"On the morning of September 11, 2001, "in the plush setting of the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Washington, DC, the Carlyle Group was holding its annual international investor conference. Frank Carlucci, James Baker III, David Rubenstein, William Conway, and Dan D'Aniellow were together, along with a host of former world leaders, former defense experts, wealthy Arabs from the Middle East, and major international investors as the terror played out on television.
"There with them, looking after the investments of his family was Shafiq bin Laden, Osama bin Laden's estranged half-brother. George Bush Sr. was also at the conference, but Carlyle's spokesperson says the former president left before the terror attacks.
"In any circumstance, a confluence of such politically complex and globally connected people would have been curious, even newsworthy. But in the context of the terrorist attacks being waged against the United States by a group of Saudi nationals led by Osama bin Laden, the group assembled at the Ritz-Carlton that day was a disconcerting and freakish coincidence."
Kjellander and Cellini have not been indicted - yet. When prosecutors filed a proffer with the court outlining the evidence to be used at trial they made it known that they did not intend to call several co-schemers to testify, including Cellini. Resko's attorneys then filed a brief seeking to exclude the statements attributed to Cellini and others, on the basis that they would not be called as witnesses and in Cellini's case, he had never even been interviewed by prosecutors.
However, in a response brief, the government asserted that, Cellini "participated in a number of corrupt aspects of the scheme" and "there are many other explanations that can account for the failure to charge or interview an individual other than innocence."
On February 19, 2008, US District Judge Amy St Eve issued an order denying the request to exclude statements by Cellini and said the government has submitted enough evidence to corroborate the contention that "Co-Schemer A [Cellini] was "an integral player" in the scheme."
Rezko is widely known to be a bipartisan influence peddler. During his opening statement, Rezko's lead defense attorney, Joseph Duffy, told the jury that Rezko raised money for Democrats and Republicans alike, such as former Cook County Board President, John Stroger, and Representative Luis Gutierrez, Democrats, and former Governor Jim Edgar, a Republican, along with current Governor Rod Blagojevich and Obama, both Democrats.
Duffy told the jurors that Rezko "met Barack Obama when he was in Harvard Law School and tried to hire him" to be the lawyer for his development company. During 2003 and 2004, he said, Rezko helped organize fundraisers for both President Bush and Obama
Persons who have avoided trial in the Board Games case by pleading guilty to corruption charges include the government's star witness, Stewart Levine, a Chicago businessman who had been a major fundraiser for Republicans in Illinois for decades, including Bush.
Levine was the first defendant nailed in the Board Games investigation. The FBI confronted him four years ago on May 20, 2004, and although he was cooperating with the Feds for some time, he did not enter an official guilty plea until October 2006.
Defendants who pleaded guilty as early as September 2005, include Chicago attorney, Steve Loren, a lawyer for the teacher's retirement pension fund, Joseph Cari, an attorney and former finance chairman for the national Democratic National Committee, and Jacob Kiferbaum, owner of a Chicago area construction company.
Several other people listed in the indictments are testifying under a grant of immunity from prosecution. The jury has been made aware that if the people who have pleaded guilty or been granted immunity are caught lying under oath in court, all deals are off.
On October 11, 2006, the US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Patrick Fitzgerald, issued a press release to finally announce the unsealing of two indictments charging "Chicago area businessman and political fundraiser Antoin Rezko in connection with two separate and extensive fraud schemes."
The press release noted that Rezko, "who, in addition to owning pizza and fast food restaurant franchises in Illinois and Wisconsin, developed real estate and was involved in political fund-raising in Illinois, was added as a new defendant in a pending federal corruption case that was brought against Levine and others last year."
The first indictment alleged that Rezko participated in a scheme to obtain millions of dollars by shaking down firms doing business before two Illinois regulatory boards, the Teachers Retirement System (TRS) and the Hospital Facilities Planning Board, on which Levine served. In the press release, Fitzgerald stated:
"This indictment describes a frenzy of corrupt scheming, particularly in April and May 2004, in which political insiders sought to manipulate the activities of two state boards to fleece investment firms and individuals. The defendants and their associates put the word out loud and clear: you have to pay to play in Illinois."
This material is apparently from a website called countercurrents.com. This site lacks an “About Us” type self-descriptive page and research via Google et al. failed to turn up much about it. The site provides links to other sites that it calls progressive. And that’s about it. I can’t say it’s impossible to get more facts about this site, but it’s fair to say that research by a fairly sophisticated surfer failed to do so. “Evelyn Pringle is a columnist for Independent Media TV and an investigative journalist focused on government corruption,” according to the site bushwatch.com. She apparently presides over a blog called “The Smirking Chimp.” About her qualifications, sources, and research methods, I can find little or nothing. I’m not saying this discredits her out of hand, but when she posts an 11-page effusion that is merely part one of a two-part article that is, in turn, part of a three-part series, and is dotted with purple prose (“cesspool of corruption,” “a story that is destined to become the biggest political scandal of the decade,” etc. etc. etc.) it’s fair to ask for her credentials as an investigative journalist and her sources for all these dire revelations. So, fellow readers, if you can supply information about Ms. Pringle and corroboration of her accusations, please help all of us out; or perhaps she herself can give us a reassuring CV and persuasive documentation. Until then, Caveat Lector.
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Jim Stinson (8 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 59 comments)
on Friday, April 18, 2008 at 7:40:36 PM
I come from 22 years of living and working in Chicagoland. Obviously, Ms. Pringle's long articles are not taken from the work of the BGA. I could go back to the election of Kennedy over Nixon, when I did live in the area. Or I could think back to the election of Carter, when we were about to retire. In any case, it seems irrelevant to pin all hopes on discrediting Obama by pointing out what most recognize as "Chicago politics." I looked at a couple of the articles and decided their purpose was to criticize Obama through guilt by association. If the writer cares to respond to me, please include in your response whether you read Obama's first book.
I would not have commented here, except that I feel betrayed that a member of OpEdNews would give such a short bio and then proceed to promote an 11-segment dissertation. Please also check out my bio. I'm a lifelong Democrat, during ups and downs. I want the next president to be a Democrat, whether Clinton or Obama. That's who I am.
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Margaret Bassett (21 articles, 1364 quicklinks, 28 diaries, 824 comments)
on Saturday, April 19, 2008 at 9:27:34 AM
Obama's plan to bring transparency into the govt, and his refusal to accept federal lobbyist money is upsetting the apple cart for:
the moronic mainstream media composed of brainless talking heads and plasticized beauty queens,
the top 1% wealthiest in the US,
the most powerful war profiteers,
the drug and insurance companies.
All of this manufactured whispering campain is coming solely from those sources.
The problem: This is 2008, we have the internet, and we are sick, tired, we're NOT STUPID, we don't have health insurance, we have an illegal war thanks to these monsters and we are fracking bitter.
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Laura Roslin (5 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 32 comments)
on Saturday, April 19, 2008 at 10:56:08 AM
“He told the jury about a conversation he had with Blagojevich himself in 2003, in which Blagojevich told him that it would be easer for him to raise money then a senator because now that he was governor, Blagojevich had the power to hand out contracts and state business to people who contributed to his campaign.”
This statement, along with others, erodes your credibility.Obama was not the Illinois senator at the time (2003) and, in fact, was still campaigning for the position.At the time Obama himself did not know that he would be “a senator”.How then, did Blagojevich know this and why did he have a need to use this as an argument for funding?What “senator” was Blagojevich referring to here??Obama’s bid for the presidency was not formed until after the national recognition he garnered from his speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention.
On July 18, 2004, nearly a year before Obama bought the mansion
On September 1, 2005, nearly four months before Obama bought the lot, the Tribune obtained a copy of a June 2005 subpoena issued to the TRS fund and reported that:
I see a discrepancy with your timelines. If September 1, 2005 was “nearly four months before Obama bought the mansion”, how is it that July 18, 2004 was “nearly a year before Obama bought the mansion”?
Generally, your article was informative regarding Mr. Rezko and his shenanigans, but your bias for Ms. Clinton shines through by your stretching and spinning of events and facts.Nice try.
Also.... your sources, the Tribune's Bob Secter and Jeff Coen are highly suspect regarding their bias.The Trib is notorious for slanted, right wing editorializing in their “news reports”.It is my understanding that it was Tribune staff who initiated the investigation in the first place.Only then was it picked up by the Illinois Attorney General (who is seemingly motivated by her own political ambitions to be Illinois governor) and then later by Fitzgerald – whose bias is suspect given the corruption within the Federal Justice Department. Afterall, the scandal has more to do with Gov. Blagojevich. He is official "A", not Senator Obama. I am convinced that neither will be convicted...but time will tell. Look what the "Justice" Department did to Alabama Governor, Don Seigelman.
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michal54 (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 14 comments)
on Saturday, April 19, 2008 at 2:43:00 PM
I usually never post comments on blogs for my articles. In fact, I usually do not read blogs, but I get email alerts from OpEd when comments are posted. After reading some of your comments, I felt the need to explain how it came to be that I wrote the series of articles on Obama.
Although I used to write many political articles, I seldom get a chance to anymore and I confess that I have fallen far behind as far as following political news.
When I realized that I personally knew nothing about Obama and it looked like he might become the nominee, I set out to research his legislative history in Illinois to learn what accomplishments led to his rise to political prominence without me even noticing him.
I ended up spending the last month and a half researching his background, putting in 12 to 18 hours every day, but I did not set out to find the information I found.
If you go back and read the first article I wrote about Hillary and Obama and my belief that Obama was not being qualified for the job you will see that it was written before I began my research and I did not have a clue about anything.
In fact, at that point when a friend asked me who I was going to vote for I said I preferred Hillary but I would definitely vote for Obama if he was the nominee.
I knew absolutely nothing about Illinois politics or the corruption scandals in that state over the past 8 years. The name Rezko did not even register with me other than seeing it mentioned in the headlines for articles about Obama.
The history of the Obama story was terribly complex and I quickly realized why no major news organization had funded the type of investigation I was conducting. Number one, like me they had no idea what would be found at the end, and two, they never in their wildest dreams would they have imagined that the leaders of the Democratic party would not have vetted their own candidate and fit all the pieces together.
Although the research took a lot of time because there were so many trails and so many different people and schemes involved, it did not involve rocket science.
I will admit that it did cross my mind to keep my mouth shut, knowing that no one would have to know that I had discovered the truth before it was exposed by the Republicans. But my conscience quickly reminded me that I would know, and what it would be like if I remained silent.
The Republican have invested a lot more time than I have. They have also put it all together better than I have and are just waiting for the day Obama is nominated to unleash a non-stop expose. They no doubt have their talking points ready for cable news shows and video clips in the can.
That is why I am furious at the Democratic party for allowing this situation to progress to the point we are at now. This is not about whether Hillary beats Obama for me - its about the integrity of the Democratic party and its choice for a candidate who Americans who do not keep up with politics will trust for no other reason than he is vouched for by the leaders they trust.
This is not about mud-slinging - its about telling the truth even when its about my own party. Its about refusing to not expose a Democratic candidate who I know is planning to replace one administration with one that is equally corrupt.
As a journalist I have been having to answer emails from my readers in other countries for 8 years, trying to explain why Americans would allow a war profiteering murderer to stay in power and I am not about to have my name associated with another corrupt administration - this time from the party that I have defended for 8 years.
When I openly supported John Kerry for president, and wrote articles exposing the war profiteering in Iraq, I told my critics to bring me leads if they knew of war profits being funneled to the bank accounts of Kerry or his family members and I would follow up and write the story. No one offered leads and I found none.
I would be a hypocrite of the worst kind if I remained silent during this election simply because Obama was a Democrat.
With an Obama-McCain ticket, voters are in a no win situation. They can elect McCain and allow the slaughtering of our troops to continue in a war profiteeing scheme in Iraq or they can elect Obama and allow the Chicago style of profiteering right here at home to spread to cities all across America.
As I said in my second article, I will not have any part of this. If the Democrats put Obama's name on the ballot, for the first time in my 58 years as an Amercian, I will take a stand and not vote in the presidential election.
But there is no way Obama will beat McCain with or without my vote. If the Democrats keep up this charade through the summer, the election belongs to the Republicans.
I have done the work in untangling the whole mess and tried to write articles so that the average American can "get it." If people do not see what is going on here after reading my first 3 articles, in the famous words of Jack Nicholson, "they can't handle the truth."
If any factual information in the articles is found to be incorrect, please send me an email through the link at the bottom of the article showing me where the information is false and I will make a correction.
A list of some of my other investigative work can be found by clicking on the link at the end of the Obama article on "other articles" by this author.
Evelyn Pringle
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Evelyn Pringle (188 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 10 comments)
on Saturday, April 19, 2008 at 10:14:48 PM
It's unrealistic and improper to deny you the right to strongly held beliefs, but we can expect you to separate reporting from advocacy, which are inextricably intertwined in both your piece and your comment. If you want us to believe your expose of Obama, present it in a straightforward way. Stuff such as "I am furious at the Democratic party", and "[Obama is] a Democratic candidate who I know is planning to replace one administration with one that is equally corrupt," is permissable (if, in my view, highly debatavble) in an op-ed piece, but in the context of a piece presented as a news report it is not only misplaced; it also saps the credibility of the "facts" you present. For instance, if you truly believe that an Obama administration would be as corrupt as the present regime, which is arguably the most widely and pervasively corrupt, vicious, and downright unlawful in our history, then a reasonable reader would be inclined to question your facts as well as your judgments.
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Jim Stinson (8 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 59 comments)
on Sunday, April 20, 2008 at 3:45:25 PM
Look at their voting records Then tell me difference
You sound as though you don't think Hillary is corrupt. Are you asleep or just dead in the head? The only difference between the three presidential candidates is the lies they tell. Look at their voting records Then tell me how different they are.
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arlen custer (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 6 diaries, 223 comments)
on Monday, April 21, 2008 at 7:20:59 AM
I took the time to register on this site just to thank you Ms. Pringle for writing your articles and letting the world know the disquieting truth about Obama. His ties, and his wife's, ties to the very corrupt Richie Daley should be enough to keep any honest let alone progressive person from supporting or voting for Obama. If he is nominated the swiftboaters and Republicans will merely have to expose the truth and Obama will lose as the independents avoid him and the young starry eyed voters are disillusioned.
by
ra Good (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments)
on Friday, April 25, 2008 at 9:39:39 PM
