, "millions of U.S. aid dollars
and billions in Iraqi government funds have disappeared in an ongoing
scandal that is poised to engulf Baghdad and Washington."
Citing a May 2004 Department of Defense report, Smith said, Auchi
has organized "an elaborate scheme to take over and control the
post-war cellular phone system in Iraq."
"Auchi," the report stated, "is widely regarded as
a corrupt supporter of Saddam Hussein's regime who got his money from
doing deals, especially illegal arms transfers for Saddam."
Bribes of between $18 and $21 million were allocated among six people
including the Minister of Communications, an Iraqi Governing Council
member, two American advisers from the Coalition Provisional Authority,
and two British officials, according to the report.
Alsammarae moved to Chicago in the 1970s and met Rezko while attending
engineering school. Reports indicating the Combine's corruption extended
to the electricity minister in Iraq began in mid-summer 2005. On July
29, 2005, Sandra Jones reported in Crain's:
“Rezmar ... controlled by Tony Rezko, a controversial confidant
of Gov. Rod Blagojevich, entered into a joint venture with a British
firm in a $150-million deal to build a power plant in Iraq.”
She noted that the project would be managed by one of Blagojevich's
previous top administration officials, Michael Rumman, "former
director of the Illinois Department of Central Management Services,
the state's internal operations real estate agency.”
“The contract signed with Iraq’s ministry of electricity,
calls for the soon-to-be named joint venture to supply power to Iraq
for 10 years,” Jones reported.
“Rumman, who speaks Arabic, says the project is slated to be
built in northern Iraq,” she wrote.
During a Sun-Times interview in the summer of 2005, Rumman said Rezko
used his "formidable overseas network of business relationships"
to join energy consulting companies to win the contract and up to
30 companies were to be involved.
Rumman was also a major investor with Auchi in Riverside Park. In
fact, he was CEO of a company that was said to be managing the project
until he unexpectedly resigned five months before the start of Rezko's
trial. On October 5, 2007, Crain's reported, "Rumman has quietly
resigned as CEO of a mixed-use project proposed for a sprawling site
on the Near South Side."
Crain's noted that "his resignation is another odd twist in the
long-delayed project, which has been mired in controversy because
of its ties to Mr. Rezko, who is awaiting trial on federal criminal
charges of influence peddling and bank fraud."
The report stated sources said, "Rumman resigned several months
ago, although the exact timing could not be determined."
Rezko would later tell the court that he obtained the power plant
contract through Rezmar International. In advertising on the internet,
Rezmar International claims it is a firm specializing in strategic
partnerships between the US and the Middle East. "We leverage
strong skills, knowledge and relationships to make money for our investors
and partners," Rezmar states.
After Rezko's arrest, in a January 16, 2007 hearing to review his
assets, Rezko told the judge, "Rezmar International entered into
contract with the Ministry of Electricity in -- of -- Iraq, to build
a power plant and sell power to the government. And we were negotiating
for over, now, I guess, almost two years."
His attorney explained how Rezmar "won" the bid. "Mr.
Rezko and an engineering firm here in the State of Illinois put together
a bid, along with other entities; and, then, they won this bid for
the contract," he said.
"The company has no assets," he told the judge.
"They were just going to -- if the contract was given, as I understand
the financing was going to be a Letter of Credit from the Iraqi government
and other financing; and, then, they were going to put together someone
to build or supply the electricity," he said.
Rezko told the judge the contract had no value and was canceled in
November 2006. The attorney told the court that Rezko had debts in
excess of "$50 million."
The US Army Corps of Engineers confirmed the contract for the power
plant was no longer in effect in Iraq, according to the December 3,
2006, Sun-Times.
However, when reached, the Times said, "Rumman declined to discuss
the plant or Alsammarae."
In addition to the power plant, the month before Alsammarae left office,
on April 18, 2005, he signed another $50 million contract with the
Illinois-based firm called Companion Security, to train Iraqis as
power plant security guards.
Companion is another firm with no assets that was thrown together
by Rezko and ex-Chicago cop, Daniel Frawley, with an address that
turned out to be a small house in La Grange, Illinois owned by Frawley's
sister, Maureen Frawley, who was a cop at the time.
The Sun-Times first reported that investigators were looking into
the relationship of Alsammarae and Rezko while Alsammarae was still
in jail in Iraq in December 2006.
But on March 5, 2008, the Times wrote “a new accusation has
surfaced that Rezko paid a $1.5 million bribe in an effort to win
a $50 million business deal in Iraq.”
“In a court filing,” the Times said, “Rezko's lawyers
say that prosecutors accused him ... of paying the bribe to Aiham
Alsammarae, Iraq's former minister of electricity.”
“The prosecution is reportedly relying on information from Daniel
Mahru,” the report wrote, “who was cooperating with the
Federal investigation for ten months before Rezko was indicted.”
Mahru was an attorney for Companion when it got the Iraqi contract,
according to the Times. Prosecutors allege the $1.5 million bribe
was paid through an escrow account held by the Chicago-based Bryan
Cave law firm.
The names of Obama and Blagojevich became tied to the bid rigging
scandal when reports surfaced that Companion had sought their help
in carrying out the contract a year after Alsammarae left office,
and around the same time he was thrown in jail in Iraq.
In April 2006, Frawley began working with Blagojevich's office to
get Iraqi officials to lease a military facility in Illinois for the
training camp.
On June 12, 2006, a letter marked “CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS CORRESPONENCE,”
from Jill Morgenthaler, "Homeland Security Advisor to the Governor,"
was sent to the Iraqi Minister of Electrical Power Grid, City of Iraq,
the Minister of Finance, and the Minister of Defense, stating:
“The state of Illinois is greatly interested in assisting to
facilitate the training, within Illinois, of Iraqi Police Recruits
charged with the security of the Power Grid generation facilities
within the City of Bagdad.”
The letter suggested facilities at the Savanna Army Depot in Western
Illinois as “an ideal potential training location.”
“It would be helpful if an itinerary could be arranged for your
inspection of the proposed location and a review of its attributes,”
Morgenthaler wrote.
After the inspection has been completed and a decision made, she noted,
a letter of intent of the Training Contract that you provide “should
be received by the State of Illinois.”
“The source of this letter of intent,” she wrote, “should
be from any one of the three separate Iraqi Governmental Ministries
indicated above (or one of similar authority), together with an indication
of the number of trainees to be included in each training cycle and
the funding available to insure that your training goals can be met.”
The letter concluded with the statement: “Looking forward to
seeing this worthy project’s beginning within Illinois.”
"Since then, Companion has been lobbying officials from Washington
to Baghdad about its Iraqi deal," the Sun-Times reported on August
7, 2007.
Companion
"beefed up its lobbying efforts" in March in 2006, the Times
said, "hiring a Washington attorney who has contacted the U.S.
State and Commerce departments."
After the state found a proposed training site, Frawley met with Seamus
Ahern, who runs Obama's senate office in Moline, Illinois. "Frawley
and Ahern discussed the proposal over a period of about six months,"
the Times notes.
According to the report, "Obama and Blagojevich viewed Frawley's efforts as a chance to create jobs in the Quad Cities area."
Blagojevich's spokeswoman told the Times that state officials assumed
Frawley's contract has "gone away" because they had not
heard from Companion since last year.
On August
14, 2007, the Forest Park Review reported: "Almost 16 months
ago Sgt. Maureen Frawley's home in nearby La Grange was the site of
a bizarre burglary in which more than $100,000 in cash and several
guns were allegedly stolen."
"Four days later, though," the Review noted, "the missing
items were left on Frawley's doorstep with no apparent explanation."
Frawley told the Review the cash stolen, and returned, had nothing
to do with Companion Security and that Daniel was no longer a partner
with Rezko. The funds belonged solely to her brother, she told the
newspaper.
Citing a La Grange police report, the Sun-Times said Daniel Frawley
“became defensive about questions relating to when, where and
how he obtained the money."
"He told police he had withdrawn the money — $100 bills
in bundles of $5,000 — from a Chicago bank, and his sister was
supposed to have put the cash in a safe-deposit box," according
to the Times.
His lawyer, George Weaver, told police the money had been “legally
obtained by Daniel Frawley through real-estate transactions."
At the time of the report in August 2007, the village administrator
told the Review that Maureen was no longer receiving a paycheck from
the police department but declined to confirm or deny her employment
status.
Both Blagojevich's office and Obama's office now claim they never
knew Rezko was partnered with Frawley in the Iraq contract.
Prosecution of corrupt officials halted in Iraq
On October 4, 2007, the US House Committee on Oversight and Government
Reform held its first hearing on "Assessing the State of Iraqi
Corruption."
The major topic of discussion was a secret order issued by Iraqi Prime
Minister Nouri al Maliki's office in April 2007, that bars the investigation
and referral for prosecution of corruption cases involving the Iraqi
president, the Council of Ministers, or any current or former ministers
without Maliki's consent, which effectively grants immunity to all
high level officials.
The committee also was informed that Maliki's office had issued other
orders to prevent further investigation or referrals of specific cases
for prosecution, including two instructing authorities to close corruption
cases against Maliki's own cousin.
The Bush administration's witness at the hearing was Lawrence Butler
from the State Department. When asked whether "the Government
of Iraq currently has the political will or the capability to root
out corruption within its Government," whether "the Maliki
Government is working hard to improve the corruption situation so
that he can unite his country" and whether Maliki "obstructed
any anticorruption investigations in Iraq to protect his political
allies," he refused to answer.
Butler told the lawmakers that, "questions which go to the broad
nature of our bilateral relationship with Iraq are best answered in
a classified setting."
When asked about the secret order issued by Maliki's office, he claimed
the State Department had concluded that the matter was too sensitive
to address in public.
Prior to the hearing, the committee reviewed reports prepared by a
team of American investigators working out of the Office of Accountability
and Transparency at the US Embassy in Iraq in what could be likened
to a Board Game investigation of Iraqi officials.
The Iraqi ministers are the equivalent of Secretaries appointed by
the President to head federal agencies in the US government. For example,
Alsammarae's title might be the Secretary of Energy here, or the minister
of defense would be the Secretary of Defense.
The Commission of Public Integrity in Iraq is the agency in charge
of investigating corruption and is the equivalent of the FBI.
During their investigation, the Embassy team assessed the cases of
corruption in the individual ministries and the ability of the CPI
to investigate and prepare cases for prosecution with only 120 investigators.
"Currently, Iraq is not capable of even rudimentary enforcement
of anticorruption laws," according to the Embassy report.
A review of cases of corruption for the Ministry of Electricity shows
there were a total of 175 investigations but the only high level Iraqi
official ever convicted in Bagdad is the former minister who is now
living in Chicago.
In the Ministry of Interior, the team reported: "There is a general
impression in the public and within the anticorruption enforcement
establishment that MOI is immune from prosecution of corruption charges
unless the subject falls out of favor within MOI."
"The pattern of criminality endemic at MOI is beyond CPI’s
capability and charter," the report concludes.
Contract fraud is the greatest violation but according to the Embassy
team, CPI investigators assigned to the Ministry of Interior "have
unanimously expressed their fear of being assassinated should they
aggressively pursue their duties at MOI."
"Groups within MOI function similarly to a Racketeer Influenced
and Corrupt Organization (RICO) in the classic sense. MOI is a “legal
enterprise” which has been co-opted by organized criminals who
act through the “legal enterprise” to commit crimes such
as kidnapping, extortion, bribery, etc."
"Unlike CPI officers," they report, "MOI officers carry
guns and are extremely dangerous."
Therefore, CPI investigators are too intimidated to conduct serious
investigations and the "lack of support from the administration
has had a clear negative affect on the morale of the investigators
themselves," the study found.
The combined security situation and "the violent character of
the criminal elements within the ministries make investigation of
corruption too hazardous, unless performed by a tactically robust
police force with the support of the Iraqi government."
"Currently this support is lacking," they wrote. Each ministry
has an Inspector General's office to investigate corruption within
the agency and the Embassy staff reports that:
"Each of the dangers described for the CPI investigators is compounded
for the IG investigators. The general level of violence in Baghdad
multiplies the intimidation factor in that murders are so common that
tying them back to the work place would be difficult even for an accomplished
police force.
"Knowing this, those confronted with criminal activity are fully
aware of the near immunity available to violent criminals. So great
is the danger in the ministries as to make nearly all of the IG actions
suspect."
In Iraq, criminal cases are resolved in the Central Criminal Court
of Iraq. CCCI employs both Trial Judges, who hear cases similar to
Judges in the US, and Investigative Judges (IJ), who function more
as investigators but can demand the production of documents and compel
testimony.
Investigative Judges can be likened "to a hybrid, Federal Agent
– Assistant US Attorney," the report notes. A panel of
three IJs reviews all CPI investigations, and they determine whether
a case is advanced to a criminal proceeding before a Trial Judge.
"Judges are regularly subject to intimidation throughout Iraq,"
according to the report.
In their assessment, the team interviewed the Supreme Investigative
Judge who identified issues including: (1) Interference - history
of political pressure being placed upon the judiciary from both Iraq
and American interests; and (2) Security - day before the advisors
meeting with the IJ, another Judge was assassinated.
"Literally hundreds of arrest warrants remain outstanding,"
the reports states, "as do court orders to produce evidence,
witnesses and documents, all of which remain outstanding and ignored
by government officials."
"Currently," the team reports, "anticorruption enforcement
forces are so vulnerable as to provide those involved in corruption
immunity."
"The acceptance of militia, organized crime and/or common gang
infiltration of Iraq Government Ministries must be confronted,"
the Embassy team concluded.
"The US Embassy should articulate as a matter of policy that
the fair and independent prosecutions should be a condition for continued
assistance to the Iraqis in anticorruption enforcement," the
team recommends.
In his opening statement at the hearing, committee chairman, Rep Henry
Waxman (D-CA), stated:
"Whether one supports or opposes the President’s policy,
we can’t ignore the reality of corruption in Iraq. And we can’t
ignore the reality that corruption is undermining the political progress
our troops are fighting and dying for."
The committee heard testimony from Judge Radhi Hamza al-Radhi, the
former commissioner of the CPI, who told the panel corruption in Iraq
"is getting worse" and "has stopped the process of
reconstruction in Iraq."
The cost of corruption uncovered so far across all ministries in Iraq,
Radhi said, "has been estimated to be as high as $18 billion."
The CPI has lost the ability to fight corruption after implicating
Iraqi officials, he says, due to "violence, intimidation and
personal attacks."
"Since the establishment of the Commission," he told the
committee, "31 employees have been assassinated as well as at
least an additional 12 family members."
"In a number of cases," Radhi said, "my staff and their
relatives have been kidnapped or detained and tortured prior to being
killed."
"Many of these people were gunned down at close range,"
he stated. Radhi fled Iraq in August 2007, and is seeking asylum in
the US.
The committee also heard testimony from Stewart Bowen, US Special
Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. "Over the past year,"
he told panel, "the number of corruption cases under investigation
by the CPI increased by almost 70 percent, from 1861 cases in 2006
to 3158 cases thus far in 2007."
"Similarly," he said, "individual Iraqi ministries
have reported dramatic increases in the number of corruption cases
initiated."
"Thus far in 2007," Bowen reported, "the Ministry of
Defense has seen a 57% increase in reported cases, the Ministry of
Health a 400% increase, and the Ministry of Trade a 728% increase."
"Political influence recently reached into CPI’s operations,"
he said, "as evidenced by the presence at this hearing today
of Judge Radhi al-Radhi, the recently departed Commissioner of the
CPI."
"I have worked with Judge Radhi throughout my tenure," Bowen
told lawmakers, "and consistently observed his courage and commitment
to accomplish what is perhaps the most dangerous law enforcement job
in the world."
He also said Article 136(b) of Iraq’s Criminal Code is a "notorious
structural obstacle" impeding anti-corruption efforts. "This
provision," he explained, "allows any Iraqi minister to
grant by fiat complete immunity from prosecution to any ministry employee
accused of wrongdoing."
"In addition," he stated, "an order issued by the Prime
Minister this past spring requires Iraqi law enforcement authorities
to obtain permission from the Prime Minister’s Office before
investigating current or former ministers."
Bowen said an Iraqi council chairman from Baghdad recently told his
office that Iraq “had corruption under the regime of Saddam
Hussein, but we also had law.”
The US Comptroller General, David Walker, testified that "widespread
corruption undermines efforts to develop the government's capacity
by robbing it of needed resources, some of which are used to fund
the insurgency."
During the hearing, Alsammarae's convictions and escape became a hot
topic of debate when Massachusetts Congressman, Stephen Lynch, questioned
witnesses about the case.
Radhi told Lynch the amount attributed to Alsammarae's corruption
while serving two years as minister was $2 billion.
Lynch quizzed Radhi about his escape. "Mr. Alsammarae, I understand,"
he said, was arrested and held in prison inside the Green Zone, but
he somehow escaped."
"Do you know the facts surrounding that?" he asked.
"I know some of the facts that surround this case," Radhi
replied, "and I know that a U.S- protection company has helped
him get away."
"Do you know what the name of that U.S. protection agency might
have been?" Lynch asked.
"If believe it is DynCorp," the Judge stated.
He said Alsammarae had a three year sentence awaiting him in Iraq
and "l1 other charges against him fielded through the Interpol."
Lynch also tried to question Bowen about the case. "I have tried
to establish that the former Iraqi Electricity Minister was accused
of corruption of potentially hundreds of millions of dollars,"
he said, and further stated:
"He was arrested. He was brought to the Green zone. I believe
it was a DOD facility. We are talking the Unites States Military.
"He was then broken out of that jail or removed from that jail
by a U.S. contractor.
"We have evidence or testimony that it was DynCorp."
"Mr. Bowen," Lynch asked, "is that your understanding
of the facts of this case?"
"Yes," Bowen said, "but with the one additional fact
that he was convicted by that Iraqi court and was awaiting sentencing."
"Is there an investigation ongoing relative to the handling of
this case?" Lynch asked.
"I can't comment on our ongoing investigations," Bowen replied.
"Okay," Lynch said, "so if it is an ongoing investigation,
it must be ongoing ..."
"Can you tell me," he asked Bowen, "the allegation
that this gentleman is in Chicago, is that correct?"
"Is that your understanding?" Lynch asked.
"That is what I have heard, yes," Bowen replied.
The committee later learned that on September 25, 2007, or about two
weeks before the hearing, the State Department instructed officials
not to answer questions that ask for:
"Broad statements/assessments which judge or characterize the
quality of Iraqi governance or the ability or determination of the
Iraqi government to deal with corruption, including allegations that
investigations were thwarted/stifled for political reasons."
The Department also retroactively classified the Embassy reports on
corruption that had been distributed as "sensitive but unclassified,"
and even went so far as to retroactively classify portions of the
previously cleared report that Comptroller General Walker released
at the hearing.
On October 12, 2007, Waxman, along with the chairmen of three other
House committees, wrote to Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice, with
concerns that Congress and the American people were not getting "honest
answers about the extent of corruption in the Maliki government."
The letter asked for information about whether Maliki "obstructed
any anticorruption investigations in Iraq to protect his political
allies" or "protected some of his relatives that were involved
in corruption."
In response, Rice's office sent an October 15, 2007 letter acknowledging
that "corruption in Iraq is a very serious challenge" and
that "not all information" sought by the Committee "is
necessarily classified," but failed to provide any information
about the secret order issued by Maliki.
On October 15, 2007, the House voted to pass Resolution 734, which
concluded "it was wrong" for the State Department "to
retroactively classify ... statements that are embarrassing but do
not meet the criteria for classification."
The resolution also said, "it is an abuse of the classification
process to withhold from Congress and the people of the United States
broad assessments of the extent of corruption in the Iraqi Government."
In his opening statement before the vote, Waxman stated: "Five
years ago, abuse of classified information got us into the war."
"It is time for these abuses to end," he said.
On October 25, 2007, the committee called Rice to testify at another
hearing and Waxman asked her if she was aware of the secret order
issued by Maliki's office.
"I believe that you are referring to something that is - because
there's an executive branch and a legislative branch that are treated
differently." she said.
"Is that the point?" Rice asked.
"No," Waxman said. "The point of the order is that
Prime Minister Maliki has issued an order saying that he may not be
investigated, nor may his ministers be investigated for corruption,
which means they're immunized from anything -"
"I will have to get back to you," Rice said, "I don't
know precisely what you are referring to."
"It is our understanding," she stated, "that the Iraqi
leadership is not, indeed, immune from investigation."
"Well," Waxman said, "this order that was shown to
us by Judge Radhi, it was
discussed at our October 4th hearing."
"We even asked Ambassador Butler from the State Department about
it," he said, "And we expected you would come in and give
us your view of such an order."
"I think you ought to tell us that you are as outraged as we
are," Waxman stated, "because we want corruption investigated
and not just left for you to get back to us another time."
"I have just stated," Rice said, "that it would not
be the intention of the United States of America that any official
in Iraq, including the Prime Minister, the President or members of
the Council of Representatives, would be immune from investigation
for corruption."
But she again told Waxman; "I must get back to you on the specifics
of the order that you are talking about, because I don't know whether
there are other bases on which people can be investigated."
Following the hearing, Waxman published a commentary in the November
5, 2007, LA Times with the heading: "The Iraqi prime minister
is presiding over a government that is stealing us blind."
"Two truths have emerged from Iraq in recent months," he
stated.
"First, corruption is so pervasive in Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's
government that political progress in Iraq may be impossible.
"Second, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and our embassy
in Baghdad are inexplicably neglecting this corrosive threat."
Confronting these facts is difficult, Waxman wrote, when:
"Nearly 4,000 American soldiers have been killed and another
28,000 wounded in Iraq since the 2003 invasion. No one wants to believe
that these sacrifices were made to establish and support a regime
riddled with fraud and graft."
"Is Maliki’s corruption worth American lives?" Waxman
asked.
Rice never bothered to get back to the committee and on March 3, 2008
chairman Waxman sent her a letter stating:
"It is now more than four months since the October 25 hearing.
The Committee still has received no communications from you regarding
this issue. Despite your promises to follow-up with the Committee,
we still do not know what your views are about the order."
"For these reasons," the letter states, "I ask that
you provide the Committee with copies of all documents relating to
the February 4, April 1, and April 2, 2007, orders issued by the office
of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki."
All responsive documents were to be provided by March 28, 2008 and
April 11, 2008. As of May 11, 2008, there was no sign that Rice provided
any of the information requested on the committee's web site.
Alsammarae was recruited by the Bush administration in the fall of
2002 for a project called the “Future of Iraq,” to plot
the take-over of Iraq months before Americans were told of Bush’s
plan to take the country to war.
Paul Bremer, the leader of the notoriously corrupt Coalition Provisional
Authority, appointed him minister of electricity in August 2003. Alsammarae
was photographed at a White House ceremony in the Oval Office on September
22, 2003, at which Bush called him a "good soul," who "inherited
a system of a corrupt tyrant."
In a brief speech, Alsammarae told the audience: "If the Iraqi
people and the American help us for the next year-and-a-half, I almost
guarantee -- I guarantee it to the President but I almost guarantee
it to the American people that we will have different Iraq."
"We need the help of the Americans right now," he said,
"to build Iraq so you have a secure country here and you have
a secure world and we have a secure Iraq."
Less then three months later, other members of the “Combine”
flew to Washington on a private jet to attend a White House Christmas
party on December 3, 2003, including Rezko, Levine, Cellini, and Kjellander,
along with their wives, with an invitation obtained from the White
House by Kjellander.
During a March 14, 2008 interview with the Sun-Times, Obama was asked:
"Did you ever meet Nadhmi Auchi or Dr. Aiham Alsammarae?"
"I have to say I do not recall meeting them. It's been reported
that a dinner Tony hosted at the four seasons, I don't have the exact
date, so I don't know whether it was the before November '04 when
I hadn't been elected but had already won the primary or whether it
was after the election, in which I was . . .
"Tony called and asked if I could stop by because he had a number
of friends that he had invited to dinner and he wanted mew to meet
them.
"I told him that I would be happy to come by if my schedule allowed
it. And it did. Although I couldn't, I think, stay for dinner, so
I remember meeting a bunch of people who I had not met before. I frankly
don't remember what their names were.
"Business was not discussed at the meeting. It was more of a
social meeting and they asked me questions about the senate race and
so fourth and so on.
"I have no specific recollection. They may have been there. I
can't say unequivocally that I did not meet them, but I just don't
recall."
Combine plots to shut down Operation Board Games
Testimony during the Rezko trial in late April, shows the "Combine,”
was working with the Bush administration for years to pull a stunt
with Fitzgerald similar to what Maliki pulled with Judge Radhi in
Iraq.
On April 22, 2008, prosecutors dropped a bombshell by informing the
judge that co-schemer, Steve Loren, who already pled guilty, was ready
to testify that he was told by Cellini, that Kjellander had worked
with Karl Rove to get the leader of the Operation Board Games fired.
Fitzgerald is famous in Illinois for fighting the Combine's corruption
but he is most famous to the rest of the country for his conviction
of Scooter Libby in the CIA leak case. In that case, Libby took the
fall for Bush, Dick Cheney and especially, Karl Rove.
Rove was the first source for the leak of the identity of CIA agent,
Valerie Plame, after her husband, Joe Wilson, went public about his
first-hand knowledge that the Bush administration lied the country
into war with bogus weapons of mass destruction stories.
On July 13, 2005, Time Magazine reporter, Matt Cooper, testified before
a grand jury and identified Rove as the first source who told him
Wilson's wife worked for the CIA.
In an article discussing his testimony, in the July 17, 2005, issue
of Time, Cooper wrote: "Was it through my conversation with Rove
that I learned for the first time that Wilson's wife worked at the
C.I.A. and may have been responsible for sending him? Yes."
"Did Rove say that she worked at the 'agency' on 'W.M.D.'? Yes,"
Cooper asked and answered in the article.
"When he said things would be declassified soon, was that itself
impermissible? I don't know," Cooper wrote.
Scooter's case was heating up at the same time the “Combine”
was desperate to shut down Operation Board Games. During the April
22, 2008 hearing, Assistant US Attorney, Carrie Hamilton, stated,
reading from Loren's grand jury testimony, Cellini "said it was
Bob Kjellander's job to take care of the U.S. Attorney.”
Cellini's real estate investment firm had received hundreds of millions
of dollars from pension funds. Loren had testified earlier about a
meeting in February 2004, where Cellini and other co-schemers discussed
approving a deal where his firm would receive a new $50 million investment,
but the amount approved ended up being $100 million after Cellini
told the co-schemers he wanted more.
The morning after the prosecution announced that Loren would testify,
Hamilton dropped another bombshell by informing the judge that Jordanian-native
and co-schemer, Ali Ata, the former head of the Illinois Finance Authority,
had pled guilty and entered into a plea agreement and he would testify
that he received the same information in 2004.
"Mr. Kjellander is working with Mr. Rove to have Mr. Fitzgerald
removed so someone else can come in" and end the criminal investigation
of state corruption, Hamilton told the judge in summarizing Ata's
expected testimony of what Rezko told him.
She said the conversation was about having Fitzgerald replaced by
someone else, "so individuals who have been cooperating in this
investigation will be dealt with differently."
In court filings, the government identifies Kjellander as having "received
$809,000 in consulting fees for the 2003 sale of state bonds, much
of which prosecutors believe was funneled through a Rezko associate
to Rezko assignees."
In 2002, the Republican-allied Carlyle Group also hired Kjellander
to secure an eventual $500 million investment from the pension fund.
Kjellander ended up with $4.5 million in finder‘s fees, which
the pension board now claims it knew nothing about.
On April 25, 2008, former Illinois Republican House Speaker, Dennis
Hastert, was added to the plot when co-schemer Elie Maloof testified
that he went to Rezko's house in February 2005, to let him know that
he had received a subpoena to testify before a grand jury and Rezko
told him to reveal little because the investigation would soon be
over.
Maloof testified under a grant of immunity and said Rezko explained,
"that Patrick Fitzgerald will be terminated and that Dennis Hastert
will name his replacement."
"The federal prosecutor will no longer be the same federal prosecutor,"
Rezko told him. And a new US attorney would "order the prosecutor
to stop the investigation."
Maloof is one of the donors used to funnel two $10,000 contributions
to Obama through bank accounts from Rezko‘s pizza businesses
from the pension fund kickback. An exhibit produced for the jury shows
Maloof also made a $10,000 contribution to Blagojevich.
As predicted, on May 1, 2008, Ata testified that he was assured there
was a plan in place to remove Fitzgerald after Bush was reelected
in 2004. "Mr. Rezko informed me that they had just finished meeting
with Mr. Kjellander and that there will be a change in U.S. attorney's
office come the new administration," he said.
"Mr.
Kjellander will talk to Karl Rove and make a change in the U.S. attorney's
office," he said Rezko told him. Ata told the jury he knew from
Rezko that Kjellander was a Republican insider and had a direct relationship
with Rove.
Another time, Ata said, Rezko told him the investigation was heating
up but instructed him to hold firm. "Mr. Rezko said the FBI was
approaching people ... asking people to cooperate,” he told
the jury
'Those who do will be dealt with," Ata said Rezko told him.
Even in 2006, he said, Rezko assured him that things were going to
turn out all right because of a plan to get rid of Fitzgerald. When
asked why he believed Rezko could get him removed, Ata said, "Mr.
Rezko has the influence and power to do that."
Ata told prosecutors he lied to the FBI in December 2005, because
he was encouraged to be a "team player" by people he believed
to be acting on Rezko’s behalf. When he received a grand jury
subpoena in late 2005, he said, people contacted him in an effort
to stop him from cooperating.
After he met with Federal agents the first time, Ata said, he got
a voice-mail from Michael Rumman. The voice mail said Rumman was traveling
with "our friend," meaning Rezko, and asked Ata to delay
meeting with investigators.
On his final day on the stand, Ata told the jury he finally agreed
to cooperate with the Feds in April 2008, after an unnamed person
delivered a threat. He testified that prosecutors once had him wear
a wire to make a recording after the person threatened him.
Ata told
the jury he delivered one $25,000 contribution to Blagojevich at Rezko's
office in the latter part of 2002, and the three men discussed the
prospects of Ata getting an appointment in the administration. He
said people at the office that day included Blagojevich's campaign
chief and later chief of staff, Lon Monk, Christopher Kelly, and state
Representative Jay Hoffman.
"I learned that Mr. Hoffman was part of a select group of advisers
that were referred to as the kitchen cabinet," Ata told the jury.
“The way Ali Ata described it, the waiting room in the North
Side office of Antoin "Tony" Rezko seemed as busy as an
airport terminal,” the Tribune noted on May 1, 2008.
Ata brought another $25,000 check to a fundraiser on July 25, 2003,
and he was appointed to lead the Finance Authority.
Ata made a $5,000 donation to Obama less than a month earlier on June
30, 2003. Ata is also an investor in Riverside Park. Almost without
fail, the people identified in the Board Games cases as investors
in Riverside Park contributed to Obama's US senate campaign.
According to the Sun-Times, to raise the $8 million to spring Rezko
out of jail in April, in addition to the $2 million worth of property
pledged by Alsammarae, six people who are "current or former
state employees," also put up property.
The list has three current employees from Rumman's former Department
of Central Management Services, including Jenan Shamoun, Donald Lynch,
and Mustafa Abdalla.
A state employee familiar with the hiring of the employees told the
Associated Press that CMS personnel were pressured by then-director
Rumman to hire them
Campaign records show Mustafa Abdalla gave Obama $1,000 on June 30,
2003.
Rezko himself also came up with $380,000 in cash. He claims he raised
the money by selling his shares in Riverside Park - again.
His attorneys told the court that only about half of what Rezko received
from the sale was used to post the $380,000 bond, and the rest was
mostly used to pay their legal fees.
During the hearing, the judge said she had spoken with a lawyer for GMH, and was told that Rezko was officially bought out in February 2008. She asked Rezko whether he or any of his companies still had any shares in the South Loop property.
In response, Rezko stated: "None."
This exchange sounds eerily similar to what Rezko told her more than
a year ago on January 16, 2007, when he stated: “If the property
is sold today for $200 million, I will not receive one dollar from
the proceeds."
[email protected]
(Curtain Time For Barack Obama - Part II will be published on May
16, 2008)
(Evelyn Pringle is a columnist for OpEd News and an investigative
journalist focused on exposing corruption in government and corporate
America)