|
Hot
Democratic Properties
From Hillary's
Whitewater Deal to Bill's Uranium Mine to Obama's Ba'athist Ties
By Alexander Cockburn
02/02/08 "Counterpunch"
-- -- Back
in 1992 it was the Whitewater real estate deal that plagued the
Clintons, though fortunately for them, Jeff Gerth's initial
expose in the New York Times on March 8, 1992, was
incomprehensible. Hillary Clinton and her lawyer Susan Thomases
muddied the trail by maintaining falsely that Mrs Clinton's
billing files--which would have disclosed her numerous
conferences with Madison Guaranty --could not be located.
If Hillary wins the nomination
Republicans will once again plow through the vast acreage of
questionable deals and evasive responses developed by the
Clintons down the years, the latest ones, such as Bill's
financial cavortings with the
Canadian mining entrepreneur, still as fragrant as freshly
turned manure.
Barack Obama has already felt
the hot breath of investigators for his property deal in 2005 on
the south side of Chicago. This one will have legs as long as
Obama is in the race for the Democratic nomination. If he wins
that prize, the scrutiny will get more intense, as Republicans
link him with an Iraqi millionaire who has been linked to Saddam
Hussein from the earliest years of the Iraqi dictator's
bloodstained rise to power.
In 2005 Obama bought a
Georgian mansion in Chicago's elite Kenwood neighborhood. He
paid $1.65 million for it. The same day Rita Rezko, the wife of
Chicago property operator Antoin "Tony" Rezko, bought the
adjacent undeveloped lot, which had once been part of the
mansion's garden. Rezko paid $650,000 for the parcel which at
present can only be accessed from the Obama property and which
Obama's garden crew has been keeping tidy. Obama got his house
for $300,000 under the asking price. Rezko paid full asking
price. Later, Obama bought a sixth of Rezko's parcel for
$100,000.
Obama has known Rezko ever
since the latter contacted him as a possible associate in the
real estate business after Obama got the top slot at the Harvard
Law Review and was an obvious comer in Chicago politics. Rezko,
like all major real estate players, has made a career of playing
insider politics and forming political alliances advantageous
for his dealings. He's contributed to Obama's campaigns down the
years. Answering questions from the Chicago Sun-Times in 2005,
specifically about the allegation that the newly elected US
senator contacted Rezko when he first thought of buying the
Kenwood mansion, Obama said very carefully, "I don't recall
exactly what our conversations were or where I first learned,
and I am not clear what the circumstances were where he made a
decision that he was interested in the property. I may have
mentioned to him the name of [a developer and] he may at that
point have contacted that person. I'm not clear about that."
At the time of the 2005
transaction Rezko's legal problems had already surfaced and
Obama told the Sun-Times that involving Rezko "was a mistake".
Rezko is now under indictment by US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald
(Scooter Libby's special prosecutor). He faces trial in federal
court on February 25. On January 29 a federal judge, Amy J. St
Eve, ordered Rezko held behind bars for violating the terms of
his bail and for being a flight risk.
Though, as part of his bail
terms, Rezko was required by the court to disclose any changes
in his financial status the FBI, using a "cooperating
individual" identified only as "C14", claims to have established
that Rezko did not reveal that in April, 2007, he appeared to
have been the beneficiary of a $3.5 million wire transfer from
General Mediterranean Holding S.A., a company run by a business
associate of Rezko's, N. Auchi. General Meditarranean has been
partner with Rezko in a 62-acre property deal in Chicago.
Nadhmi Auchi lives in the
U.K.,is extremely rich and politically well connected. In
November 2003 he was the subject of unsparing criticism by Nick
Cohen in The Observer. Cohen claimed that:
He was charged in the
1950s with being an accomplice of Saddam Hussein, when the
future tyrant was acquiring his taste for blood ... One
reason why journalists have shied away from Auchi is that he
has expensive lawyers. They have always denied that their
client had met Saddam. No one has been able to contradict
them, but we do know that Auchi was charged with being a
plotter for the Baath Party as it prepared to seize power.
In October 1959 he stood trial for conspiring to assassinate
the Iraqi Prime Minister, Abdul Karim Qasim. The attempted
murder became a revered part of Saddam's cult of personality
... In 1959 Auchi admitted to playing a minor part in the
drama. The conspirators had collected a machine gun from his
house before the attack, he said, but he had not used the
weapon and knew nothing of what was being planned.
Auchi prospered when the
Baath Party seized control of the state. When Saddam assumed
total power he moved to Britain ... the execution [of his
brother] did not inhibit Auchi's business dealings with Iraq
which, he says, didn't stop until the Gulf war of 1991. His
first coup in the West was to broker a deal to sell Italian
frigates to the Iraqi Defence Ministry, for which he
received $17m in commission. Italian investigators claimed
that a Panamanian company owned by Auchi was used to funnel
allegedly illegal payments. Auchi denied he had done
anything wrong.
The Observer's website
featuring Cohen's story also supplies a link to a statement in
which Auchi's lawyers say their client "was never close to
Saddam Hussein or his regime. He never met or even spoke to
Saddam Hussein. Mr Auchi has never to his knowledge had any
involvement in money stolen by Saddam Hussein and/or Colonel
Gadaffi and he has never sheltered funds for Saddam Hussein.
During the time when Iraq was considered to be a friend of the
west, Mr Auchi conducted business with entities in Iraq. On
sanctions being imposed against Saddam Hussein's regime, Mr
Auchi ceased conducting such business."
Cohen says that in the fall of
2003 Auchi "was convicted of illicit profiteering by the Paris
Criminal Court and received a 15-month suspended sentence."
Obama is certainly aware that
Rezko is a political liability. Thus far the most tangible
benefit from his association unearthed by reporters has been
some $50-60,000 in campaign contributions from Rezco down the
years (Obama's estimate) plus the adjacent-lot property deal in
Kenwood which does smell. One inference back in 2005 might have
been that Rezko would finally have conveyed the undeveloped lot
to Obama in some manner advantageous to the senator. Apparently
Obama scented peril as the spotlight came on his association
with Rezko and had a substantial fence (which Rezko promised to
pay for) erected between the two parcels. The Rezko parcel is
supposedly scheduled for a house.
In terms of political
mudslinging, if Obama continues to prosper politically this
year, we can expect ongoing probes for political favors he might
have done for Rezko down the years. For the political hit squads
the money shot, so to speak, is any headline that links Barack
Hussein Obama with an Iraqi millionaire not only linked to the
oil-for-food scandal but to the Baath Party and to Saddam
Hussein.
Click on "comments" below to read or post comments
Comment Guidelines
Be succinct, constructive and
relevant to the story.
We encourage engaging, diverse
and meaningful commentary. Do not include
personal information such as names, addresses,
phone numbers and emails. Comments falling
outside our guidelines – those including
personal attacks and profanity – are not
permitted.
See our complete
Comment Policy
and
use this link to notify us if you have concerns
about a comment.
We’ll promptly review and remove any
inappropriate postings.
Send Page To a Friend
In accordance
with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material
is distributed without profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving the
included information for research and educational
purposes. Information Clearing House has no
affiliation whatsoever with the originator of
this article nor is Information ClearingHouse
endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
|
