Free Republic

Last July, two Chicago Sun-Times reporters noted an allegation of "payments made by Rezko to Obama" that surfaced in a deposition involving former Rezko business partner Daniel T. Frawley. Since then, the only follow-up coverage from the Sun-Times has been the sound of crickets. An article dated July 11, 2011, entitled "Ex-Rezko partner's sentencing delayed," announced that Daniel Frawley's sentencing for bank fraud had been postponed, yet again. He came up for sentencing again this week, and -- surprise! -- there's been another postponement. So, how were Frawley and Rezko business partners? It started when Ayham al-Samaraie, an Iraqi-American, college...

A judge has delayed sentencing for Antoin “Tony” Rezko, a top fundraiser and adviser to disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Rezko, convicted on corruption charges, was scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 21. But prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve to move the sentencing because another corruption trial connected to the Blagojevich administration starts this week – and includes allegations of an extortion plot involving Rezko. Prosecutors most directly involved in the Rezko sentencing are also handling the prosecution of William Cellini, a Springfield powerbroker whose trial on charges including attempted extortion and fraud starts this morning. In...

I highly doubt Donald Trump is presidential material, but he sure makes for one great Republican attack dog. Finally a celebrity big enough to get the attention of Americans outside of the conservative community is speaking out against Obama’s shady past. After once again raising legitimate concerns over Obama’s sham “birth certificate” during an appearance on the Fax News program Hannity, Trump expressed alarm over Obama’s real estate dealings with convicted Chicago influence peddler Antoin “Tony” Rezco. For those of you who still haven’t heard, Obama’s Chicago home that he bought in 2005 was located on a property split into...

Tomorrow, there will be a meeting between two guys who helped crooked developer Tony Rezko get his hands on millions of dollars. Democrats Barack Obama and Alexi Giannoulias probably won’t talk about their old pal, convicted and now in federal custody, when they meet for tomorrow’s fundraiser to support Giannoulias’ campaign for U.S. Senate. But people who know about Obama’s career in Illinois politics will probably make the connection for themselves. Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/rezkos-pals-reunite-tomorrow-at-fundraiser-99951869.html#ixzz0vjgk6PF7

President Obama has thrown his political weight behind Chicago mob banker and basketball buddy, Alexi Giannoulias, in a brazen attempt to help elect one of the sleaziest Democrat politicians around to his old Illinois Senate seat. Last week Obama man David Plouffe held a conference call with reporters to reinforce that Obama was “all in” with his support for Illinois State Treasurer Giannoulias over Republican challenger Rep. Mark Kirk. While Plouffe spent much of his time bashing Kirk, “Congressman Kirk has shown himself to be a fan of fiction’‘, there was no mention of Giannoulias’ approval of $20 million in...

The best prophet of the future is the past. ~ John Sherman Phyllis Schlafly wrote a great article in Investors recently. It makes the point that the woes of America are not different from the woes the Obama machine visited upon Illinois. In basketball it's called continuation. Americans are beginning to wonder if Greece is the picture of the U.S.' future. But we need look no further than the place where Obama and his team were trained in community organizing and bully tactics to redistribute the wealth: Illinois. Illinois was the stomping ground for years for Obama, his top advisers...

Why is Antoin “Tony” Rezko under lock and key at an undisclosed location, like some sort of CIA-renditioned al Qaeda operative? And why hasn’t he been sentenced yet? As the June 3 corruption trial of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich for allegedly trying to sell Obama’s former Illinois Senate seat approaches, the whereabouts of the former Blago and Obama fundraiser is literally a state secret. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Rezko was moved from Chicago’s downtown Metropolitan Correctional Center on December 16th, even though it’s right across the street from the federal courthouse where Blago will be tried. Rezko’s not...

Investigators are trying to determine whether a San Diego sailor passed Navy secrets about security weaknesses and warship movements to a British man accused of having terrorist links, according to court documents unsealed yesterday. E-mail messages from the unnamed sailor, sent in late 2000 and 2001 before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, were found in December in computer files belonging to Babar Ahmad, who was detained Wednesday in London, according to the 31-page arrest affidavit. The computer files contained details about security arrangements and movements of the San Diego-based Constellation carrier battle group, which included the destroyer Benfold, on which...

Posterboard is up on screen showing translations of what Saddam and Tariq Aziz said on the tapes released this weekend at the Intelligence Summit. It sounds like former UN inspector Tierney is the one reading the translations.

Dr. Eric Whitaker and Sen. Barack Obama go way back. Their friendship began when they were graduate students at Harvard University. Now, Whitaker is one of Obama's closest advisers. Whitaker, 43, of Chicago, often travels with the presidential hopeful on the campaign trail and has vacationed with him in Hawaii. There's talk Whitaker could be in line for a federal appointment if Obama becomes president. Five years ago, Obama, then an Illinois state senator, gave a "glowing'' reference for Whitaker to Tony Rezko, the now-convicted political fixer who helped Gov. Blagojevich find people to run state agencies. Blagojevich hired Whitaker...

According to the linked page: "Unnamed freelance journalist has the goods on Obama and Rezko"

Since arresting Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has renewed interest in convicted fundraiser Tony Rezko's part in the purchase of Barack Obama's Chicago mansion, according to a former real estate analyst who says he was interviewed by the federal prosecutor in the past 10 days. Kenneth J. Conner told WND he was interviewed by investigators from Fitzgerald's office regarding the purchase of the Obama mansion and the adjacent vacant lot that Rezko's wife, Rita, purchased simultaneously. As WND reported last week, Connor filed a civil complaint in October with the Illinois Circuit Court in Cook County alleging...

The sentencing of former Democratic National Committee fund-raiser Joseph Cari Jr. has been delayed at the request of prosecutors. It's a sign the feds want to use Cari as a witness -- again. Cari, who has admitted guilt in a corruption case, is a former campaign fund-raiser for Vice President-elect Joe Biden, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton and Gov. Blagojevich. He was supposed to be sentenced months ago, after he testified against Tony Rezko, the former fund-raiser for Blagojevich and President-elect Barack Obama. But that was put off, and no new date has been set. At Rezko's trial, Cari testified that...

Jarrett Managed Housing Project Deemed "Uninhabitable" Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained documents linking Valerie Jarrett, an advisor to Barack Obama and the co-chairman of the President-Elect's transition team, to a series of real estate scandals, including several housing projects operated by convicted felon and Obama fundraiser/friend Antoin "Tony" Rezko. According to the documents obtained by Judicial Watch from the Illinois Secretary of State, Valerie Jarrett served as a board member for several organizations that provided funding and support for Chicago housing projects operated by real estate developers...

Ever heard of Nahmdi Auchi? Mr. Auchi was the financier for long-time Barak Obama friend and fund-raiser Tony Rezko. Mr. Auchi is the cousin of Saddam Hussein and his co-conspirator in the 1959 failed assassination attempt of the Iraqi Prime Minister. Although he eventually left Iraq in 1981 and became a British citizen, Auchi prospered mightily under Saddam, becoming a billionaire and pillar of British society (He ranks 279 on the Forbes list of the richest people) He was convicted of committing fraud in France in 2004 (only had to pay a fine) and has been barred from entering the...

“I first began to fathom the extent of Nadhmi Auchi's reach and corrupting influence when I was given responsibility for monitoring illegal transfers of technology and munitions to Iraq as well as overseeing all coalition transportation and communications reconstruction in Iraq." ### Barack Obama has been appropriately strident in his condemnation of the mortgage-based financial corruption which nearly led to the collapse of the investment banking system in the United States. But there are some strong smelling financial skeletons in his own closet. Obama has his own personal housing crisis that is tied not into Fanny Mae, but into a...

Islamic leaders tied by federal investigators to the radical Muslim Brotherhood in America – including one under active investigation for alleged terror-financing – have recently donated to Sen. Barack Obama's campaign for president, according to Federal Election Commission records reviewed by WND. Jamal M. Barzinji earlier this year gave Obama $1,000, a gift that records show has not been returned. Other Democratic candidates, including Rep. Jim Moran, have refunded donations from Barzinji since federal agents raided his Virginia home and offices in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Obama's top Muslim adviser resigned earlier this month over controversy surrounding his...

FBI asked questions on Rezko land deal Value at issue, appraiser says A former Illinois real estate specialist says FBI agents have questioned him about a Chicago property that had been bought by convicted felon Tony Rezko's wife and later sold to the couple's next-door neighbor, Sen. Barack Obama.

Prominent ex-Chicago alderman to plead guilty U.S. District Judge Milton Shadur made the announcement just as the trial of former alderman Edward Vrdolyak's (ver-DOHL'-yakz) was to begin Monday morning. The one-time Cook County Democratic chairman is accused of arranging to get a kickback for a lawyer in the sale of a piece of property for $15 million. The charges stem from the same investigation that led to the fraud conviction of influence peddler Tony Rezko, the political fundraiser who helped to bankroll the campaigns of Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Sen. Barack Obama.

One watches with dismay as Democratic candidate Barack Obama manages to hide the truth on his longstanding, if indirect ties to two institutions: the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), listed by the US government in 2007 as an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas-funding trial; and the Nation of Islam (NoI), condemned by the Anti-Defamation League for its "consistent record of racism and anti-Semitism." First, Obama's ties to Islamists: • The Khalid al-Mansour connection: According to former Manhattan Borough president Percy Sutton, Mansour "was raising money for" Obama's expenses at Harvard Law School. Mansour, a black American (né Don Warden), became...

REZKO/OBAMA SCANDAL Brings Lawsuit Remember that little land deal "Favor" that Tony Rezko did for his friend Barack (Don't Say My Middle Name) Obama. As you can see from this google earth picture. It wasn't an adjacent "undeveloped lot" it was for OBAMA'S BACKYARD. A former bank officer involved in the loan for the property says that the appraisal was tampered with, before the property was purchased and he was fired for complaining about the integrity of the loan due to the funky appraisal: Complaint hits Rezko land deal Jerry Seper A former Illinois bank official, now claiming whistleblower status,...

WASHINGTON -- Convicted felon Tony Rezko. Unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers. And the race-baiting Rev. Jeremiah Wright. It is hard to think of any presidential candidate before Barack Obama sporting associations with three more execrable characters. Yet let the McCain campaign raise the issue, and the mainstream media begin fulminating about dirty campaigning tinged with racism and McCarthyite guilt by association. But associations are important. They provide a significant insight into character. They are particularly relevant in relation to a potential president as new, unknown, opaque and self-contained as Obama. With the economy overshadowing everything, it may be too late politically...

I received a call from one of the leading members of my congregation. His teenage son had gone on an outing with friends to the beach. One of the young men in the car asked him to stop at the local AM/PM Mini-mart in order to buy a bag of ice. On the way out the door, the young man picked up a carton of beer and, upon entering the car said to my friend’s son, “Let’s get out of here. Step on it!” Not knowing what was happening, he complied. That evening my friend’s son had been arrested for...

Much has been made in this election about John McCain’s judgment. Whether it was suspending his campaign, selecting Sarah Palin as his running mate, or keeping Sarah Palin from the media for a while. So let us talk about judgment. I turn to the junior Senator from Illinois. Mr. Obama has spent considerable time defending his associations with Rezco, Ayers, et al as innocent. Perhaps, they were in fact innocent associations. Perhaps Mr. Obama is the proverbial babe in the woods, who looked into their eyes and saw their souls. But that leaves one lingering question. Were these associations sensible?...

Subversives for Obama Friday, 26th September 2008 There are two American election campaigns currently running. The first, in the mainstream media, accepts Barack Obama at face value, no questions asked, while it viciously turns over Sarah Palin and her family whom it subjects to lies, smears and character assassination. The second, being conducted in the blogosphere and (with one or two notable exceptions such as the Wall Street Journal) not alluded to at all by the mainstream media, is the site of verbal warfare between Camp Obama and bloggers who are practising journalism as it used to be practised –...

OBAMA's STRANGE BEDFELLOWS TONY REZCO, REV WRIGHT, BILL AYERS, RASHID KHALIDI, REV MEEKS, FRANK DAVIS MARSHALL, ACORN, FATHER PFLEGER, GEORGE SOROS Get to know the people the man one step away from the most powerful job in the world calls FRIEND, MENTOR, SPIRITUAL ADVISORS!!!!

CHICAGO — Antoin Rezko, an entrepreneur of considerable charm who found riches in fast food and real estate, is known around Chicago as a collector of politicians. Back in the 1990s, Mr. Rezko’s office was adorned with framed photos of candidates he viewed as up-and-comers. Among them was Barack [Hussein] Obama...