Sunday, July 13, 2008

Arab States funding Obama

Elisheva  sent this super important information: please read below.


WHERE IS THE MONEY COMING FROM?

By MAUREEN DOWD

Published: June 29, 2008
Washington Post


OBAMA'S TROUBLING INTERNET FUND RAISING

Certainly the most interesting and potentially devastating phone call I have received during this election cycle came this week from one of the Obama's campaign internet geeks.  These are the staffers who devised Obama's internet fund raising campaign which raised in the neighborhood of $200 million so far.  That is more then twice the total funds raised by any candidate in history – and this was all from the internet campaign.

What I learned from this insider was shocking, but I guess we shouldn't be surprised that when it comes to fund raising there simply are no rules that can't be broken and no ethics that prevail.

 Obama's internet campaign started out innocently enough with basic e-mail networking , lists saved from previous party campaigns and from supporters who visited any of the Obama campaign web sites.

Small contributions came in from these sources and the internet campaign staff  were more than pleased by the results.

 Then, about two months into the campaign the daily contribution intake multiplied.  Where was it coming from?  One of the web site security monitors began to notice the bulk of the contributions were clearly coming in from overseas internet service providers and at the rate and frequency of transmission it was clear these donations were "programmed" by a very sophisticated user.

While the security people were not able to track most of the sources due to firewalls and other blocking devices put on these contributions, they were able to collate the number of contributions that were coming in seemingly from individuals but the funds were from only a few credit card accounts and bank electronic funds transfers.  The internet service providers (ISP) they were able to trace were from Saudi Arabia, Iran, and other Middle Eastern countries. One of the banks used for fund transfers was also located in Saudi Arabia.

Another concentrated group of donations was traced to a Chinese ISP with a similar pattern of limited credit card charges.

It became clear that these donations were very likely coming from sources other than American voters.  This was discussed at length within the campaign and the decision was made that none of these donations violated campaign financing laws.

It was also decided that it was not the responsibility of the campaign to audit these millions of contributions as to the actual source (specific credit card number or bank transfer account numbers) to insure that none of these internet contributors exceeded the legal maximum donation on a cumulative basis of many small donations.  They also found the record keeping was not complete enough to do it anyway.

This is a shocking revelation.



We have been concerned about the legality of "bundling" contributions after the recent exposure of illegal bundlers but now it appears we may have an even greater problem.



I guess we should have been somewhat suspicious when the numbers started to come out.  We were told (no proof offered) that the Obama internet contributions were from $10.00 to $25.00 or so.



If the $200,000,000 is right, and the average contribution was $15.00, that would mean over 13 million individuals made contributions?  That would also be 13 million contributions that would need to be processed.  How did all that happen?



I believe the Obama campaign's internet fund raising needs a serious, in depth investigation and audit.  It also appears the whole question of internet fund raising needs investigation by the legislature and perhaps new laws to insure it complies not only with the letter of these laws but the spirit as well.


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2 comments:

  1. Dowd did not write it.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/29/opinion/29dowd.html
    It’s Over, Lady!’
    Though the victor and vanquished stood side by side, there was plenty of ambiguity, duality and ferocity in Unity, N.H.
    June 29, 2008


    http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/donations.asp



    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/08/maureen-dowd-becomes-fict_n_111509.html


    But even if Maureen did not write it, could be possible to fraudulently funnel campaign money to the Obama campain,

    The only thing that would tie the contributions together would be the credit card.

    (Visa ,MasterCard ,American Express ,Discover )

    every other piece of info on the contribution page can be faked.

    https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/main?source=homedropdown

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  2. Hold on there. True, according to Snopes.com, Dowd didn't write the column. But that does not deal with the issues raised there. We still don't know who --if anyone!-- CHECKS on statements by the campaign regarding possible foreign donations--and when. How are we assured that foreign citizens have not contributed to Obama's campaign? This assurance is to be found on the donation form. It consists entirely of a check mark BY THE DONOR affirming that his contribution does not come from a foreign source. A check mark! That's IT? We are not assured that the campaign itself actually checks any further than looking for a check mark. We are not assured by Snopes.com whether US Federal laws prohibit such donations. Assume for the sake of argument that such laws exist: who checks up on compliance, and when-- (before or after the new president is sworn in?) Is it up to the OTHER campaign to check it out, or do the Feds devote the time and effort? So while Dowd may not have written the column, serious issues have still been raised.

    ReplyDelete