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Barack Obama appears to have personally benefited from funds originating in Saddam Hussein's regime. It's a complicated connection, but one that deserves the consideration of Americans voters. Two similar figures, Nadhmi Auchi and Antoin S. "Tony" Rezko, served as the intermediaries. Both are Middle Eastern males of Catholic Christian heritage who left Baathist dictatorships for Western cities (Auchi from Iraq to London, Rezko from Syria to Chicago). Both became successful businessmen who hobnobbed with politicians and promoted Arab interests. Both have been convicted of taking kickbacks and both stand accused of other shady dealings. Auchi, born in 1937, is the...

The brilliant people at Wikileaks have produced a very useful collection of articles about stories removed from media websites following legal threats from an Iraqi billionaire The British-based Iraqi billionaire Nadhmi Auchi has become a highly controversial figure in the United States after being linked to Chicago-based businessman Tony Rezko - the weak link in the Obama campaign. The freedom of information site Wikileaks has now published some fascinating material about Auchi's attempts to stop people writing about him. Auchi was convicted of fraud by the French courts in 2003 for his involvement in illegal payments surrounding a deal he...

“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...

I've searched around FR a bit looking for anyone asking this question, but haven't found one. Admin, feel free to lock this if I've missed an obvious one. With Russia back to the saber-rattling ways of old, I'm hearing rumbles that some people are re-thinking their presidential vote because they don't think Obama will stand up to the Cold-War type intimidation that the Russians seem to be going back to. I'm hearing some are saying they'll vote McCain because they would rather have him at the helm if a new Cold War with Russia is possibly coming. Any thoughts?

CHICAGO (AP) -- A mysterious billionaire with his hands on a major chunk of Chicago real estate and at least passing familiarity with some of Illinois' top politicians has surfaced in the federal fraud trial of political fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko. Nadhmi Auchi, the world's 279th richest person on the Forbes magazine list, is the founder and CEO of Luxembourg-based General Mediterranean Holdings. He presides over a business empire that stretches from the shores of the Red Sea through Russia, western Europe and North America. The company boasts investments in banking and finance, hotels, aviation, pharmaceuticals and real estate --...

The United Nations' Cash for Kim Jong Il scandal is now six months old, so it's a good time to assess progress, if that's the right word. The evidence of misdeeds at the U.N. Development Program in North Korea continues to mount, but there's still no "urgent" and "external" inquiry, as ordered by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in January. Now the U.S. has uncovered evidence that in addition to transferring millions of dollars in cash that may have gone to help prop up Kim's grotesque regime, the UNDP also transferred dual-use technology. It did so without bothering to secure a U.S....

The system allowed individuals and companies to use Iraq's UN-controlled oil-for-food programme to purchase Iraqi oil at concessionary prices and resell it, splitting their huge profits with Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi leader. Under the programme, the Iraqi regime had to sell its oil under international supervision but could choose its own middlemen. Those intermediaries, invariably sympathetic to Saddam and his money, paid for the oil into a United Nations account at prices agreed by Baghdad. That money was in turn used by the UN to buy food, medical supplies and other essential goods for Iraq. The purpose of the system...

George W Bush yesterday said that the execution of Saddam Hussein bore the hallmarks of a sectarian "revenge killing", in his most critical assessment of the hanging of the former dictator. The US President criticised the circumstances surrounding Saddam's death and the recent execution of two top aides, including Saddam's half brother, Barzan al-Tikriti, for their roles in the massacre of 148 Shia men in Dujail in 1982. "I was disappointed and felt like they fumbled the – particularly the Saddam Hussein execution," Mr Bush said in an interview by public broadcast television's Jim Lehrer. "The message is confusing. It...

PARIS, France (Reuters) -- French oil major Total SA's head of exploration and production Christophe de Margerie is being investigated by a French judge in a probe related to the scandal-plagued U.N. oil-for-food programme in Iraq. Margerie, who is due to succeed Thierry Desmarest as chief executive, was put under formal investigation by a French judge on Thursday after being held in custody for 48 hours in Paris and then released. In a statement released on Total's Web site on Thursday night the group said it would like to "reassure Mr de Margerie of its total support". Citigroup analysts said...

FBI agents yesterday raided the suburban Detroit headquarters of LIFE for Relief and Development (LRD), the largest Islamic charity in the country. I first wrote about the group for The Post in 2003. Back then, FBI Director Robert Mueller was set to give an award to Imad Hamad, who heads the Midwest chapter of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC). But, after my Post article pointed out that Hamad was a subject in over a dozen terrorism-related investigations, the FBI revoked the award. One of those investigations concerned Hamad's close ties to LRD. Both the FBI and the then-U.S. Customs...

Saddam Hussein’s regime paid millions of dollars to a South Korean businessman to create a “secret backchannel” to top UN officials, including Boutros Boutros Ghali, then the UN Secretary-General, US prosecutors alleged today. The claim, formally naming Dr Boutros Ghali for the first time, was made at the start of the first US trial over the UN’s Oil-for-Food scandal. Prosecutors said that Tongsun Park received $2.5 million (£1.4 million) in cash plus promises of lucrative business deals in return for providing access to Dr Boutros Ghali and at least one other top UN official. “Tongsun Park has access at the...

The US Senate is looking into allegations that a former US senator urged Baghdad to give a US company lucrative contracts under the much-criticised United Nations oil-for-food programme. This is the first time that a leading US lawmaker has been linked to the controversial UN programme, whose shortcomings have been an important element of the Bush administration's critique of the UN. The investigation involves one of the most vivid figures in US east coast politics, former senator Robert Torricelli, a New Jersey Democrat who was forced to pull out of the 2002 election after being "severely admonished" by the Senate...

McDermott Files Appeal in Taped Call Case By MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press Writer 8 minutes ago Rep. Jim McDermott (news, bio, voting record) on Wednesday asked a full nine-member appeals court to hear an appeal of a case involving an illegally taped telephone call that was leaked to reporters nearly a decade ago. A three-judge appeals court panel ruled last month that McDermott, D-Wash., violated federal law by giving the news media a tape recording of a 1996 call involving then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga. The 2-1 opinion, by judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of...

The latest quip accusation that the United States "rushed to war" with Saddam's Iraq conveniently ignores 12 years of combat, terror and crime. Perhaps The Slow War -- Saddam's war against the U.N.-mandated sanctions and inspections regimen that halted Operation Desert Storm -- has slipped from public historical memory. It shouldn't, for The Slow War is the long, violent bridge connecting Desert Storm to Operation Iraqi Freedom. From March 1991 to March 2003, Saddam fought The Slow War savvily and savagely, utilizing an array of political, military and economic ploys. Moreover, by early 2003, Saddam believed he was winning. The...

U.S. Government Releases Papers From Saddam's Reign March 16, 2006 — Following are the ABC News Investigative Unit's summaries of four of the nine Iraqi documents from Saddam Hussein's government, which were released by the U.S. government Wednesday. The documents discuss Osama bin Laden, weapons of mass destruction, al Qaeda and more. The full documents can be found on the U.S. Army Foreign Military Studies Office Web site: http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/products-docex.htm.Note: Document titles were added by ABC News. "Osama bin Laden and the Taliban" Document dated Sept. 15, 2001An Iraqi intelligence service document saying that their Afghani informant, who's only identified by a...

A draft congressional report has called for the investigation of Canadian Maurice Strong’s role in the United Nations Oil-for-Food program. Page 35 of the 54-page report, written by Republicans on a House International Relations subcommittee states: "Maurice Strong should be examined for his role in the OFFP." Strong is a long-time advisor to both UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and to Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin. On Sept. 7, 2005 it was revealed by the Independent Inquiry into the Oil-for-Food scandal that Strong had received a $1-million cheque from North Korean lobbyist Tongsun Park for the acquisition of shares in Cordex...

UPDATE 1-UK's Galloway in row over "Big Brother" TV show (Adds Fitzpatrick quote, para 7) By Kate Holton LONDON, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Maverick British parliamentarian George Galloway, who famously attacked the war in Iraq during a feisty performance in the U.S. Senate, is at the centre of a new row. The flamboyant politician is currently taking part in the reality television show "Celebrity Big Brother," for which he is locked in a camera-filled house with, among others, a glamour model, former basketball player Dennis Rodman, and a singer called Maggot. And some of his London constituents are not happy....

FBI arrests businessman in UN oil-for-food scandal Philip Sherwell in Washington (Filed: 08/01/2006) A South Korean businessman accused of receiving millions of dollars from Saddam Hussein's regime to bribe top United Nations officials over the controversial oil-for-food programme has been arrested by FBI agents in Houston, Texas. Tongsun Park is expected to co-operate with the US authorities in a deal that could throw fresh light on rampant corruption surrounding the UN-administered programme. The indictment, released on Friday, refers to attempts to buy the influence of two unnamed UN officials. A separate investigation - led by Paul Volcker, a former Federal...

Mon Dec 5, 5:32 AM ET NEW DELHI (AFP) - India's opposition piled pressure on the government in parliament over new charges that the former foreign minister and the ruling Congress party joined a scam to profit from the UN oil-for-food programme in Iraq. ADVERTISEMENT Trouble erupted within minutes of parliament assembling as MPs belonging to the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) jumped to their feet to demand the resignation of ex-foreign minister Natwar Singh, now serving as cabinet minister without portfolio. Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said the opposition could discuss later the new charges that Singh and the Congress...

NIGERGATE: Connections between members of the UN Inquiry Committee into the Oil-for-food program, the Rockefeller Group and the French. As promised some elements that the “radar missed”. Once again the Italian newspaper Il Giornale offers some fascinating insight into the less discussed aspects of the Nigergate affair. In addition I’ve posted a HIGHLY SIMPLIFIED chart mapping A PART of the links between members of the UN Oil-for-food Inquiry, the Rockefeller Group AND THE FRENCH. Is it perhaps because of these ties that France despite having been in possession of the false documents since the fall of 2000, despite only having...