194 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized BiographyThe pecuniary rewards for Obama and his fellow racketeers were most gratifying, but the impact
on Chicago and Illinois was devastating. The Combine was a cancer so big that it was beginning to
drain the life blood of its host, causing a gradual strangulation of the real economy:
Illinois citizens are sick of paying the cost of corruption. A September 26, 2007 news release by
Steve Stanek of the Heartland Institute carried the headline: “Proposed Tax Hike Would Give
Chicago Nation’s Highest Sales Tax Burden” “Chicagoans would face an 11 percent sales tax
rate, highest in the nation, if Cook County officials go through with a plan to more than triple
the county’s portion of the area’s sales tax,” Stanek wrote. And let there be no doubt, Obama is
a member of this corrupt gang. On January 22, 2007 ABC News in Chicago announced that
Senator Obama “is supporting Mayor Daley’s re-election bid despite a series of City Hall
corruption scandals.” (Evelyn Pringle, opednews.com)NADHMI AUCHI, PARTNER OF REZKO – AND BARKY?
Obama’s second Levantine godfather is the British billionaire Auchi, whose front company,
General Mediterranean Holdings (GMH), is now the owner of some prime Chicago real estate,
thanks to his close relations with the Illinois Combine. This is
Nadhmi Auchi, who ended up with Riverside Park, a 62-acre lot in the Chicago Loop estimated
to now be worth $2.5 billion. On September 29, 2005, Crain’s Chicago Business news reported
that General Mediterranean Holding, “a Luxembourg-based conglomerate headed by Nadhmi
Auchi, is buying Riverside Park, a yet-to-be-built development on a prime 62-acre parcel on
Roosevelt Road,” ... General Mediterranean is owned by Nadhmi Auchi, who public source
documents describe as a British-based Iraqi billionaire who was convicted several years ago in
France on fraud charges. Auchi was sentenced to 15 months in prison and fined $2 million
euros, but the sentence was suspended as long as Auchi committed no new crimes.... Auchi’s
conviction was a part of the gigantic investigation into the corruption of the Elf oil company,
“the biggest fraud inquiry in Europe since the Second World War. Elf became a private bank
for its executives who spent £200 million on political favours, mistresses, jewelry, fine art,
villas and apartments,” according to the November 16, 2003 Guardian. (Evelyn Pringle,
opednews.com)
Auchi and Alsammarae both have their pied-à-terre in Chicago; Alsammarae, in fact, has three:
“The three homes belonging to former Iraqi Electricity Minister Aiham Alsammarae — a dual
U.S.-Iraqi citizen who broke out of a Baghdad jail in 2006 — are part of a long list made public
... following a Sun-Times request.” “Alsammarae is the weakest link in the chain of people who
stole money from the CPA and the Iraqi people since 2003. The evidence against him is strong
and convincing. His conviction is a problem for the people in his gang. The Baathists.” (Evelyn
Pringle, opednews.com)There is little doubt that a serious probe of Chicago real estate and public housing graft would
reach all the way up to Mayor Richard Daley and beyond: Pringle has demanded that ‘an
“Operation Board Games” investigation should be conducted on the slumlord business in Illinois
over the past 15 years. Daley became Mayor in 1989 and Rezmar got its first city loan of $629,000
the same year, even though Rezko and Mahru had no construction experience.’ (Evelyn Pringle,
opednews.com)