US: ex-congressman lobbied for terrorists

Siljander accused of using “bridging the gap between Muslims and Christians” project to launder, lobby for terrorists

PRB News reported last week on an Indictment against Michigan ex-congressman Mark Deli Siljander who was named in a major fraud case against the Islamic American Relief Agency.

The federal government alleges Siljander laundered money through a book project on bridging cultural gaps between Muslims and Christians.

Recently, attorneys for Siljander began an apparent typical snow job against the federal case – a typical jab at federal prosecutors who dare challenge the Islamist agenda to use charities to fund worldwide jihad.

Siljander, according to the indictment, helped the Islamic American Relief Agency launder money, at one point by accepting allegedly false donations for the Bridging the Gap book project.

Project monies instead ended up in the coffers of Islamist Muslim terrorist leaders such as al-Qaeda, helping fund the training of child suicide bombers at Islamist Muslim orphanages in the Middle East.

In the narrative for count 32 in the 40-page, 42-count indictment, the U.S. prosecution clarifies false statements they say Siljander made to U.S. investigators in the case.

“The payments [Siljander]… received from the defendant were charitable donations intended to assist him in writing a book about bridging the gap between Islam and Christianity,” the indictment narrative reads.

In counts 29 through 31, the indictment enumerates money laundering schemes the U.S. government accused Siljander of participating in, including June 30, 2004, transferred funds in the amount of $18,337.

Another check from “the National Heritage Foundation, Ambassadors of Peace and Reconciliation,” was paid to Siljander’s “Global Strategies Inc.,” for $23,000.

The indictment identifies the Islamic American Relief Agency as having a Sudanese identity as the Islamic African Relief Agency, headquartered in Khartoum, Sudan.

Another briefing in the indictment narrative noted Pakistan’s government had given 1,000 acres of land to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, linked to Islamic American Relief, to provide for a refugee camp.

The indictment said 300,000 residents would be located there, and it would contain, “…offices, complexes, schools and an ‘orphanage.’” With quotation marks linked to a footnoted reference.

“An orphanage in Peshawar, Pakistan, does not necessarily have all the same characteristics as an orphanage as we understand it in the United States,” the footnote reference said later in the indictment.

Family Security Maters Contributing Editor Douglas Farah, author of "Blood from Stones: The Secret Financial Network of Terror," commented recently on the case.

“If the government is right, an Islamic charity headquartered in sleepy Missouri and directed by those with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood-led regime in Sudan, stole U.S. money aimed at humanitarian relief,” Farah said.

They “then used that money to lobby the U.S. government in order to be able to raise more money.”

He added the case demonstrates how there are large holes in the U.S. system – holes through which money is slipping out to terrorist groups.

“Siljander, reportedly paid with U.S. taxpayer dollars … allegedly knew the money was illicit and set up accounts to launder the money to make it appear to be legitimate,” Farah said.

He said money went to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an “individual with a long and sordid past as one of the most vicious warlords to emerge during the cycle of wars in Afghanistan.” …

Also named in the indictment are: Mubarak Hamed, Ali Mohamed Begegni, Ahmad Mustafa, Khalid Al-Sudanee and Abdel Azim Al-Siddig.

The group claims November is too soon to properly defend the case because of extensive international documentation and intercepted conversation transcripts that include translation work.

On the snow-job angle, Siljander lawyers filed a continuance motion stating November 2008 is too soon for trial. They also said Siljander is unemployed - needing taxpayer help to foot the bill for a defense.

Siljander attorneys on Monday, Feb. 11 claimed the ex-congressman was unemployed, and technically qualified for a public-financed defense.

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