V. Obama’s Heart of Darkness: Rezko, Auchi, Alsammarae, and Chicago Graft 197payment and the house purchase, along with the purchase of land next door by Mr. Rezko's wife
Rita from the same seller, raise questions about whether Auchi helped buy the house. Bill Burton, a
spokesman for Mr. Obama, would not answer when asked if Auchi helped buy the senator's house.
He said the senator did not recall ever meeting Auchi, who was convicted of corruption charges in
France in 2003. A 2004 Pentagon report obtained by The Washington Times identified Auchi as a
global arms dealer and Iraqi billionaire... The report to the Pentagon inspector general stated that
"significant and credible evidence was developed that a conspiracy was organized by Nadhmi
Auchi to offer bribes to 'fix' the awarding of cellular licensing contracts covering three geographic
areas of Iraq” under the U.S. Coalition Provisional Authority.”
“Additionally, significant and credible evidence has been developed that Nadhmi Auchi has
engaged in unlawful activities working closely with Iraqi intelligence operatives to:
“Bribe foreign governments and individuals prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom to turn opinion
against the American-led mission to remove Saddam Hussein.
“Arrange for significant theft from the U.N. Oil-for-Food Program to smuggle weapons and
dual-use technology into Iraq ....
“Organize an elaborate scheme to take over and control the post-war cellular phone system in
Iraq.”
The report suggests Auchi has ties to British intelligence through a 2002 association with a
former British intelligence chief, and that British telecommunications companies may have used
Auchi to gain access to cellular phone markets in post-invasion Iraq. Auchi has denied accusations
over the cell phone contract.’^78
In a clear attempt to undermine free speech and the protections guaranteed to Americans by the
First Amendment, Alasdair Pepper of the British law firm Carter-Ruck has been busy attempting to
intimidate American web sites into taking down material deemed offensive by Auchi. Evelyn
Pringle is one writer who has received such threatening communications. This amounts to an
attempt to take down the First Amendment and impose the alien, British concept of libel, which
tends to protect powerful or wealthy public figures from criticism, thus chilling political debate. The
Obama campaign has been a direct beneficiary of the resulting suppression of news about Auchi.
Pro-Obama news organs like the New York Times have tacitly cooperated with these activities,
willingly weakening free speech to get their candidate elected^79.
THE OBAMA-ALSAMMARAE MUTUAL AID SOCIETY
Alsammarae, a convicted felon in Iraq and an international fugitive, has contributed to Obama’s
presidential campaign, and also helped pay the bail necessary to spring Rezko from the cooler.
Obama reciprocated by doing favors for Alsammarae:
Three days after the Chicago Sun-Times reported that Aiham Alsammarae, the former
electricity minister convicted of corruption in Iraq, put up $2.7 million in property to help raise
$8.5 million to free Tony Rezko from jail in Chicago, the Times reported that Alsammarae had
contributed six times to Obama’s presidential campaign. The April 29, 2008 report also noted
that before he escaped from jail in Baghdad in December 2006, and returned to Chicago,
Obama’s US Senate office had sought information about Alsammarae from the State
Department on October 16, 2006 on behalf of Alsammarae’s family while he was being held in
jail in Iraq. As usual, when busted on the contributions given in January, February and March
[2008], the Obama camp said it would donate Alsammarae’s money to charity and his