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Fire Axelrod and Jarrett NOW!

October 3, 2009 (LPAC)—Lyndon LaRouche today called for the immediate firing of White House aides David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett, and the possible impeachment of President Barack Obama, for their involvement in a massive conflict of interest scheme, involving their efforts to use the power of the U.S. Presidency to win Chicago's bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics. In a major political flight-forward blunder, President Obama, in the midst of two wars, skyrocketing unemployment, and the worst financial crisis in modern history, flew off to Copenhagen, Denmark, to personally pitch the Chicago bid before the International Olympics Committee. The gambit failed, as Chicago came in last among the four contender cities.

What is worse, a preliminary investigation by Executive Intelligence Review has already revealed a massive conflict of interest, on the part of all of the White House officials involved in the effort.

- The President's Imperious Fantasy -

According to NBC News' local Chicago affiliate, just days after he won the Democratic Party's Presidential nomination in 2008, then-Sen. Barack Obama made an appearance at a rally in Chicago's Washington Park, called by Chicago 2016, the $49 million "non-profit" organization promoting Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games. The park was designated to house an 80,000 seat Olympic stadium and it was just blocks from the Obama Hyde Park home. Obama told the crowd, "In 2016, I'll be wrapping up my second term as president, so I can't think of a better way than to be marching into Washington Park alongside Mayor Daley, alongside Rahm Emmanuel, alongside Dick Durbin, alongside Valerie Jarrett, as president of the United States and announcing to the world, 'Let the games begin!'"

It was vintage Obama Narcissism, but it concealed an even darker set of relationships that would follow him to Washington. The top players in Chicago 2016 were also top campaign backers of the Obama Presidential bid, and were also among the people who would stand to reap the biggest financial rewards if Chicago won the Olympic bid. Top among the Olympic profiteers, and the person with the biggest conflict of interest, is White House advisor Valerie Jarrett. An intimate personal friend and mentor of both Barack and Michelle Obama, Jarrett was the Vice Chair of Chicago 2016. She was also, until coming to the White House, the CEO of a Chicago construction company, The Habitat Company, which was bidding on the contract to build the 3,500 unit Olympic Village. Chicago 2016 President, Lori Healey, until recently the chief of staff to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, had met with top officials of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), pressing for low-income housing grants, to build the Olympic Village, on the dubious claim that, after the Olympics, some of the units would go to low-income tenants. Jarrett is also an owner of Grove Parc Plaza Apartments, a run-down complex, with a 90 percent vacancy rate, that would have been torn down, to make way for part of the Olympic infrastructure.

On May 1, 2009, the White House announced that Valerie Jarrett had been given an ethics waiver, to allow her to represent the President, in pushing for the Chicago Olympics bid.

White House political director David Axelrod was another beneficiary of Chicago 2016 largess. His firm, ASK Public Strategies, did public relations work for Chicago 2016. Jarrett bluntly admitted, in a recent Bloomberg News interview, that the Chicago group at the Obama White House was riveted on the Olympic bid: "We talked about it every single morning together as we met."

- Obama Backers Ran Chicago 2016 -

Back in Chicago, the overlap between the Olympic organizing effort and the Obama Presidential campaign was absolute. In addition to Jarrett's role as Vice Chair, four other members of Chicago 2016 were on the Obama inauguration committee. They were: Chairman and CEO Pat Ryan, Treasurer John Rodgers, former U.S. Commerce Secretary William Daley (brother of Mayor Richard Daley), and Penny Pritzker. The heiress to the Hyatt hotel fortune, Penny Pritzker was co-chair of the Obama for President finance committee. Pritzker-owned hotels were designated as priority Olympic sites in the Chicago 2016 plan. Other close Obama backers who were part of the Chicago 2016 team included Desiree Rogers, White House Social Secretary, who contributed $100,000 to the Olympic quest; Eric Whitaker, a close personal friend of Barack Obama; and Martin Nesbitt, who replaced Valerie Jarrett as Vice Chair of Chicago 2016, and was Treasurer of Obama's Presidential campaign. An owner of The Parking Spot, a parking lot company, financed by Penny Pritzker, Nesbitt is also Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of the Chicago Housing Authority.

- Obama To The Rescue -

President Obama's last minute Copenhagen trip, to personally pitch Chicago's bid, was by no means the first time he jumped into the fray. According to numerous news accounts, President Obama spent days "working the phones," particularly pressuring the 16 African countries, represented on the IOC, to back the Chicago bid. Shortly before the Copenhagen vote, a Chicago 2016 delegation flew to Abuja, Nigeria, to meet with those 16 African representatives, to squeeze them for their support. They carried with them a video statement from President Obama, touting the Chicago bid.


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