Mark Siljander Collection Date: Sun, 20 Jan 2008 15:58:39 -0600 (CST) http://www.wsbt.com/news/local/13875667.html Friends defend former congressman accused of terror fundraising ties Former Congressman Mark Siljander has been linked to Islamic charity that funds terrorism by Samuel King (king@wsbt.com) By WSBT News1 Jan 17, 2008 PORTAGE, Mich. A former Congressman is accused of helping fund a terrorist group, but longtime friends say they don't believe the charges are true. Mark Siljander represented Southwest Michigan in Congress for two terms in the 1980s. He's now being linked to an Islamic charity that the government says funneled money to terrorists. Siljander is charged with money laundering, conspiracy and obstructing justice. The government alleges Siljander accepted $50,000 from the Islamic American Relief Agency or IARA. The government says that money was stolen from the U.S. Agency for International Development. The charity was on a government list of charities that support terrorists. Prosecutors allege Siljander lied about the lobbying to get the group off the list. "Congressman Siljander told federal officials he had not been hired to do any lobbying or advocacy on behalf of IARA, and that the money or checks he received from IARA were for charitable donations," said John Wood, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri. Siljander moved to Three Rivers when he was a teenager. David Dudd's family has known Siljander for years and helped him get involved in Republican politics. I just know him to be just an upright person. These charges absolutely cannot be accurate, there's no way, Dudd said. Dudd helped him during his campaigns for Congress and says Siljander is a good Christian, committed to serving his country. There's no way Mark would ever do anything knowledgeably that would hurt this country in any way," Dudd said. "I'm absolutely sure of it. Siljander's attorney says he will enter a not guilty plea for each of the six charges he faces. Mark Siljander vehemently denies the allegations in the indictment and will enter a not guilty plea, said Attorney James Hobbs in a statement. Mr. Siljander was never an officer of the Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA), nor was he ever involved in any alleged efforts by IARA to engage in any prohibited financial transactions with any US-designated terrorist. Each of the six charges against Siljander carries a penalty of 20 years in prison. +++++ http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-indict17jan17,1,1025865.story?coll=la-headlines-nation Ex-Rep. Mark Siljander is indicted Indictment detailed By Richard B. Schmitt, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer January 17, 2008 WASHINGTON -- A former Republican member of Congress from Michigan was indicted Wednesday in connection with his work for a U.S.-based Islamic relief organization that allegedly supported a prominent Afghan warlord. Mark D. Siljander, 56, a Washington lobbyist who served in the House from 1981 to 1987, was charged with money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice in a multicount indictment by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Mo. Federal officials said Siljander was hired in 2004 by the Islamic American Relief Agency of Columbia, Mo., after the group had been listed among organizations banned from receiving government contracts because of concern that the organizations supported international terrorism. Siljander was paid $50,000 to lobby Congress to restore the firm's eligibility to receive government work. According to the indictment, the money was stolen by the Islamic American Relief Agency from the U.S. Agency for International Development, which had hired the organization to do relief work in Africa. Siljander was charged with conspiring to engage in money laundering by transferring stolen USAID funds, and obstructing justice by lying to a federal grand jury and making false statements to FBI agents, officials said. Siljander allegedly told federal agents that he had not been hired to do any lobbying or advocacy work for the relief agency, and that the funds he received were charitable donations intended to assist him in writing a book about Islam and Christianity. James R. Hobbs, Siljander's lawyer, said his client was innocent. "Mark Siljander vehemently denies the allegations in the indictment and will enter a not-guilty plea," Hobbs said in a statement. "Mr. Siljander, a former congressman, is internationally recognized for his good-faith attempts to bridge the gap between Christian and Muslin communities worldwide." Hobbs said Siljander was never an officer of the Islamic agency or involved in any efforts to engage in prohibited financial transactions with terrorists. Most of the charges in the 42-count indictment target the Islamic agency and several of its former officers. The group was shuttered in October 2004 when it was designated a terrorist organization by the Treasury Department. In an indictment filed in March, it was charged with transferring funds to Iraq in violation of federal law. Also named was the group's former executive director, Mubarak Hamed, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Sudan. The new, expanded indictment alleges that the group funneled some $130,000 to bank accounts in Pakistan "purportedly for an orphanage" that was housed in buildings controlled by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Hekmatyar is founder of Hezb-i-Islami, a militia allied with the Taliban. The U.S. government put Hekmatyar on a list of global terrorists in 2003, making it illegal to support him or his interests. Siljander, a former salesman of prefabricated homes and state legislator, won a special election in 1981 to fill the House seat vacated by David A. Stockman, who had been named budget director in the new Reagan administration. Siljander, a favorite of religious conservatives, declared war on abortion, pornography, the Equal Rights Amendment and school busing. But he lost his 1986 reelection bid after urging clergy members to support him in order to "break the back of Satan." He later was appointed a public delegate to the United Nations by President Reagan. Since leaving Congress, published reports indicate, Siljander has represented a variety of interests, including officials from the governments of Liberia and Sudan. According to federal court records, he was once hired to do business development work for a Michigan man convicted in 1995 of using embezzled public funds in a failed plan to sell military weapons to Croatia. Officials said at the time that Siljander was not aware that funds he had received might have been stolen. In 2001, Siljander was a government witness in the federal trial of two executives of a Virginia-based company that promised green cards to foreign investors who invested at least $500,000 in a U.S. business. Siljander testified that he worked as a consultant to the two defendants but later came to harbor serious doubts about the integrity of the business. The website for Global Strategies Inc., the lobbying firm Siljander heads in Great Falls, Va., lists references including President George H.W. Bush, assassinated former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and several current and former members of Congress. rick.schmitt@latimes.com Times staff writer Walter F. Roche contributed to this report. AP U.S. Attorney for the Western District of MIssouri, John F. Wood, details a 42-count indictment that targets the IARA, several of its former officers and a former three-term member of Congress. He did work for an Islamic relief group on a U.S. terrorism list. He's charged with money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice. +++++ http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/01/siljander_indictment_shocking.html Siljander indictment 'shocking' by By Emily Monacelli | Kalamazoo Gazette Thursday January 17, 2008, 10:00 AM THREE RIVERS -- The indictment of former Congressman Mark D. Siljander for his ties to an alleged international terrorism network didn't square with Roger Wyngarden, of Constantine. "I don't think he would do that," said Wyngarden, who was having breakfast this morning at the Oasis Family Restaurant in Three Rivers, Siljander's former home turf. "He's a man of integrity and Christian principles." Yet, while former Three Rivers Mayor Tom Lowry called the news "shocking," he said, "If a grand jury indicted him, they saw something we don't know yet." Siljander, 56, who now lives in Great Falls, Va., was indicted Wednesday on charges of money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice for his part in an alleged terrorist fundraising ring. The group is accused of sending more than $130,000 to an al-Qaida and Taliban supporter who has threatened U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan. The charges against Siljander were part of a 42-count indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo., that accuses the Islamic American Relief Agency of using stolen federal money to pay Siljander $50,000 to lobby Washington leaders for them. Siljander allegedly lied to federal investigators about lobbying senators on behalf of the now-defunct Missouri-based charity. James R. Hobbs, Siljander's lawyer, said Siljander "vehemently denies" the allegations and intends to plead not guilty. Hobbs said Siljander is internationally recognized, noting that he has written a forthcoming book, "A Deadly Misunderstanding, A Congressman's Quest to Bridge the Muslim Christian Divide." Siljander's career started on the local level with his election to the Fabius Township board in St. Joseph County in 1972, the year he graduated from Western Michigan University. Four years later, Siljander was elected to represent the area in the state House of Representatives. The opportunity to make the leap to Congress opened in 1981 when then-President Ronald Reagan tapped U.S. Rep. David Stockman to become the director of the Office of Management and Budget. At the age of 29, Siljander won a special election to replace Stockman and was twice re-elected. A staunch conservative and a lay minister, Siljander was fiercely anti-abortion and opposed to gay rights. It was in the final days of Siljander's difficult 1986 re-election battle in the Republican primary against former Stockman aide Fred Upton that he uttered a quote that has stuck with him ever since. Siljander mailed a tape to area churches urging voters to support him and "break the back of Satan." Upton cried foul, beat Siljander and has held the seat ever since. Dick Imgrund, the longtime treasurer of the St. Joseph County Republican Party, said he was surprised by the news, noting that the party's evangelical Christian supporters had been among Siljander's strongest backers. "To find one of them accused of supporting a terrorist group, it's a surprise. It's not what you expect," Imgrund said. Inside the Main Street Cafe in downtown Three Rivers this morning, Ned Christiansen said he had his doubts about the charges. "I just find it hard to believe that any American would knowingly provide funds" to terrorists, Christiansen said. Gazette wire services contributed to this report. +++++ http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/2008/01/what_happened_t_2.html January 16, 2008 What Happened to My Former Boss Mark Siljander?: Indicted for Helping Islamic Charity That Funded Al-Qaeda, Taliban By Debbie Schlussel **** WILL BE ON FOX & FRIENDS, THURS. MORNING, 7:15 A.M. ET, RE-THIS TOPIC **** **** SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATE **** In general, nothing shocks me about Islamic terrorists and which American politicians are aiding and abetting him. But today, I am truly shocked beyond belief as I read that my former boss, former U.S. Congressman Mark D. Siljander, was indicted in an apparent scheme to help an Islamic charity fund Al-Qaeda and the Taliban against Americans, to the tune of $130,000: A former congressman and delegate to the United Nations was indicted Wednesday as part of a terrorist fundraising ring that allegedly sent more than $130,000 to an al-Qaida and Taliban supporter who has threatened U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan. The former Republican congressman from Michigan, Mark Deli Siljander, was charged with money laundering, conspiracy and obstructing justice for allegedly lying about lobbying senators on behalf of an Islamic charity that authorities said was secretly sending funds to terrorists. Mark Siljander, who represented a Congressional district in Western Michigan, is the last guy I'd think would do this. I hope the allegations are not true, but it sounds like he is involved in a very bad scheme to help fund Islamic terrorists and their schemes to murder Americans. It's so shocking. What happened to my former boss in the years since he was the most pro-Israel, the most anti-Islamist Congressman on Capitol Hill? I don't know. But here's why I'm so shocked. When I worked for Mark Siljander, in the summer after my junior year of high school, and again when I was headed to college, I was just 16, but more than an intern. I wrote speeches for him, I helped tutor him in Hebrew, which he learned to speak and write, and I accompanied him to many events. What makes the allegations in the indictment so shocking, is that Siljander is a Born-Again Evangelical Christian. We had fast days in his office. There were prayer circles. So deeply religious and so deeply against the Islamic threat, Siljander was known, at the time, as the most pro-Israel Congressman on Capitol Hill, with many Jewish and pro-Israel Evangelical contributors from all over the world. My father was one of those contributors. His Chief of Staff, Robin Luketina, even served in the Israeli Defense Forces. Mark enlisted me to help him write a tough bill espousing sanctions against the Soviet Union because of its persecution of Soviet Jews. And he enlisted my help in pro-Israel and anti-PLO legislation. That's why it's so hard for me to read that he may have played for the opposite team--for the enemy. I'm truly shocked. And I hope it's not true. But--while I have a lot of distrust in the Department of Justice--on this one, I think there must be something there. It's crushing. I don't know if he knew the ultimate destination of the money. It's not apparent, since the Islamic charity "secretly" sent the money to Al-Qaeda. But what was he even doing lobbying for an Islamic charity? And he apparently lied about it to the FBI. That's not the Mark Siljander I knew and worked for over two summers and several spring breaks. It boggles my mind. It must have been the money, as I know that, after he lost his re-election bid (he was replaced by liberal Republican and pan-Islamist Fred Upton), he was engaged in a million different business endeavors trying to make a success of one. If Mark Siljander was helping Islamic terrorists against America, then no-one is immune from succumbing to these forces of evil. If true, it's extremely disappointing and demoralizing to me. It tells me you never really know anyone for sure. Like I said, Mark Siljander is the last person I'd ever think would do this. **** UPDATE: Siljander was representing the Al-Qaeda front charity Islamic American Relief Agency, which was shut down by the FBI and is represented by sleazy lawyer-for-terrorists Shereef Akeel, who lives in the Detroit area and filed a phony grievance against me with the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission. That my former boss, Mark Siljander would take money from this group--and it's a fact that he did--is outrageous and shocking to me. That he apparently lied, twice, to the FBI about it, is even more so. That he lied about writing a book about "bridging the gap" between Islam and Christianity is even worse. This is the Congressman--who when I worked for him--was decades ahead of his time in understanding the Islamist threat worldwide and to America. That he'd reverse course sickens and saddens me. I think this was about money. Since he lost his Congressional seat, he was hard up for money and was involved in many failed business ventures, including an AIDS-Test-By-Mail. (He also ran, unsuccessfully, for Congress from Virginia.) Desperation and money do bad things. Posted by Debbie at January 16, 2008 03:09 PM +++++ http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2008/January/08_nsd_029.html Department of Justice Seal Department of Justice FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2008 WWW.USDOJ.GOV NSD (202) 514-2007 TDD (202) 514-1888 Islamic Charity Charged with Terrorist Financing; Former U.S. Congressman Indicted for Money Laundering KANSAS CITY -- A federal grand jury in the Western District of Missouri has returned a superseding indictment that charges the Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA) and several of its former officers with eight new counts of engaging in prohibited financial transactions for the benefit of U.S.-designated terrorist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. The indictment also charges former U.S. Congressman Mark Deli Siljander with money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice in the case. The 42-count superseding indictment returned today was announced by Kenneth L. Wainstein, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; John F. Wood, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri; Joseph Billy, Assistant Director of the FBIs Counterterrorism Division; and Monte C. Strait, Special Agent in Charge of the FBIs Kansas City Field Office. This superseding indictment paints a troubling picture of an American charity organization that engaged in transactions for the benefit of terrorists and conspired with a former United States Congressman to convert stolen federal funds into payment for his advocacy on behalf of the charity, said Assistant Attorney General Wainstein. An organization right here in the American heartland allegedly sent funds to Pakistan for the benefit of a specially designated global terrorist with ties to al-Qaeda and the Taliban, said U.S. Attorney Wood. By bringing this case in the middle of America, we seek to make it harder for terrorists to do business halfway around the globe. The indictment also alleges that a former congressman engaged in money laundering and obstruction of a federal investigation in an effort to disguise IARAs misuse of taxpayer money that the government had provided for humanitarian purposes. IARA, the Islamic charitable organization named in todays indictment, was headquartered in Columbia, Mo., and was formerly known as the Islamic African Relief Agency-USA. IARA was officially formed in 1985 and closed in October 2004, when it was identified by the U.S. Treasury Department as a specially designated global terrorist organization. Mubarak Hamed, 51, of Columbia, Mo., a naturalized U.S. citizen from Sudan, served as IARAs former executive director and is named as a defendant in the indictment. Also charged in todays superseding indictment is Mark Deli Siljander, 57, a former U.S. Congressman from Michigan (1981-87) who serves as the owner/director of Global Strategies, Inc., a planning, marketing and public relations company located in the Washington, D.C. area. Other defendants named in the indictment are Ali Mohamed Bagegni, 53, formerly of Columbia, Mo, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Libya and a former member of IARAs board of directors; Ahmad Mustafa, 55, of Columbia, a citizen of Iraq, and a former fund-raiser for IARA; Khalid Al-Sudanee, 56, a citizen and resident of Jordan, and the regional director of the Middle East office of the Islamic African Relief Agency (also known as the Islamic Relief Agency, or ISRA); and Abdel Azim El-Siddig, 51, of Palos Heights, Ill., a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Sudan, and formerly vice president for international operations for IARA. On March 6, 2007, IARA, along with five officers, employees and associates were charged in a 33-count indictment for illegally transferring funds to Iraq in violation of federal sanctions. They were also charged with stealing government funds, with misusing IARAs charitable status to raise funds for an unlawful purpose, and with attempting to avoid government detection of their illegal activities by, among other things, falsely denying in a nationally-televised interview that a procurement agent of Osama bin Laden had been an employee of IARA. These charges are included in the superseding indictment returned today. New Terrorism-Related Charges Against IARA Todays superseding indictment adds to the original charges by alleging that IARA and its former executive director, Mubarak Hamed, engaged in prohibited financial transactions for the benefit of Specially Designated Global Terrorist, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an Afghan mujahideen leader and founder of the Hezb-e-Islami-Gulbuddin (HIG), who has participated in and supported terrorist acts by al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Hekmatyar has vowed to engage in a holy war against the United States and international troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. government designated Hekmatyar as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist on Feb. 19, 2003, thereby blocking all property and interests in property of Hekmatyar. According to Counts Thirty-Four through Forty-One of the new indictment, IARA and Hamed knowingly and willfully engaged in financial transactions for the benefit of Hekmatyars organization by sending approximately $130,000 in 2003 and 2004 in numerous transactions to Islamic Relief Agency (ISRA) bank accounts in Peshawar, Pakistan, purportedly for an orphanage housed in buildings owned and controlled by Hekmatyar. Sending money to benefit designated terrorists jeopardizes both U.S. national security and the security of nations around the world, said Assistant Director Joseph Billy, Jr., FBI Counterterrorism Division. The FBI will continue to work diligently with our partners in the law enforcement and intelligence community to pursue suspected terrorists and their supporters, whether in the United States or overseas. It is important to note that the indictment does not charge any of the defendants with material support of terrorism, nor does it allege that they knowingly financed acts of terror. Instead, the indictment alleges that some of the defendants engaged in financial transactions that benefited property controlled by a designated terrorist, in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. New Charges Against Former Congressman Todays superseding indictment also names Mark Deli Siljander as a defendant on counts of money laundering, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice. According to the indictment, Siljander was hired in March 2004 by defendants IARA, Hamed, and Bagegni to advocate for the removal of IARA from a U.S. Senate Finance Committee list of non-profit organizations suspected of being involved in supporting international terrorism. The Senate Finance Committee placed IARA on this list of charities and published the list on Jan. 14, 2004. Siljander was to advocate for IARAs removal from the list and reinstatement as an approved government contractor by gathering information and meeting with individuals and agencies of the U.S. government. As compensation for the services that Siljander agreed to perform, IARA transferred roughly $50,000 in stolen federal funds to accounts that were controlled by Siljander at the National Heritage Foundation and the International Foundation. According to the indictment, the funds used to compensate Siljander for his services had previously been stolen from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) by IARA, Hamed and Bagegni. The International Foundation and the National Heritage Foundation, which is not related to the Heritage Foundation, are not charged with any wrongdoing in this case. IARA, Hamed and Bagegni had previously entered into a series of agreements with USAID for relief projects in Mali, Africa. When USAID terminated those agreements in December 1999, the amount of money involved totaled approximately $2 million. IARA had allegedly failed to fully fund the matching contributions required to receive USAID funds. After the termination of these agreements, the indictment alleges, IARA, Hamed and Bagegni, without authorization, retained approximately $84,922 of USAID money and failed to return the funds to USAID as called for by the agreements. According to Count Twenty-Eight of the indictment, Siljander and defendants IARA, Hamed, Bagegni and El-Siddig conspired to engage in money laundering by transferring stolen USAID funds, knowing that the transfers were designed to conceal the nature, source and ownership of the proceeds. Counts Twenty-Nine through Thirty-One of the indictment charge Siljander along with IARA, Hamed, Bagegni and El-Siddig with engaging in money laundering by transferring stolen USAID funds, knowing that the transfers were designed to conceal the nature, source and ownership of the proceeds. Obstruction of Justice Count Thirty-Two of the indictment alleges that Siljander obstructed the due administration of justice in the grand jury investigation in the Western District of Missouri by making false statements to FBI agents in December 2005 and to FBI agents and federal prosecutors in April 2007. According to the indictment, Siljander told federal officials that he had not been hired to do any lobbying or advocacy work for IARA and that the money or checks he received from IARA were charitable donations intended to assist him in writing a book about bridging the gap between Islam and Christianity. When he made these statements, he then well knew and believed that each statement was false, the indictment alleges. The public is cautioned that the charges contained in this indictment are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence. The defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, IRS-Criminal Investigation, the Department of Homeland Securitys U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and U.S. AID-Office of Inspector General. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony P. Gonzalez from the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of Missouri, in conjunction with Trial Attorneys Corey J. Smith, National Security Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and Steven M. Mohlhenrich, Tax Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. ### 08-029 +++++ http://www.wsbt.com/news/local/13843672.html Former Michigan Congressman charged in conspiracy involving terror fundraising By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer Jan 16, 2008 WASHINGTON (AP) A former congressman and delegate to the United Nations was indicted Wednesday on charges of working for an alleged terrorist fundraising ring that sent more than $130,000 to an al-Qaida supporter who has threatened U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan. Mark Deli Siljander, a Michigan Republican when he was in the House, was charged with money laundering, conspiracy and obstructing justice for allegedly lying about being hired to lobby senators on behalf of an Islamic charity that authorities said was secretly sending funds to terrorists. The 42-count indictment, unsealed in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo., accuses the Islamic American Relief Agency of paying Siljander $50,000 for the lobbying money that turned out to be stolen from the U.S. Agency for International Development. The charges paint "a troubling picture of an American charity organization that engaged in transactions for the benefit of terrorists and conspired with a former United States congressman to convert stolen federal funds into payments for his advocacy," Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein said. Siljander is a Republican from southwestern Michigan who served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives during the 1980s and was appointed by President Reagan to serve as a U.S. delegate to the United Nations for one year in 1987. Fred Upton defeated him in the 1986 primary. Calls to Silander's business in a Washington suburb went unanswered Wednesday. His attorney in Kansas City, James R. Hobbs, said Siljander would plead not guilty to the charges against him. "Mark Siljander vehemently denies the allegations in the indictment," Hobbs said in a statement. He described Siljander as "internationally recognized for his good faith attempts to bridge the gap between Christian and Muslim communities worldwide" and plugged the ex-congressman's upcoming book on that topic. The charges are part of a long-running case against the charity, which had been based in Columbia, Mo., before it was designated in 2004 by the Treasury Department as a suspected fundraiser for terrorists. The indictment alleges that IARA also employed a fundraising aide to Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks. IARA has long denied allegations that it has financed terrorists. The group's attorney, Shereef Akeel of Troy, Mich., rejected the charges outlined in Wednesday's indictment. "For four years I have not seen a single piece of a document that shows anyone did anything wrong," Akeel said. The government accuses IARA of sending approximately $130,000 to help Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whom the United States has designated a global terrorist. The money, sent to bank accounts in Peshawar, Pakistan, in 2003 and 2004, was masked as donations to an orphanage located in buildings that Hekmatyar owned. Authorities described Hekmatyar as an Afghan mujahedeen leader who participated in and supported terrorist acts by al-Qaida and the Taliban. The Justice Department said Hekmatyar "has vowed to engage in a holy war against the United States and international troops in Afghanistan." Siljander was elected to Congress initially with the support of fundamentalist Christian groups, and said at the time he won because "God wanted me in." In 1983, he claimed that "Arab terrorists" planned to kill him during a pro-Jewish rally; the FBI and Secret Service said they knew of no such plot. Siljander attended the rally wearing a bulletproof vest. After leaving the government, he founded the Washington-area consulting group Global Strategies Inc. and, according to the indictment, was hired by IARA in March 2004 to lobby the Senate Finance Committee to remove the charity from the panel's list of suspected terror fundraisers. It's not clear whether Siljander ever engaged in the lobbying push, said John Wood, U.S. attorney in Kansas City. Nevertheless, IARA paid Siljander with money that was part of U.S. government funding awarded to the charity years earlier for relief work it promised to perform in Africa, the indictment says. In interviews with the FBI in December 2005 and April 2007, Siljander denied doing any lobbying for IARA. The money, he told investigators, was merely a donation from IARA to help him write a book about Islam and Christianity, the indictment says. In 2004, the FBI raided the IARA's USA headquarters and the homes of people affiliated with the group nationwide. Since then, the 20-year-old charity has been unable to raise money and its assets have been frozen. The charity has argued that it is a separate organization from the Islamic African Relief Agency, a Sudanese group suspected of financing al-Qaida. A federal appeals court in Washington ruled in February that the two groups were linked. In all, Siljander, IARA and five of its officers were charged with various counts of theft, money laundering, aiding terrorists and conspiracy. "By bringing this case in the middle of America, we seek to make it harder for terrorists to do business halfway around the globe," Wood said. Associated Press writers Margaret Stafford and Maria Sudekum Fisher in Kansas City, Mo., contributed to this report. +++++ http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8U75TFO2&show_article=1 Ex-Lawmaker Charged in Terror Conspiracy Jan 16 02:42 PM US/Eastern By LARA JAKES JORDAN Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - A former congressman and delegate to the United Nations was indicted Wednesday as part of a terrorist fundraising ring that allegedly sent more than $130,000 to an al-Qaida and Taliban supporter who has threatened U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan. The former Republican congressman from Michigan, Mark Deli Siljander, was charged with money laundering, conspiracy and obstructing justice for allegedly lying about lobbying senators on behalf of an Islamic charity that authorities said was secretly sending funds to terrorists. Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. +++++ http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/019607.php January 16, 2008 Former Congressman, U.N. Delegate Indicted as Part of Al-Qaeda, Taliban Fundraising Ring AP WASHINGTON A former congressman and delegate to the United Nations was indicted Wednesday as part of a terrorist fundraising ring that allegedly sent more than $130,000 to an al-Qaida and Taliban supporter who has threatened U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan. The former Republican congressman from Michigan, Mark Deli Siljander, was charged with money laundering, conspiracy and obstructing justice for allegedly lying about lobbying senators on behalf of an Islamic charity that authorities said was secretly sending funds to terrorists. A 42-count indictment, unsealed in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo., accuses the Islamic American Relief Agency of paying Siljander $50,000 for the lobbying money that turned out to be stolen from the U.S. Agency for International Development.... UPDATE: Here's an interesting article from 2005: Edinburgh Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies - Special Lectures 2005 Dr. Mark Siljander will present two lectures this week, in a series entitled The place of Muslim-Christian dynamic in international negotiations. [...] Ambassador Siljander is a student of several languages, including Arabic, Aramaic, Hebrew, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese, and has spent over ten years studying the Scriptures of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. These experiences have led him to develop what he describes as a unique paradigm for the peaceful resolution of conflict that has been successfully applied in several challenging areas of the globe. Unique indeed! In 1996 he received the 1996 Mohandas K. Gandhi International Peace Award, for ...recognition of his courageous statesmanship in international reconciliation. Congressman Siljander is affiliated academically with the Edinburgh Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies. ArafatSiljander.jpg Arafat (left) with Siljander (right) "We were the first white American Christians to speak on a Friday afternoon at the Khartoum mosque. That happened, not because we're so good looking, but because we built bridges of respect," said Siljander in November 2007. That comes from a very illuminating article in which he describes his evolution from a born-again Christian who aggressively proselytized among Muslims to a Christian apologist for Islam who sees no contradictions between what the Bible and the Qur'an say about Jesus. Is he still building those bridges? +++++ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article3137695.ece January 6, 2008 For sale: Wests deadly nuclear secrets Insight: Chris Gourlay, Jonathan Calvert, Joe Lauria A WHISTLEBLOWER has made a series of extraordinary claims about how corrupt government officials allowed Pakistan and other states to steal nuclear weapons secrets. Sibel Edmonds, a 37-year-old former Turkish language translator for the FBI, listened into hundreds of sensitive intercepted conversations while based at the agencys Washington field office. She approached The Sunday Times last month after reading about an Al-Qaeda terrorist who had revealed his role in training some of the 9/11 hijackers while he was in Turkey. Edmonds described how foreign intelligence agents had enlisted the support of US officials to acquire a network of moles in sensitive military and nuclear institutions. Scotland Yard police a fig leaf for Musharraf Among the hours of covert tape recordings, she says she heard evidence that one well-known senior official in the US State Department was being paid by Turkish agents in Washington who were selling the information on to black market buyers, including Pakistan. The name of the official who has held a series of top government posts is known to The Sunday Times. He strongly denies the claims. However, Edmonds said: He was aiding foreign operatives against US interests by passing them highly classified information, not only from the State Department but also from the Pentagon, in exchange for money, position and political objectives. She claims that the FBI was also gathering evidence against senior Pentagon officials including household names who were aiding foreign agents. If you made public all the information that the FBI have on this case, you will see very high-level people going through criminal trials, she said. Her story shows just how much the West was infiltrated by foreign states seeking nuclear secrets. It illustrates how western government officials turned a blind eye to, or were even helping, countries such as Pakistan acquire bomb technology. The wider nuclear network has been monitored for many years by a joint Anglo-American intelligence effort. But rather than shut it down, investigations by law enforcement bodies such as the FBI and Britains Revenue & Customs have been aborted to preserve diplomatic relations. Edmonds, a fluent speaker of Turkish and Farsi, was recruited by the FBI in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Her previous claims about incompetence inside the FBI have been well documented in America. She has given evidence to closed sessions of Congress and the 9/11 commission, but many of the key points of her testimony have remained secret. She has now decided to divulge some of that information after becoming disillusioned with the US authorities failure to act. One of Edmondss main roles in the FBI was to translate thousands of hours of conversations by Turkish diplomatic and political targets that had been covertly recorded by the agency. A backlog of tapes had built up, dating back to 1997, which were needed for an FBI investigation into links between the Turks and Pakistani, Israeli and US targets. Before she left the FBI in 2002 she heard evidence that pointed to money laundering, drug imports and attempts to acquire nuclear and conventional weapons technology. What I found was damning, she said. While the FBI was investigating, several arms of the government were shielding what was going on. The Turks and Israelis had planted moles in military and academic institutions which handled nuclear technology. Edmonds says there were several transactions of nuclear material every month, with the Pakistanis being among the eventual buyers. The network appeared to be obtaining information from every nuclear agency in the United States, she said. They were helped, she says, by the high-ranking State Department official who provided some of their moles mainly PhD students with security clearance to work in sensitive nuclear research facilities. These included the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory in New Mexico, which is responsible for the security of the US nuclear deterrent. In one conversation Edmonds heard the official arranging to pick up a $15,000 cash bribe. The package was to be dropped off at an agreed location by someone in the Turkish diplomatic community who was working for the network. The Turks, she says, often acted as a conduit for the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistans spy agency, because they were less likely to attract suspicion. Venues such as the American Turkish Council in Washington were used to drop off the cash, which was picked up by the official. Edmonds said: I heard at least three transactions like this over a period of 2= years. There are almost certainly more. The Pakistani operation was led by General Mahmoud Ahmad, then the ISI chief. Intercepted communications showed Ahmad and his colleagues stationed in Washington were in constant contact with attachis in the Turkish embassy. Intelligence analysts say that members of the ISI were close to Al-Qaeda before and after 9/11. Indeed, Ahmad was accused of sanctioning a $100,000 wire payment to Mohammed Atta, one of the 9/11 hijackers, immediately before the attacks. The results of the espionage were almost certainly passed to Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani nuclear scientist. Khan was close to Ahmad and the ISI. While running Pakistans nuclear programme, he became a millionaire by selling atomic secrets to Libya, Iran and North Korea. He also used a network of companies in America and Britain to obtain components for a nuclear programme. Khan caused an alert among western intelligence agencies when his aides met Osama Bin Laden. We were aware of contact between A Q Khans people and Al-Qaeda, a former CIA officer said last week. There was absolute panic when we initially discovered this, but it kind of panned out in the end. It is likely that the nuclear secrets stolen from the United States would have been sold to a number of rogue states by Khan. Edmonds was later to see the scope of the Pakistani connections when it was revealed that one of her fellow translators at the FBI was the daughter of a Pakistani embassy official who worked for Ahmad. The translator was given top secret clearance despite protests from FBI investigators. Edmonds says packages containing nuclear secrets were delivered by Turkish operatives, using their cover as members of the diplomatic and military community, to contacts at the Pakistani embassy in Washington. Following 9/11, a number of the foreign operatives were taken in for questioning by the FBI on suspicion that they knew about or somehow aided the attacks. Edmonds said the State Department official once again proved useful. A primary target would call the official and point to names on the list and say, We need to get them out of the US because we cant afford for them to spill the beans, she said. The official said that he would take care of it. The four suspects on the list were released from interrogation and extradited. Edmonds also claims that a number of senior officials in the Pentagon had helped Israeli and Turkish agents. The people provided lists of potential moles from Pentagon-related institutions who had access to databases concerning this information, she said. The handlers, who were part of the diplomatic community, would then try to recruit those people to become moles for the network. The lists contained all their hooking points, which could be financial or sexual pressure points, their exact job in the Pentagon and what stuff they had access to. One of the Pentagon figures under investigation was Lawrence Franklin, a former Pentagon analyst, who was jailed in 2006 for passing US defence information to lobbyists and sharing classified information with an Israeli diplomat. He was one of the top people providing information and packages during 2000 and 2001, she said. Once acquired, the nuclear secrets could have gone anywhere. The FBI monitored Turkish diplomats who were selling copies of the information to the highest bidder. Edmonds said: Certain greedy Turkish operators would make copies of the material and look around for buyers. They had agents who would find potential buyers. In summer 2000, Edmonds says the FBI monitored one of the agents as he met two Saudi Arabian businessmen in Detroit to sell nuclear information that had been stolen from an air force base in Alabama. She overheard the agent saying: We have a package and were going to sell it for $250,000. Edmondss employment with the FBI lasted for just six months. In March 2002 she was dismissed after accusing a colleague of covering up illicit activity involving Turkish nationals. She has always claimed that she was victimised for being outspoken and was vindicated by an Office of the Inspector General review of her case three years later. It found that one of the contributory reasons for her sacking was that she had made valid complaints. The US attorney-general has imposed a state secrets privilege order on her, which prevents her revealing more details of the FBIs methods and current investigations. Her allegations were heard in a closed session of Congress, but no action has been taken and she continues to campaign for a public hearing. She was able to discuss the case with The Sunday Times because, by the end of January 2002, the justice department had shut down the programme. The senior official in the State Department no longer works there. Last week he denied all of Edmondss allegations: If you are calling me to say somebody said that I took money, thats outrageous . . . I do not have anything to say about such stupid ridiculous things as this. In researching this article, The Sunday Times has talked to two FBI officers (one serving, one former) and two former CIA sources who worked on nuclear proliferation. While none was aware of specific allegations against officials she names, they did provide overlapping corroboration of Edmondss story. One of the CIA sources confirmed that the Turks had acquired nuclear secrets from the United States and shared the information with Pakistan and Israel. We have no indication that Turkey has its own nuclear ambitions. But the Turks are traders. To my knowledge they became big players in the late 1990s, the source said. How Pakistan got the bomb, then sold it to the highest bidders 1965 Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Pakistans foreign minister, says: If India builds the bomb we will eat grass . . . but we will get one of our own 1974 Nuclear programme becomes increased priority as India tests a nuclear device 1976 Abdul Qadeer Khan, a scientist, steals secrets from Dutch uranium plant. Made head of his nations nuclear programme by Bhutto, now prime minister 1976 onwards Clandestine network established to obtain materials and technology for uranium enrichment from the West 1985 Pakistan produces weapons-grade uranium for the first time 1989-91 Khans network sells Iran nuclear weapons information and technology 1991-97 Khan sells weapons technology to North Korea and Libya 1998 India tests nuclear bomb and Pakistan follows with a series of nuclear tests. Khan says: I never had any doubts I was building a bomb. We had to do it 2001 CIA chief George Tenet gathers officials for crisis summit on the proliferation of nuclear technology from Pakistan to other countries 2001 Weeks before 9/11, Khans aides meet Osama Bin Laden to discuss an Al-Qaeda nuclear device 2001 After 9/11 proliferation crisis becomes secondary as Pakistan is seen as important ally in war on terror 2003 Libya abandons nuclear weapons programme and admits acquiring components through Pakistani nuclear scientists 2004 Khan placed under house arrest and confesses to supplying Iran, Libya and North Korea with weapons technology. He is pardoned by President Pervez Musharraf 2006 North Korea tests a nuclear bomb 2007 Renewed fears that bomb may fall into hands of Islamic extremists as killing of Benazir Bhutto throws country into turmoil +++++ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120070891604902243.html?mod=googlenews_wsj Case Shines Spotlight On Advocacy Groups By GLENN R.SIMPSON and PAUL M. BARRETT January 19, 2008; Page A4 WASHINGTON -- This past week's indictment of a former congressman for aiding an Islamic charity with alleged ties to al Qaeda has cast a spotlight on a little-known corner of the Washington lobbying community: advocates who aid groups accused of helping terrorists. The Bush administration's decision in late 2001 to declare legal and financial war on groups thought to aid sponsors of terror has generated sanctions against a wide swath of organizations and individuals. More than 475 entities and people have had their assets frozen after being named Specially Designated Global Terrorists under an executive order signed by the president after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, for instance. Only about a dozen have been removed from the list. As a result, many of those named have sought professional help to extract themselves from government scrutiny. And that has created a kind of cottage industry for a small group of professional advocates willing to confront the unique occupational hazards that come with helping groups the U.S. sees as the bad guys. "There's a whole trade association practically," says attorney Wendell Belew, the unofficial dean of the Islamic charity bar, who represents a group of charities in Saudi Arabia. One of those who took up the cause was Mark Siljander, the former congressman indicted this past week. Mr. Siljander, a Republican and an evangelical Christian who left office in 1987, formed a lobbying firm, Global Strategies Inc., that is based in Great Falls, Va., just outside Washington. Mr. Siljander was hired in 2004 by the Islamic American Relief Agency of Columbia, Mo., to help the group get off a list of nonprofits under investigation by the Senate Finance Committee for possible links to terror, a federal indictment alleges. (The group was later added to the administration's terror-supporters list.) He allegedly conspired with the charity -- which the government says aided suspected terrorists -- to hide the source of his fees. "We didn't target Congressman Siljander," John F. Wood, the U.S. attorney in Kansas City, Mo., said in an interview Friday. "We followed the money, and the money led us to Mark Siljander." Mr. Siljander's attorney, James R. Hobbs, said his client "vehemently denies" any wrongdoing and will plead not guilty at an arraignment scheduled for Jan. 28 in federal court in Kansas City. Specifically, the indictment charges that Mr. Siljander was compensated with about $50,000 stolen by the charity from a project for the U.S. Agency for International Development. The 57-year-old lobbyist participated in a series of financial maneuvers designed to obscure the origin of this money, the indictment charges. Later, according to prosecutors, he obstructed the investigation when he lied to FBI agents, saying he hadn't been hired to do any lobbying and that the $50,000 was a charitable donation intended to help him in writing a book about bridging the gap between Islam and Christianity. As a politician, Mr. Siljander cultivated conservative Christian support and was known as a strong opponent of abortion and homosexuality. The organization that Mr. Siljander was aiding and five of its former officers have been charged with sending about $130,000 to Pakistan, purportedly for an orphanage controlled by the Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who has been labeled a terrorist by the U.S. government. Prosecutors also accuse the charity of transferring funds to Iraq in violation of federal sanctions. The defendants, who have denied wrongdoing, haven't been charged with directly supporting or financing terrorism. Washington's best-known lobbying firms have largely steered clear of aid groups and people targeted for terror ties, either for fear of controversy or because many of those accused don't have deep pockets. That has led Islamic charities and others to lesser-known advocates, such as Mr. Siljander, to pursue their cause. Other examples include former U.S. Rep. John W. Bryant; Edward Abington, a former top State Department official specializing in the Middle East; and Frank Anderson, a former CIA operative who has expressed skepticism as an expert witness in court about aspects of the Bush administration's domestic "war on terrorism." One problem some advocates face, as Mr. Siljander now knows, is getting paid. Under federal law, it is illegal for an American to accept fees from any organization that the Treasury Department has designated a terrorism supporter. "As one of my friends who does work in this area says, I specialize in pro bono law," Mr. Belew says. "If you do represent a designated entity, it can be very hard to get paid." There are only two ways around the law: getting a license from Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which Mr. Belew and others assert is an onerous process; or accept payment from another source. As a result, the fee situation can often be murky. Mr. Belew says he is compensated for his lobbying work via direct transfers from the Friends of Charities Association, which is based in Riyadh. He says he doesn't know exactly where the group gets its cash, but that it comes from dues and donations. (None of his paying clients, he hastens to add, is on the Treasury Department list.) Mr. Belew, a federal budget expert from Georgia, now meets with Saudi billionaires on his trips to the Middle East. He also has brought a potentially precedent-setting suit against the U.S. government over its secret warrantless wiretapping program, which captured some of his own conversations with his Saudi clients. Several years ago, a Treasury Department official mistakenly mailed Mr. Belew some transcripts of the wiretaps. That evidence makes him and an associate possibly the only Americans in a legal position to challenge the warrantless wiretap program. Mr. Belew says he is making about the same amount of money lobbying these days as he did before the Sept. 11 attacks, when he worked for a more traditional roster of trade groups and other clients. The son of a senior Southern Baptist Church official who sided with African Americans in the civil-rights conflicts of the 1960s, Mr. Belew sees himself at the center of a similar conflict. "I've been fortunate enough to be given a second chance at an important time in history -- a time that is critical to the security of the U.S. -- to take a stand for the traditional Anglo-American idea of justice and fairness," he said. Write to Glenn R.Simpson at glenn.simpson@wsj.com and Paul M. Barrett at paul.barrett@wsj.com +++++ http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/01/former_michigan_congressman_si.html Former Michigan congressman Siljander indicted by Gazette Staff and News Service Reports Wednesday January 16, 2008, 4:41 PM A former Kalamazoo-area congressman was indicted Wednesday for his part in an alleged terrorist fundraising ring that is accused of sending more than $130,000 to an al-Qaida and Taliban supporter who has threatened U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan. Mark Siljander, a former Three Rivers resident who represented southwestern Michigan from 1981-87, was charged with money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. He allegedly lied about lobbying senators on behalf of an Islamic charity that authorities said was secretly sending funds to terrorists. The charges against Siljander were part of a 42-count indictment unsealed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo., that accuses the Islamic American Relief Agency of paying Siljander $50,000 for the lobbying -- money that turned out to be stolen from the U.S. Agency for International Development. James R. Hobbs, Siljander's lawyer, said in a written statement that Siljander will plead not guilty "at his first opportunity to do so." "Mark Siljander vehemently denies the allegations in the Indictment," Hobbs said. Hobbs said Siljander is "internationally recognized for his good faith attempts to bridge the gap between Christian and Muslin communities worldwide." Hobbs said Siljander's efforts are detailed in his forthcoming book, "A Deadly Misunderstanding, A Congressman's Quest to Bridge the Muslim Christian Divide." Siljander now lives in suburban Washington, D.C. The charges are part of a long-running case against the charity, which was formerly based in Columbia, Mo., and was designated by the Treasury Department in 2004 as a suspected fundraiser for terrorists. In the indictment, the government alleges that IARA employed a man who had served as a fundraising aide to Osama bin Laden. The indictment charges IARA with sending approximately $130,000 to help Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whom the United States has designated as a global terrorist. The money, sent to bank accounts in Peshawar, Pakistan, in 2003 and 2004, was masked as donations to an orphanage located in buildings that Hekmatyar owned. According to the indictment, Siljander was hired in March 2004 by the agency and two other defendants to lobby for the removal of the agency from a U.S. Senate Finance Committee list of non-profit groups linked to international terrorism. The money used to pay Siljander had been stolen from the U.S. Agency for International Development, according to the Justice Department. Siljander, 57, is alleged to have lied to FBI agents and federal prosecutors, telling them he had not been hired to lobby for the organization, the government said. Siljander allegedly told investigators the money he received represented donations to help him write a book about Islam and Christianity. The indictment alleges Siljander knew his statements were false at the time he made them. A former Fabius Township Board trustee, Siljander served in the state House of Representatives from 1977 to 1981. Siljander then served three terms in Congress until he was defeated by U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, in the Republican primary in 1986. In 1987, President Ronald Reagan appointed Siljander to serve as U.S. delegate to the United Nations for one year. According to Wednesday's indictment, Siljander now serves as the owner/director of Global Strategies Inc., a planning, marketing and public relations company in the Washington, D.C., area. +++++ http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080118/NATION/605247028/1002 Indicted ex-lawmaker's faith recalled By Andrea Billups January 18, 2008 LANSING, Mich. The former Michigan congressman who was indicted Wednesday on charges of lobbying for an Islamist fundraising ring is remembered here as a devout Christian who held fasting days with his legislative staff and who saw himself as an early acolyte in the Reagan revolution and a "global ambassador" for evangelical Christianity in the Muslim world. Mark Deli Siljander, a Republican from Three Rivers who represented the state"s 4th District from 1981 to 1987, initially won his seat as a part of a special election, but lost it after two terms. He was "always viewed as a strange duck" in state political circles, said political analyst Bill Ballenger. "He was not a big player in Congress, he was a fringe person, and after he lost, he never came back to Michigan." Mr. Siljander also served for one year as an alternate representative to the U.N. General Assembly, appointed by President Reagan. He ran unsuccessfully for a congressional seat in Northern Virginia in 1992. After that, he worked as a consultant and lobbyist, serving on the board of directors of the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal group. He also worked at Advantage Associates, a D.C. lobbying firm run by former members of Congress. He left in 2000 and started his own consulting firm, Global Strategies. Advantage Associates President Bill Sarpalius, a Democratic former congressman from Texas' 13th District, recalled Mr. Siljander as kind, polite and capable of working on his own independent projects. "My experience with him is that I have nothing bad to say about the guy. He was always very nice. A gentleman," he said. "I never saw him do anything that would give me any indication that he was doing something wrong," said Mr. Sarpalius, who said he thinks Mr. Siljander might have got involved in something he did not fully understand. The indictment from the U.S. District Court for the Western Division of Missouri charges Mr. Siljander with conspiracy, money laundering and lying to the FBI about lobbying for the Islamic American Relief Agency, which raised about $130,000 that went to Osama bin Laden associate Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Debbie Schlussel, a Detroit-based conservative commentator, worked as an intern and junior legislative aide at Mr. Siljander's congressional office in the mid-1980s and said she was shocked at news of the indictment. "I don't think that he was involved in lobbying terrorists," said Miss Schlussel, who taught the congressman Hebrew. "I don't think that he knowingly wanted to help terrorists." She said that Mr. Siljander's faith was key in his life and that he held prayer vigils and fasting days with the staff. "He was the most anti-Islamist congressman on the Hill," Miss Schlussel said. "He was decades ahead in his understanding of the Islamist threat. He was a true believer in evangelical Christianity. I do believe he thought he was going to change these people." She fears that Mr. Siljander, whom she said had failed in several business attempts, including a mail-in AIDS test, might have needed the money when he agreed to work for the group. Robert Spencer, the director of Jihad Watch, points to a speech that Mr. Siljander gave last November in which Mr. Siljander talked about how his own thoughts had evolved from an orthodox evangelical Christianity to a position that there is no contradiction between the Bible and the Koran. "That is a statement no Christians or Muslims would subscribe to," Mr. Spencer said, adding that Mr. Siljander might have acted out of "naivete." "Either he was involved with these Islamist groups knowingly and trying to minimize how heinous that was by convincing himself that it would be the same as being involved with a Christian group," Mr. Spencer said, "Or, he was led by his false assumptions about Islam and Christianity to assume that this group was completely benign in the face of evidence to the contrary." MARK DELI SILJANDER Former Michigan congressman Born: June 11, 1951, Chicago Education: Bachelor's degree, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, 1972; master's degree, Western Michigan University, 1973. Party affiliation: Republican Career highlights: President of a consulting firm in Washington, present; delegate to the United Nations General Assembly, 1987-1988; served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1981-1987; delegate, Republican National Convention, 1980; and served in the Michigan House of Representatives, 1977-1981. Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-present +++++ http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/546321/mark_siljander_indicted_for_funding.html Mark Siljander Indicted for Funding Terrorists Ex-Lawmaker's Attorney Has No Comments By Grace Anne Harmony Jan 17, 2008 January 16, 2008, will mark a moment in history's books of an ex-governmental official assisting the al-Qaida and the Taliban. An estimated $130,000 was sent to the terrorist groups. There were 42 counts of indictment in the U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo. against Mark Siljander, an ex- lawmaker, a Michigan Republican for the House, who was appointed by Ronald Reagan and served during the periods of 1981 to 1987. Siljander's attorney has no immediate comment. A case has been building against the charity for Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA) since 2004. Siljander was allegedly hired to help them from being blamed for the specific aiding of the suspicions of the agency aiding the al-Qaida and Taliban. Since 2004 the agencies assets were frozen. There also may be a link between the Islamic American Relief Agency and Islamic African Relief Agency investigations still are in the process. Other politicians who have been accused of crimes: Oliver North was another individual from the Ronald Reagan administration that committed crimes; I imagine we all remember watching Oliver North's trial on television. North was the one that was known as America's traitor and he was blamed for destroying documents and funneling money to buy guns for Contra army in Nicaragua. North had a difficult time explaining many things as he stumbled and stuttered along, especially when he explained how he saved up a large sum of money that was found at his residence. President Richard Nixon is another known politician that performed a crime, how many of you do not remember Water Gate? Nixon claimed in his resignation statement that he wasn't a crook. President George Bush is accused of War Crimes. Three men, Republican Victor Kohring , former Republican Pete Kott, and Bruce Weyhrauch were arrested Friday, May 2, 2007. The politicians were said to support a tax scheme and natural gas pipeline to benefit a company. Kohring was the one that was charged with extortion, bribery and conspiracy. +++++ http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/546335/former_congressman_mark_siljander_indicted.html Former Congressman Mark Siljander Indicted for Money Laundering and Supporting Terrorism Known for Christian Zeal, Siljander Apparently Wound Up in Islamic Entanglement By Dave Maddox Former U.S. Rep. Siljander was active Christian, wound up allegedly supporting Islamic terrorism U.S. Aid Money was supposedly diverted to support al-Qaida and the Taliban Required return of money due to lack of matching funds may have exposed the situation Former U.S. Representative Mark Siljander, who served during the Reagan administration, has been indicted for money laundering and other offenses by the FBI. The FBI press release detailing the charges against Siljander and others claims that Siljander played several roles in diverting U.S. aid money to terrorists identified as such by the U.S. Government, as well as being hired to help obtain the removal of an organization from a U.S. Government list of organizations suspected of supporting international terrorism. The Daily Kos, in an article discussing former Republican Congressman Siljander's background from a religious perspective, has a series of quotes which illuminate his zealousness in representing his faith. It also discusses his transition to reconciling Christian-Islamic differences, which came out of his role in representing the U.S. in negotiations regarding Darfur in the Sudan. It appears that his troubles may have stemmed from contacts which, well-intentioned or not, turned into his alleged attempt to divert U.S. funds, change the government list, and eventually give false testimony about the situation. According to the FBI, the situation in which Siljander found himself fell apart as the aid funding was conditional on matching funds raised by the organization. When the funds were allegedly transferred to terrorist operations and matching funds did not appear, the U.S. Agency for International Development required that funds be returned. Since that was not possible, they claim, false stories and deception ensued. The eventual beneficiary of the funds, the FBI release says, was Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an "Afghan mujahideen leader and founder of the Hezb-e-Islami-Gulbuddin (HIG)." Hekmatyar was said to have a close working relationship with by al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and vowed holy war against the United States. Past members of Congress have encountered situations where they were said to have crossed the line in order to pursue noble or ignoble goals, such as the Democratic Senator Harrison A. Williams who was convicted in the FBI's Abscam sting operation, as well as Democratic Congressmen John Murtha, Frank Thompson, and John Murphy who were not prosecuted for their roles, although Murtha was named an "unindicted co-conspirator," according to Wikipedia. Likewise, Republican Representatives Katherine Harris and Virgil H. Goode were nearly caught in the same net as Representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham as they became involved in receiving laundered contributions from a defense contractor, according to the Boston Globe. Issues of financial wrongdoing are frequently raised in a partisan fashion as examples of failures of the other political party. The Abscam sting took place in the late 1970's and early 1980's, and was a hypothetical situation created by the FBI involving a wealthy Arab businessman requesting special treatment. "Mark D. Siljander", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_D._Siljander "ISLAMIC CHARITY CHARGED WITH TERRORIST FINANCING; FORMER U.S. CONGRESSMAN INDICTED FOR MONEY LAUNDERING", http://kansascity.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel08/terroristfinancing011608.htm "Former Republican Congressman Indicted for Terrorist Money Laundering", DHinMI, http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/1/16/16745/8450 Senator Harrison A. Williams (convicted), Congressman John Murtha (unindicted co-conspirator), Frank Thompson, John Murphy "Abscam", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abscam ""Congress Bribery Probe Could Deepen", Michael Kranish, http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/05/19/congress_bribery_probe_could_deepen/ More resources http://kansascity.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel08/terroristfinancing011608.htm +++++ http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080118/COL04/801180326/1001/NEWS BRIAN DICKERSON Born-again lawmaker to terror dupe? January 18, 2008 By BRIAN DICKERSON FREE PRESS COLUMNIST Back when he represented Michigan's fourth congressional district, the worst thing Mark Siljander's critics said about him was that he was too conservative for his southwest Michigan constituency, which is a little like being too violent for a Quentin Tarantino film. So when a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Mo., accused Siljander of laundering money for an Islamic charity with ties to Al Qaeda, for heaven's sake, even those who considered the born-again congressman and his followers right-wing whackadoos were stunned. I asked Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, who calls conservative evangelicals the "Taliban wing" of his Republican Party, if he ever suspected that Siljander was shilling for the actual Taliban. "Never," Patterson admitted, adding that he doesn't recall ever meeting Siljander face-to-face. With friends like these... West Bloomfield blogger Debbie Schlussel, who worked for Siljander in the mid-'80s, remembers him as the "the most anti-Islamist congressman on Capitol Hill," a lawmaker whose preoccupation with terrorism began "decades before 9/11." "If Mark Siljander was helping Islamic terrorists against America, then no one is immune from succumbing to these forces of evil," Schlussel wrote in a post to her Web site. So is Schlussel skeptical about the charges against her former boss? Not really, she concedes. "Since he lost his congressional seat, he was hard up for money and was involved in many failed business ventures, including an AIDS test by mail," Schlussel notes in her Web post. "I think there must be something there." (Note to Siljander's defense attorney, James Hobbs: Scratch Schlussel from list of potential character witnesses.) In fairness, even the U.S. Justice Department isn't asserting that Siljander has been a witting accomplice to Osama bin Laden. Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein says only that the federal indictment "paints a troubling picture" in which an American charitable organization that fronted for a prominent Afghan warlord conspired with Siljander to launder "stolen federal funds." From ally to enemy Wainstein's moral indignation is doubtless tempered by the knowledge that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) paid the same charitable organization a whopping $2 million for relief projects in Mali, Africa. The $50,000 Siljander is alleged to have laundered for the Islamic American Relief Agency represents about two-thirds of the $84,922 USAID attempted to recover after it decided the Islamic American Relief Agency was a terrorist front and canceled the Mali relief contract in 1999. I'm no apologist for Siljander, but I suspect he was about as interested in helping Al Qaeda as an SUV driver, whose ravenous appetite for gasoline finances Islamic terrorism even as his tax dollars combat it. All I know for sure is that it's getting harder and harder to tell the difference between the terrorists' enemies and their benefactors. Contact BRIAN DICKERSON at 248-351-3697 or bdickerson@freepress.com. +++++ http://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=53837 Ex-Rep. Mark Siljander is Indicted Thursday, January 17, 2008 FreeMarketNews.com Mark D. Siljander, 56, a Washington lobbyist who served in the House from 1981 to 1987, was charged with money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice in a multicount indictment by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Mo. Federal officials said Siljander was hired in 2004 by the Islamic American Relief Agency of Columbia, Mo., after the group had been listed among organizations banned from receiving government contracts because of concern that the organizations supported international terrorism. -LosAngelesTimes +++++ http://www.nilesstar.com/articles/2008/01/17/news/ndnews1.txt News Siljander indicted in terror fund ring By JOHN EBY / Niles Daily Star Thursday, January 17, 2008 10:53 AM EST DOWAGIAC - Cass County's former congressman, Mark Deli Siljander, 56, was indicted Wednesday as part of a terrorist fundraising ring that allegedly sent more than $130,000 in 2003-2004 to an al-Qaida and Taliban supporter who threatened to wage holy war against U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan. Siljander, a former Michigan state representative from Three Rivers, became a congressman after David Stockman became President Ronald Reagan's budget director. He served from 1981-1987. Siljander lost what was then the 4th District seat in the August 1986 Republican primary to U.S. Rep Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, in his first try for elective office at any level. Siljander faces 42 counts on charges of money laundering, conspiracy and obstructing justice for allegedly lying about lobbying senators on behalf of an Islamic charity authorities said secretly sent funds to terrorists. Count 32 of the indictment alleges that Siljander obstructed the due administration of justice in the grand jury investigation in the Western District of Missouri by making false statements to FBI agents in December 2005 and to FBI agents and federal prosecutors in April 2007. According to the indictment, Siljander told federal officials he had not been hired to do any lobbying or advocacy work for the Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA) and that money or checks he received from IARA were charitable "donations" intended to assist him in writing a book about bridging the gap between Islam and Christianity. When he made these statements, he then well knew and believed each statement was false, the indictment alleges. Charges contained in an indictment are simply accusations - not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty it will be to determine guilt or innocence. Defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. His attorney in Kansas City, James R. Hobbs, said in a statement, "Mark Siljander vehemently denies the allegations in the indictment" and would plead not guilty. Siljander, the 42nd District state lawmaker from 1977-1981, was indicted in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri in Kansas City for his role in helping the IARA raise more than $130,000 that was allegedly sent to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whom the United States designated a global terrorist. The indictment claims that the money, sent to bank accounts in Peshawar, Pakistan, in 2003 and 2004, was masked as donations to an orphanage located in buildings Hekmatyar owned. Prosecutors allege Siljander was paid $50,000 by the IARA for lobbying in money stolen from the U.S. Agency for International Development. According to the indictment, Siljander was hired in March 2004 by defendants to advocate for the removal of IARA from a U.S. Senate Finance Committee list of non-profit organizations suspected of being involved in supporting international terrorism. +++++ http://www.newsweek.com/id/94811 The Laundering Lobbyist? Former U.S. representative Mark Siljander is indicted on charges related to work for an Islamic charity that prosecutors say has Al Qaeda and Taliban ties. By Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball Newsweek Web Exclusive Jan 16, 2008 When a U.S. Senate committee started investigating a controversial Islamic charity a few years ago, the group responded in the usual Washington way: it hired a politically connected lobbyist to get the panel off its scent. But that move may have backfired Wednesday when the lobbyist, former U.S. congressman Mark Siljander, was indicted on money-laundering, conspiracy and obstruction charges related to his lobbying work for the Columbia, Mo.-based charity known as the Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA). The indictment, handed up by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, charges that Siljandera Michigan Republican who was once named by President Ronald Reagan as a U.S. representative to the United Nationspocketed about $50,000 in stolen U.S. government funds to represent the interests of an organization that, according to federal prosecutors, was funneling money to an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist in Afghanistan. The new charges against Siljander and IARA are some of the most surprising and boldest yet in a Justice Department crackdown against Islamic charities that has had more than its share of setbacks of late. The charges were also vehemently denied by lawyers for Siljander and the former executive director of IARA. Siljander served in the House between 1981 and 1987, representing a Michigan district that was previously represented by David Stockman, the former OMB director who was indicted last year for allegedly defrauding investors about an automotive firm he once headed. Siljander, who now runs a Washington-area lobbying firm called Global Strategies, is "internationally recognized for his good-faith attempts to bridge the gap between Christian and Muslim communities worldwide," according to his lawyer, James R. Hobbs. Hobbs added that his client has never engaged in any "prohibited financial transactions with any U.S.-designated terrorist" and intends to plead not guilty. The new case is especially high-stakes for the Justice Department, because it comes after a series of acquittals and mixed verdicts against other Islamic charities accused of financing terrorism. Most notably, a recent trial against leaders of the Holy Land Foundation accused of funneling money to Hamas ended in a mistrial. IARA, which has since ceased business, was raided by the FBI three years ago and was charged in an earlier indictment last year with violating U.S. sanctions against Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq by sending money to that country. But the new charges against the group are potentially more explosive. Operating out of modest offices in the sleepy college town of Columbia (home of the University of Missouri), IARA had portrayed itself to the public as a worldwide charity that was dedicated to the "care of orphans" and other worthy causes. In fact, according to the new charges, as recently as three years ago the group was diverting up to $130,000 to bank accounts in Peshawar, Pakistan, controlled by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an Afghan mujahedin leader who has vowed to wage a "holy war" against U.S. troops in Afghanistan and heads a group that has participated in terrorist acts by Al Qaeda and the Taliban. The group also employed an individual, Ziyad Khaleel, who the indictment states was a "publicly identified associate and procurement agent of Osama bin Laden." Curtis Woods, a lawyer for Mubarek Hamed, the former executive director of IARA, disputed these charges, telling NEWSWEEK that if any of the charity's funds were provided to an "unlawful person," such as Hekmatyar, "it was inadvertent and not intended." He also said there was "no truth" to the allegation that the charity employed an agent of bin Laden. IARA was so successful in its public relations efforts that in the late 1990s the group actually received U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) contracts worth at least $2 million to help distribute humanitarian relief funds in Africa, according to documents reported by NEWSWEEK in 2004. Suspicions that IARA might be diverting the funds for terrorism prompted USAIDunder pressure from then-White House counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarketo cancel the contracts. But according to Wednesday's indictment IARA improperly retained $84,922 of those funds and then used some of them to hire Siljander, funneling the money through two other nonprofits called the National Heritage Foundation and International Foundation. Siljander managed the accounts at the foundations, the indictment charges. IARA's goal in retaining the ex-congressman was to have itself removed from a list of Islamic charities being investigated by the Senate Finance Committee and to have itself restored as an approved government contractor, according to the indictment. What exactly Siljander did for IARA is not mentioned in the indictment. A spokeswoman for Sen. Chuck Grassley, who chaired the committee at the time and oversaw the Islamic charity probe, said a former staffer does recall being contacted by a former congressman on IARA's behalf, but "there was no response to it on our part." But according to the indictment Siljander lied to the FBI about the arrangement, insisting that he had not been hired to do any lobbying or advocacy work for the group and that the monies he received from it were "charitable donations intended to assist him with writing a book about bridging the gap between Islam and Christianity," according to the indictment. He later made similar statements to a federal grand jury, the indictment says. Terror Watch, written by Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball appears online weekly +++++ http://www.infoisrael.net/cgi-local/text.pl?source=2/a/ix/200120081 Todays Overview of Leading News & Views 20 January 2008 IHC News, Israel Hasbara Committee 2. 17 January 2008, a federal grand jury indicted a former Republican member of Congress and former delegate to the United Nations, Mark Siljander, on charges he was connected to a terrorist funding network that channeled thousands of dollars through an Afghan warlord to al-Qaida and the Taliban. Siljander is further accused of lying about lobbying senators on behalf of the Islamic American Relief Agency, a charity accused of sending funds to terrorists. Siljander allegedly accepted a payment of $50,000 for his efforts to influence senators to restore the charity's eligibility to receive government work. The money Siljander was paid had been stolen from the US Agency for International Development, according to the indictment. Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein said the charges present "a troubling picture of an American charity organization that engaged in transactions for the benefit of terrorists and conspired with a former United States congressman to convert stolen federal funds into payments for his advocacy." (Sources: AP/IHC) 3. Did al-Qaidas top Western internet agent come from a poverty-stricken background? Was he deprived in his youth of the good things in life due to Western oppression, or is he perhaps ignorant? Actually, Younes Tsouli from West London, son of a diplomat and former IT student at a London college, is the negative answer to all three questions. Tsouli used his top floor flat to help Islamist extremists carry out a propaganda war against the West. He worked with al-Qaida leaders in Iraq and discovered a way to convert gruesome videos into a form that could be put onto the Web. Videos he posted included messages from Osama bin Laden and images of the kidnapping and murder of hostages in Iraq such as American Nick Berg. Along with three other men he distributed films of beheadings and bomb-making instructions to be used for attacks on non-Muslims. His capture last year led to the arrest of several Islamic terrorists around the world, including 17 men in Canada and two in the US. Associates linked to Tsouli in the UK have also been recently apprehended. This bright young computer expert from an advantaged and economically secure background is now serving a 16-year jail sentence for serving al-Qaida terrorists. Intelligence agencies worldwide believe his case offers dramatic evidence of how extremists are using the web to radicalize young Muslims. (Sources: Daily Mail/IHC) +++++ http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-unterror19jan19,1,5191495.story?coll=la-headlines-world&track=crosspromo Indicted ex-lawmaker as diplomat Former Rep. Siljander, accused of accepting stolen USAID funds, has brokered talks between the U.N. chief and Sudan. By Maggie Farley, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer January 19, 2008 UNITED NATIONS -- A former congressman indicted on charges that he accepted stolen money from an Islamic aid group also has acted as a broker between U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Sudan's president on Darfur, according to diplomats and the onetime representative. "While my involvement is by no means secret, we have tried to make it private because of the sensitivities involved with the U.N. and Sudan," Mark D. Siljander wrote in an e-mail Friday. "We have made great progress, but now with my media frenzy, it will be difficult to continue." Sudanese and international diplomats say Siljander appeared to be part of the United Nations delegation preparing for a pair of meetings last year between Ban and Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir and between other top U.N. and Sudanese officials. But U.N. officials have publicly distanced themselves from Siljander. "He offered voluntary, informal advice," said the senior U.N. official responsible for coordinating the meetings, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "That doesn't mean he is playing a role on behalf of the U.N." Siljander, a Washington lobbyist who served in the House from 1981 to 1987 as a Republican from Michigan, was charged Wednesday with conspiring with a blacklisted Islamic aid group to launder money and lying to federal agents about it. The indictment accused him of accepting $50,000 allegedly stolen from the U.S. Agency for International Development by the Islamic American Relief Agency as payment for him getting the organization off a U.S. government list of groups that support terrorism. The indictment says he told the FBI that the funds were a donation to help him write a book about healing religious rifts. Siljander said his book, "Deadly Misunderstanding: A Congressman's Quest to Bridge the Muslim-Christian Divide," will be published this spring by HarperOne. Siljander denied the charges through his lawyer. In one of his speeches, Siljander, 57, said he had cultivated Bashir's friendship for nine years. He also boasts close ties to Sudan's acting foreign minister, Ali Karti. Karti once headed the Popular Defense Force, which fought alongside so-called janjaweed militias in attacks on villagers in Darfur, according to Human Rights Watch. Siljander arranged Karti's attendance at a congressional prayer breakfast in September 2006 and has visited Sudan many times since. Karti helps arrange contacts for him, a Sudanese official said. Sudan's ambassador to the U.N., Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem, praised Siljander as "a very constructive person." "He's doing much for the cause of peace and stability," he said. "I think he makes a lot of sense." A Sudanese official recalled how Siljander met with Sudan's top two national security officers to offer his help getting the country off the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. But after the U.S. deemed the attacks in Darfur genocide, both sides dropped the idea, he said. Several diplomats interviewed for this story said that there is a long history of using informal, or "third channel," diplomacy, and that they would not rule out using any messenger to achieve peace in Sudan. They noted that Siljander has effectively carried messages between international diplomats and the government in Khartoum. Although the U.N. says Siljander has had no official role, he has stayed in the same hotels and rooms earmarked for United Nations delegations, and moves with U.N. officials as if he were part of the group, according to diplomats who observed such delegations. In his e-mail, Siljander claimed partial credit for the idea of a joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force to get past Sudan's persistent objections to having U.N. troops in the country's western region of Darfur. After initially opposing the idea, Bashir relented during a meeting in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, with King Abdullah and Ban, the U.N. chief. Siljander was in Riyadh at the time but did not attend the meeting, officials said. Some U.N. diplomats say they are uncomfortable with Ban's office lending its mantle to an outsider, especially one who could taint the U.N. secretary-general's most valuable asset -- his moral high ground. Freelance diplomacy also has unintended results. The hybrid U.N.-African Union force that Siljander pushed is a logistical and political nightmare for United Nations commanders, and it is unable to protect itself or civilians right now, the U.N.'s peacekeeping chief told the Security Council this month. For some diplomats, Siljander's indictment also echoes previous incidents, such as the oil-for-food scandal that nearly brought down Ban's predecessor, Kofi Annan. Korean lobbyist Tongsun Park, Iraqi American businessman Samir Vincent and Texas oilman Oscar Wyatt have all been convicted of accepting money from Iraq to persuade U.N. officials to soften sanctions against Saddam Hussein's regime. A diplomat said Siljander, who has told colleagues that he conducts informal diplomacy "for God, not money," made his U.N. connections through the Congressional Prayer Breakfast Group. maggie.farley@latimes.com +++++ http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Indicted_GOP_lawmaker_wanted_to_be_0117.html Indicted GOP lawmaker wanted to be 'ambassador to Islam' David Edwards and Muriel Kane Thursday January 17, 2008 Fox News is doing its best to arouse sympathy for a former Republican Congressman who has been charged in connection with his lobbying work for an Islamic charity accused of funding an Afghan terrorist leader. The coverage of Rep. Mark Siljander's indictment on Fox & Friends never mentioned his party affiliation, but featured his former aide, a conservative commentator who regularly appears on Fox, expressing her shock and disbelief and suggesting explanations for his actions. Debbie Schlussel is now best known for her attacks on Islam and Islamic culture, but twenty years ago, when she was an "Outstanding Teen Age Republican," she served as an aide to Siljander. "It's heartbreaking," Schlussel stated, "because when I worked for Mark Siljander, he was probably the most anti-Islamist Congressman on the Hill. He was the one who most understood the jihadist threat, decades before 9/11. ... His chief of staff had served in the IDF, the Israeli Defense Forces. ... I am shocked beyond belief." When asked about Siljander's possible motivations, Schlussel replied, "He was an evangelical born-again Christian, and I think he saw himself as an ambassador of Christianity to other religions and to the Middle East. ... I think that maybe he had bigger ideas, that he could be this ambassador to Islam. But I think he kind of let himself go off the deep end by working for this charity. ... I think he must have needed the money." What makes Schlussel's situation particularly ironic is her own background of acute controversy. She has been accused of "racist hate speech" by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and often claims to have received death threats for her views. A year ago, Schlussel provoked a storm of outrage with a column titled "Barack Hussein Obama: Once a Muslim, Always A Muslim," which exaggerated the Muslim elements in Obama's family background and called his loyalties to the United States into question. This video is from Fox's Fox & Friend's, broadcast January 17, 2008. +++++ http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=7733716&nav=0RceSTa4 Indicted congressman's roots in West Michigan Jan 16, 2008 FABIUS TOWNSHIP -- Former Congressman Mark Siljander is facing federal charges and being linked to terrorists. He now lives in Virginia and works in Washington, D.C. But his roots are grounded in Fabius Township in St. Joseph County, Michigan. The Western Michigan University graduate served on the Fabius Township Board and as a state representative throughout the mid 1970s to late 1980s. It has been quite some time since Siljander reported to the Fabius Township Hall. Many of the memories of him have since disappeared, but for some, they are as strong as ever. "He seemed just so ambitious, he wanted to be in power. But I never felt like he had the interest of the people that he represented at heart," Fabius Township Supervisor Bob McDonough told 24 Hour News 8. McDonough, a former mayor of Three Rivers, knew Siljander years ago. "I always felt he was hypocritical and untrustworthy," said McDonough of Siljander. "I'm not surprised in one respect that his ambition or whatever got the better of him. But I'd be very surprised if he was doing something that was unpatriotic." A newspaper in the area recently profiled Siljander, saying he was a "peacemaker" in his career after he moved from Michigan. McDonough, who had a chance to meet with Siljander a year ago, says the former Republican congressman still deserves the benefit of doubt. "I'm a lawyer. He is absolutely innocent until proven guilty. And so I think we have to presume that there has been a mistake and that it will work out," said McDonough. 24 Hour News 8 spoke with a former college professor of Siljander's, who said he is surprised at the indictment charges and hopes they are not true. +++++ http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/01/a-christianist.html Andrew Sullivan A Christianist For The Islamists 16 Jan 2008 07:10 pm Who is Mark Siljander? Dinesh D'Souza's dream Republican, a creature of the Christianist right, a lover of Mel Gibson, a devoted enemy of the gays ... and enmeshed in funding Islamist terror: As the veteran-diplomat-turned-amateur-scholar implied, once the original teachings of the two religions are properly understood, the differences between them are no greater than the differences between the multitude of different Christian denominations. Siljander touted these notions as "paradigm crashing," and said he hopes they will "create a movement, a dynamic" resulting in small groups throughout both the Christian and Muslim worlds who will meet to study these ideas and advance them. It all makes sense in a sick way, doesn't it? +++++ http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/01/16/former.congressman.indicted/ Thu January 17, 2008 Former lawmaker charged in terrorism case (CNN) -- A former congressman has been charged in connection with his work for an Islamic charity accused of funneling money to an Afghan warlord, prosecutors announced Wednesday. Mark Siljander served three terms in the House of Representatives. The money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges against former Michigan Rep. Mark Deli Siljander are part of a 42-count indictment released by the U.S. attorney's office in Kansas City, Missouri. Siljander "vehemently denies the allegations in the indictment and will enter a not guilty plea," said his attorney, James Hobbs. Prosecutors allege Siljander's co-defendants -- the directors of an Islamic charity -- hired him to get the organization off a list of agencies suspected of links to terrorism and paid him with stolen U.S. government funds. A Senate committee named the Islamic American Relief Agency as a group with suspected links to international terrorism in 2004. Five years earlier, the U.S. Agency for International Development canceled an agreement with the charity to fund humanitarian aid projects in Africa, after the IARA failed to raise required matching funds, the indictment states. The group then unlawfully kept about $84,000 in USAID funds and used the money to pay Siljander to lobby on its behalf, said John Wood, the U.S. attorney in Kansas City. The money was funneled through other nonprofit agencies to hide its origin, according to Wood. "This was not a permissible use of USAID funds," he said. Siljander is accused of lying to federal agents and prosecutors about his work for the group, which allegedly steered $260,000 to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar -- an ally of the Taliban and al Qaeda. The United States named Hekmatyar a "specially designated global terrorist" in 2003. The money was sent between 2002 and 2004 to accounts in Peshawar, Pakistan. Some of the funds were supposed to go toward renovating buildings Hekmatyar owns in a refugee camp in Pakistan in order to run an orphanage, according to the indictment. Neither the ex-congressman nor the charity have been charged with supporting terrorism, Wood said. But he would not comment on whether the money was ultimately used for the orphanage, calling that "outside the scope of the indictment." Five officers of the charity already faced charges of money laundering, theft of government funds and violating U.S. sanctions on Iraq. Wednesday's indictment adds eight counts involving the transfer of money to Hekmatyar. Siljander's attorney said his client did nothing wrong. "Mr. Siljander was never an officer of the Islamic American Relief Agency, nor was he ever involved in any alleged efforts by IARA to engage in any prohibited financial transactions with any U.S.-designated terrorist, including Gulbuddin Hekmatyar," Hobbs said. "Mr. Siljander is not even named in those counts." The charity at the center of the case has always denied sending money to terrorists, The Associated Press reported. "For four years I have not seen a single piece of a document that shows anyone did anything wrong," the group's attorney, Shereef Akeel, told the AP. Siljander served three terms in the House of Representatives before losing to a Republican primary challenger in 1986. He later served as a U.S. delegate to the U.N. General Assembly late in the Reagan administration. He now operates a consulting and public relations firm based in suburban Washington. Lawmakers who heard the news of his indictment were "shocked," said Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Illinois. "He traveled the world, almost as a missionary. He was a man of deep faith," said LaHood, who reported seeing Siljander at a congressional prayer breakfast in December. He called the news "very sad." Michigan Democrat Dale Kildee said he knew Siljander "very well as a Michigan colleague," calling him "very conservative" and a "devout Christian." Kildee, a former seminarian, said he often talked to Siljander about politics and theology. "Obviously, this is surprising to me," he said. "I haven't seen him since he left Congress, but I used to talk to him on walks back and forth across the street to votes and in delegation meetings." E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend CNN's Kelli Arena and Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report. +++++ http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=56E8D09A-5CA4-4B46-8949-8B8A7BD72578 A Congressman for Jihad By Robert Spencer FrontPageMagazine.com Thursday, January 17, 2008 Former U.S. Congressman Mark Deli Siljander (R-MI) was indicted Wednesday for money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice, in connection with charges that a Muslim charity, the Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA), was involved in efforts to finance the Afghan jihad terrorist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. The IARA was named a specially designated global terrorist organization by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2004. John F. Wood, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, declared: An organization right here in the American heartland allegedly sent funds to Pakistan for the benefit of a specially designated global terrorist with ties to al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The indictment also alleges that a former congressman engaged in money laundering and obstruction of a federal investigation in an effort to disguise IARAs misuse of taxpayer money that the government had provided for humanitarian purposes. According to the indictment, the IARA sent around $130,000 to bank accounts controlled by its parent organization, the Islamic Relief Agency (ISRA), in Peshawar, Pakistan, where the money went to Hekmatyars activities. The ISRAs headquarters are in Khartoum, Sudan, with the Columbia, Missouri-based IARA as its American office until it was shut down. According to the Treasury Department, IARA is formerly affiliated with Maktab Al-Khidamat (MK), which was co-founded and financed by UBL [Osama bin Laden] and is the precursor organization of al Qaida. The IARA has also funneled money to Hamas. How did an American congressman get mixed up with a group co-founded and financed by Osama bin Laden? The indictment charges that the IARA hired Siljander in 2004 to lobby for its removal from a Senate Finance Committee list of organizations suspected of supporting terrorism, and reinstatement as an approved government contractor. The IARA, according to the indictment, paid in $50,000 that had been stolen from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Siljander is also charged with helping to launder other money stolen from USAID. The IARA, then known as the Islamic African Relief Agency, had received the funds for relief work in Mali. Questioned by the FBI in December 2005 and April 2007, Siljander lied, says the indictment, about his connections with the IARA he told agents that he had not been hired by IARA and had simply received donations from them to help him write a book about Islam and Christianity. And that may provide a clue as to what may have led Siljander down this path, or how he justified it to himself. In a revealing November 2007 address, Siljander described how his thought evolved, and spoke of his forthcoming book, A Deadly Misunderstanding: A Congressmans Quest to Bridge the Muslim-Christian Divide, which was set to be published this summer. Siljander said that during his tenure in Congress (1981-1987), he was angry when the Quran was read during the National Prayer Breakfast. He wrote to the Breakfasts emcee: How can you read the book of the devil at a prayer breakfast? Afterward, however, he began to read the Quran himself, and was impressed: I found out that Jesus was mentioned in the Quran 110 times, either directly or indirectly, and there was not a single word about Jesus that was horrible, disgraceful or, in my opinion, inconsistent with what the Bible says about him. He explained that he had discovered paradigm crashing ways to harmonize Christian and Islamic beliefs on issues on which the two religions disagree, and hoped they would create a movement, a dynamic to bring Christians and Muslims together. Siljander also spoke about his meeting with Sudans Omar al-Bashir, one of the architects of the Darfur tragedy, when he went to Sudan for the UN in 2006 to mediate the Darfur conflict. Al-Bashir was so impressed with his paradigm crashing views of Islam and Christianity, said Siljander, that he had him address the Khartoum Sharia Law School. We were the first white American Christians to speak on a Friday afternoon at the Khartoum mosque, Siljander noted. That happened, not because were so good looking, but because we built bridges of respect. Siljanders lying to FBI agents about the nature of his relationship with the IARA suggests that he had no illusions about what he had gotten into. Still, it may be that his indictment today is the bitter fruit of his naivete. Siljander would not be the first naove Westerner to establish, out of zeal to build bridges of respect between Muslims and Christians, ties with Muslims who had a far deeper connection to the global jihad than he would ever have imagined. Siljanders experience should also serve as a cautionary tale for all who pursue bridge-building and dialogue: while these may be laudable, they are beset with pitfalls, and the universal purveying of the politically correct fiction that Islam is a religion of peace that has been hijacked by a tiny minority of extremists has only had the effect of leading many to grow complacent about many areas in which jihadists are actively operating notably, Islamic charities. Were there a more forthright and honest public discussion of the elements of Islam that jihadists use among peaceful Muslims to recruit and motivate terrorists, Siljander may never have succumbed to the naovete that he manifested in his November 2007 address. If he was really naove at all. Columnist Debbie Schlussel opines that Siljander is less naove than greedy. Having worked with him in his Congressional office in the 1980s, she remembers him before his change of heart, and recalls that he was a Born-Again Evangelical Christian. We had fast days in his office. There were prayer circles. So deeply religious and so deeply against the Islamic threat, Siljander was known, at the time, as the most pro-Israel Congressman on Capitol Hill, with many Jewish and pro-Israel Evangelical contributors from all over the world. She said that Siljander was decades ahead of his time in understanding the Islamist threat worldwide and to America. That hed reverse course sickens and saddens me. Schlussel doubts Siljanders story of the evolution of his thought concerning Islam. I dont believe he thinks any differently about Islam and this is all phonyHe was just too enlightened about what Islam was all about when I worked for him to change for anything but cash. At her website she wrote: I think this was about money. Since he lost his Congressional seat, he was hard up for money and was involved in many failed business ventures, including an AIDS-Test-By-Mail. (He also ran, unsuccessfully, for Congress from Virginia.) Desperation and money do bad things. Ultimately, whether he was motivated by a naove hope to bridge the gap between the Muslim world and the West, or by a simple need for money, or by something else, the outcome is the same: if the charges are true, Siljander was working with people dedicated to the destruction of the United States, and working to that end under the guise of charitable activity while funding violent jihad against Israel and against American troops in Afghanistan. It may be that he is among the multitudes in America today who fail to take this threat seriously after all, there has not been a major terror attack on American soil since 9/11. It may be that, if he was aware of the IARAs activities on behalf of Hamas and in Sudan, that he saw both again like so many multitudes of Americans -- as regional conflicts with no geopolitical significance beyond those regions. Had he had a full and informed awareness of how Islamic charities, because of the nature of Islamic charitable giving and the status of jihad in Islam, are so often tied to jihadist activity, he might have hesitated to get involved with the IARA, even though it did bill itself as a relief agency. Had he had a comprehensive understanding of the jihad ideology, and an appreciation of the significance of some of the IARAs choices of venue for its labors, he might have thought twice unless, of course, the money was good enough to overcome even that. America fights against global jihadists with, thanks to the oil weapon, an essentially inexhaustible supply of income. The Saudis in particular use that money to buy armies of Mark Siljanders lobbyists who fight for their causes in Washington with complete ignorance of or indifference to the ways in which our own national interests are thus compromised. The best outcome of the Mark Siljander indictment would be an investigation of those lobbying efforts, and the framing of new laws that would require complete transparency as to the origin of the funds used by Muslim groups to pay such lobbyists. The case should also lead to a comprehensive reevaluation of Islamic charities, and a call to those still operating to cooperate fully with investigations of the jihadist money trail. If the charges against him are true, Siljanders story is a tragedy. But it could yet bear good fruit, in an American public newly prepared to meet the multifaceted challenge of the global Islamic jihad. Robert Spencer is a scholar of Islamic history, theology, and law and the director of Jihad Watch. He is the author of seven books, eight monographs, and hundreds of articles about jihad and Islamic terrorism, including the New York Times Bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad. His latest book is Religion of Peace?. +++++ http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/points/stories/DN-talkingpoints_20edi.ART.State.Edition1.3823a13.html Talking Points Sunday, January 20, 2008 "The situation in 1992 was not nearly as bad as it is now. If ever there was a time when it was necessary to put our house in order, it's now. ...[President Bush] is a decent person, but you can't say the same thing about the people around him." H. Ross Perot, on the U.S. economy and political leadership (Newsweek.com, Thursday) "I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not. He put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it." Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, praising the Republican president for appealing to America's desire in 1980 for "clarity, optimism and dynamism" (Politico.com, Wednesday) "What makes the allegations in the indictment so shocking, is that Siljander is a Born-Again Evangelical Christian. We had fast days in his office. There were prayer circles." Debbie Schlussel, conservative columnist and former employee of former GOP Rep. Mark Siljander, indicted this week on charges of aiding Islamic terrorist fundraising (debbieschlussel.com, Wednesday) "Jurors seem to question eyewitness testimony more and more because of all the headlines about what's going on in Dallas." Collin County prosecutor Curtis Howard, on the light sentence given to a rapist. DNA evidence was not used in the trial. (dallas news.com, Thursday) "We are the way to happiness. We can bring peace and unite cultures." Tom Cruise, hyper-enthusiastically praising fellow Scientologists on a Church of Scientology training video (Gawker.com, Tuesday) "People wonder what in the world it is because this is the Bible Belt, and everyone is afraid it's the end of times." Steve Allen, a Stephenville, Texas, business owner who was one of many local people to see a UFO (The Associated Press, Monday) "The larger the car, the bigger you feel." Kirk Pingel, explaining why he and fellow Texans love big vehicles. Texas emits more carbon pollution yearly than California and Pennsylvania, the No. 2 and No. 3 states, combined. (The Associated Press, Thursday). +++++ http://www.slate.com/id/2182416/ today's blogs: The latest chatter in cyberspace. Palmetto Preview By David Sessions Posted Thursday, Jan. 17, 2008, at 6:24 PM ET Bloggers argue for their favorite Republican candidates in advance of the South Carolina primary and draw warnings from the indictment of Mark Siljander, a former GOP congressman indicted for allegedly funneling money to al-Qaida. They also take turns throwing at their latest dartboard, the new MacBook Air. Palmetto preview: Three different Republican primary victors have given Saturday's South Carolina primary more influence than ever. Bloggers enjoy the rare opportunity to participate in a wide-open election. An anonymous college prof gives the history of the king-making Carolina primary on Panic In Year Zero: "Working for Ronald Reagan in 1980, [Lee] Atwater helped arrange his state's early placement on the primary schedule to help the right-wing Californian put down the 'moderate' challenge of George H.W. Bush. Since then, no Republican has won the White House without first scoring a victory in the South Carolina primary." Much of the discourse centers around John McCain and Mitt Romney, who have been trading aggressive attacks in South Carolina. Based on conversations with a Romney aide, Kathryn Jean Lopez at National Review's Corner reports that Mitt's leaving the state: "Said aide said folks are resigned to a strong third or fourth place finish and the mood seems to be, based on internals, that South Carolina may be McCain's." Jonathan Martin, who covers the GOP for Politico, says Romney's conceding early to lower expectations: "It's Rudy in N.H. all over againspend a lot of cash and time, realize you can't win, try to spin expectations game." Today's papers report that John McCain is meeting negative attacks head-on to avoid a repeat of 2000's campaign-ending experience in South Carolina. Paul Kiel at the left-leaning TPM Muckraker predicts that the push-poll scheme won't hurt McCain: "The calls, numbering around seven million so far in various primary states, are the work of the Huck-supporting group Common Sense Issues, and the attacks are pretty standard GOP negative fare so far." On The Fix, the Washinton Post's politics blog, Chris Cillizza warns that 2000 shouldn't "cloud the analysis" of the current situation: "Geographic changes have accrued to McCain's benefit over the last eight years, as has his work to allay voters' fears about his conservative credentials." Left-leaning Michael Stickings of the Moderate Voice calls a Romney nomination even if McCain wins Saturday: "McCain did well in New Hampshire, as he should have, and he may yet win South Carolina, but I can't see the G.O.P. establishment and the conservative movement fully accepting him as their preferred nominee." Scott Miller at the Conservative Post confirms that analysis; after posting a list of McCain quotes, he complains: "We could just as easily swap out the name 'McCain' for Hillary Clinton." Read more about the race to the South Carolina primary. Follow Slate's John Dickerson around South Carolina, where he says Romney has retooled his stump speech. Who's funding al-Qaida?: Former Michigan Republican Rep. Mark Siljander was indicted Wednesay on various charges, including money laundering, in a scheme to fund Islamic terrorist organizations. Bloggers attempt to make sense of the seemingly paradoxical: a terrorist-coddling Republican? Debbie Schlussel, a conservative blogger and former intern for Siljander, is aghast: "What makes the allegations in the indictment so shocking, is that Siljander is a Born-Again Evangelical Christian. We had fast days in his office. There were prayer circles. So deeply religious and so deeply against the Islamic threat, Siljander was known, at the time, as the most pro-Israel Congressman on Capitol Hill." To which Andrew Sullivan quips: "Er, yeah. Osama bin Laden has prayer circles too." And Larkin at the liberal Wizbang Blue isn't as shocked as some conservative bloggers: "It certainly comes as no surprise to me that a Republican has been raising money for al Qaeda assuming the charges are true. Al Qaeda and the Republicans both rely on the fear generated by each other to remain in power. Republicans are constantly promoting the threat we face from al Qaeda even reproducing statements from bin Laden and images of terrorist attacks in political ads that they use on a regular basis." At the Daily Kos, Frederick Clarkson offers a somber warning: "Mark Siljander is a fine poster boy for how wrong we can be if we base our support for a candidate, a political faction or even a political party, primarily on supposed fealty to religious orthodoxy. This ought to give even the most religiously orthodox and politically conservative of the religious right, pause." And Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch tries to look on the bright side: "If the charges against him are true, Siljander's story is a tragedy. But it could yet bear good fruit, in an American public newly prepared to meet the multifaceted challenge of the global Islamic jihad." Read more about the Mark Siljander indictment. Hot Air: Steve Jobs unveiled Apple's latest groundbreaking toya new superthin notebook dubbed the "MacBook Air." Bloggers don't fall for the hype, pointing out some glaring omissions. Geek Sugar sums up the issues: "I can't deny the fact that there are three main features that I wish it didn't omit. Features like an optical drive that allows you to copy tunes from CDs to iTunes or watch DVDs. As well as an ethernet port since you're basically outta luck if you can't find a wireless network to connect to. And last but not least, the MacBook Air only comes with one USB port." The everything-Apple blog MacApper dismisses the criticisms: "It may not have all the features that everyone wants, and it may be a little expensive, but it's damn slick and enough for most people." Jim Jabella, a British techie, retorts: "We're told that if you don't like it, you're obviously missing something: "It's aimed at a different market!" Which market is that more money than sense?" Read more about the Macbook Air. (Slate's Paul Boutin is disappointed, too.) //////\\\\\\ "The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy: that is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness." -- John Kenneth Galbraith ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping