[Marxism] The stench of Democratic Party politics

[Louis Proyect]

Counterpunch Weekend Edition
February 2 / 3, 2008
 From Hillary's Whitewater Deal to Bill's Uranium Mine to Obama's 
Ba'athist Ties
Hot Democratic Properties

By ALEXANDER COCKBURN

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 billings 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 and former 
Baathist 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 Kenwood, on Chicago's 
south side. 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

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 
of 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 ELLIPSE 
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 Cohn'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 Rezco would finally have conveyed the 
undeveloped lot to Obama in some manner advantageous to th senator. 
Apparently Obama scented peril as the spotlight came on his 
association with Rezko and had a substantial and cosly fence 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 Rezco 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.