July 9, 2010, - 2:50 pm
My Former Boss Pleads Guilty in Islamic Terrorism Case
Yes, I’m aware that my former boss, Congressman Mark D. Siljander, pleaded guilty to two counts in an Islamic charity terrorism case, earlier this week. He pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI (obstruction of justice) and serving as an unregistered foreign agent. I was going to put something up about it, earlier. But I was waiting for the court to make his guilty plea available. It did not, so these “minutes” issued by the Federal Court are all that is available. Even with his legal team featuring James “F–k the Jews” Baker didn’t save him from facing some modicum of justice.
My Congressional Staff ID From When I Worked For Mark Siljander
As you’ll recall, over two years ago, when Siljander was indicted, I wrote about it (and was on FOX News talking about it–see below). While I do not know if Siljander was involved in directly aiding terrorists, for me that is not the issue. The issue is that, when I worked for him, he was one of the few who–early on, in the mid-’80s–understood the threat of Islam and jihad to the West, to America, to Christianity, to the Jews, to Israel. And so, he knew better now.
But as I wrote two years ago, apparently for money, Siljander changed his tune, shilling for the Omar Al-Bashir, the despotic mass-murdering Muslim leader of Sudan, claiming Al-Bashir is misunderstood. Al-Bashir, as Siljander well knows, wiped out Black Christians in Sudan, gang-raping and torturing them, mass-murdering then, and forcibly converting the rest to Islam. Now, he’s killing the Black Muslims. But Siljander now says he’s a nice guy. My late father was a contributor to Siljander’s campaigns for office because Black Christians in Sudan was an important issue to my father (who had many files on the issue and constantly wrote letters and made calls to try to help them) and to Siljander. I’m sure my father is turning over in his grave, now.
Siljander also shilled for Islam, making absurd outreach speeches to Muslim groups and trying to impress upon evangelical Christians that Islam isn’t bad. He wrote a ridiculous book, “A Deadly Misunderstanding: A Congressman’s Quest to Bridge the Muslim-Christian Divide,” making the same arguments. But, again, Siljander knew better.
Siljander accepted money from the Islamic American Relief Agency–and Al-Qaeda/Taliban front group–to lobby for the “charity” and try to get it removed from a Senate list of questionable Islamic charities. Since then the charity has been shut down, and the Treasury Department named it a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Entity. One of its top officials, a Muslim, pleaded guilty and admitted he paid Siljander to do work for the charity.
After I wrote about Siljander’s indictment and appeared on FOX News, his relatives and friends started sending me angry e-mails, claiming he did nothing wrong, that I was wrong, etc. But, this week, he pleaded guilty. And it’s not just about Siljander taking a lesser plea so that he could avoid the expense of a strong defense team in court. In May, the government filed its exhibit list in the case against Siljander (the list alone is over 100 pages). Even though the actual exhibits aren’t included, the description of hundreds of e-mails, etc. listed made it very clear to me that Mark Siljander knew quite well what he was doing and who he was helping. And I know that he knew it was wrong. Yes, he lied to the FBI about it. And yes, he tried to launder the money.
To me, though, even had Siljander told the FBI the truth and registered as a lobbyist, it wouldn’t matter. Yes, it would not be illegal. But he’d still be prostituting himself for the forces of evil–the most extreme forces of Islam and its desire to fund Islamic terrorism and Islam’s continuing push on America and American culture.
I’m sad about this, and it pains me, especially because I enjoyed working for him, particularly because I saw how much he understood the global Islamic threat then–a threat he’s understood at every point since. And yet, apparently for money, he tried to help enable and further the threat. I’m very sorry he did this. But that was the choice he made. It just goes to show you that anyone is capable of helping our enemies. Anyone.
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A footnote: among the many professional Arabs and Muslims who convert to Christianity for speaking engagement and book cash from Christians and Jews is Tawfik Hamid, who says his mentor was Al-Qaeda’s Ayman Al-Zawahiri. Hamid is among those I’ve often been asked about. You should know that Hamid is among the few names who gave the book glowing endorsement blurbs and praises Siljander for “understanding” Islam.
That should tell you all you need to know about Tawfik Hamid’s story that the saw the light on Islam. No, he just saw the cash for pretending to see the light on Islam. Anyone who truly made the transformation wouldn’t have anything to do with Mark Siljander’s propaganda efforts.
Tags: A Deadly Misunderstanding, A Deadly Misunderstanding: A Congressman's Quest to Bridge the Muslim-Christian Divide, al-Qaeda, book, congressman, Federal court, former Congressman, guilty plea, IARA, Islam, Islamic American Relief Agency, Islamic Terrorism, James Baker, Mark Siljander, Muslim, obstruction of justice, Omar Al-Bashir, Omar El-Bashir, pleads guilty, Republican Congressman, Sudan, Tawfik Hamid, terrorism
Damn Debbie…you’re awfully cute in that photo 🙂
ebayer on July 9, 2010 at 3:11 pm