For most people, corruption trial of Antoine "Tony" Rezko represent the culture of corruption that has plagued Chicago and Illinois politics for years, and may be the weight that tips the balance in regional and even presidential politics between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. But for me, an Arab American fighting to free Chicago's Arab American community from the headlock of religious extremists and secularly corrupt, it only represents validation that the biggest problem is that the so-called leaders of the Arab American community in Chicago have only been "leading" to benefit themselves, not to empower the "community."
The corruption case of Antoine "Tony" Rezko is more than just a case involving political corruption in a corrupt city and state. It has to do with the corruption of the Arab American leadership based in Chicago.
It is a sordid tale that wraps itself in several layers: political corruption driven by greed; hunger for power; exploitation of the Arab American community; efforts by extremists to fight the proposed peace plan between Palestinians and Israelis to recognize Israel and embrace the "two-state" solution (land for peace); and, the failure of the mainstream media to cover the Arab American community as a story other than one of controversy and terrorism.
This Arab American corruption caught the media off-guard because a) they never bothered to cover routine, day-to-day events in the Arab community so when Arab Americans like Rezko and Ata were holding Blagojevich's hand high in the air at fundraisers, no mainstream journalists were present and the Arab American ethnic media was too weak to write about anything except anti-Israel hate, opposition to the peace accord and Islamicist rhetoric that helped the extremist also raise money for their pro-Hamas and anti-Israel agendas.
For years, Rezko stood at the podium of Arab American leadership alongside a handful of Arab American elite who claimed that their efforts were intended to benefit the Arab American community.
But as the Rezko corruption trial expands, it is blossoming into a broader indictment of the traditional leadership of Chicago's Arab American community.
This week, Ali Ata, who was more than just a Rezko crony, pled guilty to charges that he tried to disguise profits made from a politically connected property and helped raise funds for Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich on behalf of Rezko in exchange for a powerful, high salaried job.
Ata is at the center of a circle of Arab American clout in Chicago, a circle of elitists who have spent the past two decades pretending to be working on behalf of the community, when in fact, according to Ata's confession, were really working for themselves, their family members, their relatives, their friends and their business associates.
There are more Arab surnames involved in the Rezko-Ata corruption trial than the news media can comprehend. Ata and Rezko are only two of more than two dozen names of Arab American "leaders" who have palled around with Edgar, Ryan, Blagojevich, Stroger and Daley openly and with no accountability and no media scrutiny. No wonder their greed was so brazen.
Ata participated in a fundraiser for Blagojevich attended by Arab Americans in the community, and raised $25,000. Collecting the money, Ata then wrote a check and presented it to Blagojevich not in exchange for Blagojevich doing something to help the Arab community -- which numbers about 250,000 in the six-county Chicago region (with another 100,000 Lebanese American living downstate). He took the money he and other big shot Arab American raised at their fundraiser so that Blagojevich would give him a $127,000 job heading up the Illinois Finance Authority.
Members of the Arab American Political Action Committee (Arab Pac) -- which I help found in 1993 but left soon after when extremists on the board insisted that funds raised by the group be used to promote opposition to Palestinian-Israeli peace efforts -- organized fundraisers for several elected officials including for former Governors Jim Edgar and George Ryan, Gov. Blagojevich, Cook County Board President John H. Stroger, and Mayor Richard M. Daley.
They worked closely with Rezko, Ata and several others identified only as Individuals "B, D and E" in Ata's plea agreement. Several PAC members have already been identified as having received state jobs where the only work they did was to help organize Blagojevich fundraisers.
Ata was also the president of the Chicago Chapter of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, which was chartered to help the community respond to acts of bigotry and discrimination but that in Chicago only organized to celebrate anti-Israel politics, or to cozy up to government contracts, jobs and favoritism.
ADC Chicago was used and never once prosecuted one case in defense of an Arab American whow as victimized by bigotry or discrimination. (That is in sharp contrast to the aggressive fight being waged against bigotry by the National ADC office in Washington D.C.)
Ata and three partners (two named as "Individual D" and "Individual E" in the Ata plea agreement, received more than $3.2 million when they convinced the Blagojevich administration to lease a building they owned at 3500 W. Grand Avenue on Chicago’s poverty-stricken West Side in the early 1990s.
Yet, the group reportedly defaulted on the property but failed to inform the state. Ata confessed that he failed to report his share the $3.2 million profit from the deal.
Ata's name had surfaced previously when the feds cracked down on a methemphatine ring that was using one of his businesses to disguise the drug in candy bags. The relative who ran the store was indicted along with a dozen other Arab American businessmen.
Chicago's Arab American community must also share responsibility in all this. How did Rezko and Ata and the others who have been named and many more who will be named manage to convince Edgar, Ryan, Blagojevich, Stroger and Daley that they were important enough to deal with?
Well, the Arab American community suffers from apathy. They have NEVER demanded accountability from their leaders. When these "leaders" snapped their fingers and organized fundraisers, the community obediently bought the tickets. Few nothered to ask what the money was being used for or, more importantly, demanded to know what the organizations hosting the events actually did for the community.
Those who did try to force these "leaders" and organizations to be accountable were ostracized, vilified, slandered and blacklisted from the community itself.
And because the mainstream news media never covered the Arab American community's day-to-day activities and events, the community bullies enforced their campaigns to silence the critics, while the corruption grew.
Why were Rezko and Ata so brazen? Because they knew no one cared. No one in the Arab American community demanded accountability. No one in the mainstream American media bothered to attend Arab American meetings or to document Arab American events. No one questioned the clout that these "leaders" were enjoying or wondered how they had become so successful and so rich. And worse, I guess, are the elected officials who should have asked, "I'm doing this to help the Arab American community, correct?" Instead, they gave Rezko and Ata the power to dow hatever they wanted to do. Edgar, Ryan, Blagojevich, Stroger and Daley never once asked if there was anything their governments could do to help Arab Americans.
Arab Americans have been in Chicago since just before the 1893 World Columbian Exposion. More than 120 years. And what do they have to show for it? Not one major street named in their honor. Not one pioneer honored with a statue, a commemoration date, nor a museum. Not a building named in our honor. Well, we do have this obscure thing called "Arab American Heritage Month," and a invitation-only food buffet hosted by Mayor Daley run by the do-nothing Chicago Advisory Commission on Arab Affairs.
This may be the end of Ata's corruption and Rezko's clout, but it is the beginning of a bigger story that may one day be written.
Ray Hanania
www.hanania.com
You can read my column on the topic at www.ArabWritersGroup.com.
Or get more information through my web site in the "Arab American History" section of www.hanania.com.