http://therealbarackobama.wordpress.com

Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama was quick to blame the
bankruptcy of Wall Street giant Lehman Brothers on Republicans'
"failed philosophy". Obama's September 15 comments were repeated
throughout the media--yet reporters have not noted Obama's glaring
conflict of interest--the Lehman debt owed to a bank owned by the
financier who loaned millions of dollars to Tony Rezko.

Jockeying among the other debtors seeking repayment under Chapter 11
bankruptcy rules is BNP Paribas, a large French bank whose largest
single private shareholder is Nadhmi Auchi's General Mediterranean
Holdings (GMH). BNP Paribas is owed $250 million by Lehman.

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/...6_FORTUNE5.htm

Nadhmi Auchi is an Iraqi whose Baathist ties go back to 1959. A
formerly high-ranking official in Iraq's Oil Ministry, Auchi left Iraq
at the end of the 1970s. His wealth then grew exponentially as a
procurer of arms for Saddam Hussein's government during the Iran-Iraq
war. He is now one of the richest men in Britain. Saddam Hussein in
1995 selected BNP, which later merged with Paribas, as the sole
conduit bank handling Oil-for-Food transactions. This Clinton-era
arrangement was changed in 2001 by the incoming Bush administration.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...pagewanted=all

Auchi was also a key financial backer for Chicago political fixer and
dual US-Syrian citizen Tony Rezko. This writer explained the complex
web of relationships in an August 24 article titled, "Iraqi
Billionaire Threatens Reporters Investigating Rezko Affair":

http://www.aim.org/aim-column/iraqi-...g-rezko-affair

A secret $3.5 million loan from an Auchi company to key early-money
Barack Obama fundraiser Antoin Rezko was exposed while Rezko was
awaiting trial on fraud and money-laundering charges earlier this
year. Rezko's bail was revoked and police showed up banging on the
doors of his Wilmette Chicago mansion to drag him off to jail early in
the morning of January 28th. Auchi's loan to Rezko had come on May 23,
2005 but had not been disclosed to the Court as required in his bail
agreement. Three weeks later, on June 15, 2005, Rezko's wife assisted
the Obamas in the purchase of their South Chicago mansion by
purchasing a next-door undeveloped lot being sold with the house.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle3284825.ece
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/c...,2985016.story

According to the Times of London,
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...fset=24&page=3
"Mr. Rezko's lawyer said his client had 'longstanding indebtedness' to
Mr. Auchi's General Mediterranean Holding (GMH). By June 2007 he owed
it $27.9 million. Under a Loan Forgiveness Agreement described in
court, M. Auchi lent Mr. Rezko $3.5 million in April 2005 and $11
million in September 2005, as well as $3.5 million transferred in
April 2007. That agreement provided for the outstanding loans to be
'forgiven' in return for a stake in the 62-acre Riverside Park
development."

Rezko's relationship with Barack Obama goes back to at least 1990,
when Obama's law firm did work relating to thousands of now-decaying
Rezko apartment units in South Chicago. Rezko was a key early-money
fundraiser in Obama's state Senate campaigns and his failed run at the
U.S. Congress.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/ar...icy/?page=full

According to The Times of London,
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle3433485.ece
"Mr. Auchi first met Mr. Rezko after the 2003 Iraq war and they have a
business relationship." At the time Auchi was facing the possibility
of extradition to France. The Times of London explains: "Mr Auchi was
convicted of corruption, given a suspended sentence and fined £1.4
million in France in 2003 for his part in the Elf affair, described as
the biggest political and corporate scandal in post-war Europe. He, in
a statement from his media lawyers, claims he is appealing against the
sentence."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2...?commentpage=1
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...null&offset=24

In 2003, Nick Cohen of the UK Guardian wrote:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003...icalcolumnists

Allow me to introduce you to Nadhmi Auchi. He was charged in the 1950s
with being an accomplice of Saddam Hussein, when the future tyrant was
acquiring his taste for blood. He was investigated in the 1980s for
his part in alleged bribes to the fabulously corrupt leaders of post-
war Italy. In the 1990s, the Belgium Ambassador to Luxembourg claimed
that Auchi's bank held money Saddam and Colonel Gadaffi had stolen
from their luckless peoples. In 2002, officers from the Serious Fraud
Squad raided the offices of one of Auchi's drug companies as part of
an investigation of what is alleged to be the biggest swindle ever of
the (British National Health Service). With allegations, albeit
unproven, like these hanging over him, wouldn't you think that British
MPs would have the sense to stay away?

One might think Obama would also stay away, but in truth it is only
the US media who are ducking this story. While ideological bias and a
predisposition towards inanity might explain some of the media
ignorance, the August 24 article cites another cause:

Working for Auchi... attorneys from London law firm Carter-Ruck have for
several months been flooding American and British newspapers and
websites with letters demanding removal of material they deem
"defamatory" to their client.

In its June 28 edition,
http://righttruth.typepad.com/right_...-mr-auchi.html
British satirical magazine Private Eye explains: "Until Carter-Ruck
and Partners and England's stifling libel laws got to work, the few
American journalists not caught up in Obama-mania were turning to the
archives of the British press to answer an intriguing question: who is
Nadhmi Auchi?"

http://www.gmhsa.com/directors.html

What is so "stifling" about English libel law? In the U.K., as Carter-
Ruck explains on its own website, "A libel claimant does not have to
prove that the words are false or to prove that he has in fact
suffered any loss. Damage is presumed."

http://www.carter-ruck.com/FAQs/Libe...r%20Cases.html

The Obama campaign recently issued a non-denial denial in response to
claims that Obama met with Auchi--contained in Jerome Corsi's
bestseller, The Obama Nation. They cited only two references. One is,
"Mr. Auchi's lawyer" who told the February 27, 2008 London Evening
Standard, "As far as he can remember he has had no direct contact with
Mr. Obama." Another is, "A lawyer for Auchi, Alasdair Pepper" who
says, according to the April 16, 2008 Washington Post, "Auchi Had 'No
Recollection' Of Meeting Obama or Michelle." Alasdair Pepper is the
attorney whose name appears on the Carter-Ruck demand letters.

http://obama.3cdn.net/a74586f9067028c40a_5km6vrqwa.pdf
http://rezkowatch.blogspot.com/2008/...dmi-auchi.html
http://therealbarackobama.wordpress....ringle-updated
http://noquarterusa.net/blog/wp-cont...4171752464.pdf

Here are some questions reporters should be asking Barack Obama:

Senator Obama: Lehman Brothers owes over $250 million to a bank owned
in part by Nadhmi Auchi's holding company. Auchi was a key financial
backer of Tony Rezko. Sources indicate you met Auchi twice when he
visited Chicago in 2004. If elected, how will your relationship with
Rezko and Auchi affect your policy towards Lehman Brothers?

Senator Obama: There are reports that Nadhmi Auchi was in 2004-2005
seeking US residency while appealing his French court conviction in
the ELF-Aquitaine case. If elected, would you look favorably on a US
residency application from Auchi?

Senator Obama: You stated that the Lehman bankruptcy shows that
Americans cannot afford four more years of the Republicans' "failed
philosophy". Can Americans afford a President whose home was purchased
with the assistance of now-convicted-felon Tony Rezko, a man
characterized as having "permanent indebtedness" to Nadhmi Auchi?

http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/main/...-interest.aspx

382 George Bush administration scandals can be
viewed at:
http://www.netrootsmass.net/Hugh/Bush_list.html