Webloggin » Ex-Congressman Tied to Many Current and Former Congressmen Indicted in Scheme to Aid Terrorists

I have written before about terrorists infiltrating the country via Michigan; however I never imagined how true that statement would become until I was tipped off to the most recent case of a former Congressional terrorist aider and abbetor.

Former west Michigan congressman Mark Siljander has been indicted on federal charges ranging from “money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice in a scheme to assist” Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA), a U.S.-based Islamic charity organization. The plan was two fold, first Siljander was to get the Islamic Charity off the federal terrorist watch list and then he was to funnel stolen federal money to his terrorist buddies in Pakistan. Oh, and did I mention that he served for 5 years as a state congressman?

A former Republican congressman from west Michigan was indicted today on federal charges of money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice in a scheme to assist a U.S.-based Islamic charity organization funnel money to Al Qaeda and Taliban-linked terrorists in Pakistan.

Mark Siljander, 56, also a former state legislator from St. Joseph County, was hired by the Islamic American Relief Agency in 2004 to assist in having the group removed from a U.S. Senate list of terrorist-linked charities, according to a statement released by the Department of Justice, then helping the group launder stolen federal funds with which to pay for his services.

Siljander is also accused of twice making false statements to federal agents investigating the case by claiming that he had not been hired to lobby and that his pay came from “charitable” donations intended to underwrite a book he was writing about bridging the gap between Islam and Christianity.

Siljander is also the founder of Global Strategies, Inc., a Washington, D.C. based consulting firm that is still in business for some unknown reason.

The indictment includes allegations that IARA sent $130,000 to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a man whom the United States has declared a global terrorist. Hekmatyar leads an Afghanistan Muhujadeen faction known as Hezb-e-Islami, a faction so vile and repulsive that Afghanis actually prefer the Taliban. When human rights violators like the Taliban are deemed the lesser of the two evils you can probably make your own assumptions as to how low this traitor of a Congressman is. But Hkematyar is an equal opportunity terrorist considering that he works with both the Taliban and al-Qaeda on various terrorist operations in an effort to kill you, me, the children of this land and everyone else that the scumbag traitor Siljander was supposed to be protecting from his position as a Congressman.

Which by the way, begs the question, why isn’t Siljander being charged for treason? Article 3 of the U.S. Constitution is quite clear on this act.

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.

We are at war with the the Taliban, Hekmatyar works with the Taliban and other enemies of the United States, Siljander gave aid to our enemy using his position as a former state congressman and government insider in both a financial and non-monetary fashion. If this isn’t treason then what in the world is? Has this country gone so soft that we are afraid to charge somebody with treason just because he might be politically connected? What the hell is going on here?

Debbie Schlussel, who worked for Siljander on many projects, had this to say:

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.

True, desperation and money can be motivators for questionable behavior, but this is beyond the pale. This is a new level of low.

Consider this, the United States government froze the assets of The Holy Land Foundation for doing something very similar. They provided logistical and monetary help to Hamas which is a terrorist organization but not nearly as involved with fighting the United States as the people that were given aid by Siljander. The people that Siljander was helping are currently killing U.S. servicemen and plotting to kill U.S. innocents. Yet Global Strategies Inc., still operates as if nothing happened. The company currently maintains a list of references that includes current and former members of congress such as Hon. George H. Bush, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R), Rep. Tom Lantos (D), Rep. Frank Wolf (R), Rep. John Dingell (D), Senator James Inhofe (R), Rep. Mike Doyle (D), Hon. Tony Hall (D), Rep. Robert Aderholt (R), Hon. Tony Hall (D). Siljander is the President of the company and we are to believe that he didn’t use his position in that company for these acts?

Let’s not forget that the company also lists this one little tidbit of information on the government services they provide, Document production of driver licenses, passports, national ID’s, marriage and death certificates. Yet the LA Times is reporting that Siljander has quite a sorted past with a mix of links to people involved in federal indictments and ties to criminals in the areas related to the services that Global Strategies still provides today.

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.

People need to wake up and pull their heads out of their asses before it is too late. Every person who ignores politicians that serve themselves instead of the people they were elected to represent needs to get a clue. These people make life and death decisions for us on a daily basis. Had someone other than government insiders been paying closer attention to Siljander perhaps he would not have been able to help funnel tax payer money to terrorists such as Gulbuddin Hekmatyar; the man the people of Afghanistan view worse than the Taliban.

From my perspective Siljander is no different than any other terrorist and possibly worse. To charge him with anything less than treason is a crime in and of itself. It exposes the myth that this government is serious about fighting terrorism on many levels. We are at war, and if the United States government is going to go soft on people like Siljander then we are doomed to fail while government fat cats make themselves rich on the kind of blood money that Siljander was party to.

The Webloggin Editor Contributed to this story.

As you may or may not already be aware, members of the Watcher’s Council hold a vote every week on what they consider to be the most link-worthy pieces of writing around… per the Watcher’s instructions, I am submitting one of my own posts for consideration in the upcoming nominations process.
Here is the most recent winning council post, here is the most recent winning non-council post, here is the list of results for the latest vote, and here is the initial posting of all the nominees that were voted on.