Comments (25)

cbear wrote on January 16, 2008 3:39 PM:

Call me crazy, but I wonder if this is at all related to the Sibel Edmonds story???

moondancer wrote on January 16, 2008 3:56 PM:

Don't know. I wonder how the noise machine will spin this. Imagine a gooper funding the murder of Americans? The party of greed in action.

jake wrote on January 16, 2008 3:57 PM:

It looks like the 2008 Republican Presidential nominee just found himself a VP running mate!

F'ing hypocrites.

AlanD wrote on January 16, 2008 3:59 PM:

Could somebody who watches Fox confirm exactly when this guy's name shows up with a (D)after his name on Fox News?

Thanks.

Anonymous wrote on January 16, 2008 4:09 PM:

Mark Deli Siljander (born June 11, 1951) is a former Republican U.S. Representative from the state of Michigan.

Siljander was born in Chicago, Illinois, where he attended the public schools, graduating from Oak Park-River Forest High School in 1969. He received a B.S. from Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 1972 and a M.A. from the same university in 1973. He served as a trustee on Fabius Township Board in St. Joseph County, Michigan from 1972–1976 and also worked as a real estate broker. He served in the Michigan State House of Representatives from the 42nd District, 1977–1981, and was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1980.

Siljander was elected by special election as a Representative from Michigan's 4th congressional district to the 97th Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of David A. Stockman, and was subsequently reelected to the two succeeding Congresses, serving from April 21, 1981 to January 3, 1987. He was defeated in the 1986 Republican primary by his successor Fred Upton.

He served on House Foreign Affairs Committee, and on its Middle East and Africa subcommittees.

Siljander was appointed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan as an alternate representative to the United Nations General Assembly, serving from September 1987 to September 1988. He was an unsuccessful candidate in 1992 for nomination to the 103rd Congress and is a resident of Reston, Virginia.

Siljander is president of Global Strategies, Inc., a consulting firm in Washington, D.C., operates an import-export firm, and works as a radio commentator. He has written a book, A Deadly Misunderstanding: A Congressman's Quest to Bridge the Muslim-Christian Divide, scheduled for release in June 2008.

Siljander takes an interest in conflict resolution, particularly in the Islamic world, and in recent years has tried to publicize the common ground between Christianity and Islam, particularly in the portrayal of Jesus in the Qur'an. This is a turnaround from a previous position in which he objected to the Qur'an being read at a prayer breakfast, asking the emcee: "How can you read the book of the devil at a prayer breakfast?" [1] He is widely traveled, and claims to have visited over 120 countries.[2] Siljander is also one of the few American politicians to have visited Libya in recent years.

On January 16, 2008 Siljander was indicted in the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri[3] for his role in helping the Islamic American Relief Agency raise more than $130,000 that was allegedly sent to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whom the United States has designated as a global terrorist. The indictment claims that the money, sent to bank accounts in Peshawar, Pakistan in 2003 and 2004, was masked as donations to an orphanage located in buildings that Hekmatyar owned.[4] Siljander faces 46 counts on charges of money laundering, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice for allegedly lying to investigators about lobbying senators on behalf of the charity.

Prosecutors allege Siljander was paid $50,000 by the Islamic American Relief Agency for the lobbying, money that was stolen from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

His company lists:

Dr. Mark Siljander
Founder & Chairman
Fm Member of Congress and US/UN Ambassador

Mr. William Aramony Shabany
Director of Strategic Planning

Mr. Samir Kreidie
Director for the Middle East

Mr. Guy Efomi
Marketing Director for Africa

Mr. David Ruiz
Marketing Director for Latin America

Ms. Allison Siljander
Bookkeeping/Accounting

Hon. Robert McEwen
Director of Government Relations
Fm Member of Congress

Mr. Damien Ondo Mañe
Director of International Finance
Fm Executive Director Africa IMF

Mr. Phil Sheldon
Director of US Marketing

Dr. Lih-Rong Lin (Taiwan office)
Marketing Director of East Asia
Chairman of Great East International Development

Col. Muneer Choudhury
Marketing Director for South Asia
Fm Advisor to President of Bangladesh

Ms. Nancy Claire
Board Director & Editor

Anonymous wrote on January 16, 2008 4:12 PM:

Global Strategies, Inc.
746 Walker Road Suite PMB 215
Great Falls, Virginia 22066

List of References

Hon. George Bush
President of the US (Ret)
Houston, TX 77024

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R)
Fm Chairman Armed Services Committee
Washington, DC 20515

Rep. Frank Wolf (R)
Ranking Appropriations Subcommittee on Science-State-Justice-Commerce
Washington, DC 20515

Rep. Tom Lantos (D)
Chairman International Relations Committee
Washington, DC 20515

Hon. Benazir Bhutto
Fm Prime Minister Pakistan

Hon. Richard T. McCormack
Merrill Lynch Director, fm Ambassador to the Organization of American States & Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs (Ret)
Washington, DC 20006

Hon. Robert McFarlane
Fm Chairman of the National Security Council
Washington, DC

Amb. David Laux
Former Director, American Institute of Taiwan
Chairman, Taiwan-USA Economic Council
Washington, DC 20036

Dr. Damien Ondo Mañe
Executive Director, International Monetary Fund
Washington, DC 20431

Mr. Rogers Hellman
Former VP of Software Development, AmericaOnline
Round Hill, VA 20141

Dr. David Z. Ben-Ami, Rabbi
Chairman, American /forum for Jewish-Christian Cooperation
Harrisburg, PA 17110

Mr. Akbar Khawaja
Fm Pakistan Senator & World Bank official

Senator James Inhofe (R)
Ranking Environment & Public Works Committee United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Rep. John Dingell (D)
Chairman, Energy & Commerce Committee
Washington, DC 20515

Rep. Mike Doyle (D)
Member of Congress
Washington, DC 20515

Rep. Robert Aderholt (R)
Appropriations Committee
Washington, DC 20515

Hon. Tony Hall (D)
Fm US Congressman & US Amb. for UN Food Program in Rome

Hon. Edwin Meese III
Former US Attorney General Heritage Foundation
Washington, DC 20004

Hon. Dick Swett (D)
Former Member of Congress & US Ambassador to Denmark
Concord, NH 03301

Hon. Kevin Callwood
Former Asst. Sec. of State for Africa & VP of OPIC
Arlington, VA

Mr. Lawrence Babbio
President, Verizon
NY, NY 10036

Hon. Richard & Helen Devos
Founder of AMWAY Corp.
Manalopan, FL 33466

Rev. Louis Palau
Portland, Oregon 97207

moondancer wrote on January 16, 2008 4:22 PM:

Wonder if there will be any backpedalling from the above list?

tin-foil wrote on January 16, 2008 4:22 PM:

Blackwater founder Eric Prince's sister is the DeVos' daughter in law, married to the son of Amway founders DeVos.

danger wrote on January 16, 2008 4:34 PM:

cbear - Tom Lantos being on that list makes me think you are perhaps correct.

Anonymous wrote on January 16, 2008 4:48 PM:

moondancer wrote on January 16, 2008 4:22 PM:
Wonder if there will be any backpedalling from the above list?

LOL

Nah.. there is no guilt by association in the terrorism business...

Back pedal???

I bet that website doesn't stand a day longer.

Bert wrote on January 16, 2008 4:50 PM:

Islamic this that and the whatEVER, one more larceny stream shut off...the Abrahamic whatevers have 3 main prongs, xtian, judaism, and islam. All THREE seem to have these chronic 'money problems'...

Kenji wrote on January 16, 2008 4:59 PM:

But, for what it's worth, his name sounds Punjabi.

Patience wrote on January 16, 2008 5:35 PM:

Who were the senators Siljander lobbied? Were they all Republicans?

Anonymous wrote on January 16, 2008 5:37 PM:

Bert wrote on January 16, 2008 4:50 PM:

Islamic this that and the whatEVER, one more larceny stream shut off...the Abrahamic whatevers have 3 main prongs, xtian, judaism, and islam. All THREE seem to have these chronic 'money problems'...

Yeah but it's the dollar thats swirling in the toilet, I can't wait till the Euro is the default currency so I can get in the porkline.,,,

Good point, if there was a seperation of state and religion we wouldn't have the problem ehhh

Anonymous wrote on January 16, 2008 5:39 PM:

Patience wrote on January 16, 2008 5:35 PM:

Who were the senators Siljander lobbied? Were they all Republicans?

Stop asking lucid questions, this is a conversation about how long it will take the website to come down, erase the emails, and destroy the video tapes.

Anonymous wrote on January 16, 2008 5:47 PM:

I have searched both Siljander's name and firm name in the
Senate Lobbying Disclosure database
House Lobbying Disclosure database
DOJ Foreign Agents Registration (FARA) database.

No hits on any of them.

If this guy was lobbying for a foreign organization he should appear in all three.

What gives? Am I just doing it wrong (looks like they all recently updated their systems!)

mcboo wrote on January 16, 2008 5:55 PM:

It's 2:50 PST and CNN now has this as it's "top story".

The interesting thing is that they do not mention he's a Republican until the last small paragraph and even then they do so indirectly -

"Siljander served three terms in the House of Representatives before losing to a Republican primary challenger in 1986. He later served as a U.S. delegate to the U.N. General Assembly late in the Reagan administration."

And by indirectly I mean that if read quickly you COULD be led to think he was a Democrat who was eventually beaten by a Republican...

CNN ~ F A I L...

dixiegrl wrote on January 16, 2008 6:37 PM:

We need to stay on top of this story...how many times has the Admin. claimed to have caught terrorist related folks, only to have the case dropped so very very quietly months later.

Looking at this from another angle:
The USA pushing this is none other than John Wood, who replaced Schlozman , who replaced Todd Graves, one of the purged USAs.
Wood is a "loyal Bushie" with history of working for Ashcroft and Homeland Security, his wife works for Homeland Security.
The Miss. USA page publicizes the charges they filed:
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/mow/

Anonymous wrote on January 16, 2008 7:48 PM:

Schlozman made the original conviction of the charity - in March 2007.

Anonymous wrote on January 16, 2008 7:48 PM:

Schlozman made the original conviction of the charity - in March 2007.

anon wrote on January 16, 2008 8:53 PM:

FWIW, the first CNN story mentioned that he's a Republican in the, IIRC, second paragraph. However, the story has been edited so that you can't really tell his party affiliation, other than the line about his losing in a GOP primary. And, IIRC, they've added or edited this bit "Michigan Democrat Dale Kildee said he knew Siljander 'very well..." which makes it seem like he's a Dem. Oh, well, I'm sure Fox will set us straight. (Don't ya wonder who made those edits? Did the GOP call? Was it all done in-house?)

Ida T. wrote on January 16, 2008 9:51 PM:

"Schlozman made the original conviction of the charity - in March 2007."

Original indictment, not conviction.

Today's indictment supercedes the first one.

anon wrote on January 17, 2008 12:25 AM:

Whew, the story is finally completely gone from the CNN home page. Finally, we can all focus on the pregnant Marine murder story and put aside this silly little Congressman indicted for funding Al Qaeda story.

steambomb wrote on January 17, 2008 3:19 AM:

Since we are on the subject (again) of corrupt republicans. I am going to ask again. Where are the perjury charges for Alberto Gonzales? ??

regular lurker wrote on January 17, 2008 10:41 AM:

There's more of a connection between the bin Laden family and the Bush family.