The Washington Post has an article today, Monday, December 22,
2008, that reveals how tapes provided by Pamela Meyer Davis,
helped Patrick Fitzgerald and federal prosecutors begin their
shakedown of corruption in Chicago and IL that has led to the
arrest of Rod Blagojevich.
“Secret Tapes Helped Build Graft Cases In Illinois
Hospital CEO Reported Shakedown, Wore Wire”
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, December 22, 2008″
“CHICAGO — The wide-ranging public corruption probe that led to the arrest of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich got its first big break when a grandmother of six walked into a breakfast meeting with shakedown artists wearing an FBI wire.
Pamela Meyer Davis had been trying to win approval from a state health planning board for an expansion of Edward Hospital, the facility she runs in a Chicago suburb, but she realized that the only way to prevail was to retain a politically connected construction company and a specific investment house. Instead of succumbing to those demands, she went to the FBI and U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald in late 2003 and agreed to secretly record conversations about the project.
Her tapes led investigators down a twisted path of corruption that over five years has ensnared a collection of behind-the-scenes figures in Illinois government, including Joseph Cari Jr., a former Democratic National Committee member, and disgraced businessman Antoin “Tony” Rezko.
On Dec. 9, that path wound up at the governor’s doorstep. Another set of wiretaps suggested that Blagojevich was seeking to capitalize on the chance to fill the Senate seat just vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.
Many of the developments in Operation Board Games never attracted national headlines. They involved expert tactics in which prosecutors used threats of prosecution or prison time to flip bit players in a tangle of elaborate schemes that Fitzgerald has called pay-to-play “on steroids.”
But now, Fitzgerald’s patient strategy has led to uncomfortable questions not only for Blagojevich but also for the powerful players who privately negotiated with him, unaware that their conversations were being monitored. Democratic Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. faces queries about his interest in the Senate seat, and key players in the Obama presidential transition team — White House Chief of Staff-designate Rahm Emanuel and adviser Valerie Jarrett — are being asked about their contacts with the governor on the important appointment.”
“Meyer Davis’s hospital wasn’t the only one with problems winning approvals from the state board that reviewed new projects for health-care facilities. The Chicago Medical School wanted a student housing project and found itself steered to the same construction and investment firms. Mercy Hospital faced similar obstacles. The board held up requests for open-heart surgical units and community clinics, and it seemed that a high price tag was attached to moving the board toward action.
At the center of the scheme was board member Stuart Levine, a prominent GOP fundraiser and businessman. Levine also courted Blagojevich, flying him to fundraisers in Texas and New York at which the governor collected more than $120,000 in campaign contributions. Levine held seats on the health facilities board and the teachers pension board, which controlled more than $41 billion in assets.”
“Levine also had many connections. A telephone wiretap captured his discussions with Rezko, a fundraiser for Blagojevich and Obama, and several others who would become federal targets, according to lawyers who closely followed the trial testimony.”
“”Before they had Levine in the fold, they had his phone,” said former public corruption prosecutor Patrick Collins. “They happened to get up on Levine’s phone at a time when he was very active in his corrupt schemes.”
Fitzgerald’s office indicted Levine in 2005 on multiple fraud and extortion charges for his role in the state board schemes, securing along the way cooperation from the favored construction executive who had paid him kickbacks. But Levine’s path to cooperation took 18 more months. Faced with wiretap recordings, Levine realized his legal situation was nearly hopeless, struck a plea bargain and became the star witness against Rezko.
“Levine was the guy who’s given them everybody else,” said Jay Stewart, executive director of the Chicago-based Better Government Association.”
“Another head rolled at the Illinois Finance Authority. Director Ali Ata, a former fundraiser for Blagojevich, signed a sworn statement in April describing how Rezko had shaken him down four times for a total of $125,000 in bribes and large campaign contributions.”
“Fitzgerald’s team has scrambled to interview Jackson, as well as members of the Obama transition team who talked with Blagojevich about the appointment. A spokesman for Jackson said the lawmaker had told authorities about his tangle with Blagojevich, in which the congressman says the governor rejected Jackson’s wife for a lottery post after Jackson failed to raise $25,000 for the Blagojevich campaign.”
Read more here:
For anyone following the Rezko trial and paying attention,
nothing in this article is a surprise. What is also obvious
is that the common denominator in all of these connections
is Barack Obama.
Citizen WElls 
I have wondered if Fitz gave the FORMER freshman, junior Senator from Illinois immunity for his testimony in the Rezko case.
CW, If you would like, we can go to Hawaii and ask Obama? When can you be ready? We can find him on a Golf Course 🙂
Hawaii sounds good.
It is cold as heck here.
I believe OBama is very worried that he is on those tapes.He tic tic tic TIC TICING away.
cw. do you have the scoop on Valarie Jarett? Her connections to Frank Marshall Davis?
It’s -25 degrees here. I’m freezing!
Good work CW, thanks for keeping us up to date. I always stop at this site when reading the news to make sure I get the best information on this particular story.
However, it’s kinda like watching molasses drip or paint dry though isn’t it? It seems to take forever for something to happen. I would just like to see a validated conclusion to this whole thing one way or another sometime in the near future.
CW, It is really cold here in Michigan too. I didn’t notice a time and day? when can you be ready? 🙂
Is there any way you can do a report on who the 15 boardmembers were before the were cut down to 9, and who those 9 were and what ties those nine have to this whole thing. And what would be the reasoning behind cutting it from 15 to 9.
sliderblaze.
Cutting it from 15 to 9 made it easier for Rezko, Levine and Blagojevich
to control with 5 members instead of 8.
Go to Obama indictment page at top and read the first article.
Valerie Jarrett.
Been working on article.
Fatherinlaw was friends with Davis.
You had better check with my significant other.
Didn’t it take a while to get Capone, too?
Anybody catch BO’s Freudian Slip on Fox? ““…there is no indication in this…uh…appalling situation…uh…that…my office…had NOTHING to do with this…”
Yes, Barky, there IS no indication that your office had “nothing” to do with this. At last, the truth is slipping out.
Better run to that vacation! MO is waiting in that campy kitchen in her June Clever apron to whip you up a batch of waffles! M-m-m-m-m!
Wasn’t Valerie Jarret the “nail bomb” lady (ahem) in the Weather Underground who was at “odds” with Ayers, both wanting to rule the roost with different ideas how to control da Man?
This comment from Dr. Orly Taitz’s blog:
A set of facts have emerged, which we hope to explore in more depth, suggesting that Obama might have been born in Canada. One of those facts is the presence of Obama, with his mother Stanley Ann Dunham, on Mercer Island shortly after his birth. The circumstances of that visit indicate that Ann and the newborn Barack could have been in Canada, which of course was part of the British Crown.
http://cc.msnscache.com/cache.aspx?q=susan+blake+friend+of+stanley+ann+dunham+%22didn+t%22+know+how+to+change+a+diaper&d=74955255005423&mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US&w=521acdff,13f8a405
Here is a article and video of Susan Blake, a classmate and former city councilwoman from Mercer Island who long ago changed the infant Barack’s messy diaper. WHAT WAS SHE DOING IN MERCER ISLAND after just having a baby????
http://cc.msnscache.com/cache.aspx?q=susan+blake+friend+of+stanley+ann+dunham+%22didn+t%22+know+how+to+change+a+diaper&d=74847050344288&mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US&w=2d571b40,e63e2979
I think the truth about Barry lies with his mother. I think he has deliberately steered us in the wrong direction.
CW,
I read somewhere that Valerie Jarrett, a long-time friend of the Obamas, will be “vacationing” with them in Hawaii. Is this true?
Janet , thankyou for posting my comment from Dr. Orly’s blog. Here is a good article from Noquarterusa.net about Valerie Jarrett. If you want to find something out visit their site, also go to their archives. They do great research.
http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/11/15/valerie-jarrett/
Mad,
I don’t think Valerie Jarrett was involved with the Weatherman Underground.
Caring.
Don’t know.
Been reviewing her Real estate dealings and long time associations.
Oh btw, Jarrett was born in Shiraz, Iran. What a joke our government is turning into. controled by evryone BUT TRUE Americans.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Jarrett
Thank you and God bless you, Citizen, for all your hard work!
Rest easy, sleep well my brothers.
Know the line has held, your job is done.
Rest easy, sleep well.
Others have taken up where you fell, the line has held.
Peace, peace, and farewell…
Does anyone reading here speak Indonesian?
Here is a link where a man and woman are talking about Barry Soetoro when he lived in Indonesia.
Perhaps they are saying something really important we can use.
http://www.your-bestweb.com/video_as5t6tBC-GA.html
Fight for America, sorry I didn’t mention your name. Didn’t want to go back to find and add the poster’s name and then I even though that perhaps I shouldn’t! Glad you read here, too.
This was an old post in early Dec. from Texas Darlin where someone mentions Canada. Very interesting too!
It’s posted by C.R. and it states below,” There are two factions amongst the people working on this (and I mean that across the country, not the office we’re at). One is that he was born in Kenya, based on a lack of evidence. But we’re of the firm belief in the Canadian birth. Why? Well, looks like there may be a document coming out of Washington state, of all places, SIGNED by his mother. We haven’t seen it, but looks like that item is coming down to America via a Southern state (I heard Alabama, then I heard Florida). So much so, that a rep from one of the S of S offices (one like me, a former hack, not someone on payroll) went up there to confirm before bringing it down.
We’ve had great support from some in Hawaii, who have been able to gain some access to the hospital records. Nothing seems complete, and again this is what I’ve heard not directly but from those who have been in on this much longer than I, that the hospital fiasco is based on one hospital knowing the other didn’t have the record and wanting to look like the birthplace – for money or donations, what have you. That all seems to be a mess, but the HI folks haven’t been able to turn up anything that would SUPPORT Obama – and the funny thing is, that “BC” we’ve seen out of HI doesn’t even match similar records from the SAME DAY!”
Probably insignificat but this is what I read in the Washington Post.
Obamas Arrive in Hawaii for Surfside Respite
By Philip Rucker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 21, 2008; Page A06
“Several longtime friends and their families plan to join the Obamas in Hawaii, including Valerie Jarrett, who will become a senior White House adviser; Eric Whitaker, a doctor and former colleague of Michelle Obama’s; Martin Nesbitt, a Chicago businessman and Barack Obama’s frequent basketball partner. The Obamas probably will visit with the president-elect’s half sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, a teacher who lives with her family in Honolulu.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/20/AR2008122000804.html
Here’s the link, and I had to search it out.
http://texasdarlin.wordpress.com/2008/12/03/reply-to-leo-continued/#comments
OK, folks, I really don’t know what the elected officials need to NOT certify the electoral votes on Jan. 6 or 8, besides Obama himself saying “I am not qualified”, but here are quotes from an article on Gates of Vienna website:
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2008/10/indonesia-terrorism-and-barry-soetoro.html
As everybody knows in Indonesia, the American Socialist President candidate Barry Soetoro (aka Barack Hussein Obama Jr.) is a Kenyan-born Indonesian Muslim — at least he still had an Indonesian passport in 1981 when he went to Pakistan. He was not just an everyday Muslim in Jakarta, but one with a “fundamentalist” Socialist/Islamic upbringing.
Barry Soetoro did not only — like every Indonesian Muslim — follow compulsory Islamic classes in primary school. His observance was not cursory as his sister states, but by regular prayer and weekly teachings.
—— I am feeling sick reading this — but here’s some more ———
Barry Soetoro the Chameleon: he might be the sock puppet of the Weather Underground, the militant leftists who planned to murder 25 million Americans.
He supports his Kenyan family member, Marxist/Islamist demagogue, and instigator of the slaughter of Christians, Raila Odinga, who also had the same slogan: ““Kenyans are now yearning for change”, and in return supports Obama. Odinga kicked out Jerome Corsi for writing a critical book on Obama, and Obama didn’t oppose it. Obama did also not oppose burning Christians alive.
Anyway, whether or not Obama wants to implement the Cloward and Piven Strategy and have the white American middle class queue at the soup kitchens of the State and turn the USA into the USSA, Indonesian Muslims will be excited to see a Kenyan-born devoted Indonesian Muslim become the President of the USA.
It will embolden the Islamists to roll out sharia from west to east over the archipelago. Nothing and nobody will stop them. As Barry Soetoro could recite so well: ““Allah is Supreme! Allah is Supreme! / I witness that there is no god but Allah / I witness that there is no god but Allah / I witness that Muhammad is his prophet…”
Like Hitler that told us what he intended, Obama has telegraphed his intentions. What about his call for a civilian national security force? What about the public projection of the messianic complex on Obama? What of his obvious narcissism, typical of tyrants and dictators?
America is heading to catastrophe.
Indonesians are waiting for him to come out the closet, and believe his “Christianity” is nothing but kitman.
————————————————————
Perhaps we need to cut and paste above that dotted line and MAIL it to 10 Senators today. Go ahead, pick any 10 and do it. $4.20 in stamps and you just might have a small part in saving our country.
Who was responsible for checking BO’s birth cert when he ran for Illinois state senate? Is there some way to check into whether or not his birth was verified then? If he was born out of the country and never naturalized, he could not even become a senator. Also, the Barry Soetoro identity. Is there any way to check back to his Illinois senate approval? There must have been some requirement to have a real proof of birth. There must be some detective work missing somewhere.
This is not good!
Blago records may stay under wraps http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1208/16779.html
PS: Sorry if someone already posted this…in a hurry, no time to read every post.
Here is another tidbit about Jarrett. Aparently see also was a slumlord just like Rezco.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Jarrett
[edit] Business administration
She is currently the CEO of The Habitat Company, a real estate development and management company, which she joined in 1995. She was a member of the board of Chicago Stock Exchange (2000-2007, as Chairman, 2004-2007).
She is also the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of Chicago Medical Center,[10] Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of Chicago and a Trustee of Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.[11][11] Jarrett serves on the board of directors of USG Corporation, a Chicago based building materials corporation.
According to Judicial Watch, Valerie Jarrett served as a board member for several organizations that provided funding and support for Chicago housing projects operated by real estate developers and Obama financial backers Antoin ‘Tony’ Rezko and Allison Davis. (Davis is also Obama’s former boss.) Jarrett was a member of the Board of Directors for the Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corporation along with several Davis and Rezko associates, as well as the Fund for Community Redevelopment and Revitalization, an organization that worked with Rezko and Davis.[12]
According to press reports, housing projects operated by Davis and Rezko have been substandard and beset with code violations. The Chicago Sun Times reported that one Rezko-managed housing project was “riddled with problems — including squalid living conditions…lack of heat, squatters and drug dealers.”[12]
As Chief Executive Officer of the Habitat Company Jarrett also managed a controversial housing project located in Obama’s former state senate district called Grove Parc Plaza. According to the Boston Globe the housing complex was considered “uninhabitable by unfixed problems, such as collapsed roofs and fire damage…In 2006, federal inspectors graded the condition of the complex an 11 on a 100-point scale — a score so bad the buildings now face demolition.” Ms. Jarrett refused to comment to the Globe on the conditions of the complex.[12]
There is one theory that EVERYONE can discard — the “Canadian Birth Certificate” is a HOAX! — It is signed by Dudley Do-Right.
Stanley Ann Dunahm was in Seattle between 1961 and 1963. She divorced Barack Obama, Sr. in January 1964.
The reason that Stanley Ann Dunham was in Washington on Mercer Island in August 1961 was because she was enrolled at the University of Washington in Seattle for the Fall Term starting in August 1961.
An eyewitness remembers that her baby was with her before the first day of school, but was not aware that she planned to attend the University.
Apparently, Ann Dunham always wanted to attend the University of Washington, and was upset with her parents when they asked her to enroll at the University of Hawaii.
Re L. Star: Amazing that he will again not have to produce any records or show transparency in regards to an important issue. What a joke and we citizens are again at the mercy of the Obama gang. How many of you honestly think Fitz will really ever go after Obama? I don’t forsee that ever happening. He is too much in the thick of things in Chicago no matter what he says. Hope I’m wrong about that. All of us on these great and informative blogs, have been shown and discovered all kinds of good connections about his eligibility and illegal associations and actions, but never, ever definitive proof that will snare this guy. Until that irrefutable evidence is provided, I think no one who can really do something will ever take the chance of going after Obama. I want so badly for him to get what he deserves and it should have happened during the campaigns. Why it didn’t is still a mystery to me. He is one slippery fish and has been incredibly lucky to escape so far. Also, the DNC or whoever, has scrubbed, sealed, burned any of his damaging history and did it before the opposition went on the hunt. It will be incredibly tough to find anything that may be left imo. The question is will his luck run out before our country is put at risk? I sure want to believe it can happen. Great work CW, Ms. Starr etc. and everyone here. Thanks and Please keep trying.
In a normal, just world, Obama’s connections to the IL Health Board
rigging would be sufficient for a Grand Jury Indictment.
That is based on facts we know.
Fitzgerald has to have much more and much more can be revealed.
It is now a question of timing and integrity of Fitzgerald and the USDOJ.
Yes, Bob, I already am aware of that Dudley Dooright thing. But I don’t think that that hoax should throw people off from searching in Canada.
http://lamecherry.blogspot.com/2008/09/silent-obama.html
The more that I think about it, then combining that with an older article at Atlas Shrugs, the Canada thing makes a lot of sense. Here’s part of that article in the link that I gave:
“Someone contacted me on the scenario logically concluded here that Barack Obama was born in Canada. They apparently had not read the blog as they were asking for information. The blog had stated at a time when people were wondering just what was going on that Stanley Ann Dunham would have had to have been born in Canada as flying to Africa would have been forbidden.
This blog said the place logically to look was Vancouver, BC and it did not take long before stories appeared that Barack Obama was born in Kenya with a mysterious birth certificate there which has not appeared.
That story matters as who was feeding that information if Kenya is a red herring for people to look at instead of Canada.
I will repeat the logical deduction. Stanley Ann Dunham would not have been allowed to fly to Africa by the airlines as it just was not done.
Africa required numerous vaccinations which doctors would not be giving to a pregnant woman of any trimester as it would harm the baby.
Even if Stanley Ann Dunham was some sort of mother retard injecting infections into her body to get to Kenya, the airlines would have not allowed her to fly. In the event she told them she was chugging beer and they let her fly, it would have been at least at month 7 which means this poor white girl would have been in Africa for 2 months.
She certainly was not staying with wife #1 and Barack sr. and he certainly didn’t have the funds for a flat for her.
Logic dictates Kenya does not make sense. So this appears as an intelligence operation plant to keep some prying minds out of Canadian files.
Canada is the logical choice and someone is muddying the waters stating to look in Kenya.”
Bob, I don’t believe anyone has seen a Canadian bc, or it would of surfaced. But I do find it very strange that Stanley was in Mercer Island with Barry when he was 2 or 3 weeks old. There is proof of that from Susan Blake, a classmate and former city councilwoman from Mercer Island. You don’t, especially back in 1961, travel with or take a newborn back to school with you.
I have an assignment for you. Watch this Video of Rahm Emanuel from ’98 … Please watch the entirety so you can get an understanding of this well spoken man’s ethic and moral … If you are a human being from Earth, even if you’re not a good person; you should be able to see that Clinton’s immoral actions let Rahm down at a gut level.
You should come away from watching this with the understand “Hey, this guy might actually be a decent human being” who has a little class.
He actually went after and questioned Dick Cheney’s abuses of power and refusal to be held accountable.
You guys are so quick to demonize someone without knowing them or understanding their history. It’s very disheartening to watch.
Habe Scor’ee.
Who is demonizing him.
I personally just want the truth.
Most of those surrounding Obama have demonized themselves.
Rahm is not someone who is going to be a yes man to Obama . He is an intelligent debator and is very opposed to group think.
Obama picked Rahm to be the top man in the white house because of this and I believe that is very telling about what kind of president Obama will be.
We need more of that in high office. The current administration failed because of group think. They came to a consensus too quick without internal debate and failed us because of it.
I’m not going to debate you on your demonizations of Obama. I know you don’t have any ground with your accusations, so I’ll leave it at that. I’m privy to a bit of information that you most likely aren’t aware of. I’ve done unbiased research for months on the subject and have made some strong conclusions, and they aren’t in line with anything you’ve demonized Obama over.
Of course you’ve demonized Rahm. You’ve demonized anything Obama has come in contact with.
You don’t intellectually question any of your conclusions either. You made your mind up that Obama is wrong without even looking at evidence on both sides. That’s a corrupt outlook on life, Especially when you portend to stand for truth.
Ask yourself this: If you were in Obama’s shoes; You are to be the next president of the United States. (you had to be fairly smart to get that far) What would be in it for you to take part in a corrupt deal for your old senate seat? What would be in it for you?? How would the benefit outweigh the risk of scandal? Blago was obviously not close to Obama,he wasn’t at any of his campaign stops or didn’t speak at DNC. Why would Obama stick his neck out then, to implicate himself with Blago’s underhanded dealings? Obama wouldn’t be the one making the money. If blago were a corrupt republican gov, perhaps Obama would have a motive (tryin to get a dem senator appointed) but with Blago, it was going to be a democrat either way.
The dems have a high majority anyway so a single dem seat is not that relevant to Obama.
Blago’s motive was money .
It would be so much easier for you guys if Blago were a close ally of Obamas. But he wasn’t. As it stands, you have a picture of Obama standing next to Blago and perhaps Obama talked to him once or twice. Obama was a senator from IL. Blago was governor. Of course they were going to cross paths. More telling then the brief encounters Obama made with Blago is the distance he kept from him.
Habe Scor’ee.
You need to do a lot more reading.
For starters, Obama endorsed Blagojevich.
CW you got me…
but then again; millions of people endorsed George W. Bush by voting for him.
A lot of these same people regretted their “endorsement” after time went by and they saw what happened.
^^^
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