Palestinians Deny Obama Returned Illegal Contributions

Market Watch - Wall Street Journal Digital Netwalk ^ | August 6th, 2008 | Aaron Klein

[ncfool]

Candidate's staffers insist Gaza brothers refunded, but men say, 'We did not receive any money back' In response to a WND story, Sen. Barack Obama's campaign contends it returned $33,500 in illegal contributions from Palestinians in Hamas-controlled Gaza, but the donors told Aaron Klein of WND today they have not received any money. The Wall Street Journal reported it spoke to Obama officials who said the donations from three Palestinian brothers were received between Sept. 20 and Dec. 6 last year, and virtually all of the money was returned by Dec. 6. The campaign said, however, the refunds were not reported to the Federal Election Commission due to a technical error.

[ncfool]

Hmmm, Caught in a Trap. Yes, That is where the Obama Campaign is regarding the Edwan brothers from Rafah, Georgia! Or is that Rafah in the Gaza Strip. Not really much difference when you’re the Messiah and can walk on water or do fundraising of soft money under $200.00 that does not have to be recorded the same way as hard money donations over $200.00

But when you’re the Messiah then you can fly all over the world with your collection plate raking in the donations either in CASH or by Credit Card. You have to wonder who passed the plate in Berlin and how the credit card funds rolled in to his campaign cash register. Just selling $20.08 T-Shirts to the fans in Germany. Yes Just words of praise and by my T-shirts for 20.00 each and send me your Twenties, and Fifties and One Hundred dollar donations.

Will the Federal Election Commission seize the books of the Obama campaign and do a proper audit to see where the fund came from?

It’s the old follow the money trail. But wait again. The branch of the Federal Government that deals with Money Laundering is the Secret Service. Guess what? The Secret Service has all their resources tied up with providing security to Obama and McCain. So with nobody to audit the trail of where the funds came from there is no investigation going on.

We all need to keep the heat on this matter as it really stinks.

In another thread today it was mentioned that George Clooney was going to a fund raiser in Switzerland for Obama.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2057556/posts

What's the deal there? How can you have a fund raiser in a foreign nation? Are the invited donors all US citizens living abroad?

But getting back, to the Aaron Klein article. If the Obama campaign returned the funds to the Edwan Brothers where is the money and why the brothers would deny getting it back.

A
gain the money was not a donation but a purchase of T-shirts. Ya right!

You can follow the money trail by going to the Federal Election Commission web site at

http://www.fec.gov/finance/disclosure/norindsea.shtml

Type in the last name: Edwan

Funny how the amount still shown on this site is $31,318.00 as being received and reported by Obama’s campaign.

Please forward this link on to your friends and Blogs.

[ncfool]

http://www.fec.gov/finance/disclosure/norindsea.shtml

Type in the last name: Edwan

Funny how the amount still shown on this site is $31,318.00 as being received and reported by Obama’s campaign.

[MindBender26]

>>>>> The campaign said, however, the refunds were not reported to the Federal Election Commission due to a technical error.

Yeah, it was a technical error. Obama forgot to tell the treasurer to write the check!

[paudio]

People need to look at any contribution listed from GA, and see if the city is really in Georgia or Gaza.

[Enchante]

Obama campaign: “Oh, we didn’t mean we returned the money to donors - we donated it all to charity - to their favorite designated jihad organization!”

[AmericanMade1776]

The Obamamessiah Lied? What kind of messiah is he?

[ConservativeMan55]

LOL!!

Caught in a trap indeed!

[MindBender26]

Notice they listed the City of the donor as Rafah and the State as GA (probably for Gaza) to try to fool FEC that contributions were legitimate.

Also notice they are all in odd dollar amounts. $1556, $834, etc.

Very indicative that donations were made in foreign currency and exchanged BY CAMPAIGN for US dollars, producing the odd dollar amount.

For example, 5000 Egyptian Pounds equal $942 in US Dollars.

Now, Mr. Obama, please explain to us, since it was your campaign that exchanged the foreign currency for US Dollars, how didn't your people know they were ALL illegal foreign contributions.

P.S. Please don't tell someone else exchanged the foreign currency donations for US dollars, because that would make him or her an illegal donation aggregator (remember the Buddhist nuns?) , and the whole thing still illegal!

[rfp1234]

The campaign said, however, the refunds were not reported to the Federal Election Commission due to a technical error massive cover-up with the complicity of the drive-by media.

[Blood of Tyrants]

The campaign said, however, the refunds were not reported to the Federal Election Commission due to a technical error.

Technically, they didn't return it.

[El Gato]

Caught in a trap indeed!

Only if the story gets legs. The MSM will be falling over each other cutting off any such legs as quickly as they sprout.

[FlingWingFlyer]

They always just SAY they returned illegal contributions or that they “donated them to charity.” That stuff don’t really happen. The just put that out there to shut John Q. Public up.

[ncfool]

Thats where the money laundering comes in as that is a very serious crime. But will anybody care. You can bet that it was done by credit card so the transactions are very traceable.

Imagine two brothers in refugee camps raising this kind of money selling Obama T-Shirts?

Hello is anybody awake at the FEC. Is this agency run by Jamie Gorelich?

[CitizenM]

It is Gaza. Further report on this from the Isrealinsider -Palestinians losing their shirts making illegal donations to Obama campaign
By Israel Insider staff August 4, 2008

Americans who want to contribute to their presidential candidate of choice are strictly constrained in giving no more than $2300 per candidate election. But the same limits apparently don't apply in practice to foreigners who want to help Barack Hussein Obama get elected, although the Federal Election Commission clearly does not agree.

The brothers Edwan -- Monir and Hasam -- hail from Rafah, GA. That's GA as in Gaza, not Georgia. As first revealed by the Atlas Shrugs blog and further developed in World Net Daily, they contributed a whopping $29,521.54 to Senator Obama's campaign, more than 13 times the legal limit that applies to American citizens.

The Edwans' donations are listed in FEC filings and election filing websites.

The Edwans are a large clan that include top Hamas supporters, according to WND. The two brothers praised Obama and admitted giving the money online to his campaign. They said they are not U.S. citizens or green card holders but are citizens of "Palestine."

They said the money they gave to the campaign was to buy T-shirts, even though the Obama sells them for about $20/each and the going price for T-shirts in Gaza is less than a 10th of that price. In an interview with WND's Aaron Klein, the brothers reportedly changed their story repeatedly.

"My brother Hosam and I knew that Obama will be a big hit even before he became a candidate. We knew the guy would be a celebrity in Gaza so we decided to invest the amount of $29,000 to buy Obama T-shirts from his website and sell them in Gaza," Monir Edwan told WND. "I know on the back of this story Obama rivals will present our business as a donation and they will try to use this story to let Obama fall, but I'm telling you, we bought T-shirts," Edwan maintained.

An amusing interchange catches the Edwans hemming and hawing about what a profitable deal the brothers made buying and selling the T-shirts to fashion-conscious Gazans and how he was able to break the Israeli closure with the purported important of what had to be thousands of Obama T-shirt. Perhaps through the tunnels along with the RPGs?

"We don't want to cause any damage to Obama's campaign," was Edwan's reply. "Not just the people in Gaza but people from all over the world are rooting for this great man," he told WND.

Obama's campaign did not return WND phone calls or e-mail queries.

That the Edwans were able to contribute to Obama's campaign from Gaza raises questions about the lax methods used by the presidential candidate's website to vet online donations. The website donation form only asks each donor to affirm that he or she is a U.S. citizen above the age of 16. It requires no proof of citizenship status, such as a passport or social security number.

The form further requires the donor to affirm the contribution is not coming from a corporation, political action committee or lobby group. Wonder if Hamas qualifies.

[lonevoice]

and virtually all of the money was returned by Dec. 6

How do you virtually return money? If you send a graphic of a virtual check to someone by email, have you virtually returned money to them? Yeah, I guess so.

[Proud_USA_Republican]

Wasn’t it recently reported that half, and I mean half of ALL the contributions to Obama’s campaign, refused to list what state the donation came from?

George Clooney just announced he’s going to host a fundraiser for Obama in Switzerland of all places. A foreign country.

Isn’t it current campaign law that you cannot accept campaign contributions from donators outside the US?

Lebron James bragged that he’s donated over 20,000 to Obama. The legal limit is 3,200 per person, per election.

How the hell are the dems getting away from this?

[ncfool]

That's why it needs to be elevated to a project for the RNC or the McCain folks to file a violation with the FEC. Phoney donations might be easy to spot as most donors give normal amounts.
Like:
25.00, 50.00, 100.00, 250.00, 500.00 1,000. So when you start noticing odd amounts especially large ones, multiple times it should throw up the red flag. I know the FEC must be blind or their computers not working as this should be an automated function for them.

[RasterMaster]

How long till NObama blames the whole thing on a “renegade” staffer? 3-2-1.....

[HollyB]

This is the part I found comical...

Asked how he managed to get shipments of T-shirts into the Gaza Strip during the time Israel imposed a tight closure,

Edwan maintained the packages were sent to him by the U.S. Postal Service

(Yes, I can picture it now, the US Mailman in his blue shorts and in his mail truck driving to deliver his t-shirts). Sorry, Edwan, you’re local mail service delivered it to you - somehow.

[ncfool]

Just remember what Obama decided on June 19th, 2008 about public financing of his campaign.

Obama will not accept federal matching funds. I wonder why?

He decided to forego federal matching funds for the general election, thereby allowing his campaign to raise and spend as much as possible. This is Chicago Style Fundraising

This is Classic Obama!

In a video e-mail sent to supporters, Obama said he was opting out of public financing because the system "is broken, and we face opponents who've become masters at gaming this broken system."

Who is gaming this broken system? Obama and David Axlerod

Obama knew he was getting lots of foreign and untrackable donations from unknown sources. He didn't want to be pinned down as the money was flowing in fast.

The public financing system gives each major-party candidate $84 million to spend between the nominating conventions and the election on Nov. 4. By accepting the money, a candidate agrees not to raise or spend any additional funds.

This is how George Clooney and others get around the 2,300.00 individual limit. But does fund raising overseas to a group matter?

The limits do not apply to independent committees and groups, which are free to spend as much as they want. That's the part Obama referred to as broken.

Obama's decision has revealed himself to be just another typical politician who will do and say whatever is most expedient for Barack Obama.