October 8, 2012
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Two days ago, the Paulding County Republican Examiner*reported*on a new Obama scandal that was emerging over the weekend that the Obama campaign was accepting illegal overseas*donations*and that the report would be released by an unnamed tax payer watch group.
This morning, the non-partisan group,Government Accountability Institute*(GAI) released its 108 page*report, the first ever analysis of election campaign donations issues called, “America the Vulnerable: Are Foreign and Fraudulent Online Campaign Contributions Influencing U.S. Elections?” raises indications the Obama campaign has potentially violated federal election law by failing to prevent the use of fraudulent or foreign credit card transactions on the official Obama for America [OFA] donation webpage. The use of the CVV number for donation transactions is non-existent by the Obama campaign among other suspicious activity.
For nearly nine months, the*GAI*has beeninvestigating foreign online campaign donations*in House, Senate, and presidential elections.
“As FBI surveillance tapes have previously shown, foreign governments understand and are eager to exploit the weaknesses of American campaigns,” the report said. “This combined with the Internet’s ability to dis-intermediate campaign contributions on a mass scale, as well as outmoded and lax Federal Election Commission rules, make U.S. elections vulnerable to foreign influence.”
The Paulding County Republican Examiner reviewed the report and although the report outlined issues with on-line campaign donations for several members of Congress, including the Romney campaign, the report focused heavily on the Obama 2012 reelection campaign and revisited the 2008 Obama election campaign due to the vast known illegal donor corruption.
The report outlined the Obama reelection campaign’s online donation system that contained at least three major security vulnerabilities:
The absence of the industry-standard CVV and unknown use of AVS anti-fraud security for online credit card donations.The presence of a branded, major third party-owned website (Obama.com)redirects its 68% foreign traffic to a campaign donation page.Active foreign solicitation using indiscriminate email solicitations and exposure to social media
The report outlined further each of these three major security vulnerabilities that:
Obama Campaign Lacks the Industry-Standard Level of Credit Card Security*For Donations, But Uses It For Merchandise Purchases: To purchase Obama campaign merchandise, the campaign requires buyers to enter their credit card CVV security code, but does not require the credit card security code to be entered when making an online campaign donation. By GAI’s estimates, the Obama campaign’s failure to utilize industry-standard protections potentially costs the campaign millions in extra processing fees.
Obama.com Purchased By An Obama Bundler In Shanghai, China With Questionable Business Ties to State-Run Chinese Enterprises:*In 2008, Obama.com was purchased by an Obama fundraiser living in Shanghai, China, whose business is heavily dependent on relationships with Chinese state-run television and other state-owned entities.
68% Of Traffic To Anonymously Registered Obama.com Is Foreign:*According to industry leading web analytic site Markosweb, an anonymously registered redirect site (Obama.com) features 68 % foreign traffic. Starting in December 2011, the site was linked to a specific donation page on the official BarackObama.com campaign website for ten months. The page loaded a tracking number, 634930, into a space on the website labeled "who encouraged you to make this donation." That tracking number is embedded in the source code for Obama.com and is associated with the Obama Victory Fund. In early September 2012, the page began redirecting to the standard Obama Victory Fund donation page. Search engine optimization (SEO) efforts, using common spamming techniques, may have been undertaken by unknown third-parties, generating foreign traffic to Obama.com.
Using a collection of online research tools, the Government Accountability Institute analyzed a portion of the foreign links that lead to the Obama campaign website, my.barackobama.com. The Institute stated that they found a wide variety of instances in which apparent foreign nationals either received solicitation emails or posted links to my.barackobama.com.
When foreign nationals received Obama campaign donation solicitation, they would brag about it on their blogs the report stated as shown by the examples below.
In July and August, a Chinese blogger re-posts letters he has received from the Obama campaign, each of which contains a solicitation for $3 or $5; none of these small donations require the campaign to keep any record of them. 87.8% of the traffic flowing to the site comes from China while only 4.5% is from the United States. The website contains hyperlinks that lead to the campaign’s donation page.
On August 9th, 2012 the Obama campaign sent a solicitation letter to “Hikemt Hadjy-Zadh,”an Azerbaijani citizen. His email address is on an Azerbaijani domain and he posts numerous solicitation letters he has received from the Obama campaign. Mr. Hadjy-Zadh re-posts the complete letters on a discussion forum, including numerous hyperlinks that go directly to the campaign’s donation page.
A writer in Vietnam writes on a website for the Vietnam Institute for Development Studies (a government-backed think tank) and posts emails he has received from my.barackobama.com with more than 24 total links to the campaign’s donate page embedded in the emails. The website is in the Vietnamese language, hosted on a Vietnamese server, and uses a Vietnamese domain address. In one instance, a letter from Mitch Stewart, Director of the Obama campaign’s “Organizing for America,” asks for donations. Ironically, Stewart laments that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is reportedly taking money from foreign sources. The reader is then prompted to give his name and email address and thereafter begins receiving solicitation letters for donations.
A Dutch blogger writing in Dutch on a Dutch website reprints an email from March 22, 2010 in which President Obama thanks his supporters for their help. “You’re welcome, Mr.President,” he writes back.
The Dutch blog “His Dirk” received a donation request from the campaign. Aware of the U.S. law, the blogger decided not to contribute. The blogger observed, “I imagine many non-Americans have money transferred to the Obama campaign. It’s just too easy.”
A member of the Italian Radical Socialist movement and an administrator of their website re-posts solicitations from the Obama campaign which he reports receiving regularly for three years. “And because we are three years in his mailing list…But frankly after 3 years his letters excite me much less...”
The campaign’s decision to not use the CVV is rather curious – their technology experts use it in their other commercial and charitable endeavors. Michael Slaby, the chief integration and innovation officer for the Obama Campaign, sits on the board of Citizen Effect, a charitable organization that largely accepts its donations online.
Slaby’s college roommate started the charity and Slaby sits on the board. To make charitable donations online to Citizen Effect donors are required to use the CVV. Harper Reed, the chief technology officer of the Obama campaign, was previously the chief technology officer for Threadless, a successful crowd sourcing T-shirt company. It likewise requires the CVV for financial transactions.
This is clear evidence that the Obama campaign’s technology experts understand the threat of fraud and the necessity of security for online transactions. Even more curious is the fact that the Obama campaign sees the benefit of using the CVV in its merchandise shop. To buy official merchandise from the Obama campaign website—a T-shirt, hat, hoodie, etc., one is required to input the CVV the report stated.
The Obama campaign has claimed that it doesn't need the CVV because they are able to vet contributions on the back end using sophisticated techniques that it doesn't disclose. This begs the question the report asked: "Why is it using different techniques when it comes to selling campaign merchandise?"
As*reported*over the weekend, the Obama campaign raised $181 million in September alone where only 2 percent or $3.6 million of those donations are required to be reported to the FEC.
Although the*Romney campaign attempts to prevent foreign donations*isn't perfect, throughout the report, unlike the Obama campaign’s activities and raised corruption, no evidence of specific wrongdoing or potential illegal activity has been presented with regard to the Romney campaign.
http://www.examiner.com/article/gai-report-exposes-obama-campaign-accepting-foreign-donations
We will NOT go quietly into the night!
