Pro-Obama Iraqi-American Ex-Convict Supports Increased Attacks on U.S. Troops

[phk]

 Pro-Obama Iraqi-American Ex-Convict Supports Increased Attacks on U.S. Troops

There’s so much vileness here that I really don’t know what to mop up first.

Ayham Alsammarae, Iraq’s slimy ex-Minister of Electricity under the Bremer and Allawi administrations, who had escaped from an Iraqi prison by hiring an American security company to break him out back in December 2006, has resurfaced in the Jordanian capital Amman where he gave a press conference today saying, among other things, that he hoped that the insurgency in Iraq “would continue [against U.S. occupation] and avenges the Iraqi people.”

Alsammarae, an Iraqi-American Chicagoan, added during remarks carried by Radio Sawa (Arabic link) that he had contributed the maximum allowable of $2,300 to Barack Obama’s campaign. But there’s another Obama link to Alsammarae: while serving as electricity minister Alsammarae had been involved in brokering deals in the Iraqi electricity sector for Antoin Rezko, Obama’s long-term friend and patron. Rezko is the Syrian-American hustler who was convicted of fraud in an Illinois court on the day that Obama secured the Democratic nomination.

Alsammarae had been appointed minister under the Coalition Provisional Authority upon the recommendation of senior State Department officials who were involved in Iraqi affairs at the time. After leaving office upon Allawi’s election loss, Alsammarae reinvented himself as a mediator between insurgent groups and the U.S. ambassador to Iraq at the time Zalmay Khalilzad, who in turn arranged for Alsammarae, a onetime Republican Party fundraiser and activist in Arab-American circles, to meet with senior Bush administration officials. He was arrested by Iraqi police in Baghdad soon afterwards, an act that Alsammarae, a Sunni Arab, claimed was motivated by sectarian animosity.

Alsammarae escaped from prison after facing multiple corruption charges brought against him by Iraq’s Public Commission for Integrity; he was sprung from jail by hired U.S. mercenaries and left Iraq on a forged Chinese passport, he flew out to Amman on a private jet almost certainly with the knowledge and connivance of some U.S. intelligence officials. He returned to his multi-million dollar mansion in Chicago and, save for a few press interviews here and there, stayed under the radar. But Alsammarae seems to have been a beneficiary of the Amnesty Law that was recently passed by the Iraqi parliament, which was a benchmark for progress actively pushed for by Senate Democrats in Washington DC, and he’s eagerly touting his return to Iraqi politics, as he did in today’s press conference.

In an astounding and blatantly treasonous assertion for a U.S. citizenship holder, he stated that “the [insurgency] in Iraq is a legitimate resistance [movement] and it is against occupation and any resistance in the world against occupation is considered legitimate, and I hope that the [insurgency] continues and avenges the Iraqi people and I look forward to expanding its political agenda.”

I know there’s free speech and all, but isn’t calling for more attacks on U.S. troops a violation of sorts? Isn’t it ethically reprehensible? If Alsammarae’s citizenship can’t be revoked, can’t he be prosecuted on something else?

I’ve heard that Alsammarae allegedly fled Chicago because the authorities were going to get him on tax evasion. I guess his resemblances to Al Capone’s lifestyle—something that Alsammarae once boasted of in a press interview—go all the way.

Now, he wants more insurgent attacks on U.S. troops. What a slime-bucket, but he’s the same slime-bucket that I’ve always thought he was, from the days before the war when he opportunistically hopped onto the anti-Saddam bandwagon when it began revving up for real.

I had seen part of Alsammarrae’s General Intelligence Directorate file back in Baghdad, and he’s identified as a snitch that had worked for the Saddam regime while he was a student in the 1970s, reporting on the political activities and utterances of fellow Iraqi students then pursuing their degrees in the UK.

In another vein, Alsammarrae also tells Radio Sawa that he’s contributed money to the Obama campaign. I wonder how Obama would react to a paycheck and an endorsement from ex-con buddy of Rezko’s who is now braying for more American soldiers to be killed.

Alsammarrae claimed that he was on his way back to Iraq after being let off the legal hook under the amnesty law, and that he is set to re-join Ayad Allawi’s political coalition.

[Eraserhead]

You are quickly becoming Vander Blubb Part 2.

[zombones]

close thread

[MODU]

A)  Terrible article (as far it is written)
B)  Terrible person (Ayham Alsammarae)
C)  Obama cannot control people he is not associated with

Activities by Rezko do reflect on Obama, but not Rezko's friends.

[phk]

 Story Update: IRAQI JUDGE: Alsammarae Will Go to Prison if He Steps Onto Iraqi Soil

In a fascinating update to my story of a few days ago regarding Aiham Alsammarae, the slimy pro-Obama Iraqi-American ex-convict who called for more insurgent attacks on American soldiers, the Iraqi Higher Judicial Council has declared today that Alsammarae will face prison time and more charges should he return to Iraq.

The official spokesman of the Higher Judicial Council, Judge Abdul Satar al-Bairaqdar told Aswat Al-Iraq News Agency today (Arabic link) that there are several verdicts concerning Alsammarae that are still in effect and that carry varying prison sentences. These verdicts were rendered by Iraqi courts against Alsammarae on charges of corruption, such as misuse of public funds and receiving kickbacks, during his tenure as Minister of Electricity in the Bremer and Allawi cabinets (2003-2005).

Alsammarae’s financial crimes are widely perceived by the Iraqi public as the reason behind the government’s continuing failure to provide enough electrical power to Iraq’s population. Another widely-held perception is that Alsammarae embezzled hundreds of millions of dollars during his tenure.

Judge al-Bairaqdar clarified that some verdicts and charges against Alsammarae fall under the newly-passed Amnesty Law, but that there are still others that were not covered under the amnesty and hence are still in effect. He added that the documents that Alsammarae had presented at the press conference he held four days ago in Amman are not enough to exonerate him from a legal standpoint.

Alsammarae had indicated that he shall be returning next July to resume his role in Iraqi politics.

Y'know, given how close Alsammarae was to Antoin Rezko, and how close Rezko was to Barack Obama, I'm certain that Alsammarae and Obama are intimately connected, and that at least some of Obama's worldview of Iraq was inferred by a slime-bucket such as Alsammarae, who now wants insurgents to kill more Americans and says so at the top of his voice. Yet even though in the past Alsammarae's story has been extensively covered by CBS, CNN, the New York Times and many others, his current shenanigans are being studiously ignored, presumably lest they reflect badly on the media's preferred presidential candidate: Mr. Obama, the anti-Iraq War candidate.

Part of why America went wrong in Iraq was its reliance on the likes of Alsammarae. His prosecution and conviction are part of the remedy; the likes of Alsammarae should never again be allowed to sabotage the Iraqi economy, and then get a free pass from U.S. officials. Does Obama agree? Is there a journalist out there that cares to ask him about that? And it's not as if Obama is being asked about some obscure angle of foreign policy; the course to be taken in Iraq will be one of the most important issues, if not the most important issue, of this election. Alsammarae and Obama's relationship to him are two storylines that are consequently, and definitely, relevant to the latter's candidacy.

But it's real hard to bring-up the Alsammarae affair within the format of a fluffy, soft-ball question, ain't it?

[NOVA Green]

I'm sure that if this is true Obama will be returning the check forthwith.

There are plenty of unsavory characters associated with the former and current Iraqi governments that have attempted in various ways to insert themselves into the US Presidential race.

This report tells me nothing new regarding anything involving who Americans choose to select as President come November.

[Albus Dumbledore]

Close and ban op.