Barack Obama -- Valerie Jarrett

Valerie Jarrett

Custom Search

Valerie Jarrett

Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs

Longtime Friend And Supporter

Obama has named his longtime friend and supporter Valerie Jarrett to be his White House senior adviser.

Jarrett, who hired Michelle Obama for a job in the Chicago mayor's office years ago, is one of the president-elect's closest friends and advisers. Her name has been floated for several top administration jobs. But Obama settled on the senior adviser role, said a person close to the president-elect and willing to speak only on background because the decision has not been officially announced.

A White House senior adviser can handle a range of duties. President George W. Bush's top political aide Karl Rove held the title in the current administration.

Jarrett has a background in real estate and politics in Chicago and is linked to a series of real estate scandals, including several housing projects operated by convicted felon and Obama fundraiser/friend Antoin "Tony" Rezko.

According to the documents obtained by Judicial Watch from the Illinois Secretary of State, Valerie Jarrett served as a board member for several organizations that provided funding and support for Chicago housing projects operated by real estate developers and Obama financial backers Rezko and Allison Davis, Obama's former boss. Jarrett was a member of the Board of Directors for the Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corporation along with several Davis and Rezko associates, as well as the Fund for Community Redevelopment and Revitalization, an organization that worked with Rezko and Davis.

As Chief Executive Officer of the Habitat Company Jarrett also managed a controversial housing project located in Obama's former state senate district called Grove Parc Plaza. According to the Boston Globe the housing complex was considered "uninhabitable by unfixed problems, such as collapsed roofs and fire damage.

Obama signed an executive order in March 2009 that established a "White House Council on Women and Girls." The Council will be chaired by Jarrett, and the day-to-day operations will be run Tina Tchen, who is currently director of the White House Office of Public Liaison and was a major fundraiser for Obama during the campaign.

"The mission of the Council will be to provide a coordinated federal response to the challenges confronted by women and girls to ensure that all Cabinet and Cabinet-level agencies consider how their policies and programs impact women and families," reads a memo describing the move and obtained by The Fix.

As soon as I saw Valerie Jarrett's name, I knew this was going to be a big job -- every single policy, of every single government agency will have to fit the women’s rights agenda -- As interpreted by Obama and the Bride -- as executed by the trusted aid -- that's breathtaking!

Jarrett's Habitat Company

Earlier this year The Boston Globe reported on the stunning failures of Jarrett's companies. "Jarrett is the chief executive of Habitat Co., which managed Grove Parc Plaza from 2001 until this [past] winter and co-managed an even larger subsidized complex in Chicago that was seized by the federal government in 2006, after city inspectors found widespread problems."

Jarrett's Staff

But in order to get the full impact of the presence of Jarrett on the Obama team, one must take a close look at her team.

Jarrett has surrounded herself with some rather unsavory characters who appear to be more like 'enforcers' than 'advisers.'

Meet Mike Strautmanis, Jarrett's Chief of Staff.

Strautmanis is one of Barack and Michelle Obama's closest friends, going all the way back to the beginning in Chicago. He has worked not only for the Obamas but for disgraced former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.

But here is an interesting tidbit concerning Strautmanis, in Jarrett's own words:

Obama describes him as a "utility man," and campaign advisor and Obama family friend Valerie Jarrett says he's the person you call when you need help with a delicate situation. "He understands the importance of the personal touch and that e-mails and phone calls are not always appropriate," she said, talking about a specific example that she wouldn't describe in detail. "There are times when a face-to-face is just the right thing to do. He dropped everything and hopped on a plane.

And now meet an Obama mystery man that the campaign staff didn't even know existed. In fact, nobody knew what he looked like.

His name is Michael Signator.

Michael Signator, a 50-year-old police officer in suburban Chicago, is paid as one of Barack Obama's campaign staffers -- nearly $50,000 during Obama's Senate campaign in 2004; and $47,600 from March 2007 through August of this year -- yet no one knows what he looks like, and even Obama staffers didn't know he works for the campaign.

So just who is Michael Signator?

Although his job description is to provide "supplemental security support" and to coordinate the Obama family's personal and campaign schedules, Signator appears to be much more than an aide.

The relationship between Obama and Signator is one of the most highly guarded secrets in Washington and Obama's home-base of Chicago. In fact, at first Obama officials denied that Signator worked for Obama...until it became clear that he was Obama's driver and bodyguard during the campaign. But the extent of Signator's activity on behalf of Obama is murky.

The Jarrett Connection -- Obama’s Hawaii and Chicago communist networks were linked.

Romantic Poet blog has published some interesting artifacts that provide proof that Obama’s Hawaii and Chicago communist networks were linked?

It is now well established that Barack Obama was linked to the Hawaiian Communist Party network through his boyhood/teenage mentor Frank Marshall Davis.

It is also well known that after moving to Chicago, Obama linked up with the local communist networks.

Manning Marable, a leader of the Communist Party offshoot Committees of Correspondence for Democracy & Socialism claims that Obama "understands what socialism is. A lot of the people working with him are, indeed, socialists with backgrounds in the Communist Party or as independent Marxists. There are a lot of people like that in Chicago who have worked with him for years…"

This leads to two key questions.

A. Were the Hawaii and Chicago networks connected?

B . Did Obama’s connection to Frank Marshall Davis in any way influence his progress up the Chicago political ladder?

If the answer is yes to both, there are significant implications.

It means that that the Communist Party USA was watching Obama from an early age and was willing to help his political career.

Frank Marshall Davis was active in the Chicago Communist Party until he moved to Hawaii in late 1948.

I speculated in this post that Davis may have known left wing journalist Vernon Jarrett in post war Chicago. A connection would be significant because the Jarrett family has played a very important role in Obama’s rise to power.

Both Jarrett and Davis worked in the communist dominated South Side Community Art Center and on the communist influenced Chicago Defender newspaper, in late 1940s Chicago.

I have since found conclusive evidence that Davis and Jarrett not only knew each other, but worked together in another Communist Party dominated organization -- The Citizen’s Committee to Aid Packing House Workers.

Continue reading here . . . there's some real stuff . . .

Obama Rules

According to Jarrett, the Obamamessiah is "ready to rule." (video)

The co-chair of Barack Obama’s Transition Team, Valerie Jarrett, appeared on Meet the Press this weekend and used, shall we say, an interesting word to described what she thinks Barack Obama will be doing in January when he’s officially sworn into office. She told Tom Brokaw that Obama will be ready to "rule" on day one. It’s a word that reflects the worst fears that people have for Obama the "arrogant," the "messiah," that imagines he’s here to "rule" instead of govern.

Jarret told Brokaw that "given the daunting challenges that we face, it’s important that president elect Obama is prepared to really take power and begin to rule day one."

Someone needs to get to Jarrett and inform her that American politicians are not Kings and do not "rule" from office. But if this is the attitude of Obama’s transition team, what does The One himself imagine he is about to unleash? Could the fears that Obama thinks he is being anointed America’s King be far off with this sort of talk flying about?

Obama’s New Nuclear Advisor

Front Page Magazine says the last time that Obama’s senior advisor and assistant Valerie Jarrett was in the news, her favored political recruit, Anthony "Van" Jones, was resigning his post as White House presidential advisor amid revelations of a radical background that included communist sympathies and his support for 9/11 Truther conspiracy. Now Jarrett, widely viewed as Obama’s radical alter ego, has reemerged -- this time as a foreign policy guru.

As Obama and Russian President Medvedev signed a new nuclear arms treaty last week, Jarrett sat observing nearby. That Jarrett has once again found herself in a position of influence is not surprising. Jarrett proudly acknowledges her remarkable closeness to President Obama. "We have kind of a mind meld" is the way she put it in a New York Times magazine interview last summer. "When senior staff meetings in the Oval Office break up, Valerie Jarrett often stays behind" with Obama, the Times article reported. In short, Jarrett is like a member of the Obama family, but one who has seized command of a variety of policies at the White House.

Although neither elected, nor confirmed, nor even vetted, and without previous Washington experience, Jarrett has been installed as senior adviser and assistant to Obama for intergovernmental and public engagement. She also was given the recently created Office of Urban Affairs, even though we have a cabinet member who is Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Now it appears she is involved in our nation’s foreign policy.

Why else would she be in Prague for the preparations and signing of the arms treaty? As Obama has said, "She is someone I trust completely. She combines the closeness of a family member with the savvy and objectivity of a professional businesswoman and public-policy expert," the Times magazine article stated. She is trusted "to speak for me particularly when we are dealing with delicate issues." Such as nuclear arms matters? If so, that should be cause for concern. Jarrett’s only experience in foreign affairs is the insignificant fact that she was born in Iran, where her father was a doctor working for an American aid program. She lived in London as a child before coming to the United States.

Continue reading here . . .

Trevor Loudon has documented the close working relationship between Jarrett's late father-in-law, Vernon Jarrett, and a certain Frank Marshall Davis, in a Communist Party front in late 1940s Chicago.

Frank Marshall Davis -- a covert Communist Party member -- then went to Hawaii and ended up mentoring the young Barack Obama, and when Obama moved to Chicago, Vernon Jarrett used his newspaper columns to promote Obama's political career.

The Chicago Communist Party mucks in as well and writes Vernon a lovely eulogy when he dies a few years ago.

Then, coincidentally, Valerie Jarrett hires Michelle Obama, becomes friends with Barack and ends up advising him in the White House. Chicago -- it's such a small, small world.