Posted on 01/16/2008 1:13:04 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
A federal grand jury in Kansas City has issued a new indictment against an Islamic charity based in Columbia---and has added a former Michigan congressman to the list of people indicted.
The new indictment accuses the Islamic American Relief Agency and several former officers of of engaging in prohibited financial transactions for the benefit of a terrorist. The indictment charges former Michigan Congressman Mark Deli Siljander with money laundering, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice.
Federal officials say the charity sent money to Pakistan to benefit a man designated by the United States as a global terrorist. The prosecutor says the man had ties to the Taliban and to al-Qaeda.
fyi
********************************EXCERPT**********************
A federal grand jury returned new terrorism-related charges today against members of a former Columbia-based Islamic charity, including a former U.S. congressman from Michigan.
The 42-count superseding indictment alleges that the Islamic American Relief Agency, or IARA, and its officers sent money to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an Afghan mujahideen leader and founder of Hezb-e-Islami-Gulbuddin, which has participated in and supported terrorist acts by al-Qaeda and the Taliban, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Hekmatyar had engaged in a holy war against the United States and international troops in Afghanistan, and U.S. officials designated him as a “specially designated global terrorist” on Feb. 19, 2003, blocking all financial properties and interests to Hekmatyar.
The new charges allege that the IARA and its former executive director, Mubarak Hamed, 51, of Columbia, sent $130,000 in 2003 and 2004 to charity bank accounts in Peshawar, Pakistan, for an orphanage housed in buildings owned and controlled by Hekmatyar.
Mark Deli Siljaneder, a 57-year-old former U.S. congressman from Michigan who serves as owner and director of a Washington, D.C., marketing and public relations company called Global Strategies Inc., also was named in the indictment. He is accused of lying about being hired in March 2004 by IARA to lobby for the removal of the charity from a U.S. Senate Finance Committee list of non-profit organizations suspected of being involved in supporting international terrorism. He also is accused of helping launder funds the IARA allegedly stole from the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, and used as payment for his services.
Other defendants named in the indictment include:
● Ali Mohamed Bagegni, 53, formerly of Columbia, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Libya and a former member of IARAÂ’s board of directors;
● Ahmad Mustafa, 55, of Columbia, a citizen of Iraq, and a former fundraiser 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.
Gee what a surprise, an elected who is a tratior and crook.
Now if we could just get rid of the more talented crooks in Washington, lets see that would leave a grand total left in office of somewhere between two (2) and three (3).
My parents were good friends with him when he was a congressman in Michigan (still get Christmas cards). I would be shocked if this were accurate. I read the indictment and it really comes down to the question of whether he knew the money was illegal or not.
Otherwise he may have been misled as well. We’ll see.
Schwarzenegger to endorse term-limit changes ( Prop 93 )
Supposedly Prop 93 is a term Limit....however...that is a LIE...
If you lay down with dogs your are gonna get fleas. I say we rev up the Guillotine. He’s” Dr. “ Scumbag if you ask me.
Oh, his 'laundering' activity is accepting payment for services rendered. Ahh, well, there's a crime, least in the opinion of the liberals, but there's still that confusing part where party affiliation isn't mentioned...
Ahh, the AP doesn't let me down... Wonder what happened to change his attitudes?
● Ali Mohamed Bagegni, 53, formerly of Columbia, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Libya and a former member of IARA’s board of directors;
● Ahmad Mustafa, 55, of Columbia, a citizen of Iraq, and a former fundraiser 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.
If it’s true, I agree with you, but I’ll wait and see first as it’s a little more personal for me. Feel free to get your guillotine warmed up if your right.
This article mentions Siljander and another of his Sudanese terrorist friends.
http://list.msu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0605c&L=sudanese&P=1498
15 May 2006
The Bush administration is imposing unfair economic
sanctions on the ordinary citizens of Sudan, while offering royal treatment in
the USA to the worst of the worst Inqaz regime criminals.
All Sudanese and international human rights organizations and activists
should mobilize to shame the Bush administration and the State Dept. for their
very special treatment of Ali Karti, the ex-PDF leader, who is responsible for
war atrocities in the South and in Darfur.....
Sims said that Karti was granted a visa for a private visit to the United
States and was a guest of former congressman Mark D. Siljander (R-Mich.). But
Siljander said he knew little about Karti’s schedule and had only arranged his
attendance at a congressional prayer breakfast this week. He said that Karti
planned to stay for two to three weeks and had told him he wanted to meet
with State Department officials.
Siljander expressed surprise regarding the allegations about Karti’s past.
“I don’t know anything about that,” he said. “As far as I knew, he was in the
cabinet.” [snip]
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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.
Siljander could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.
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.
“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.”
______________________________________
USAID. Interesting. Grover Norquist’s wife (Muslim) works for USAID. How did he manage to steal it from USAID? Norquist is so tied up with various Muslim extremists (many in jail), he’s got to have a hand in this mess.
Hope they are more careful this time picking a jury. Did anyone catch the news of the recent mistrial of CAIR types? Turns out a jihadist was on the jury, threatening the rest of the jurors, and spewing anti-Israel rants. Only a handful of the other jurors had the courage to stand up to him, or their would have been an acquittal.
Oh-so-very religious with more compassion than brains? Why isn’t he running for president? (/sarcasm)
Then, there are LRD's activities in Iraq. In 2002, it led the pro-Saddam Hussein propaganda trip by Reps. David Bonior, Jim McDermott and Mike Thompson. (The trip was also funded in part by Shakir Alkhafaji, a Detroiter who did $70 million in business with Hussein and was named in Iraqi newspapers as being one of two Americans involved in the Oil-for-Food scandal.)
In June 2004, U.S. troops raided LRD's offices in Iraq. That was a month after an LRD fund-raiser in Southern California, at which speakers said LRD sponsored operations in Fallujah and orphans in Afghanistan. My federal law-enforcement sources believe that LRD may have been funding terrorist insurgents in both places. (The event's keynoter was Wagdi Mohammed Ghoneim, an Islamic cleric who has since been deported because of his meetings with two of the 9/11 hijackers.)
Often running LRD's Iraq office was Mohammed Alomari, the group's spokesman. He's the author of a book that argues that the United States is a creation of Kabbalistic Jews, and that the Oval Office is a "female reproductive force." His Daru Salam mosque radio Web site claimed Jews and the United States "organized" the 9/11 attacks.
Ironically, LRD was among the first groups to win U.S. Agency for International Development approval to receive and dole out U.S. tax dollars to the Iraqi people. A press release thanked Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) for getting the USAID seal of approval. My sources fear that some of that USAID money - which cannot all be traced - may have gone to fund insurgents.
The disturbing thing is that for years the feds - including top Homeland Security official Daniel Sutherland, Detroit-area U.S. Attorney Stephen Murphy III and his predecessor Jeffrey Collins - have feted this charity, all while it may have been funding Islamic terrorists and encouraging their hatred there and here.
----------Charities For Terror (Debbie Schlussel Looks At Detroit Area Islamofascist Front Alert) New York Post ^ | 09/19/06 | Debbie Schlussel
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