RALEIGH, N.C. -- The campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton are treating North Carolina as though the presidency depends on it.In recent days, the campaigns began assembling ground operations that instantaneously dwarfed the efforts of candidates for governor, the U.S. Senate and dozens of other state offices.Obama has opened 15 campaign offices in the state, a number expected to grow. The Clinton campaign dedicated its headquarters in Raleigh on Wednesday with about a dozen more offices to come.Then there are the television advertisements and visits by candidates, their families and a parade of other surrogates. Chelsea Clinton has been a frequent visitor to North Carolina campuses. Actors Shawn and Marlon Wayans are coming this weekend for Obama.The campaigns have been coy about how many organizers are moving into the state. But there are already dozens, and more out-of-state license plates are arriving daily. The campaigns expect hundreds of volunteers, particularly from South Carolina and Virginia.Both campaigns have brought in some of the Democratic Party's top guns to run their operations.Sen. Clinton, of New York, has literally sent her ace -- Ace Smith, a soft-spoken Californian who headed winning Clinton campaigns in California and Texas. Craig Schirmer, Obama's man, handled the Illinois senator's campaigns in South Carolina and Wisconsin and is an old North Carolina hand, having run Erskine Bowles' unsuccessful 2002 Senate campaign.The activity reflects the growing importance of the May 6 Democratic primaries in North Carolina and Indiana.Neither Obama nor Clinton can win enough delegates in North Carolina to clinch the nomination, but an Obama victory could be a knockout blow. A Clinton victory could re-energize her campaign and give her a strong argument for continuing her candidacy up to the Democratic convention in Denver in August."She is very much against the ropes," said Peter Francia, an East Carolina University political-science professor. "If she wins North Carolina, she's back in this thing. If she doesn't win, she probably drops out."U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, a key Obama supporter, has been heavily involved in Tar Heel politics since 1968. Butterfield said he has never seen anything like the scope of Obama's operation."They are young, intelligent and visionary," Butterfield said. "They are going to the barbershops, the beauty salons and the taxi drivers -- nontraditional voters."This week, Obama started running a television ad featuring rock music urging young people to register to vote.The Obama campaign hopes to sharply expand the electorate, registering tens of thousands of voters on campuses, in black neighborhoods and elsewhere. About 4,000 volunteers came to organizational meetings last week, according to the campaign."Not since the time of John F. Kennedy has a candidate brought so much excitement to so many people," said Ben Berkowitz, a 22-year-old student at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, who recently attended an Obama rally."I like Hillary," Berkowitz said. "I love Bill. But Obama is truly a candidate for change. It's time for the dynasties to change."The Obama campaign is counting on strong support in the black community. In past North Carolina Democratic primaries, blacks accounted for nearly 30 percent of votes cast. But based on what happened in other states' primaries this year, that percentage is likely to rise.Obama is expected to have strong support in metropolitan areas among professionals, students and liberal activists. He also has been doing very well among independents, who may vote in the primary.But if Obama has an organizational and financial edge, Clinton has her family star power and connections to the state.North Carolina has one of the strongest -- if not the strongest -- Democratic parties in the South. Over the years, Tar Heel Democrats have expressed a preference for moderate, Clintonian Democrats such as Govs. Jim Hunt and Mike Easley.Bill Clinton was the last Democratic presidential nominee to compete strongly in North Carolina, losing in 1992 to the elder George Bush by a 43.4 percent to 42.6 percent margin.Hillary Clinton's campaign appears to be targeting women, white blue-collar workers, Hispanics, Lumbee Indians and more traditional Democratic voters.Among those leaning toward Clinton is Joan Ramsey, a 55-year-old manager of a Raleigh retail store who recently attended a Clinton rally. "I like her, but I haven't warmed up to her yet," Ramsey said.As for Obama, Ramsey said, "I don't think he has the experience. He has the charisma."The Clinton campaign's not-so-secret weapon is Bill Clinton, who is working the small-town circuit -- western North Carolina last week and along the South Carolina border Friday.(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Obama, Clinton rev up N.C. forces
Submitted by SHNS on Thu, 04/03/2008 - 14:03
Buying Obama - The Auchi Connection
Tracing the trail of Iraqi born billionaire Nadhmi Auchi indicates Rezko's deals may include a money trail leading back to Saddam Hussein oil for food program.
A 2004 Pentagon report described Auchi, "who, behind the facade of legitimate business, served as Saddam Hussein's principal international financial manipulator and bag man."
Auchi prospered in Saddam’s regime collecting "commissions" on sale of weapons and other goods to Iraq in the 1980s and 1990s.
A recent Pentagon report accuses Auchi of "unlawful activities working closely with Iraqi intelligence operatives to ... arrange for significant theft from the U.N. Oil-for-Food Program to smuggle weapons and dual-use technology into Iraq," and to "organize an elaborate scheme to take over and control the post-war cellular phone system in Iraq."
At Saddam's insistence a scheme orchestrated by Auchi appropriated billions of dollars from America through America’s Oil for Food program into Auchi’s bank account. These transactions passed through Banque Nationale de (BNP) from its 1995 inception until 2001 through Auchi's General Mediterranean Holdings Company (GMHC) which was the largest private shareholder in Paris.
Auchi's General Mediterranean Holdings has connections in Iraq which lead right back to Tony Rezko.
Auchi's company helped finance a 250 megawatt power plant in the Kurdish town of Chamchamal, Iraq, teaming up with Rezko and Iraq's former Minister of Electricity, Aiham Alsamarrae. In December, 2006 Alsamarrae was accused of graft and is being charged in a $2 billion Iraqi reconstruction corruption case. Alsamarrae is a Chicago resident with dual US-Iraqi citizenship -an embarrassing connection for the war critic Obama. Alsamarrae is now living in his Chicago mansion.
Writing in Human Events, March 3, 2008, John Batchelor reports on an Alsammarae-Obama-Rezko connection:
"...in April 2005, one month before Mr. Alsammarae left his post, his Ministry of Electricity signed a contract for $50 million with Companion Security to provide training to Iraqis to guard electrical plants by flying them to Illinois for classes.
"Companion Security was headed by a former Chicago policeman with a troubled history, Daniel T. Frawley, in partnership with Mr. Rezko and in association with Daniel Mahru, the lawyer for the original contract and Mr. Rezko's former business partner. In April 2006, Mr. Frawley entered negotiations with Governor Rod Blagojevich's staff to lease a military facility in Illinois to be a training camp. In August 2006, Mr. Frawley started negotiations with Mr. Obama's U.S. Senate staff to complete the contract....
"The timeline of Companion discussions in 2006 is important to note: April 2006 Frawley speaks to governor's office; August 2006 Frawley speaks to senator's office; October 2006 indictment of Rezko revealed; October 2006 Rezko arrested upon return from Syria; October 2006 Alsammarae convicted in Baghdad and makes his first escape attempt; December 2006 Alsammarae escapes from Baghdad. ...
"(In 2004) Mr. Auchi traveled by private aircraft to Midway Airport in Chicago and then to a fete at the Four Season Hotel, where he met with his business partner in Chicago real estate, Mr. Rezko, as well as with Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Also present that night, according to a fresh report by James Bone and Dominic Kennedy of the London Times, was State Senator Barack Obama, who had recently won the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate seat...."
The Obama Connection
Recently the London Times reported that Auchi had been a business partner of Rezko since 2003 and between April 2005 and 2007 loaned Rezko at least $18 million.
On February 1 the London Times reports uncovering, "state documents in Illinois recording that Fintrade Services, a Panamanian company, lent money to (an) Obama fundraiser in May 2005. Fintrade's directors include Ibtisam Auchi, the name of Mr. Auchi's wife."
"A company related to Mr. Auchi, who has a conviction for corruption in France, registered the loan to Mr. Obama's bagman Antoin ‘Tony' Rezko on May, 23 2005. Mr. Auchi says the loan, through the Panamanian company Fintrade Services SA, was for $3.5 million.
These Funds from Auchi's loan helped finance a complex series of transactions between Rezko and Democratic Presidential candidate Illinois Senator Barack Obama involving the 2005 purchase of Obama's Chicago mansion and Rezko's purchase of an adjoining landlocked parcel.
Rezko claims he paid “full market price” and Obama apparently received a “discount” of several hundred thousand dollars for his parcel. Rezko then improved his parcel to benefit Obama.
Instead of handing cash to Obama, Rezko handed Obama a preferential price for property. This is the same form of “honest graft” and preferential treatment that sent former Illinois Governor Otto Kerner to jail over 30 years ago, see United States v. Isaacs, 493 F.2d 1124 (7th Cir. 1974).
The Chicago Sun-Times recently reported that Mr. Rezko, around the same general period he was wheeling with Obama, also provided a preferential price for a property purchase by U. S. Representative Luis Gutierrez.
Instead of transferring cash to buy influence, Rezko was engaging in structured property transactions and preferential treatment of public officials to confer significant financial benefits on them, far above the legal limits of any legitimate political contribution permitted by federal law.
Rezko was a key early-money fund raiser in Obama's state Senate campaigns. and Rezko's relationship with Barack Obama goes back to at least 1990, when Obama's law firm did work relating to a Rezko housing development.
Rezko as a major mob figure is not known for civic-mindedness or desire for good government.
At a March 3 news conference in San Antonio, Texas, Chicago-based reporters peppered Obama with some of the questions the national news corps has avoided for over a year. Obama claims he had already answered the questions in the Chicago media. He said: "These requests, I think, could just go on forever. At some point, what we need to try to do is respond to what's pertinent."
Dana Milbank of the Washington Post wrote:
"Reporters, however, had a different idea of what was pertinent, and the questions about Rezko, NAFTA and other unpleasant subjects continued to come. An aide called out ‘last question,' and Obama made his move for the exit -- only for reporters to shout after him in protest. ‘C'mon, guys,' he pleaded. ‘I just answered, like, eight questions.'"
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