FROM:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2261448/posts?page=2
HI FREE PRESS ARTICLE.
The Auchi-Rezko-Obama connection came to public attention with federal marshals pounding on the door of Tony Rezko’s Wilmette Chicago mansion in the early morning of January 28, 2008. They hauled Rezko to jail after his bail was revoked for concealing a $3.5 million Auchi loan from the court. The Times outlines the story in two sentences. It should be of tremendous interest to the American public and the world.
But there is more to this story than run-of-the mill political corruption. Nadhmi Auchi is alleged to have a long affiliation with Iraqi Baathism and Saddam Hussein—which his attorneys deny. How close were they? According to a 1960 US Embassy report, Auchi was convicted along with Saddam by an Iraqi court for his part in a failed 1959 assassination attempt against then-Iraqi Prime Minister Qassim. For his crime, Auchi earned a sentence of “three years rigorous imprisonment.”
BO better watch his back:
More from the Free Press:
The UK Guardian, in an article still posted on their site, directly contradicts Auchi’s claim to have left Baath, writing:
Nadhmi Shakir Auchi was born in Baghdad on 11 June 1937. As a student he was involved in the campaign which culminated in the uprising of 1958 against British rule. After the Baathist coup in 1963, Auchi came into the open as a supporter of the pan-Arab party and built a career in the procurement department of the Iraqi Oil Ministry. Over a decade he built up a vast network of contacts within Europe and the Far East. In the mid-1970s this allowed him to set up his own business, working as an intermediary for Western companies wanting a piece of Iraq’s lucrative oil action.
In Republic of Fear, Kanan Makiya points out that there were only 830 “active” members of Iraq’s Arab Baath Socialist Party in 1963. In The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movement of Iraq Hannah Batatu points out participants in the Qassim assassination were privileged within the 1960s Baathist hierarchy. Moreover there were two Baathist coups in 1963. February 8, 1963 against Qasim—and November 18, 1963 by Baathist Army officers against the Baathist militia. Saddam’s rise to power began in 1964. After insinuating his control throughout the security apparatus of the Party and State he would finally take full control 15 years later in 1979.
There are claims that a brother, a cousin, or two brothers of Auchi were killed by Saddam. This story is difficult to pin down but may refer to Saddam’s final 1979 coup which was accompanied with the videotaped purge and execution of 66 top Baathists in order to ensure the loyalty of the remainder. Auchi left Iraq about 1979.
Forty-three years after his conviction in the Qassim assassination attempt, Auchi was convicted of a different type of crime. A French court in 2003 convicted Auchi of taking kickbacks in the Elf-Aquitane bribery scandal. The Guardian –in an article Auchi’s lawyers take credit for forcing off the web under threat of litigation — called the scandal: “the biggest fraud inquiry in Europe since the Second World War... Elf became a private bank for executives who spent £200 million on political favours, mistresses, jewelry, fine art, villas and apartments.” BBC described the case as exposing “a moral vacuum…at the heart of France.”