From The Washington Examiner:
Chapter IX: The Arab-American network behind Obama
President Obama's controversial relationships
with radical figures like Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi
have been well-publicized in recent years.
Prior to his academic career in the United States, Khalidi
worked for Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization when it was
classified by the State Department as a terrorist group.
Less well-known is a cluster of Chicago businessmen who formed an
Arab-American network at the heart of Obama's political apparatus. Ray
Hanania, a Chicago-based Arab-American journalist and activist,
described the network in a 2007 interview with Chicago magazine as "a
small cluster of activists" in the business community who were
politically involved.
Chief among them was Obama mentor Tony Rezko. Born in Aleppo, Syria,
home of strongman Bashar al-Assad, Rezko migrated to the U.S. in the
late 1970s and built a political and financial empire in Chicago and
Springfield, the Illinois capital.
Rezko is now serving a 10-year federal prison sentence following his
convictions on federal fraud and bribery charges related to disgraced
Gov. Rod Blagojevich and state contracting.
Rezko offered Obama a job at his Rezmar Corp. after he finished at
Harvard Law School, but the new lawyer instead accepted a position at a
Chicago firm with close personal and professional ties to Rezko. Their
relationship steadily deepened in the years thereafter.
For example, Obama asked Rezko to assess the $1.6 million Hyde
Park/Kenwood home that he and Michelle were considering buying in 2005, a
controversial transaction that Rezko's wife assisted by purchasing an
adjoining lot for $625,000. (The owner of the home and adjoining lot
insisted that they be sold together.)
Rezko and his Arab-American business associates have contributed
hundreds of thousands of dollars to Obama's political campaigns.
Following Rezko's conviction, though, Obama donated to charity at least
$85,000 in Rezko contributions to his 2008 presidential campaign.
The Chicago Sun-Times estimated Obama received at least "$168,308 from
Rezko and his circle," while ABC News put the total to be as much as
$100,000 higher than the amount claimed by Obama.
While he was in the Illinois Senate, Obama helped key Rezko associates
gain appointments to the state board that controlled health facility
contracting for building expansions.
Once his associates were appointed, Rezko sought kickbacks from
contractors favored by his friends in a process that became the heart of
the federal case against him.
When Obama became chairman of the state Senate health committee that
oversaw appointments to the medical board, among his first acts was to
gain fast-track passage of a bill to reduce the board from 15 to nine
members, thus making it somewhat easier to gain the panel's approval for
contracts.
Rezko then used his connections with Blagojevich to stack the
restructured board with his political cronies. Their appointments were
confirmed by Obama's committee, then sent to the Senate floor.
Soon thereafter, contributions from Rezko and his health board allies
began pouring into Obama's campaign coffers, according to federal and
state campaign finance data.
Rezko associate Dr. Michel Malek, for example, donated $15,000 to Obama after gaining appointment to the health board.
Dr. Imad Almanaseer, another Rezko ally appointed to the health board,
initially gave Obama $3,000. Over the next three years, he and members
of his family donated nearly $10,000 more to Obama.
Fortunee Massuda, another Rezko associate, donated $2,000 in January 2004 shortly after winning her assignment to the key panel.
Other Rezko allies who were not on the health board also contributed to
Obama. Elie Maloof was granted immunity by federal prosecutors after he
told U.S. attorneys he funneled two $10,000 contributions to Obama
through Rezko. Prosecutors noted Maloof's assertion in their opening
arguments at Rezko's trial, but no additional charges were filed.
Rezko business partner Abdelhamid Chaib donated $10,000 to Obama, then
was convicted on federal corruption charges in 2010 after trying to
pressure a Chicago hospital executive to steer contracts to Rezko
companies.
Another Rezko partner, Ali Ata, was a key witness during Rezko's 2008
federal corruption trial. He donated $5,000 to Obama's campaign and
claimed to have given an additional $10,000 in "straw donations."
Ata was a former president of the Chicago Chapter of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee.
Ata also was an investor with Rezko and Nadhmi Auchi, an Iraqi-British
businessman and former Iraqi Baathist who was on a terror watch list and
thus barred from entering the United States.
Rezko asked federal authorities in 2004 to permit Auchi to join him in
Chicago for a business deal, according to the New York Times.
Stuart Levine, Rezko's former partner and the government's star witness
in the Rezko trial, testified that Obama met Auchi at a private Rezko
reception held at Chicago's Four Seasons hotel.
Auchi wired $3.5 million to Rezko during the 2008 trial. Federal
prosecutors asked for Rezko's bail to be revoked when they discovered
the Auchi wire transfer.
Another Rezko supporter was Mustafa Abdalla, who donated $1,000 to
Obama. Abdalla put up property as collateral for Rezko's bail.
Rezko was a generous financial supporter of Chicago-based Arab-American
activist groups, including the Arab American Democratic Club, or AADC,
and the Arab American Action Network, or AAAN.
Rezko was involved in the AADC with Khalil Shalabi. Shalabi was fired
from a state government job in 2007 after the Illinois inspector general
reported he had been fundraising at work for Rezko and Blagojevich.
The Obamas attended several AAAN dinners, including one honoring
Khalidi. More recently, Hatem Abudayyeh, AAAN's executive director,
attended an April 22, 2010, Obama policy briefing, according to White
House visitor logs.
In September 2010, FBI investigators raided Abudayyeh's Chicago home
reportedly seeking evidence of AAAN being used as a conduit for funding
to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and other Middle
Eastern terrorist groups.
* An Asian presiphant, of course. An African presiphant would be racist.
Lookee here, kiddies, a genuine cogent and germane comment [Thank goodness it was at the top of the pile!]...
FYI:
The timeline left out the influential teen years of Obama where he was
mentored by Frank Marshall Davis, Communist (card number 47544),
journalist, poet, and pornographer. "Frank" is mentioned twenty-two
times in "Dreams From My Father". Some 2,500 words are devoted to him.
All were expunged by Obama in his reading. Davis was the single most
important influence in shaping the political beliefs of the young Obamahttp://www.americanthinker...
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