Former GOP rep indicted in alleged terrorist fundraising scandal

The AP reports:

WASHINGTON (AP) — A former congressman and delegate to the United Nations was indicted Wednesday as part of a terrorist fundraising ring that allegedly sent more than $130,000 to an al Qaeda and Taliban supporter who has threatened U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan.

The former Republican congressman from Michigan, Mark Deli Siljander, was charged with money laundering, conspiracy and obstructing justice for allegedly lying about lobbying senators on behalf of an Islamic charity that authorities said was secretly sending funds to terrorists.

A 42-count indictment, unsealed in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Missouri, 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, who served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, was appointed by President Reagan to serve as a U.S. delegate to the United Nations for one year in 1987.

He 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, Missouri, 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.

Siljander was a convert to Islam. If the charges against him prove to be true, I hope he’s prosecuted and punished to the very fullest extent of the law.

Some people may be shocked to find out a GOP Congressman would be involved in something like this. There are any number of books on Islamofascism that discuss that there are indeed Republicans who are drawn to Islamic terrorists for a variety of reasons. If I remember correctly, Paul Sperry’s book Infilitration discussed this.

Disappointing and disgusting, but not surprising.

Read a run down of links on the story via The Amboy Times.

In other war on terror news, the “innocent” Jose Padilla was sentenced today to 30 years to life for charges related to supporting terrorism (h/t: Jayson Javitz at Wizbang).

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