“Lobbyists make more money than Congressmen because lobbyists write more laws than we do.” – Congressman Ron Paul (TX)

Government work can inspire a certain image, particularly if you are still swayed by idealistic grade-school texts that extolled the work of ‘public servants.’  These are people working not for themselves, primarily, but for a greater good.  Government workers accept a discount from what they could earn in the private sector, because they care about the public.  We owe them our gratitude.

Well, some of them, to be sure. 

In economics, there is a fundamental principle called ‘rationality.’  A lot of students tend to rebel against this notion, and it has some critics from the behavioral finance profession as well.  But I still remember the day one of my favorite professors in economics, facing heat from students on this score, stepped back and defined rationality simply as ‘self-interested, purposive behavior.’  People don’t intentionally try to harm themselves, even if they don’t always make consistent or good decisions.  People try to pursue their own self-interest, to try to make themselves better off.  In a world without significant government intervention, this tendency usually promotes cooperation among buyers and sellers, and the common good as well.

Does public service make for a vow of poverty?  Our public servants are people, like the rest of us.  As a general tendency, we all tend to pursue our self-interest.   And in the public service world, some of the most ambitious, loudest champions about what is good for the rest of us are also intensely self-interested.  When self-interest combines with the pursuit of profit through government intervention, public servants can make themselves better off while leaving the rest of us worse off.

Assuming that policymakers pursue their own self interest is a central tenet of the public choice school of economics.   The “Chicago School” of regulation (the University of Chicago economics department, not the City of Chicago) similarly calls for us to suspend any enduring belief that public servants are always unselfish.  And when public servants serve themselves, well-organized special interest groups can more easily capture regulatory policy and drive it to their own benefit.  In turn, the revolving door, with our servants moving seamlessly between government and the regulated, and back again, can be a very lucrative business.   

Lobbying can also lead government policy to generate results the opposite of what is being advertised.  For example, anti-trust policy can actually make consumers worse off, particularly if well-organized producers run the show.  Government financial regulation can actually destabilize the financial system, if public guarantees spawn moral hazard and gambling with the public purse.  And the resulting crises can become a lever for taking more money from the many, in order to stabilize and cement the positions of the favored few.

The Chicago Machine – A Glaring Example

William McGurn penned a wonderful op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on November 15, 2011, titled “Crony Capitalism, Chicago Style.”  McGurn discussed recent efforts within the Illinois state legislature to develop tax breaks for large Chicago-area employers.  Some of these firms have been complaining about the high tax burden in Illinois (a valid concern), as well as the offers they were getting to move their operations to other states.  But McGurn also pointed to large-scale donations from some of these large employers for the same politicians that implemented large-scale tax increases in recent years, with much of Corporate Chicago strangely quiet during those tax hikes.   McGurn identified the CME Group, the large financial services enterprise that includes Chicago’s long-successful futures exchanges, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade, as a good example in this regard.

When it comes to government finances under strain, the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois are two of the sickest patients in the hospital.  Chicago and Illinois also have long had some of the mightiest patronage systems in the world.   Patronage is a system whereby state and city politicians help their well-organized special interest group friends, who get out the vote, via people, dollars, or both.   And the large corporations now complaining about their tax burdens and threatening to leave if they don’t get special treatment have also been some of our most influential corporate citizens.  They, too, are responsible for the condition of the bed Chicagoans share today.

The system works, in the City that Works, as long as it works.  Trouble is, as selfish political leaders have purchased short-term success with long-term consequences, kicking the can down the road, the spending and future obligations foisted on taxpayers’ backs builds and builds, to the breaking point. 

The day of reckoning appears closer these days. 

Who Made Hay While The Sun Shined?  2 Examples

A variety of special interest groups, including unions, construction contractors, real estate developers, leaders of some large corporations, and law firms have done very well by themselves in Illinois.  So have their favorite servants in public service.

Some public policy leaders have grown pretty wealthy, out of proportion to their public compensation.  One of them is out of Dodge, after a fashion, while the other remains in a position of power.  These two are both Chicagoans.  The first is former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dennis Hastert.  The second is currently Mayor of the City of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel.

Dennis Hastert.   A 2006 article in the Chicago Tribune looked into Hastert’s portfolio, and found that his net worth rose from $290,000 to over $6 million in the 19 years that then comprised his tenure in Congress.  This rate of appreciation makes for a compound annual rate of nearly 20% over that 19 year interval, a remarkable return.  A private group had looked into the source of that investment acumen, which in at least one case benefitted from his purchase of land before federally funded highway projects promoted by the powerful Chicago-area Congressman had the effect of increasing the land’s value.   Hastert brought home the federal bacon for his District, and did well by himself at the same time.  In his defense, Hastert supporters have cited the good fortune that he enjoyed given his aggressive real estate investing in a booming market, but the Tribune and other critics have pointed out that only a few well-connected investments made up a large majority of the wealth increase in the period they looked at.

In late 2007, Hastert announced he would be resigning his seat in Congress, and resigned before his term was completed.  The GOP had lost control of Congress in the 2006 election year, with a scandal over sex abuse of young male congressional pages (and arguments within the GOP leadership over the extent of warning delivered to Hastert about the behavior at issue) one factor in the changeover. 

After his resignation from the House of Representatives, Hastert earnings stream found other feeding tributaries.  He continued to earn roughly $100,000 a year in pension benefits from Congress, the Illinois legislature and his previous teaching experience (which included service as a wrestling coach).   But he also earned money from speaking engagements (at $25,000 per speech) and corporate directorships, including a new seat on the board at the above-noted CME Group.   And six months after leaving Congress, Hastert joined a Washington D.C. based lobbying firm, with his clients including the government of Luxembourg and the Republic of Turkey. 

Why might the Republic of Turkey matter, for corruption in Chicago?

In a 2005 article in the magazine Vanity Fair, “An Inconvenient Patriot,” David Rose described what he learned from Sibel Edmonds, and her description of the wiretaps she was instructed to transcribe in her role as an FBI translator.  Edmonds described evidence developed in an FBI investigation of large numbers of small donations to the Hastert campaign from small amounts, as well as the alleged delivery of currency in suitcases, from Turkish interests.  And in a 2009 article in The American Conservative, while discussing the implications of the change from the Bush to the Obama administrations for the prospects of finding the truth in these and related matters, Ms. Edmonds concluded:

The other thing I noticed is how Chicago, with its culture of political corruption, is central to the new administration. When I saw that Obama’s choice of chief of staff was Rahm Emanuel, knowing his relationship with Mayor Richard Daley and with the Hastert crowd, I knew we were not going to see positive changes. Changes possibly, but changes for the worse. It was no coincidence that the Turkish criminal entity’s operation centered on Chicago.

Rahm Emanuel.   Rahm Israel Emanuel was born in Chicago in 1959.  His father, Benjamin Emanuel, was born in Israel.  During the British occupation of Palestine, before the establishment of the State of Israel in 1947, Benjamin Emanuel served in the Irgun, an organization that carried out violent attacks on British and Arab targets, including an infamous bombing of the King David Hotel in 1946 that killed nearly 100 people.  Rahm Emanuel grew up in a less-stressful atmosphere, the relatively wealthy northern suburbs of Chicago, after his father became a pediatrician and moved to the United States.  He and his brother did attend summer camp in Israel, including one stay soon after the 1967 six-day war. 

Emanuel’s interests in high school included ballet, and he turned down the Joffrey Ballet to attend one of the most expensive colleges in the United States, Sarah Lawrence College.  He worked in politics in a variety of ways in the Chicago area early in his career, and then served as a senior advisor and chief fundraiser in Richard M. Daley’s successful run for Mayor in 1989.  He served a stint as a volunteer in the Israel Defense Forces in the first Gulf War.   From there, he turned his talents on the campaign trail for William Clinton, and became a senior advisor in the Clinton White House from 1993 to 1998. 

In 1998 Emanuel resigned his White House post.  He joined an investment banking firm, and made over $16 million in 2+ years there.  He was named a member of the Board of Directors of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (“Freddie Mac”) by Clinton in 2000, and earned over $300,000 in that capacity.  During his tenure, Freddie Mac (a chief culprit in our economic and financial crisis in recent years) endured a string of scandals.  In light of Edmonds’ assertions above regarding the close ties in Chicago, it is worth noting that the Administration of former Illinois Senator and current U.S. President Barack Obama recently rejected a FOIA request looking into Freddie Mac during Emanuel’s tenure.

In 2002, then-Illinois-representative to the U.S. Congress, Rod Blagojevich, decided not to run for re-election, but to run for Governor.  (Blagojevich is now facing sentencing for multiple felony corruption convictions.)   Emanuel ran for that Congressional seat, and became a U.S. Representative in late 2002.   Emanuel strongly supported the Congressional resolution authorizing U.S. military action in Iraq.   In early 2003, Emanuel first began serving on the House Financial Services Committee.  Over the next four years, developments in financial markets and their regulation laid the seeds of the worst economic and financial crisis since the Great Depression.  In late 2008, he resigned his congressional seat after President Obama asked him to become White House Chief of Staff, as the administration and financial regulators developed a sea of rescue (bailout) packages.  Emanuel left that post in late 2010 to run for the position of Mayor of Chicago.  He won that race, and was sworn in as Mayor in May 2011. 

Hastert and Emanuel – Some Common Threads

Dennis Hastert and Rahm Emanuel have very different backgrounds, but both have represented interest groups with much to answer for in our recent economic crisis.  In turn, each of these politicians became very wealthy in their careers.  That may be due in part to their talents, and we shouldn’t begrudge talented people from earning a living.  But if public servants trade on their positions of influence, and get rewarded for it, this is a horse of a different color. 

And if the allegations from Sibel Edmonds remain worthy of honest, aggressive investigation, we have a zoo, not just a horse, of a different color.  One possibly-related common thread tying Emanuel and Hastert together are their ties to countries outside the United States – two countries with overlapping goals in international relations over the last decade or so.

Bill Bergman has 10 years of experience as a stock market analyst sandwiched around 13 years as an economist and financial markets policy analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. He earned an M.B.A. as well as an M.A. in Public Policy from the University of Chicago in 1990. Mr. Bergman is currently working with Social Movement Sciences LLC, a new enterprise developing evaluation and funding services for not-for-profit organizations.

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On November 1, the Chicago Tribune reported how the City of Chicago’s “Corporation Counsel,” Stephen Patton, responded to a question about a dispute over the authority of the City Inspector General, Joseph Ferguson.  Ferguson has faced noncompliance with subpoenas he has issued to the city.  New mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Corporation Counsel has argued to the State Supreme Court that the city has the authority to enforce these subpoenas, not the inspector general alone, and the city also holds sole authority to hire outside counsel in matters at issue. 

This article did not identify any of the specific cases for which subpoena demands had been rebuffed.  But the fact that the City Inspector General has been issuing them is alone room for optimism. 

Our founders gave us a federal republic.  As corrupt as it can be, the division of powers can still lead to a form of competition allowing individual autonomy to open doors that freshen the air, and start shining lights.  And convictions at lower levels can lead to information valuable for proceeding up the staircase.  Consider the origins of the suppressed but ultimately revealed Watergate affair, when five burglars were caught by local police officials. 

For those concerned whether corruption in the state judiciary might undercut Chicago’s City Inspector General while issuing subpoenas that are challenged by the administration of the City of Chicago, consider Operation Greylord.  Back in the 1980s, the conviction of a Cook County traffic clerk was followed by a train of convictions of higher Chicago-area public officials, including judges, in a prosecution led by federal criminal authorities and the IRS.  The Illinois judiciary, while not above suspicion, is not what it was back then.

And Patrick Fitzgerald & Company haven’t been idle.  On November 1, the same day the Chicago Tribune reported the story about the City Inspector General, the news broke that a Republican Illinois political consultant, William Cellini, was found guilty of two felony counts — conspiracy to commit extortion and aiding and abetting the solicitation of a bribe.  This was the latest conviction is what has been labeled “Operation Board Games,” in a case with very curious examples of cooperation among Democrats and Republicans. Back in June, Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich was convicted on 17 counts of corruption.  Quoted in the Tribune later in the day, Fitzgerald stated:

In the quiet corridors in Chicago and Cook County and Springfield, a lot of backroom deals take place, and the fact that Bill Cellini was convicted today sends a very, very loud message.

The next day, an editorial in the Chicago Tribune praised the conviction and emphasized the bargaining power it left with prosecutors that can lead to information underlying future possible cases.  If Fitzgerald and Company are still on the hunt, we could be on a slow but ultimately revealing path.  And in part due to the federal nature of our republic, which includes a measure of autonomy for local federal criminal prosecutors within the federal branch.

Why might these two developments – the spat over subpoena authority for the inspector general in Chicago and the felony convictions of an Illinois power broker – actually matter for things like international drug-running and the events of 9/11?

The inspector general for the City of Chicago is no flunky, at least on the surface.  His appointment by previous Mayor Daley and his confirmation by unanimous vote in the Chicago City Council might argue for some skepticism.  But Joseph Ferguson has a very interesting resume.  He came to the job after 15 years in the United States Attorney’s office for the Northern District of Illinois — Patrick Fitzgerald’s office.  Ferguson’s bio states that from 2000 to 2009 his work included drug trafficking, terrorist financing, and public corruption cases, and one of his titles included Terrorist Financing Coordinator.   And he has taught courses titled “National Security Law.”

Isn’t this interesting, for a local city inspector general?

The 2000 to 2009 interval certainly had its share of shocking developments in these areas, including such things as pervasive terrorism warnings delivered to high-level government officials before 9/11, reports of negotiations over the invasion of Iraq including Turkish officials that were underway four months before 9/11, assertions of support for ‘bin Ladens’ up to 9/11, the events of 9/11 themselves, the subsequent invasion of opium poppy and energy-rich Afghanistan, the invasion of Iraq, FBI investigations of Turkish organizations in Chicago, and the resignation of former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert from Congress in 2007 and his subsequent work as a lobbyist for Turkey.

And now, there is a legal battle over subpoena power in Chicago, pitting the City against an inspector general versed in terrorist financing and national security law.  A city now led by Mayor Rahm Emanuel.  Speaking of resumes, Mayor Emanuel’s will be a topic in the next article in this series.

Bill Bergman has 10 years of experience as a stock market analyst sandwiched around 13 years as an economist and financial markets policy analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. He earned an M.B.A. as well as an M.A. in Public Policy from the University of Chicago in 1990. Mr. Bergman is currently working with Social Movement Sciences LLC, a new enterprise developing evaluation and funding services for not-for-profit organizations.

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The authors have gone on to write four more updates to this report, which are all available here.  The fourth edition was released in early 2011, following the last Daley term and the passing of the torch to new Mayor Rahm Emanuel.  This fourth report listed over 340 city officials convicted in public corruption cases in the past few decades, with little sign of any slowing in recent years.  The authors listed cases of “bribery, patronage, contract rigging, conflict of interest, nepotism/family ties, clout, and theft,” noting that they were pervasive across a range of agencies.

Chicagoans can be thankful for some prosecutors, but the “City that Works” and the state and federal government functions dealing with it haven’t earned a presumption of innocence.  A careful, cautious and even cynical perspective is warranted when considering the prospects for reform under new Mayor Rahm Emanuel, especially in light of the strong ties that helped lay the basis for his political career in recent decades.

And while thinking about the Chicago political environment and its relevance for the case of Sibel Edmonds, it is useful to be careful about distinctions between the two main parties in our political system.  We have Democrats and Republicans, on the one hand, and the rest of us, on the other hand.  The long train of scandals and convictions such as those laid out by the University of Illinois professors have entrenched bi-partisan roots, with Democrats as well as Republicans breeding disenchantment and suspicion.  The Edmonds case reaches across party lines, as well.

Time Flies, but Same Names Remain Relevant

Another thing to keep in mind when considering the Chicago environment and its relevance for Edmonds’ material is just how fast time flies.  Edmonds was hired by the FBI soon after the events of September 11, 2001.  She was tasked with translating material relating to events over the previous five years, and even earlier.  In other words, even if Chicago has magically turned over a new leaf recently, the period we are looking at was ten to 15 years ago – a more fertile time for corrupt behavior.

• For example, George Ryan, a former Republican governor of Illinois now serving prison time, served as Illinois governor from 1999 to 2003.  His corruption convictions related to his time as governor, a time frame that overlaps with matters Edmonds has described.

•  1999 was also the year that Republican Dennis Hastert was first elected Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States Congress.  Hastert, whom Edmonds has named in her allegations, was representing a congressional district in suburbs close to Chicago. 

• In August 2005, Robert Creamer, a significant Chicago area Democratic political consultant, pleaded guilty to bank fraud and other crimes relating to his work leading the Illinois Public Action Fund in the 1990s.  Edmonds has cited Creamer and his wife, current Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, as parties of interest in her material.

• Another person Edmonds has identified as ‘helping to facilitate’ criminal activities was serving in Chicago government before the new Emanuel administration.  This person was Democrat Richard M. Daley, the previous mayor.  The public record has no other specific reference to why Edmonds, who has been otherwise constrained by a dubious legal principle called the ‘state secrets privilege,’ makes this assertion about Daley.  Following the announcement that he wouldn’t seek another mayoral term in late 2010, Daley became a senior fellow at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, one of my alma maters, in 2011.

• Another person named by Edmonds in her material also has become affiliated with the Harris School.  In fact, Edmonds has described him as a ‘key player’ in her allegations.  This person is Mehmet Celebi, a former president of the Turkish American Cultural Alliance.  Among other activities, Celebi has also served as a fundraiser for Democrat Hillary Clinton, a former first lady, U.S. Senator, and current Secretary of State in the Obama Administration.

Some Documents Supporting Edmonds’ Material

Edmonds’ allegations include shocking references to high-level bribery, money laundering, drug dealing, and trafficking in nuclear weapons technology.  She has also referenced material indicating awareness of threats if not foreknowledge of the events of September 11, 2001.  She has described negotiations over a possible invasion of Iraq that took place in the months before September 11, 2001.  She has even referenced evidence of covert operations undertaken with ‘bin Ladens’ in the years before 9/11.

Edmonds has received support for her work from significant people both inside and outside the Beltway, including Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, on the one hand, and Charles Grassley, still serving as Republican U.S. Senator from Iowa.  And a special inspector general report found credence in her work, as well.

The Edmonds case still hasn’t had the mainstream media attention, or broader public developments, that it has deserved.  But things may be moving more crisply in that direction in recent years.

In March 2010, the FBI released documents under a FOIA request that referenced the Turkish American Cultural Alliance (TACA).   One of them, dated February 9, 2000, was titled “Turkish Investigations in Chicago.”  It carried seven “Case ID” numbers, suggesting seven investigations, all of which were still “pending.”  The document was discussed and emphasized a verbal communication, which directed that no material relating to these investigations should be uploaded via computer, despite department policy to “upload as many serials as possible.”  A second document was dated July 31, 2001.  While heavily redacted, this document still indicated that the sensitivity of these matters had risen further.  It referenced the Turkish American Cultural Alliance, and otherwise retained only two sentences.  They were “Extreme caution must be exercised in the handling of sensitive information contained herein.  No material pertaining to this investigation is to be computer uploaded.”  This document was dated July 31, 2001, and included ten ‘Case ID’ numbers, up from the seven identified a year before. The July 2001 document indicated it was due to be declassified in 2034.

Asked for comment on the released documents, Edmonds’ March 2010 statement included;

“Chicago was the center of it all.  Chicago was the center of the foreign espionage activity, and the center for money laundering, and also a major heroin distribution center.  Celebi was a key player, but Dennis Hastert, Mayor Daley, Robert Creamer and other US officials also helped facilitate these activities.” 

Four months later, coincidentally, Richard M. Daley announced he would not seek another term as mayor of Chicago.

Mehmet Celebi has been a leader in the Turkish-American community in the Chicago area.  Celebi had been the president of the Turkish American Cultural Alliance, the organization identified above. He has also served as a board member of the Washington D.C. based Assembly of Turkish-American Associations.  In addition to his fundraising work for Hillary Clinton, he served as one of her Chicago delegates to the 2008 Democratic National Convention.  Celebi has also been a fundraiser for Rahm Emanuel.  (That’s Rahm in the center, and Celebi over on the right.)

Today, we have allegations and suspicions, not the truth.  The prosecutors that have been working honestly and well to uncover corruption in Chicago deserve our respect, and thanks.  And prosecutors have won many convictions over the years.  But as deep as the roots appear to go, citizens can’t simply rely on criminal authorities working for the government alone to find the truth.  The First Amendment protections for the press, in fact, were adopted and rooted in concern that government might seek to forestall inquiry into its own criminal and otherwise illegitimate behavior.

Bill Bergman has 10 years of experience as a stock market analyst sandwiched around 13 years as an economist and financial markets policy analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. He earned an M.B.A. as well as an M.A. in Public Policy from the University of Chicago in 1990. Mr. Bergman is currently working with Social Movement Sciences LLC, a new enterprise developing evaluation and funding services for not-for-profit organizations.

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The longer-term financial consequences arising when public institutions are used to fleece the public can be seen in the fiscal status of the City of Chicago, as well as the Land of Lincoln.  Last year, interest rates and credit default swap costs for Illinois state debt climbed above California, suggesting the market considered Illinois the worst credit quality among the 50 United States.

The latest nasty recession hasn’t helped, but long-festering inefficiency and corruption have been a major factor in financial deterioration.  A recent study led by Dick Simpson of the University of Illinois/Chicago estimated costs of $350 million a year in Chicago arising simply from waste, theft, patronage, nepotism and contract rigging.  And speaking of waste, an illuminating symbol comes from the cost of garbage disposal in Chicago.  A recent Wall Street Journal article reviewed the city’s finances, and found Chicagoans paying far higher costs per ton of garbage disposed than any other city in the country, nearly twice as much as the second highest.

In light of the environment, and the seeming inability of public institutions to reform after scandal after scandal, the prospects for ethical and cultural renewal in Chicago in the new administration led by Mayor Rahm Emanuel might best be viewed cautiously. 

Here’s another reason for caution on that score.

A 2009 article/interview published in The American Conservative summarized some of Sibel Edmonds’ testimony in a court case in Ohio.  This venue allowed her to speak about topics where this former FBI translator had been silenced by a dubious legal constraint called the ‘state secrets privilege.’  The 2009 article included shocking material about corruption and influence peddling.  And the city of Chicago was surprisingly prominent, given the scope of her material. 

Edmonds closed her 2009 article / interview with the following observations:

As soon as Obama became president, he showed us that the State Secrets Privilege was going to continue to be a tool of choice. It’s an arcane executive privilege to cover up wrongdoing—in many cases, criminal activities. And the Obama administration has not only defended using the State Secrets Privilege, it has been trying to take it even further than the previous terrible administration by maintaining that the U.S. government has sovereign immunity. This is Obama’s change: his administration seems to think it doesn’t even have to invoke state secrets as our leaders are emperors who possess this sovereign immunity. This is not the kind of language that anybody in a democracy would use.

The other thing I noticed is how Chicago, with its culture of political corruption, is central to the new administration. When I saw that Obama’s choice of chief of staff was Rahm Emanuel, knowing his relationship with Mayor Richard Daley and with the Hastert crowd, I knew we were not going to see positive changes. Changes possibly, but changes for the worse. It was no coincidence that the Turkish criminal entity’s operation centered on Chicago.

In our coming series, we are going crawl into a few of these rabbit holes.

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Bill Bergman joins us to discuss compelling financial irregularities and cases involving pre-9/11 money transfers, suspicious activity reporting, and informed securities trading, all of which remain uninvestigated and unanswered to date. He provides us with his analyses of the extraordinary surge in currency shipments and significant increase in the number of suspicious activity reports filed by financial institutions in the summer of 2001, the long history of currency shipments in U.S. covert operations, documented false statements and conclusions by the 9/11 Commission regarding the National Money Laundering Strategy Report from the Department of the Treasury in 2001, and the performance of the ‘market fear index’ in the weeks before 9/11. Mr. Bergman discusses obstacles and climate of fear faced by public servants, the city of Chicago as the major hub for money laundering, narcotics and corruption, and more!

Bill Bergman has 10 years of experience as a stock market analyst sandwiched around 13 years as an economist and financial markets policy analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. He earned an M.B.A. as well as an M.A. in Public Policy from the University of Chicago in 1990. His research work at the Fed included writing the Chicago Fed contribution to the Federal Reserve “beige book.” Some recent issue areas he has worked on include the implications national emergency and war powers pose for the Federal Reserve, money laundering, and wholesale payment system design, risk, performance and pricing. Mr. Bergman is currently working with Social Movement Sciences LLC, a new enterprise developing evaluation and funding services for not-for-profit organizations.

Here is our guest Bill Bergman unplugged!

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According to the latest reports the degree of allegiance to Israel and its lobby has taken center stage in two Chicago election campaigns for a congressional seat. As far as the two candidates, the incumbent Jan Schakowsky and the Republican Joel Pollak, are concerned, this race and the issues are not about the tanking economy, over a trillion of dollars in deficit or unemployment, neither it is about our disastrous state of civil liberties, quagmire state of our wars, or speedily declining foreign standing and dignity. No.  The number one issue for both candidates is the level of allegiance to the State of Israel, the approval rating from Israel’s number one US lobby AIPAC, and the degree of religiosity in Judaism. The main question and top competition arena in Schakowsky v. Pollak is ‘Who does and will do more and better to represent and protect the Jewish interest?’ And so far our current representative, Ms. Jan Schakowsky seems to be way ahead (the emphasis are all mine;-):

Pollak tends to carry a map of the Middle East with him on the campaign trail, and to present it to the voters. Last week he visited the reform synagogue of B’nai Jehoshua Beth Elohim in Deerfield, Illinois, which hosted a debate between the two candidates. He spread the copy of the Google map in his possession and announced to the audience: “My focus tonight will be Israel.”

…

Pollak’s main obstacle is that Schakowsky was labeled ‘kosher’ by the pro-Israel community, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a prominent lobby group, has praised her work.

…

I’d say Schakowsky is way ahead since her closeted ties and certain long-term commitments go beyond AIPAC, and extend to other Israeli and Turkish subsidiaries all operating under the main lobby’s umbrella.

Do you remember the cover-page story on Jan Schakowsky’s questionable loyalties and skeletons last November? Don’t be hard on yourself if you don’t have a clue since the Israel-Loving mainstream media made sure it stayed quiet and censored. The AmCon Magazine dared to explore the topic after my under oath testimony in Schmidt v. Krikorian case:

So the FBI was monitoring these connections going from a congressman to a congressman’s assistant to a foreign individual who is connected with intelligence to other intelligence people who are located at different embassies in Washington. And all of this information is in an FBI file somewhere?
EDMONDS: Two sets of FBI files, but the AIPAC-related files and the Turkish files ended up converging in one. The FBI agents believed that they were looking at the same operation. It didn’t start with AIPAC originally. It started with the Israeli Embassy. The original targets were intelligence officers under diplomatic cover in the Turkish Embassy and the Israeli Embassy. It was those contacts that led to the American Turkish Council and the Assembly of Turkish American Associations and then to AIPAC fronting for the Israelis. It moved forward from there.

…
GIRALDI: So the investigation stopped in Washington, but continued in Chicago?

EDMONDS: Yes, and in 2000, another representative was added to the list, Jan Schakowsky, the Democratic congresswoman from Illinois. Turkish agents started gathering information on her, and they found out that she was bisexual. So a Turkish agent struck up a relationship with her. When Jan Schakowsky’s mother died, the Turkish woman went to the funeral, hoping to exploit her vulnerability. They later were intimate in Schakowsky’s townhouse, which had been set up with recording devices and hidden cameras. They needed Schakowsky and her husband Robert Creamer to perform certain illegal operational facilitations for them in Illinois. They already had Hastert, the mayor, and several other Illinois state senators involved. I don’t know if Congresswoman Schakowsky ever was actually blackmailed or did anything for the Turkish woman.

…

I think it would be wise to also concentrate on Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s convicted husband, Bob Creamer. After all, this is Chicago! The following is from what I wrote a while back titled ‘Chicago! Not the Musical, but the Action-Suspense Docudrama!’

In March 2004 Schakowsky’s husband, lobbyist Robert Creamer, who was also executive director of the Illinois Public Action Fund, was indicted in federal court on 16 counts of bank fraud involving three alleged check-kitting schemes in the mid-1990s, leading several banks to experience shortfalls of at least $2.3 million. Later he pleaded guilty to tax violations and bank fraud for writing rubber checks and failing to collect withholding tax from an employee. Here is a report in USA Today:

Creamer, 58, a prominent Chicago political consultant, was accused of swindling nine financial institutions of at least $2.3 million while he ran a public interest group in the 1990s.Creamer told reporters Wednesday there was “no doubt that my actions a decade ago were very foolish and placed myself, my family, the organization and many of those who worked with me at considerable risk.”The indictment alleged Creamer caused a series of insufficiently funded checks and wire transfers to be drawn on accounts he controlled as executive director of the Illinois Public Action Fund. According to the indictment, he allegedly then used the inflated balances to pay the group’s expenses and own salary.

And here is more:

The husband of U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) will spend five months in prison for committing bank fraud as part of his efforts to keep afloat a nonprofit group that he ran. U.S. Senior District Judge James Moran handed down the punishment on Wednesday to Robert Creamer, who also will serve 11 months under house arrest.

The sentence fell far short of the three-year prison term that prosecutors were seeking for Creamer, who pleaded guilty last year to writing a series of bad checks worth millions of dollars to numerous banks to generate cash — a scheme known as check-kiting.

…

Now, Rep. Schakowsky served on the organization’s board during the time the crimes occurred. She happened to sign all the IRS filings along with her husband during this almost decade long of … basically embezzlements. She was fully aware of her husband’s additional income of $100,000 from these fraudulent funds. Yet, this woman, who happens to be a Representative, claimed she had no idea, that she had not noticed, that she had not known or suspected.

I don’t know about you but no matter under which one of the two scenarios – she didn’t know or she knew and went along – this woman should have been kicked out of her congressional seat. Let’s take the first scenario:

If she is so dumb and stupid as to sign all these joint IRS documents and it doesn’t register that there are unaccounted for millions of dollars, she is not competent to be a congresswoman. PERIOD! If she is so irresponsible and intelligence-wise challenged to serve on this organization’s board, sign all the minutes and papers and bank dealings, and yet doesn’t realize millions of dollars are coming out of nowhere, then she is not capable and mentally unfit to occupy her current congressional seat, and should be removed. PERIOD! So here is the question for Schakowsky’s constituents: If she is telling the truth shouldn’t they be voting this uber gullible, stupid woman out of office?

Under the second scenario that we assume she knew: she is a criminal, and she should have joined her husband in jail. She was an accomplice in swindling nine financial institutions of at least $2.3 million.

As for Robert Creamer’s connections, we’ve already established his connection to Blagojevich :

Jan Schakowsky contributed $28,000 to Blagojevich, endorsed him in 2002 and 2006, and raised money for his campaign through 2008. Her convicted felon husband Robert Creamer worked for Rod Blagojevich before pleading guilty to tax and bank fraud.

From 2001-2002, Friends of Blagojevich paid more than $541,000 to a political consulting firm run by Schakowsky’s husband, Robert Creamer, according to state records. The firm, Strategic Consulting Group, reportedly provided “consulting,” “field consulting” and “predictive dialer” services to the Blagojevich campaign.

…

Okay, you can read the entire piece on Chicago here

Come on proud Chicagoans. Isn’t it time to set things straight? Are you going to stand up, pick a ‘real candidate,’ and cast your vote with conscious? Or are you going to say ‘oh well, this is Chicago!’ ?!
 

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Chicago’s governing style and practices have been consistently characterized as criminal and corrupt since the days of the prohibition-era gangster, Al Capone. Last year Daniel Elgber wrote an interesting piece on this same topic titled ‘Why is Chicago so Corrupt?’

Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan received a sentence of six and a half years in prison on Wednesday, after being convicted on charges of racketeering, mail fraud, filing false tax returns, and lying to investigators. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that in the last three decades, at least 79 local elected officials have been convicted of a crime, including three governors, one mayor, and a whopping 27 aldermen from the Windy City. What makes Chicago so corrupt?

Elgber then goes on to provide some context, historical background, and past parallels with other cities. He points to a few possible factors behind this windy city’s continuous struggle with chronic political corruption:

In Chicago, corruption persisted, to some degree because the city never had the benefit of a reformist mayor like New York City’s Fiorello LaGuardia, who had political ties to FDR. Instead, Chicago moved towards a one-party system that made it even more vulnerable to corruption: The city’s last Republican mayor left office in 1931. Today, not even the Democratic primaries are competitive—for the most part, once you’re in office, you stay there. The weak campaign finance laws in Illinois probably helped to stave off competition in recent years.

The star power of Chicago politicians may also contribute to the city’s continuing problems with corruption. Incumbents tend to be big personalities who get celebrity coverage in the local papers—which sometimes translates into ethical leeway from voters. (In cities like Los Angeles and New York, local politicians take a back seat to the media celebs.)

Lastly, Elgber talks about corruption measurement and relevant points. This is a very interesting and obviously still relevant and applicable piece, so I suggest you read it in its entirety here and check out the links provided.

The media has long been reporting on Chicago’s corruption related scandals, and the intensity and frequency of these stories have increased tremendously in the last few years. So why am I so interested in this windy city of Bears?

Those of you who know me and/or are familiar with my case know the answer: Could it be the Political System Termite Dennis Hastert? Could it be the case of still under question marks Jan Schakowsky and the clear-cut record of her convicted husband? Could it be the Turkish criminal operatives with their HQ in Chicago since the early 90s? Could it be that Chicago was one of the two centers of the FBI’s nearly decade-long espionage and criminal investigations?

Well, the answer to all those ‘could it be’s is a firm yes, with more answers still buried somewhere in Chicago…For now let’s look at a small gallery of a much bigger gallery on recent key political personalities who happen to be connected to each other in more than one way and with more than a tie or two. Treat it as you might an exhibition room in a museum showcasing a series of relevant portraits all set against the same windy city background. Or if you wish, which I hope you do, go even further and add your points and possible interpretations for each portrait.

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel

I am starting with Rahm Emanuel since he prompted this piece on Chicago Politics’ Figureheads in Corruption. I know what you’re thinking, and no I am not going to walk down the same path and talk about the creepy odd personalities making even a creepier and odder couple. Catch my drift? While the outcome of that marriage may end up interestingly, the marriage is not as advertised. It is not far left with far right, but purely and simply a good example of in-breeding: when the byproducts of the same establishment couple with each other…In ordinary life the off-spring sum up the result. In the murky, smoke and mirrors, basically plain swampy and dirty world of partisan politics the outcome is what you watch on Fox TV, or the like.

Okay, so while the latest with Rahmie prompted this piece, the reasoning and the points herein have nothing to do with that. After all, Rahm Emanuel’s past record has always been out there for anyone who wanted to look, to see, to know about: his father’s Ziono-Terrorist background, his own active duty with Israel’s military, his dual citizenship, his highly questionable loyalties, his even more questionable financial gains from swampy financial institutions’ practices, his connections to the corrupt and criminals, his dirty mouth, his dirtier deeds in the campaign finance area…That’s right. All this has been known for quite a while. Somehow, the far left, while advertising for and promoting Obama, chose not to see their man’s choice of White House Chief of Staff, and worked very hard to hush anyone who did. Now that their con man of choice is secured in place, combined with only God knows what agenda, they choose to mumble about him.

This is what I am talking about:

Before its portfolio of bad loans helped trigger the current housing crisis, mortgage giant Freddie Mac was the focus of a major accounting scandal that led to a management shake-up, huge fines and scalding condemnation of passive directors by a top federal regulator. One of those allegedly asleep-at-the-switch board members was Chicago’s Rahm Emanuel–now chief of staff to President Barack Obama–who made at least $320,000 for a 14-month stint at Freddie Mac that required little effort.

…

Emanuel’s Freddie Mac involvement has been a prominent point on his political résumé, and his healthy payday from the firm has been no secret either. What is less known, however, is how little he apparently did for his money and how he benefited from the kind of cozy ties between Washington and Wall Street that have fueled the nation’s current economic mess.

The above information has been readily available to all for almost a decade. It’s been a part of Emanuel’s resume for Pete’s Sake. Somehow, during all the false advertising during the presidential candidacy and then the elections, the left chose to look the other way and simply ignored and hushed. Now the dumb and dirty are playing dumber for even dirtier reasons, and want him investigated for his past questionable ties and later questionable stonewalling of investigations into the financial disasters of late.

I mentioned Rahm Emanuel’s connections to and cozy relationships with Chicago’s known corrupt criminals. Here is one:

The bullish, foul-mouthed but effective Chicago arm-twister Rahm Emanuel has come under pressure to resign as Barack Obama’s chief of staff after it was revealed that he had been captured on court-approved wire-taps discussing the names of candidates for Obama’s Senate seat.

…

Blagojevich has been accused of plotting to sell Obama’s Senate seat – which is in the governor’s gift – in return for financial and political favors. Emanuel ducked out of view last week, avoiding reporters’ questions and complaining of harassment and “death threats” as the news spread that he was the likely unnamed adviser cited by the FBI with whom the tainted Blagojevich hoped to bargain over the appointment.

…

Here is Emanuel’s connection to Turkish Operative, Mehmet Celebi:

Celebi was a fundraiser for another Chicago politician, Rahm Emanuel. Later, Celebi became a bundler for Hillary Clinton, raising $100,000 for her presidential campaign. She finally had to dump Celebi because of his role as producer of the Turkish film “Kurtlar Vadisi Irak“.

His list of connections include the infamous Mayor of Chicago, Richard Daley, whom he worked for as a fundraiser, and his old boss, Robert Creamer, Representative Jan Schakowsky’s convicted felon husband.

Sometimes one wonders about nature v nurture when it comes to more or less ‘pure corrupt’ breeds. So what made Emanuel who he is today, who he’s been for many years, since his early adulthood? I don’t know. As for family history, here is what you’ll find:

This impression is reinforced by the fact that Emanuel – an American citizen by birth – joined the Israeli army as a volunteer during the 1991 Gulf war between the United States and Iraq. By joining the Israeli army, Emanuel violated a US law which prohibits American citizens from joining the armed forces of another country. Americans who do so can be stripped of their citizenship.

Emanuel’s father, Benjamin M. Emanuel, is a pediatrician who was born in Jerusalem. He was a member of the Irgun, a Zionist terrorist group that operated in Palestine from 1931 to 1948 during the British Mandate.

Irgun was described as a terrorist organisation by the New York Times and by the Anglo-American Committee of Enquiry. All told, Irgun attacks against Arab targets resulted in at least 250 Arab deaths during this period.

…

In many respects Rahm Emanuel wears the old and tried Chicago Politician cloak perfectly. No wonder his name keeps surfacing in relation to other scandalous Chicago figures: Daley, Blagojevich, Creamer …His Freddie Mac connections and deals only add a bit more spice to this already well-seasoned Chicago man…

Ex Governor Rod Blagojevich

Let’s talk briefly about the infamous governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, who was arrested on federal corruption charges in 2008. I say briefly because there’s tons and tons of information and headlines involving this guy, so let’s not bother going through all the details. The charges against him involved conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, and solicitation of bribery.

Last January the Illinois House of Representatives voted to impeach him by a 114-1 vote for corruption and misconduct in office. Wikipedia has a condensed version of this once-upon-a-time popular governor’s so very typically Chicago-Politic dirt file:

During the course of his political career, Blagojevich was involved in a number of controversies including at least a dozen separate federal investigations; the Tony Rezko indictment and trial; feuds with his father-in-law; contested state appointments; his residency, commute, and work hours; and allegedly withholding state funds from the Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago. In 2008, Blagojevich was investigated for and charged with crimes resulting from his role in the sale of the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field.

Many of you already know all about Blagojevich, and those of you who don’t can look it up, or just ask around; there’s plenty. On the other hand I am not sure if many know how he ties in with the rest of our latest well-known Chicago political machine’s corrupt participants. For instance, how many people know about Sister-Teresa impersonator, Jan Schakowsky, and her convicted felon husband’s close connections to this disgraced ex-governor? Here are a few excerpts:

Jan Schakowsky contributed $28,000 to Blagojevich, endorsed him in 2002 and 2006, and raised money for his campaign through 2008. Her convicted felon husband Robert Creamer worked for Rod Blagojevich before pleading guilty to tax and bank fraud.

…

In April 2008, Schakowsky told the Sun-Times that she and Blagojevich “have a working relationship, and we have a long-standing friendship.” In the weeks leading up to Blagojevich’s arrest for attempting to sell Illinois’ U.S. Senate seat, Schakowsky confirmed that she spoke with the governor about the appointment and was under consideration.

…

And a few more details on Schakowsky’s convicted felon husband’s ties to Blagojevich:

From 2001-2002, Friends of Blagojevich paid more than $541,000 to a political consulting firm run by Schakowsky’s husband, Robert Creamer, according to state records. The firm, Strategic Consulting Group, reportedly provided “consulting,” “field consulting” and “predictive dialer” services to the Blagojevich campaign.

During the same election cycle, Creamer and his firm were linked to fraudulent voter activities in the Illinois’ 17th Congressional District – and a slush fund he helped create called the “17th District Victory Fund” was later fined by the Federal Election Commission.

In 2004, Creamer was indicted on 16 counts of bank fraud and 18 counts of tax fraud after failing to pay more than $300,000 in income taxes and pulling a $1 million overdraft in a check kiting scheme. In 2005, Creamer pleaded guilty to two felonies, bank fraud and failure to pay federal taxes. In 2006, Creamer was sentenced to five months in prison and 11 months home confinement.

…

And don’t forget Rahm Emanuel’s cozy relationship and past business dealings with Blagojevich. A simple Google search will bring up loads of data on that, like this:

You see, these are the ties that make the picture clear, and again, these are the ties the current odd-duos would rather leave out and cover up. When it came to their chosen man, Obama, and the mission to put him in the White House, they went out of their way to hush crusty Rahm Emanuel. Now, when Rahmie gets to be a bit too big of a pill to have people swallow, they want to pre-empt outing him. Meanwhile, this same crowd are the loudest cheerleaders for phonies like Representative Schakowsky and her criminal husband, and God forbid if you dare bring up the connections: Schakowsky-Creamer-Emanuel, Schakowsky-Creamer-.Blagojevich… We’ll have more on this later….

Mayor Richard M. Daley

Here’s a brief snapshot of Chicago’s beloved Mayor, Richard M. Daley, who was elected mayor in 1989 and reelected in 1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, and then again in 2007, and became the longest serving mayor in Chicago’s history! There have been many whispers and speculations on Daley’s long-running practices, his family lineage in practicing corrupt politics, his own personal baggage, and such. However, let’s stick with well-publicized and confirmed scandals and deeds, and wait until others surface with accompanying witnesses and documents, since eventually they all do.

Here is one scandal referred to as the Hired Truck Program. It involved hiring private trucks to do city work. In 2004, after six months of investigation, the Chicago Sun published a series of articles that revealed how certain participating companies were being paid for doing little or no work and had mob connections or were tied to city employees. Truck owners also paid bribes in order to get into the program. Here are a few highlights on this particular scandal:

While the Sun-Times watched this hired truck in West Humboldt Park, it went to McDonald’s and Jewel, and eventually hauled a small load. Many do nothing but work for the city’s Hired Truck Program, and often their operations are run out of the owners’ homes. Six of every 10 aren’t listed in the phone book.

But many are listed on campaign reports showing they contribute money to the mayor and other politicians — in all more than $800,000 since 1996

According to one of the drivers this is how it works a la Chicago:

Getting paid to do little or nothing comes with a price, says another trucking firm owner, a 20-year veteran of the program who requested anonymity. It costs him about $1,500 a year in bribes to several city employees to keep his trucks active in the no-bid program, the owner said.

“You put it in the Christmas cards,” he said, referring to cash bribes. “Don’t let anybody see it. You gotta do what you gotta do.”

Once, the owner said, he decided to cut one city employee off his Christmas list. The response was swift.

“You know, just right after Christmas, I lost one truck” from the program, he said. “I only made that mistake once.”

The Hired Truck Scandal led to another exposé:

The hired truck scandal eventually sparked a Federal investigation into hiring practices at Chicago City Hall, with Robert Sorich, Mayor Daley’s former patronage chief, facing mail fraud charges for allegedly rigging city hiring to favor people with political connections. On July 5, 2006, Sorich was convicted on two counts of mail fraud for rigging city jobs and promotions.

…

And here are a few corruption points from Mayor Daley’s Millennium Park Project:

…But although Millennium Park may well be remembered as one of Mr. Daley’s great achievements, this is not a moment of unalloyed pride for the mayor, who is under intensifying criticism for what some say is a pattern of corruption in and around his administration.

Last week, The Chicago Tribune ran a front-page article reporting that the company chosen to clean up after a recent city-sponsored food festival had submitted an inflated bid, but appeared to have won the contract because it donated tens of thousands of dollars to a political committee that supports Mr. Daley.

…

For a list containing information and links to several articles on Mayor Daley’s background and scandals click here. As I’ve said, I’m not going to rehash all the details of these scandals since they are widely available to all. Instead I’ll bring in our other showcased Chicago political faces and their connections to the Daley machine:

Our White House man, Rahm Emanuel, started his career with Mayor Daley. Here are some details:

For his part, Emanuel hooked up with Daley just about as soon as he could — back in the late 1980s, when he was barely 30 years old. He signed on with Daley. By all accounts, he made himself indispensable to the boss as a fundraiser, badgering, bullying, or guilt-tripping the locals into giving money to Daley’s campaign. It was then that Emanuel established his reputation as Rahmbo — the brash, arrogant, and tempestuous assistant that political bosses use to get things done.

After helping Daley win, Emanuel made himself just as indispensable to Bill Clinton, first as a fundraiser and later as a key White House aide. Emanuel managed to piss off nearly everyone in Washington, but when Clinton’s term was up, Daley, apparently still grateful for the money raised, welcomed him back to Chicago with open arms. In 2002, Daley endorsed Emanuel to fill the congressional seat left vacant when Rod Blagojevich ran for governor.

…

Let’s see who else happens to be very closely connected to Mayor Daley? There he is, again, Rep. Schakowsky’s convicted husband Mr. Creamer himself. As one of Chicago’s best-known political consultants, he worked for the campaigns of both Mayor Daley and Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.

We’ll have more ties later in the article. Let’s move on and have a brief re-introduction to another relevant Chicago character.

Touch All Tony Rezko

We’ve had the pleasure of reading and hearing about Tony Rezko starting in 2005-2006. He is the political fundraiser and real estate developer in Chicago who was convicted on several accounts of fraud and bribery in 2008. He had been involved in fundraising for local Illinois politicians, Republican and Democrats alike, since the 1980s. He helped Blagojevich set up the state’s first Democratic administration in twenty years, and of course because of that he was able to have business associates appointed onto several state boards. In 2006 Rezko and several others were indicted on federal charges for using their connections to the state boards to demand kickbacks from businesses that wanted to do business with the state. While the others pleaded guilty to the charges, Rezko pleaded not guilty and was found guilty of 16 of the 24 charges filed against him.

Rezko was found guilty of six counts of wire fraud, six counts of mail fraud, two counts of corrupt solicitation, and two counts of money laundering, but was found not guilty on three counts of wire and mail fraud, one count of attempted extortion, and four counts of corrupt solicitation. He has been held at Chicago’s Metropolitan Correctional Center since his conviction.

The case is much deeper and more interesting than my brief snapshot above, but you can easily access and read about it in many places, including here at Wikipedia. Now, let’s take a look at relevant ties and connections, starting with Rod Blagojevich:

Rezko’s relationship with Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and his family were at the root of the federal corruption case which led to Rezko’s conviction. Rezko donated $117,652 to Blagojevich’s campaigns, and is credited by the prosecutor in his trial with having delivered bundled contributions totaling almost $1.44 million.

Since 1997, Blagojevich’s wife, Patricia, has made at least $38,000 acting as Rezko’s real-estate agent on several of his company’s property acquisitions. When Blagojevich won the Illinois gubernatorial election in 2002, Rezko assisted Blagojevich in setting up the state’s first Democratic administration in twenty years.

Rezko recommended many of his business associates and their relatives for positions within state government, three of whom were appointed to the state board that oversees hospital projects. the state’s development board was run by another former Rezko business associate. Rezko and Republican fundraiser Stuart Levine were charged in a 24-count federal indictment for allegedly using Rezko’s influence with public officials to demand millions of dollars in kickbacks from companies that wanted to do business with the state. Levine pled guilty and served as the chief witness against Rezko at trial. Levine and several other witnesses implicated Blagojevich in the schemes.

As you may have expected, Mr. Rezko was also tightly connected to our Mayor Richard Daley. I suggest you read the following piece published by the Chicago Sun Times: ‘Showdown at Clout Corner’.

Since we’ve already covered the roles of Robert Creamer and Rahm Emanuel in both Blagojevich and Daley’s fundraising and election campaigns, I will leave their connections to Rezko NOT to your imagination but simple logical deduction and reasoning skills.

Instead, I’ll concentrate on the mother-load connections to our current president, Mr. Obama.

Obama’s dealings with his hinky friend have never led him afoul of the law, but they show that, despite his high-minded politics, he was no purer — or no savvier — than Illinois’ biggest hacks in his weakness for a generous contributor. He wouldn’t even say no when Rezko cooked up a deal to help the newly elected senator buy a gracious Georgian-revival home.

Rezko, after all, built part of his fortune by exploiting the black community that Obama had served in the state Senate, and by milking government programs meant to benefit black-owned businesses. But Obama took Rezko’s money even after the businessman was sued by the city of Chicago for failing to heat his low-income apartments, and even after Rezko was caught using a black business partner to obtain a minority set-aside for a fast-food franchise at O’Hare Airport.

…

After law school, Obama went to work for the firm of Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland. During Rezko’s stint in ghetto rehab, Davis Miner represented three community groups in partnership with Rezmar. Through them, the law firm helped Rezko obtain $43 million in government funds.

…

Obama didn’t really become tight with Rezko until he ran for the state Senate, in 1995. Rezko, who can spot a comer, was first in line with a check. The day the campaign started, Obama received $2,000 from two of Rezko’s fast-food businesses. Eight years later, when Obama was campaigning for the U.S. Senate, Rezko hosted a fundraiser at his suburban mansion.

…

Obama, on the other hand, seems to have derived some material benefit from his friendship with Rezko. During his first year in the Senate, flush with the book advance for “The Audacity of Hope,” Obama and his wife decided to trade up from a condo to a bigger, more secure home in Kenwood, a South Side neighborhood of turreted, balconied piles popular with University of Chicago econ professors looking to blow their Nobel Prize loot. They found a $1.65 million house with four fireplaces, a wine cellar and a black wrought-iron fence. The doctor who lived there also owned the vacant lot next door and, although the properties were listed separately, wanted to sell both at the same time. Despite their new income, the Obamas could not have afforded both parcels. The Obamas closed on their house in June 2005. On the same day, Rezko’s wife, Rita, purchased the vacant lot for $625,000. They later sold a portion of the lot to the Obamas, for $104,500, so the family could expand its yard. The Rezkos then paid $14,000 to build a fence along the property line.

Okay, please don’t make me break the ‘using excerpts’ ethic code any further, and read the piece here. If you find that not as objective and maybe leaning leftwards, here is another piece on the same subject: click here.

Chicago Duo Schakowsky-Creamer

A few months ago we went through a rather interesting Schakowsky episode. Again, those of you who know me or my case, and those of you who were following my old blog site know all about it. If you are among those who don’t know about the semi exposé on Representative Schakowsky’s relationship with Turkish operatives who were under FBI investigations read ‘who’s afraid of Sibel Edmonds?’ here. For the purpose of this piece I am going to mainly focus on Schakowsky’s husband, Robert Creamer.

In March 2004 Schakowsky’s husband, lobbyist Robert Creamer, who was also executive director of the Illinois Public Action Fund, was indicted in federal court on 16 counts of bank fraud involving three alleged check-kitting schemes in the mid-1990s, leading several banks to experience shortfalls of at least $2.3 million. Later he pleaded guilty to tax violations and bank fraud for writing rubber checks and failing to collect withholding tax from an employee. Here is a report in USA Today:

Creamer, 58, a prominent Chicago political consultant, was accused of swindling nine financial institutions of at least $2.3 million while he ran a public interest group in the 1990s.Creamer told reporters Wednesday there was “no doubt that my actions a decade ago were very foolish and placed myself, my family, the organization and many of those who worked with me at considerable risk.”The indictment alleged Creamer caused a series of insufficiently funded checks and wire transfers to be drawn on accounts he controlled as executive director of the Illinois Public Action Fund. According to the indictment, he allegedly then used the inflated balances to pay the group’s expenses and own salary.

And here is more:

The husband of U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) will spend five months in prison for committing bank fraud as part of his efforts to keep afloat a nonprofit group that he ran. U.S. Senior District Judge James Moran handed down the punishment on Wednesday to Robert Creamer, who also will serve 11 months under house arrest.

The sentence fell far short of the three-year prison term that prosecutors were seeking for Creamer, who pleaded guilty last year to writing a series of bad checks worth millions of dollars to numerous banks to generate cash — a scheme known as check-kiting.

…

Now, Rep. Schakowsky served on the organization’s board during the time the crimes occurred. She happened to sign all the IRS filings along with her husband during this almost decade long of … basically embezzlements. She was fully aware of her husband’s additional income of $100,000 from these fraudulent funds. Yet, this woman, who happens to be a Representative, claimed she had no idea, that she had not noticed, that she had not known or suspected.

I don’t know about you but no matter under which one of the two scenarios – she didn’t know or she knew and went along – this woman should have been kicked out of her congressional seat. Let’s take the first scenario:

If she is so dumb and stupid as to sign all these joint IRS documents and it doesn’t register that there are unaccounted for millions of dollars, she is not competent to be a congresswoman. PERIOD! If she is so irresponsible and intelligence-wise challenged to serve on this organization’s board, sign all the minutes and papers and bank dealings, and yet doesn’t realize millions of dollars are coming out of nowhere, then she is not capable and mentally unfit to occupy her current congressional seat, and should be removed. PERIOD! So here is the question for Schakowsky’s constituents: If she is telling the truth shouldn’t they be voting this uber gullible, stupid woman out of office?

Under the second scenario that we assume she knew: she is a criminal, and she should have joined her husband in jail. She was an accomplice in swindling nine financial institutions of at least $2.3 million.

As for Robert Creamer’s connections, we’ve already established his connection to Blagojevich :

Jan Schakowsky contributed $28,000 to Blagojevich, endorsed him in 2002 and 2006, and raised money for his campaign through 2008. Her convicted felon husband Robert Creamer worked for Rod Blagojevich before pleading guilty to tax and bank fraud.

From 2001-2002, Friends of Blagojevich paid more than $541,000 to a political consulting firm run by Schakowsky’s husband, Robert Creamer, according to state records. The firm, Strategic Consulting Group, reportedly provided “consulting,” “field consulting” and “predictive dialer” services to the Blagojevich campaign.

Mr. Creamer has been a close associate and supporter of Mayor Daley, and worked for almost all Daley’s campaigns. Additionally:

Illinois Public Action, the state’s largest public interest group, has joined organized labor in endorsing Mayor Daley’s proposed casino complex. Earlier this month, the Illinois State AFL-CIO endorsed the $2 billion gambling and theme park. About 20 of Public Action’s 100 board members are labor leaders, said Executive Director Robert Creamer.

Public Action also has ties to Daley. Daley’s chief fund-raiser, Paul Stepan, is chairman of Public Action’s fund-raising board.

Oh, and guess who gave Rahm Emanuel his start as a fundraiser and trained him as a political dirt ball player? That’s right, Robert Creamer:

I have known Bob for over twenty years, around the same time he hired Rahm Emanuel as a fundraiser (sorry Bob – no one is perfect) and when he met Barack Obama as an organizer in Chicago.

This brings us to another interesting direct connection: Obama-Creamer.

Creamer, the convicted felon who kited checks, happens to be the guy who was in charge of lecturing the Obama campaign on how to raise money and get elected!! Is this some irony or what?! A few excerpts from a commentary on this irony:

Creamer taught at “Camp Obama,” a week-long summer camp last month held at the presidential candidate’s office in Chicago for campaign interns and volunteers-just a few blocks away from the federal court where on August 31, 2005 he pleaded guilty to charges of bank fraud and failure to pay federal taxes…on charges brought by U. S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald…

…

Creamer’s retention to instruct the Obama for President campaign is probably the most revelatory hint that the hopeful, idealistic, whimsical message floated by the candidate is mere vapor obscuring a cynical operation…unless, of course, the Obama people had no idea of Creamer or what his past represents. Creamer’s being hired by the Obama campaign to instruct interns and volunteers in political organizing, abuses of which sent him to jail is ironic. Sen. Obama has been notable among the presidential candidates for crusading in an effort to “bring hope to our people.” He has been chairman of the Senate Ethics committee. How Creamer ended up instructing the Obama workers when his notoriety has been so prominent in Illinois is anyone’s guess.

…

The typical bold and daring characteristic of Political System Termites manifests again in relation to the strong Obama-Creamer bond, past ties and dealings. The cozy relationship between the Con President and the Convicted Creamer still continues openly and daringly. In fact the Schakowsky-Creamer duo’s recent dining with Obama in the White House was publicized heavily…reminding me of PST Hastert…

Before I move to the next in line: All those $$$ given by Schakowsky and her convicted felon husband to Blagojevich and the like, and yet I haven’t seen any articles questioning the sources of these contributions. We know Creamer was convicted and jailed for embezzling millions of dollars; we know that he withdrew six figure salaries for himself from embezzled funds; we know these funds were shared by the duo Schakowsky-Creamer; and we also know they contributed generously to these Chicago politicians’ campaigns. You know, what’s referred to as ‘black money.’

Political System Termite Denny Hastert

My list of Chicago Political Machine’s figures will not be complete without our Former Speaker of the House, good ole dirty Dennis Hastert. However, my previous article was solely on this Political System Termite, where I covered his portrait as a PST fairly thoroughly. That piece provides you with facts, links, and excerpts related to this Chicago man’s long and thick record of scandals, corruption, and never-followed-up-on criminal deeds. You can read about this corrupt political wrestler from Chicago, his involvements in the Jack Abramoff scandal, his role in the Mark Foley disaster, his services to foreign governments while in office, his corrupt land-deals turning him into a millionaire…all here.  

……..

Just take a look at the length of this piece, and of course consider how long it took me to write it, and still, I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface! This is what happens when you try to cover the Chicago Political Machine’s byproduct(s). You may wonder why I would bother with Chicago Style Politics and Politicians. I partially answered that at the beginning of this piece, which had to do with my own knowledge and experience as a result of being privy to the FBI’s espionage-criminal-counterintelligence investigations. There are two more reasons:

Obviously the results of Chicago politics are not contained within or limited by Illinois’ borders. Obviously the infestation has gone national. We had a bit of that with Dennis Hastert, but now the size of this cabal seems to be significantly expanded:

Our President from Chicago is tied to Chicago’s Emanuel, Creamer, Daley, Blagojevich, and Rezko; with multiple ties and multi-layer deep bonds and shared history.

Our White House Chief of Staff from Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, has multiple ties to Blagojevich, Daley, convicted felon Creamer, and questionable connections to Israel, and fundraising stints involving Turkish operatives in Chicago.

Our Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky from Chicago, serves on the House Select Committee on Intelligence, is married to convicted felon Robert Creamer, was targeted by the Shady Turkish Operatives in Chicago, has close friendships and partnerships with Blagojevich and Daley…

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You see what I mean? What a system! Whose hand is in whose pocket? How deep and how far do these ties really go? Is this a new era of politics in our nation a la Chicago? Or, has it always been this, a la USA, and has nothing to do with Chicago? Then, what’s the deal with all these Chicago Politico men?… I’ll let you all answer these questions.

As for my final reason: time to make a new musical called ‘Chicago!’ The old one is just that; old and outdated; totally meek, mild, lame, and boring compared to what Chicago has to offer when it comes to the political-action-drama-crime-suspense genre.  We need one based on the real Chicago and their immensely talented and breathtakingly crafty political players/actors. Don’t you agree?

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It would appear that the True Believers of the Democratic Party are a entering the State of Denial over the “relationship” of Democratic Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky with a female Turkish spy.

In spite of the congresswoman’s claims that she has not been involved with the Turks, we know that in 2001, which is included in the time frame of wiretaps that Sibel Edmonds translated, Mehmet Celebi, of Hillary Clinton fame, donated $350 to Jan Schakowsky. Celebi was a fundraiser for another Chicago politician, Rahm Emanuel. Later, Celebi became a bundler for Hillary Clinton, raising $100,000 for her presidential campaign. She finally had to dump Celebi because of his role as producer of the Turkish film “Kurtlar Vadisi Irak“.

Celebi held high-level positions within the Chicago-based Turkish American Cultural Association (TACA) and the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA). Both organizations had been “targets of an FBI counter-intelligence operation investigating the corruption and bribery of high-level US officials from 1997 onward.” Furthermore, the Celebi family in Turkey has been involved in arms- and narcotics-dealing and Mehmet Celebi admits to having:

” . . . worked in management capacity at some of the world’s largest financial institutions and has provided financial guidance to many high-net worth individuals and celebrities as well as corporations. He has been consulting some of the largest corporations in Turkey on mergers and acquisitions in addition to international funds wishing to invest in Turkey and the region.”

While Celebi was moving and shaking for the Democratic Party in Chicago, Schakowsky’s husband, Robert Creamer, a political consultant, was under investigation for bank fraud. The investigation was ongoing in 1998, which was well within the timeframe of the FBI wiretaps from Chicago that Sibel Edmonds translated. It may very well be that Turkish agents targeted Schakowsky in order to obtain favors from her husband. As Sibel stated in The American Conservative interview:

They needed Schakowsky and her husband Robert Creamer to perform certain illegal operational facilitations for them in Illinois.

Chicago has its connection to Susurluk, too. Abdullah Catli, a state assassin and narcotics trafficker, had long been a member of the Gray Wolves and was wanted by Interpol in the 1990s. Catli helped fellow Gray Wolf Mehmet Ali Agca escape from a Turkish military prison in 1979, just after Agca assassinated a newspaper editor but a few short years before he carried out the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II.

In 1989, Abdullah Catli, under the name Mehmet Ozbay, showed up at the Turkish consulate in Chicago to request a new passport. He showed up at the Chicago consulate for a second time in 1994 to pick up a new passport and request a new Turkish identity card. In 1995 he showed up a third time to request an extension of his required military service. It would also appear that Catli, as Ozbay, married an American, obtained a green card, and went on Interpol’s wanted list during the time that he was in the US.

More interesting is that he was also reported to have been issued an American passport under the name Michael Nicholsan.

Therefore, it’s pretty well established that one of Turkey’s most notorious state assassins and narcotics traffickers lived close enough to Chicago to be compelled to use Chicago’s Turkish consulate to obtain official documents.

In Vanity Fair’s 2005 piece on the Sibel Edmonds case, the magazine clearly established the fact that the FBI named Chicago as the epicenter of Turkish corruption operations targeting US officials.

It’s very difficult to believe that any politician from the Chicago area would have nothing to do with the Turkish community there. For Jan Schakowsky to deny any relationship would be utter foolishness, of course, because she’s been very much involved lately with the Fethullah Gulen movement through the Chicago-based Niagara Foundation, whose honorary president is none other than Hocaefendi himself. This year Schakowsky wrote a Letter of Recognition for the Niagara Foundations 2009 “Peace and Dialogue Awards”. And Schakowsky did the same in 2008 and in 2007.

Naturally, these facts raise questions. How intimately does Representative Schakowsky know the Niagara Foundation in order for her to show such consistent and strong support? What benefits does the Niagara Foundation provide Schakowsky and the City of Chicago? Since the Chicago City Council backs and promotes the Niagara Foundation, what is the foundation’s real connection to Mayor Daly and former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, both of whom are involved in major, ongoing corruption cases?

Inquiring minds want to know.

But could there really be any problem here with Fethullah Gulen? He represents the Islamist trend in Turkey which has generally been at odds with the Nationalists, especially with the ultra-nationalists known as Gray Wolves, right? That’s the simplistic explanation; the reality is far more complicated and would take us from Susurluk and Chicago to Ergenekon.

Last week someone kindly brought to my attention the fact that Günay Hakkı Övünç (Evinch, according to his Americanized spelling) had become the president of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA). Rastî readers will remember Övünç in connection with an American-based Turkish mercenary company that has a training facility in Silopi. More on that from Yeni Özgür Politika:

On some 1,000 acres of land between Silopi and the Habur Border Crossing the Black Hawk Security Company is working feverishly using up to 20 trucks carrying sand, five heavy plant and various other vehicles to get the base finished. The company was reportedly structured according to a model used by the Special Forces. The Washington-based company is shaping its organizations in Turkey and Iraq in order to meet the requirements of a low intensity war. With a cadre comprised of retired soldiers and intelligence operatives taken from special units the company provides a broad spectrum of activities including armored convoy security, defense tactics, low intensity combat, counter-terrorism and intelligence, air operations and hostage rescue.

The company, which has named its site in Habur “Black Hawk 1 Headquarters,” will also have three other HQs in Zakho, Kirkuk and Baghdad.

The company will also have over 1,000 “retired” military personnel from the Turkish army attached to it. They will undergo a short refresher training course at the HQ in Silopi. At the Habur HQ, where some 300 service personnel will also be on duty, there will be a mobile hospital, a helipad, one casevac helicopter, one escort helicopter, and 300 vehicles including armed Hummers, and a truck park for 8,000 vehicles.

[ . . . ]

Günay Hakkı Övünç: Company partner and legal architect Günay Hakkı Övünç owns a law practice in Washington. Övünç, who for years has pursued law suits in the United States filed by the Turkish Embassy and the General Staff, is also the American-Turkısh Assembly’s deputy chairman in charge of Washington.

Also involved in Black Hawk Security, Inc. is the TSK’s retired Lieutenant General Köksal Karabay, who was in charge of Turkish special forces when American marines “bagged” them on 4 July, 2003.

YÖP asks some pertinent questions about the purpose of “Black Hawk 1 HQ” at the Habur border crossing:

The company will also have over 1,000 “retired” military personnel from the Turkish army attached to it. They will undergo a short refresher training course at the HQ in Silopi. At the Habur HQ, where some 300 service personnel will also be on duty, there will be a mobile hospital, a helipad, one casevac [medevac] helicopter, one escort helicopter, and 300 vehicles including armed Hummers, and a truck park for 8,000 vehicles.

[ . . . ]

There are many unanswered questions such as how did the partners meet one another, why did they take on this job, how did they get permission, what kind of relationship do they have with the US authorities, with whom do they share the intelligence they obtain, when the day comes how are they going to use “Turkish-Kurdish-Arab” and perhaps even American personnel, and are they simply going to be escorting trucks and nothing more? As part of an agreement made with this company the Koc Group and Milangaz Company send 1,600 tankers of LPG into Iraq every month. They send 200 tankers of aviation fuel ever day. They provide 70 percent of the United States requirement for diesel fuel via this crossing. When they talk about “security for Turkish trucks” they mean these tankers. However, this much military hardware and these names beg other questions.

Indeed.

Another interesting fact about Övünç is that he’s from Chicago. According to the Sibel Edmonds case, Turkish nationals were apparently deeply engaged in covert activity in two major American cities and one of those was Chicago:

It may be more than another embarrassing security scandal. One counter-intelligence official familiar with Edmonds’s case has told Vanity Fair that the F.B.I. opened an investigation into covert activities by Turkish nationals in the late 1990’s. That inquiry found evidence, mainly via wiretaps, of attempts to corrupt senior American politicians in at least two major cities—Washington and Chicago. Toward the end of 2001, Edmonds was asked to translate some of the thousands of calls that had been recorded by this operation, some dating back to 1997.

[ . . . ]

. . . in December 2001, Joel Robertz, an F.B.I. special agent in Chicago, contacted Sibel and asked her to review some wiretaps. Some were several years old, others more recent; all had been generated by a counter-intelligence that had its start in 1997. “It began in D.C.,” says an F.B.I. counter-intelligence official who is familiar with the case file. “It became apparent that Chicago was actually the center of what was going on.”

I wonder how close a relationship there is between Övünç and another Turkish Chicagoan, Mehmet Çelebi, whose fundraising for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign was eventually dropped faster than a hot potato.

We know that sometime in 2005 or, perhaps, very early 2006, Övünç was “summoned” to Iraq, in Övünç’s own words:

I was summoned to Baghdad. As I did not want to worry my wife, I told her I was going to Turkey for a conference on the Armenian matter – which was true. But, the complete truth was that after the conference I would continue to Iraq via Istanbul Atatürk International Airport, one of the safest routes to Baghdad for civilians. Passengers go through four levels of security checks, and the pretty woman sitting next to you in the plane might be a Turkish sky marshal who can break your neck faster than you can say, “Turkish Delight.”

So who “summoned” him and for what purpose? Inquiring minds want to know.

What may be even more scary is the ATAA’s president-elect, Ergün Kirlikovalı (Check the ATAA’s board of directors page for verification). He should be Övünç’s successor as president of the ATAA in the not-too-distant future. You can get an idea of some of the things Kirlikovalı believes in these comments to a Forbes opinion piece asking, “Should Turkey Apologize to the Armenians”.

Or check out a blog entry at the Orange County Weekly, which has a lot of interesting links to comments Kirlikovali is making all over the Internet . . . Like his psychotic babbling here or his anti-Mexican rant here.

Can someone explain to me how Kirlikovalı’s ranting squares with Övünç’s vision for the ATAA in a statement last month, in which he says, “ATAA is a proud interlocutor, as the voice of reason and credibility in Washington DC for nearly 500,000 Turkish and Turkic Americans nationwide”? And why is it that we should believe the psychotic ravings of the future president of the ATAA on his word alone?