Ex-Lawmaker Charged in Terror Conspiracy

WASHINGTON — A former congressman and delegate to the United Nations was indicted 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 Wednesday 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, who served in the House from 1981-1987, was appointed by President Reagan to serve as a U.S. delegate to the United Nations for one year in 1987.

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.

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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.

Comments

[miko]

don't have much time this mourning so may I have missed it ,BUT I DON'T THINK SO,cnn on tv and web DO NOT mention the part affiliation of Silijander[how ever it is spelled]and I find this unusual.Hy­pocrisy knows no bounds.

[Graywolf48]

Gee, I looked at the guy's picture and thought it was a young Joe Lieberman. Doesn't he look a little like Joe? I wonder if Siljander and Lieberman were separated at birth?

Why should this surprise anyone? Bush makes nice with the Saudis and sells them all kinds of weapons knowing full well that the majority of the terrorists who planned/pa­rticipated in 9/11 were Saudis. He also knows that to this day the Saudis continue to fund al-Qaida. And of course Osama bin Forgotten's family is linked to the Bush family. The GOP is in part funded by the very Saudi Princes that fund our enemies. Politics and business as usual. No friends, no enemies, just customers.

[JoJoKewl]

This guy kinda looks like Howdy Doody don't he? The guy on the left I mean.

[JaneC]

So it appears the loyal Bushies are not only OK with the get out of jail free card given to Bin Landen and his terrorist organization by their beloved GOP but they support them being funded as well. This makes them not only terrorist appeasers but willing contributors as well. Why do the repigs hate America?

Come on November!

[thegreatgiginthesky]

Goodbye GOP!!!

[sugarmoes]

bush has done infinitessimally more to fund and promote terrorism.

[SouthpawSass]

GOP slogan: Supporting them over THERE, so we don't have to support them over HERE.

[JoJoKewl]

Shotgun Dick Cheney and his sock puppet Doofus Dubya violated the letter of F.I.S.A. and the spirit of the Fourth Admendment and could be impeached for that. They wouldn't be removed from office because there are too many Repubs in the Senate. An impeachment trial that we all know the outcome of is not in the Democrats best interest. It would just P.O. voters, now that we're going into recession especially. I won't be signing any petitions.

[Witchitalineman]

I wonder if this is another "reminder" of fear tactics perpetuated around election time reminding us there is still a boogy man out there.

[liberalveteran]

The world seems to consist of two types of people:liberals, people who think for themselves, and conservatives who always accept what they are told.

For example, we were just told that a few Iranian patrol boats were threatening the mighty US Navy. Now we liberals were sceptical. We remember the fake attack in the Gulf on Tonkin that the US used to insert 550,000 troops in the midst of the Viet Nam Civil War.

The cons, of course, all bought it. Iran is supposed to be our next invasion, our new war of choice. Meanwhile Bush is holding hands and kissing, literally, the King of Saudi Arabia.

Weren't the Saudis, whipped up by their fanatical fundamentalist government, the ones who actually attacked us on 9-11? And yet according to Bush and the Repubics, they are our great friends and allies.

It is fortunate for the Repubics that their base always folllows orders. Well, the good Germans did follow Hitler to the bitter end.

[JoJoKewl]

Fundamentalists do weird things. That's about the upshot of this. Fundies of all religions. I'm convinced that fundamentalism is a form of mental illness. Or maybe a symtom. On another level, Christianity and Islam are really the same religion - it's all Judaism that's been messed with.

[blackrome]

GOP's new theme.

THE GOP: Supporting Jihad since the 1980's.

[jesuswazasocialist]

This guy is a patsy / a fall guy.

We need someone like Woodward and Bernstein
NOW TO FOLLOW THE MONEY.

[StillAmused]

We all make a lot of noise here... make some HERE and put your mouse where your mouth is:

http://www.wexlerwantshearings.com/

Robert Wexler (D-FL), Member of the Judiciary Committee, is calling for impeachment of Cheney. Petition approaching 200,000 signatures, to be delivered to the Committee.

[jpshotwheels]

This must be one of those terrorists, we had to fight in Iraq, so we wouldn't have to fight them here. Only one problem he was already here, an American, a former Congressman, they have infiltrated our Government now. Where is McCarthy when we need him? Does that mean since there here, we have to fight them here now, or should we go Iraq and fight them there. I am so confused.

When are people going to wake up in America and realize we have been fed the biggest Con ever, by the dumbest President ever. These people have robbed our very pockets, to feed these Corporations, while causing havic on our economy, killing people all over the World, including Americans. I am ready to leave the Country. The rest of the World will just sit back and laugh, saying they deserve what they get, from the Imperialism, disguised as Democracy, we spread across the World.