Former Congressman, Islamic Charity, Terrorist Named in Indictment

An interesting article appeared this week, entitled Another Islamic Charity Indicted; Tradecraft at Work? by Douglas Farah. The article can be found at Douglas Farah's blog, and at Family Security Matters (which I have visited before, and was surprised to find that I hadn't already linked to -- it is now linked in the sidebar in the News widget).

I reproduced the article in its entirety, with my comments; I also reproduced the one link of Farah's two that still works, the one to the PDF of the indictment.

The Justice Department's announcement of the indictment of an Islamic charity for financially aiding a terrorist tied to al Qaeda and the Taliban, as well as a former U.S. congressman for lobbying on behalf of the group with money stolen from the U.S. government, presents several interesting facets. The indictment is here.

Read through this carefully, because this helps give an insight into other matters. ;)

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

Missouri isn't that sleepy. It is a major center for important US industry, especially high-tech military and aviation industry (what little that remains, that hasn't been outsourced to "friendly" foreign nations). It's also centrally located in the country.

That would not be the random operation of unsophisticated people, but a complex operation that demonstrates knowledge of how the U.S. system works, and how to exploit the holes in the system.

Big bucks bring out more than just unsophisticated people.

And what do we address here about financing terrorism? Of course, Douglas Farah does a great deal of work writing on financing terrorism, and I often mention another expert, Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, who often teams up with Alyssa A. Lappen. Any of these people can tell you: it takes big bucks to conduct terrorism.

There's big bucks to be made in terrorism, too -- just so long as you're not the dope who's strapping on the belt of explosives. ;)

First is that the Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA), with ties to Sudan, morphed over the years, using different names, while retaining essentially the same people and same organization. This is standard among charities seeking to avoid scrutiny of the IRS and others.

Second, the IARA allegedly felt it was worth a significant amount of money (allegedly pilfered from a USAID project that the IARA failed to complete) to be removed from a Senate Banking Committee list of suspect charities.

It does not appear to have worked. The organization was designated by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control in October 2004.

According to the indictment, at this point they hired Mark Deli Siljander, a former congressman who ran as a conservative evangelical and then set up a lobbying firm in Northern Virginia. Siljander was reportedly paid with U.S. taxpayer dollars stolen by the IARA, and then allegedly knew the money was illicit and set up accounts to launder the money to make it appear to be legitimate.

In interviews with the FBI, the indictment says, Siljander knowingly lied about taking money from IARA and attempted to obstruct the investigation.

Siljander's lawyer says he will plead not guilty on all charges.

The IARA, in turn is charged with funneling money to benefit Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a Specially Designated Individual with a long and sordid past as one of the most vicious warlords to emerge during the cycle of wars in Afghanistan. A one-time ally of the United States, he also has extensive ties to Iran and has urged the fighting against NATO troops in Afghanistan.

We first took a look at Gulbuddin Hekmatyar in Genesis, Part 5. Hekmatyar has told his people to cooperate with Al Qaeda against the US.

Like many suspect charities, the IARA chose an out-of-the way place to operate from, in this case, Columbia, Missouri. As U.S. Attorney John F. Wood said:

"An organization right here in the American heartland allegedly sent funds to Pakistan for the benefit of a specially designated global terrorist with ties to al-Qaeda and the Taliban. By bringing this case in the middle of America, we seek to make it harder for terrorists to do business halfway around the globe."

Follow the money.

It goes to Pakistan, and from there to the Taliban and to Al Qaeda.

Some of it comes back, and is used to bribe US officials.

Does this remind you of the Sibel Edmonds case?

And it's our tax dollars.

Does this make you wonder about all the foreign aid we give to Pakistan? And to Turkey? And to other allies in that part of the world, with sophisticated lobbying groups here in the US?

American national security is being undermined, and the taxpayer gets the bill.

You want to strike a blow against terrorism?

You want to do your part for the counterjihad?

Demand real investigations of and real prosecutions for the treasonous conduct in Washington, DC. Follow through on criminal investigations, and put Washington's criminal elite in jail -- and the terrorists will have the rug pulled out from under them.

And don't for a moment think this is unconnected with my previous post, Baitullah Mehsud, Part 1.

Hat tip to my email tipster.