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The New York Times
Former Congressman Is
Indicted
Over Ties to Islamic
Charity
By PHILIP SHENON,
nytimes.com on the Web, January 17, 2008
WASHINGTON — A former
Republican congressman from Michigan was indicted Wednesday on federal charges
of money laundering and obstruction of justice. The charges involve his
work as a lobbyist for an Islamic charity accused of illegally funneling about
$130,000 to an Afghan warlord labeled a terrorist by the United States
government.
The former congressman, Mark D. Siljander, who was defeated for re-election in
1986 after three terms in the House, was accused by a federal grand jury in
Kansas City of accepting $50,000 in stolen government aid money as his lobbying
fee from the now-defunct charity group, the Islamic American Relief Agency.
The charity — based in Columbia, Mo., and closed in 2004 — and several of its
former leaders were already under indictment on charges of illegally
transferring money to Iraq and stealing government money.
The broader indictment issued Wednesday also accused the charity and its former
officers of transferring about $130,000 to Pakistan for the benefit of Gulbuddin
Hekmatyar, a former prime minister of Afghanistan. Mr. Hekmatyar is a
warlord who has been formally designated a terrorist by the United States
because of his links to Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Mr. Siljander, a
conservative who runs a Washington consulting firm, was not accused of
involvement in money transfers to Mr. Hekmatyar.
“This superseding indictment paints a troubling picture of an American charity
organization engaged in transactions for the benefit of terrorists and conspired
with a former United States congressman to convert stolen federal funds into
payment for his advocacy on behalf of the charity,” said Kenneth L. Wainstein,
an assistant attorney general for national security.
A lawyer for Mr. Siljander, James R. Hobbs, said Mr. Siljander “vehemently
denies the allegations” and would plead not guilty. Mr. Hobbs said Mr.
Siljander was never an officer of the charity group “nor was he ever involved in
any alleged efforts by I.A.R.A. to engage in any prohibited financial
transactions with any U.S.-designated terrorist.”
Mr. Siljander, 57, was best known in the House for his fierce opposition to
abortion and gay rights. He tried to block a $581,000 Justice
Department grant to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence in
1985 because he considered the group to be run by “pro-abortion, pro-lesbian,
anti-Reagan radical feminists.”
(Emphasis Added)
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