01/25/10
From Big Government
Call For An Audit of Obama’s Campaign Finances
by Pamela Geller
In light of the long-overdue ruling by the Supreme Court to throw out the
free-speech-killing and unconstitutional McCain-Feingold finance law (was there
ever a more destructive, corrupting influence on elections ever?), it is a good
time to revisit the active complaint to the Federal Elections Commission over
Barack Obama’s campaign finances.
Back when Obama was running for President, I broke a number of campaign donation
stories that should have blown the race wide open. The Obama campaign committed
the most egregious violations of election contribution laws, and they were
dismissed with a wave of the hand. Millions came in from foreign countries —
which is illegal: the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) “prohibits any
foreign national from contributing, donating or spending funds in connection
with any federal, state, or local election in the United States, either directly
or indirectly.”
I broke the jaw-dropping story about how tens of thousands of dollars came in to
the Obama campaign from a Hamas-controlled camp in Gaza. Al-Jazeera actually ran
video of Obama phone banks in Gaza. One large contributor to the Obama campaign
was Monir Edwan, who was listed on FEC documents as contributing to Obama from
the city of Rafah in the state “GA.” If you were reading quickly, you might have
thought it was just a contribution from Georgia. But there is no city of Rafah
in the Peach State. Monir Edwan sent money to Obama from Rafah, Gaza.
Monir Edwan, one of Obama’s Gazan donors, said he sold Obama t-shirts that the
campaign had sent him in Gaza for around $9, and that a profit was made. “Some
young men,” Edwan explained, “even bought the T-shirts for 60 shekel ($17.29),
which is a lot to spend in Gaza on a t-shirt, but that is how much Gazans like
Obama.” I love it: jihadis in Obama Tees. How fitting.
On Watchdog.net, a site that monitors campaign contributions, Monir Edwan is
listed as Barack Obama’s Top Contributor, giving $24,313 between October 27,
2007 and November 11, 2007. However, although it gives zip codes and other
details for the other four of Obama’s top five individual contributors, it
provides no additional information at all for Monir Edwan — and Edwan’s link is
the only dead one on the Watchdog page.
Why did Palestinians in a Gaza refugee camp have such love for Obama in the
summer of 2008? Did they know he was going to run a virulently anti-Israel,
pro-jihad presidency?
Gaza was not alone. The contributions came from over 50 nations. And many seemed
intent on skirting campaign finance laws: Obama’s foreign contributors were
making multiple small donations, ostensibly in their own names, over a period of
a few days, some under maximum donation allowances — but others were aggregating
in excess of the maximums when their contributions were all added up. Other
donations came in from donors with names such as “Hbkjb,” “jkbkj,” and “Doodad.”
Also, thousands of Obama’s foreign donations ended in cents. This was evidence
of foreign contributors sending in donations in foreign currencies that
exchanged into odd amounts. Americans living overseas would almost uniformly be
able to contribute dollars, in set amounts.
The Obama campaign received a substantial amount of money from countries that
have an interest in seeing a weak American President: $366,708.22 from China;
$25,259.00 from the United Arab Emirates; $7,062.60 from Russia; and $6,716.28
from Saudi Arabia. Obama also took in $6,350.00 from Indonesia; $5,000.00 from
Kenya; and $1,750.00 from Egypt.
The FEC alleges that Obama also illegally took donations from Tamil Tiger
leaders. The Tamil Tigers are, according to the FBI, the most successful
terrorist group in the world. While the Hillary Clinton returned contributions
from the Tamil Tigers, Obama kept them.
There are many other questions and mysteries regarding Obama’s campaign
finances. The Puma P.A.C. blog notes: “Obama spent a record $744 million on his
campaign but has disclosed donors for only $485 million of his windfall.”
It is important to point out that I had also reviewed John McCain’s donations —
and they were so clean you could eat off ‘em.
And now the influence peddling has manifested itself in Obama’s catastrophic
first year.
The FEC generally takes several years to process a complaint, and their
statutory limit is five years. The commission still needs to vote on any action,
but if they decline, the complainant can sue the FEC. So the complaint is
ongoing.
If justice is to be done, Barack Obama will have to own up to his violations of
campaign finance law, and pay the political price. An audit of Obama’s campaign
finances is long overdue.
* * * * *
I remember hearing and reading bits and pieces during the campaign about large contributions coming in from shady sources and foreign countries and blatantly fictitious names. I was shocked and amazed that it was being done in plain sight and nothing was being done about it. That was when I first realized that Captain Bullshit was a crook; a little investigation disclosed that he was also a raging communist.
In my 65 years there have been good, bad and mediocre presidents. I voted for the guy I liked every 4 years, griped when I didn't agree with the way something was done, but I was pretty much apolitical. The country was running along more or less okay and the president, the congress and the supreme court were basically patriotic and honorable people.
An audit of obuma's campaign finances would be outstanding, but it will never happen. Just like the Black Panthers will never be convicted of voter intimidation and KSM and the other jihadis will never be tried and convicted of murder. So keep praying to the patron saint of term limits and regime change: