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Thursday, July 8, 2010 A former congressman pleaded guilty Wednesday to serving as an unregistered agent in Washington for a Missouri-based Islamic charity that the federal government said had ties to international terrorism. It was an odd outcome for Mark D. Siljander, who said he wanted to help bridge the gulf between Muslims and Christians. A Republican who attained one of Michigan's congressional seats from 1981 to 1987 with assistance from the Moral Majority, Siljander was outspoken about conservative social issues. Siljander confirmed in a Kansas City, Mo., court that he contacted members of Congress in an effort to lift...

A former US Congressman pleaded guilty today to obstruction of justice and working as an unregistered agent for a foreign charity linked to global terrorism. Mark Deli Siljander, 59, a former US representative from Michigan, pleaded guilty to charges contained in a 2008 indictment related to his work for the Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA) of Columbia, Missouri. Co-defendant Abdel Azim El-Siddig, a former IARA fundraiser, also pleaded guilty to conspiring with Siljander and others to hire Siljander to lobby for IARA’s removal from a Senate Finance Committee list of charities suspected of having terrorist ties. Siljander, who also had...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A former Michigan congressman accused of accepting stolen funds to lobby on behalf of an Islamic charity alleged to have funded terrorist groups pleaded guilty Wednesday to two charges, including obstruction of justice, but prosecutors said other serious charges were likely to be dropped. Former Republican Rep. Mark Deli Siljander, who served in Congress from 1981 until 1987 and who served a yearlong term as a United Nations delegate, pleaded guilty in federal court in Kansas City to obstruction and acting as an unregistered foreign agent. Money laundering and conspiracy charges would likely be dismissed under...

SNIPPET: "On Friday, Mubarak Hamed, the former director of the now defunct Islamic American Relief Agency-USA (IARA) based in Columbia, Missouri, pled guilty to three counts of a federal indictment charging that he illegally sent more than a million dollars to Iraq in violation of U.S. sanctions, conspiracy, and tax violations. Federal agents raided IARA's offices in 2004, seized its assets, and said it was part of a global network of similar Islamic charities that supported terrorist organizations. As part of his plea agreement, Hamed admitted the U.S.-based charity was part of this international network, with the IARA branch based...