Free Republic

Obama is on pace to spend more on TV in the final 25 days of this election than John McCain's entire $85 million matching-fund check. For those keeping score at home, Obama has aired more than 25,000 commercials in the past four days alone. McCain is in a shouting match against a man with a bull horn. Whatever McCain does in the final 25 days, it will not be enough to break through the noise unless his campaign finds a message that connects with voters. Timing is everything in politics, and McCain's campaign may have waited too long to play...

The Republican national committee (RNC) said Mr Obama had accepted contributions from foreigners and taken more than the $2,300 maximum from donors who give in small amounts. RNC officials want the Federal Election Commission to examine Mr Obama's records in detail to determine the extent of the problem. An Obama campaign spokesman denied the charges. Bill Burton said: "Our campaign has shattered fund-raising records with donations from more than 2.5 million Americans. We have gone above and beyond the transparency requirement." Democrats are viewing the Republican claim as the latest example of a smear campaign against Mr Obama. On Saturday,...

JERUSALEM – Palestinian brothers inside the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip are listed in government election filings as having donated $29,521.54 to Sen. Barack Obama's campaign. Donations of this nature would violate election laws, including prohibitions on receiving contributions from foreigners and guidelines against accepting more than $2,300 from one individual during a single election, Bob Biersack, a spokesman for the Federal Election Commission, told WND in response to a query. The contributions also raise numerous questions about the Obama campaign's lax online donation form, which apparently allows for the possibility of foreign contributions. Last week, the Atlas Shrugs blog outlined a...

I have been monitoring the donation data at the FEC website that the Obama for America campaign has submitted. Contrary to what the Obama campaign claims, they did NOT "rout out" or "refund" donations they received from the Edwan brothers (Hosam, Monir and Osama) of the Rafah Refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. OBAMA LIED: "Palestinian" Campaign Contributions NEVER RETURNED OR REFUNDED In the latest filing (9/20 for the month of August, 2008), it is apparent that the campaign has PURGED the database of most of the donations from the Edwan brothers. Edwan Brothers Transaction Analysis at Google Docs Another...

Just how much in donations from foreign countries is pouring into the Obama campaign coffers is a question one FEC auditor would like to have answered. The problem is that evidently, his bosses at the FEC are refusing to move on the charges which would almost certainly require them to ask the Justice Department and the FBI to look into the matter. This would, their reasoning goes, take on the appearance of a "criminal investigation" and would impact the coming election. The anonymous investigator (who won't reveal his name for fear of retribution) says that "I can't get anyone to...

Monday, September 29, 2008 9:23 PM More than half of the whopping $426.9 million Barack Obama has raised has come from small donors whose names the Obama campaign won't disclose. And questions have arisen about millions more in foreign donations the Obama campaign has received that apparently have not been vetted as legitimate. Obama has raised nearly twice that of John McCain's campaign, according to new campaign finance report. But because of Obama’s high expenses during the hotly contested Democratic primary season and an early decision to forgo public campaign money and the spending limits it imposes, all that cash...

Nigerian anti-graft investigators have seized money raised by the head of the Nigerian Stock Exchange to support US presidential candidate Barack Obama. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said it would give the money back to those who attended a gala dinner in Lagos last month.

Anti-corruption authorities have seized more than $630,000 (£315,000) raised during an "Africans for Obama" gala dinner held in Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos. Hundreds of the city's high-society elite and business leaders paid up to £11,000 for a table at the glitzy fundraiser, but police intervened when it became clear that US laws prohibit overseas donations. Staff from Barack Obama's campaign team said the Democratic presidential hopeful was in no way connected with the "Africans for Obama" organisation and added that no money from the group would be accepted. The organiser of the August 11 event, Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, chair of the...

On July 31, Atlas broke the explosive bombshell that Obama was receiving big foreign donations andin particular, from the Hamas controlled Rafah refugee camps in Gaza. Jihad money to the tune of 33,000. Despite big media's reluctance to publish anything negative about Obama no matter how important and damning, a couple of publications and talk radio hosts picked up on the story-- and Obama responded. Obama and co. claimed the money was returned. Chalk this up to another Obama lie - the money was never returned. Cathy has been combing through the latest filing and reviewing all past documents. Nothing....

LAGOS - Nigeria's anti-corruption police were questioning the head of the stock exchange after she organised a gala dinner in support of Barack Obama's U.S. presidential campaign which raised hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I have been researching, documenting and studying thousands upon thousands of Obama's campaign donations for the past month. Egregious abuse was immediately evident and I published the results of my ongoing investigation. Each subsequent post built a more damning case against Obama's illegal contribution activity. The media took little notice of what I was substantiating. I went so far as to upload the documents so that anyone could do their own research. I asked readers to download the documents and a number of folks pitched in. Despite dropping the groundbreaking bombshell story of "Palestinian" brothers from the Rafah refugee camp...

Carlyle sells off steel group for $3.53bn By Julie MacIntosh in New York Published: August 13 2008 00:24 | Last updated: August 13 2008 00:24 The Carlyle Group agreed on Tuesday to sell John Maneely, a US manufacturer of steel pipes and tubes, to Russian steelmaker Novolipetsk Steel for $3.53bn, culminating a two-year turnround process. Carlyle has voluntarily filed to have the deal reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (Cfius), a panel that seeks to protect certain US national security interests from foreign investment.

An article yesterday, 'Lost Sovereignity, Oil-rich Fund Eyeing Foreclosed US Homes', talked about how foreign money is now moving to scoop up tens of thousands of discounted foreclosed homes across the country. I caught Letterman the other night when Donald Trump was on. He was saying since our dollar is devalued and everything we have is now a world wide bargain, foreigners are buying up all the choice real estate. He admitted he’s inflating prices to get his best deal, and they’re happy to pay it. Today Mike Cutler brought another related story to our attention. We have done several...

In digging deeper into the illegal foreign campaign contributions from Palestinians, Cathy came across these FEC letters. Obama knew these contributions were illegal and "Palestinian". He didn't report them. He took a page from his days as a "commnity organizer" for the most corrupt political machine in America. It's what they do. Bringing the worst in American politics to the national level. It seems the FEC actually did their job. But the chosen One-bama is special and above the law....... he is a citizen of the world.

There's a new land grab starting in America. Foreign money, which up to now has focused its attention on investing in iconic commercial real estate - like Barneys New York and the Chrysler Building - is now moving to scoop up tens of thousands of discounted foreclosed homes across the country....

A Wall Street Journal report brushed off concerns about contributions of more than $30,000 to Sen. Barack Obama campaign from three brothers in Gaza, but the newspaper's readers weren't swallowing the explanation.

WASHINGTON - John McCain's campaign said Thursday it is returning $50,000 in contributions solicited by a foreign citizen. The move follows the disclosure that the money was being raised by a Jordanian man who is a business partner of prominent Florida Republican Harry Sargeant III, who has collected hundreds of thousands of dollars for McCain.

Sen. Barack Obama's campaign has admitted to receiving $33,500 in illegal foreign contributions from three brothers in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, but the left-wing Daily Kos website suggests WND – whose Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein investigated the story – might have concocted a convoluted scheme to make the Illinois senator look bad. The brothers in question – Monir, Hosan and Osama Edwan – spoke on the record about the online donations to the presidential candidate. "It could be true that [donations] were made, but as a part of a deliberate set-up to make Obama look bad. ... Aaron Klein...

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...

Palestinian brothers inside the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip are listed in government election filings as having donated $29,521.54 to Sen. Barack Obama's campaign. The donations would violate election laws, including prohibitions on receiving donations from foreigners and guidelines against accepting more than $2,300 from one individual during a single election, Bob Biersack, a spokesman for the Federal Election Commission, told WND in response to a query. The contributions also raise numerous questions about the Obama campaign's lax online donation form, which apparently allows for the possibility of foreign contributions. Last week, the Atlas Shrugs blog outlined a series of donations in...

Gazan brothers' illicit contributions listed in government campaign filings JERUSALEM – Palestinian brothers inside the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip are listed in government election filings as having donated $29,521.54 to Sen. Barack Obama's campaign. Donations of this nature would violate election laws, including prohibitions on receiving contributions from foreigners and guidelines against accepting more than $2,300 from one individual during a single election, Bob Biersack, a spokesman for the Federal Election Commission, told WND in response to a query. The contributions also raise numerous questions about the Obama campaign's lax online donation form, which apparently allows for the possibility of foreign...

OBAMA DONATION PAGE Since he won't do it, John McCain needs to have surrogates raise hell about the issue of Obama and foreign money online. A fake column, purportedly written by Maureen Dowd, has been discredited. What is interesting is that the column has been discredited, but the information has not. Who is verifying the info from the foreign servers? Although she was probably getting a boatload of money from illegal sources, at least Hillary made the appearance of trying not to take illegal money online. On her website, those not in the U.S. could only donate by mail...

Signaling how they intend to frame their attacks next week against a globe-trotting Barack Obama, John McCain's campaign is suggesting that the Democratic nominee's popularity abroad may not translate well in middle America and that his trip amounts to a foreign photo-opportunity. "I don't know that people in Missouri are going to like seeing tens of thousands of Europeans screaming for The One," quipped a McCain aide, deploying a moniker some in the campaign use to poke fun at Obama's exalted status in certain quarters. McCain is stumping today in Kansas City, Mo. "This isn't about reaching out to allies...

NEW YORK (AFP) - The iconic Chrysler and Flatiron skycrapers may soon join New York's GM Building as landmarks sold in part to Arab or European investors as the weak dollar spurs property grabs in the Big Apple, reports said Friday. The 50-story General Motors Building, constructed in 1968 and which includes the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue, has already been sold -- for a record-breaking 2.8 billion dollars -- to US real estate firm Boston Properties, backed by investors from Dubai, Kuwait and Qatar. The deal, concluded on Tuesday, makes the GM Building the most expensive skyscraper in the...

The latest Big Apple trophy being coveted by oil-rich sovereign wealth funds is the landmark Chrysler Building. Sources say the super-rich Abu Dhabi Investment Council is negotiating an $800 million deal for a 75 percent stake in the Art Deco treasure that has defined the Midtown skyline since 1930. The Chrysler assets would be purchased from TMW - the German arm of an Atlanta-based investment fund that's been eager to cash out of its Chrysler stake. The deal follows last month's sale of the GM Building and three other Macklowe/Equity Portfolio properties for $3.95 billion to a group of investors...

Tax data shows $15 million from partnership with Arab sheik The tax returns released by Bill and Hillary Clinton late Friday reveal $15 million earned in a partnership with billionaire "supermarket czar" investor Ron Burkle and the sheik of Dubai, whose Arab state sparked controversy with a purchase giving it control of 22 American ports. Burkle is widely known as a top "FOB," or "Friend of Bill," whose corporate jet Bill Clinton has used so often the New York Observer claims Clinton has taken to calling it "Air Force Two." The news comes with the disclosure Burkle's Yucaipa Companies...

The Murdoch clan is used to the rest of the media, politicians and the chattering classes trying to decode their political stance and its implications from their public actions. The early signals were that Rupert Murdoch favoured Hillary Clinton in the US presidential election. But yesterday Murdoch-watchers were digesting the news that Elisabeth Murdoch, Rupert's 39-year-old daughter, who runs a large TV production company, will host a London fundraiser for Clinton's rival, Barack Obama, this month. Despite the extensive coverage in the UK media, for high-rolling US expats election fever must seem a long way away. But in the most...

The U.S. Treasury is struggling with how to handle any political or Islamic ramifications as Persian Gulf sovereign wealth funds look to make substantial investments in capital-poor American banks and securities firms. The crisis in mortgage-backed securities has created a need for new capital to enter financial markets after major financial institutions such as Bear Stearns and Carlyle Capital Corp. failed over the weekend. The crisis is an opportunity for sovereign wealth funds that have prospered as the price of oil has soared over $110 a barrel. WND previously reported sovereign wealth funds in six Persian Gulf countries, including Kuwait,...

What happens when you combine a collapsing dollar, America's addiction to oil, a slumping commercial real estate market, tight credit markets, and hopes for revitalization of downtown Los Angeles? You get a situation where the royal family of Dubai plays a major role in shaping the future of Los Angeles. News item: "Armed with $100 million from Dubai and a refined design plan, officials Monday said construction will finally begin next month on the Frank Gehry-designed residential and shopping plaza along Grand Avenue that is considered a linchpin to downtown L.A.'s revitalization." More, from the L.A. Times: "The announcement comes...

Sen. John McCain and his staff have been adamant for days that his upcoming overseas trip to Britain, France and Israel is not political. /snip ...Apparently, though, there will still be room for fundraising. McCain's campaign has sent out an invitation for a March 20 luncheon at Spencer House -- the neo-classical home built for an ancestor of Diana, the late Princess of Wales -- "by kind permission of Lord Rothschild OM GBE and the Hon. Nathaniel Rothschild." The price to attend is $1000 to $2,300. And the dress code for the event? "Lounge suits" -- British for business...

Citigroup, the financial giant that is one of the nation's largest banks and one of New York City's largest private-sector employers, is facing more trouble, with an analyst at Merrill Lynch forecasting an $18 billion write-down in the first quarter for Citi on top of the $18 billion in write-downs the company has already announced.

Mideast sovereign wealth funds may fail to save troubled U.S. banking giant Citigroup Inc. unless more cash is pumped into the lender, the head of a $13 billion Dubai-owned investment firm said Tuesday. Sameer Al Ansari, Chief Executive of Dubai International Capital told delegates at a private equity conference that it will take more than the combined efforts of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the Kuwait Investment Authority and Saudi investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal to save the bank. "It's going to take more than that to rescue Citi," Ansari said. He added that more write downs are expected and...

President Bush said Thursday that he would probably accept foreign donations to build his presidential library in Dallas and would consider keeping the donors’ names confidential if they do not want to be identified. The comments, at a White House news conference, were the first time Mr. Bush had talked in any detail about his plans for the library, which will be at Southern Methodist University, the alma mater of First Lady Laura Bush. But his detail was scant. “We just announced the deal,” he said, “and I, frankly, have been focused elsewhere, like on gasoline prices and, you know,...

A U.S. congressman is asking Georgetown University about its academic scrutiny of Saudi Arabia and its use of $20 million donated by a Saudi prince in 2005. U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) wrote to Georgetown President John DeGioia Thursday, saying he was concerned about how the money was being spent at the university's Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. Of particular concern, Wolf said, was the university's role in training current and prospective U.S. foreign service personnel. "The Saudi government continues to permit textbooks to contain inflammatory language about other religions," Wolf wrote. "Restrictions on civil society and political activists continue to...

  The Wall Street “Sheikh-Up”   By Jonathan SchanzerFrontPageMagazine.com | Friday, February 01, 2008 The stock market is undergoing a dizzying correction. The subprime mortgage mess has forced credit markets to dry up and has hammered U.S. securities. Fears of recession recently sparked one of the worst stock sell-offs in years. But the worst may be yet to come. While Americans are selling their positions in U.S. companies, Middle Easterners flush with petrodollars are aggressively gobbling up these stocks at fire sale prices. Moreover, as American financial institutions report the losses that forced them to deplete their cash reserves,...

Six gulf states control sovereign wealth fund assets of some $1.7 trillion. Here are the men who manage these funds The men who manage the so-called sovereign wealth funds of the Persian Gulf for their governments are quickly becoming some of the world's most powerful money managers. They are using billions from Persian Gulf oil revenues to change the face of global finance by buying big chunks of blue chip companies, partnering with private equity firms to do buyouts, and increasingly snapping up companies on their own. As the credit crisis deepens, investment banks and buyout firms are stepping back...

Petrodollar rich foreign governments buy their way into US board rooms - click the link to watch the video

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is poised once again to save Citigroup Inc., but this time he won't do it alone. The Saudi prince will be joined by other investors including China Development Bank, people familiar with the situation said...... As David Enrich and Robin Sidel report, it isn't clear how much Prince Alwaleed will invest this time; the Chinese entity is expected to invest roughly $2 billion, one person said. Citi is hoping for $8 billion to $10 billion from investors, and will possibly unveil the investments tomorrow......

Dubai is investing $600m in one of the poorest counties in the US to set up a manufacturing and distribution complex that would serve as a major logistical hub for North America. The long-term aim, according to people familiar with the deal, is to take advantage of a new generation of larger merchant ships passing from Asia through the soon to be widened Panama Canal and docking at ports such as Charleston and Savannah, seen as future primary gateways to the US. The project is being handled by Jafza, a unit of the government-owned Dubai World group, which has bought...

Citigroup is putting the final touches to its second big capital-raising effort in as many months, seeking up to $14bn from Chinese, Kuwaiti and public market investors.Under the proposal being discussed, the bulk of the money – roughly $9bn – would be most likely to come from China, people familiar with the negotiations say. The Kuwait Investment Authority would contribute about $1bn, while $2bn to $4bn would be raised through a public placement of shares. The formula is still being adjusted and there could be last-minute changes, the people involved say. It is also possible other investors will participate.The deal...

SHANGHAI (AFP) — Fresh from a five-billion-dollar investment in Morgan Stanley, China's cashed-up government is set to go shopping for more bargains as it takes advantage of the financial turmoil in the United States. China's sovereign wealth fund created global headlines on Wednesday when it seized on Morgan Stanley's credit problems and grabbed a 9.9-percent stake in one of Wall Street's oldest and most storied investment firms. It was the second high-profile foray in the United States by the newly created China Investment Corporation, Beijing's 200-billion-dollar behemoth whose orders are to cruise global markets in search of sweet investment deals....

Morgan Stanley bailed out by Beijing after $9bn write-off Tom Bawden in New York Morgan Stanley became the latest bank to announce a bailout from a foreign government as the Wall Street firm reported the first quarterly loss in its 73-year history yesterday after taking writedowns of $9.4 billion (£4.7 billion) on mortgage-related investments. The writedowns, which took Morgan Stanley to a $3.56 billion fourth-quarter loss, were so severe that the bank was forced to agree a $5 billion cash injection from the Chinese Government to prop up its capital base. The Beijing Government's China Investment Corporation (CIC) will inject...

NEW YORK: Morgan Stanley posted its first quarterly loss ever Wednesday after taking an additional $5.7 billion write-down related to subprime mortgages. The investment bank also said it would sell a $5 billion stake to China Investment Corp., a sovereign wealth fund, to shore up its capital. The sale, which would give the Chinese government a stake of about 9.9 percent in one of Wall Street's biggest investment banks, is the latest example of a foreign investor aiding a Western financial firm after the housing meltdown. Morgan Stanley's fourth-quarter loss of $3.59 billion, or $3.61 a share, was a sharp...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Investment bank Morgan Stanley said Wednesday it sold a portion of itself to China Investment Corp., an investment arm of the Chinese government, for $5 billion to raise capital after taking $9.4 billion in writedowns on mortgage-related investments. Morgan Stanley said the investment will help bolster its capital position and allow it to continue growing its Chinese operations. China Investment will receive equity units that convert into as much as 9.9 percent of Morgan Stanley common stock. The equity units carry a fixed annual payment of 9 percent before converting to shares of common stock Aug....

New York Times Set To Nuke Hillary? Drudge has this below up with no link. But pay attention to the reporter's name: NYT Plans Sunday Exclusive on Questionable Clinton Library donors... Reporter Don Van Natta... Developing... He's a serious award-winning investigative journalist ... and co-author with Jeff Gerth of Her Way: link: Prosecutors later came to believe that Hillary had padded her bills; she "wasn't guilty of [knowingly] facilitating nefarious transactions -- she was guilty of doing less work than she took credit for," Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr. explain in their 2007 biography, Her Way. Hillary...

Bill Clinton's presidential library raised more than 10 percent of the cost of its $165 million facility from foreign sources, with the most generous overseas donation coming from Saudi Arabia, according to interviews yesterday. The royal family of Saudi Arabia gave the Clinton facility in Little Rock about $10 million, roughly the same amount it gave toward the presidential library of George H.W. Bush, according to people directly familiar with the contributions. The presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) has for months faced questions about the source of the money for her husband's presidential library. During a September...

Kennywood Park, the summertime mecca for generations of Pittsburghers in search of thrill rides, arcade games, old-fashioned family fun and gooey cheese fries, was sold yesterday to a Spanish company. Kennywood Entertainment, a West Mifflin-based enterprise since 1898, will be taken over by Parques Reunidos of Madrid, which plans to leave day-to-day operation of the park in local hands. The descendants of F.W. Henninger and A.S. McSwigan, who acquired the park from Pittsburgh Railway Co. in 1906, had been approached by amusement companies in the past about selling the local icon, but have refused. When Premiere Parks, an Oklahoma-based chain,...

Two years ago this month, a Saudi prince caused a media splash — and raised eyebrows — when he donated $20 million each to Georgetown and Harvard universities to fund Islamic studies. Although few details have been released about how the money has been spent, at Georgetown, the money helped pay for a recent symposium on Islamic-Western relations held in the university's Copley Formal Lounge. The event attracted about 120 persons: students, Catholic priests, men in business suits and several women in colorful head scarves who all came to hear religion experts from several American universities, as well as from...

By agreeing to purchasing a $7.5 billion stake in the faltering banking giant Citigroup, the secretive, government-controlled Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is breaking with tradition. As the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world, with assets estimated at $650 billion, it poured money in the past into low-return, low-profile investments or small emerging market deals, unlike its flashy emirate neighbor, Dubai. But a falling dollar and a growing cash pile are spurring Abu Dhabi to change strategy, according to analysts, economists and deal makers, who said that more big-ticket deals might be ahead. snip Abu Dhabi is the largest oil...

Citigroup Inc., seeking to restore investor confidence amid massive losses due in credit markets and a lack of permanent leadership, is receiving a $7.5 billion capital infusion from the investment arm of the Abu Dhabi government. The investment by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority will help rebuild Citigroup's capital levels, which have been eroded by a credit crunch that began in the summer. Citigroup Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Charles Prince resigned earlier this month after the bank, which had already written off billions of dollars, said it was facing as much as $11 billion more in losses.