"Senator Obama is running on an image that is directly the opposite of what he has been doing for two decades. His escapes from his past have been as remarkable as the great escapes of Houdini.”
— Thomas Sowell
Cherche la femme (follow the woman), the French advise, when looking for who is behind a scandal. For Americans in this election period it should be Cherche Le Moolah — follow the money, especially all those bucks that have fortuitously adhered to Barack Obama's exchequer throughout his mysterious past.
A reader gleaned this from the Internet:
"Around 1979 Obama started college at Occidental in California. He is very open about his two years at Occidental, he tried all kinds of drugs and was wasting his time but, even though he had a brilliant mind, did not apply himself to his studies. 'Barry' (that was the name he used all his life) during this time had two roommates, Muhammad Hasan Chandoo and Wahid Hamid, both from Pakistan.
"During the summer of 1981, after his second year in college, he made a 'round the world' trip, stopping to see his mother in Indonesia, next Hyderabad in India, three weeks in Karachi, Pakistan where he stayed with his roommate's family, then off to Africa to visit his father's family."
Who financed this costly world tour?
On his return, he stopped being Barry and became Barack, and went to Columbia University where tuition is anything but cheap. Who paid it? After Columbia, he went to Chicago to work as a Community Organizer for $12,000. A year. "Why Chicago? " the reader asked. "Why not New York? He was already living in New York."
There he hooked up with Antoin “Tony” Rezko, recently convicted on fraud and bribery charges. Rezko was born in Aleppo, Syria and was named “'Entrepreneur of the Decade” by the Arab-American Business and Professional Association.
Two or so years later, Obama entered Harvard Law School. Talk about expensive tuition! Who paid the tuition? After completing law school, he went back to Chicago where Rezko offered him a job. He turned it down to work for Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, which had connections with “Rezar” Rezko's firm. Rezko was one of Obama's first major financial contributors when he ran for office in Chicago.
In 2003, Rezko threw an early fundraiser for Obama which Chicago Tribune reporter David Mendelland claims was instrumental in providing Obama with "seed money" for his U.S. Senate race. In 2005, Obama purchased a new home in the Kenwoood district of Chicago for $1.65 million (less than the asking price). Where did he get the money for the property? On the same day, Rezko's wife, Rita, purchased the adjoining empty lot for full price.
The reader reported that “Valerie Jarrett was Michelle Obama's boss and is now Obama's chief adviser and he does not make any major decisions without talking to her first. Where was Jarrett born? Shiraz, Iran!”
Guess who's in charge of all those “small” Internet campaign contributions for Obama? According to my reader, none other than his two college roommates from Pakistan: Muhammad Hasan Chandoo and Wahid Hamid.
Now let's follow the moolah a bit further. In an Oct. 4, 2008 Toledo Blade article entitled “Hunting Mr. Good Will. WHO is 'Will, Good'?" columnist Jack Kelly revealed that a Mr. Good Will, who Kelly says lists his employer as "Loving" and his profession as "You" — has contributed an astounding 1,000 times to the Barack Obama campaign, all in amounts of $25 or less which add up to $17,375 — far more than the legal limit of $4,600 or $2,300 each for the primary and general election campaigns — 1000 times!
Kelly notes that Kenneth Timmerman, my fellow Newsmax columnist, discovered Mr. Good Will after checking no less than 1.4 million individual contributions in the latest Federal Election Commission master file for the Obama campaign.
While Mr. Good Will claimed he was from Austin, Texas, when Kelly called directory assistance, they could find no listing for him.
Then there is Mr. Doodad Prowho, who made 786 contributions for a total of $19,500. Like Mr. Good Will, Mr. Pro lists his employer as "Loving" and his profession as "You." Mr. Pro said he is from Nunda, N.Y. Directory assistance found no listing for him either.
Noting that Obama has raised a whopping $223 million in contributions of less than $200, Kelly wrote that candidates are not required to disclose the names of those who contribute less than $200, and Mr. Obama has not. But he added that the Federal Election Commission does require campaigns to keep a running tally of contributions and to disclose the identity of donors once their total contributions exceed $200.
This is how Timmerman discovered Mr. Good Will and Mr. Doodad Pro.
Timmerman, Kelly writes, was particularly curious about 11,500 contributions from overseas totaling $33.8 million. He adds that Sens. McCain and Hillary Clinton required foreign donors to provide proof of citizenship, yet according to Timmerman the Obama campaign did not.
"More than 1,400 of the overseas entries clearly were U.S. diplomats or military personnel, who gave an APO address," Timmerman wrote. But they accounted for a mere 12 percent of Obama's overseas donors, whose contributions totaled just $201,680.
"In July and August, the head of Nigeria's stock market held a series of pro-Obama fundraisers in Lagos," Timmerman wrote in Newsmax. "At one event, a table for eight went for $16,800. Nigerian press reports claimed sponsors raked in an estimated $900,000."
Kelly added, "Making contributions on credit cards via the Internet — as both Good Will and Doodad Pro did — makes it easier for foreigners to contribute. Web logger Pamela Geller (Atlas Shrugs) reported three Palestinians living in a refugee camp in Gaza tried to donate $33,500 to the Obama campaign last year. They were caught only because the amount was far above the legal limit. If foreigners donate in amounts less than $200, their illegal involvement would be virtually undetectable."
Kelly concluded that were Obama a Republican, "the news media would be demanding he disclose the names of all of his donors — as er, the Republican has done — so we can see if there are among them other Good Wills and Doodad Pros.
"CNN recently sent a reporter to Little Diomede Island, the westernmost part of Alaska (2.4 miles from Russia) to determine whether Sarah Palin had ever been there to see Russia with her own eyes. But CNN — and the rest of the media — have been incurious about the Obama campaign's fund-raising."
Finally there is this. According to The Associated Press, Jerome Corsi, the American author of a best-selling book attacking Barack Obama, is being detained in Kenya where Obama, as the son of a Kenyan father, is a national idol. He is being detained because he does not have a work permit, a senior immigration official said Tuesday.
Corsi, who wrote "The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality," was being held at immigration headquarters in Nairobi after police picked him up from his hotel Tuesday, Carlos Maluta, a senior immigration official in charge of investigations, told The Associated Press. "We still haven't decided what to do with him," Maluta said.
As I wrote, cherche le moolah.
Phil Brennan is a veteran journalist and World War II Marine who writes for Newsmax.com. He is editor and publisher of Wednesday on the Web (http://www.pvbr.com) and was Washington columnist (Cato) for National Review magazine in the 1960s.
He also served as a staff aide for the House Republican Policy Committee and helped handle the Washington public relations operation for the Alaska Statehood Committee which won statehood for Alaska. He is also a trustee of the Lincoln Heritage Institute and a member of the Association For Intelligence Officers.
He can be reached at [email protected].
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