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 صدور الحكم في قضية الارهاب
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Former congressman, Missouri charity director sentenced in terrorism case
By MARK MORRIS
The Kansas City Star
By MARK MORRIS The Kansas City Star
Updated: 2012-01-12T05:59:57Z
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Orlin Wagner
In this July 7, 2010, file photo, former Republican Rep. Mark Deli Siljander (center) his wife, Nancy, left, and members of his legal team left federal court in Kansas City.
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A long-running terrorist financing investigation centered in Columbia ended Wednesday when a federal judge ordered two men, including a former U.S. Congressman, to prison.
She sentenced three other defendants to probation for their work with a Missouri charity that purportedly had ties to Islamic extremists. Those ties had subjected the charity to intense scrutiny for 13 years.
All five men either were employees or associates of the Columbia-based Islamic American Relief Agency. The charity closed its doors in October 2004 after the U.S. Treasury Department declared it to be one piece of a global network that supported Osama bin Laden and other terrorists.
None of the men charged in the criminal case, first filed in 2007, were alleged to have knowingly provided support to terrorists. And on Wednesday, federal prosecutors made no allegation that any of the Missouri defendants knew that their foreign counterparts, including officers of the Islamic African Relief Agency in Sudan, had close ties to terrorists.
“If we had a terrorist event we would have charged a more serious case,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Peter Gonzalez said.
Most of the defendants sentenced Wednesday pleaded guilty to illegally funneling money to Iraq in violation of economic sanctions enacted during the Saddam Hussein era. Others pleaded guilty to acting as unregistered foreign agents while representing the charity before the U.S. government.
Those sentenced:
• Former Michigan Rep. Mark Deli Siljander, 60, to one year and a day in prison for obstruction of justice and acting as an unregistered foreign agent. Siljander now lives in Florida.
• Mubarak Hamed, 55, the charity’s executive director, to four years and 10 months in prison for sending more than $1 million to Iraq in violations of U.S. sanctions. Hamed, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Sudan, lives in Columbia.
• Abdel Azim Elsiddig, 55, a part-time charity fundraiser, to two years of probation for acting as an unregistered foreign agent. Elsiddig, an Illinois resident, is a naturalized U.S. citizen.
• Ali Mohamed Bagegni, 57, a charity board member, to six months of probation and 50 hours of community service for violating the Iraq sanctions law. Bagegni, a Libyan and naturalized U.S. citizen, formerly was a teacher in Columbia.
• Ahmad Mustafa, 59, a charity fundraiser, to six months of probation and 50 hours of community service for his role in the sanctions violations. Mustafa, a lawful permanent resident alien, lives in Columbia.
At his guilty plea in July 2010, Elsiddig admitted that he hired and paid Siljander to persuade government officials to remove the charity from a Senate Finance Committee list of Islamic organizations suspected of supporting terrorism and to restore the charity’s ability to receive U.S. government contracts.
In 1999, the Agency for International Development barred the charity from receiving federal foreign aid contracts, reckoning that such agreements would “not be in the national security interest” of the United States.
In his plea agreement, Siljander, a Republican who represented Michigan in Congress from 1981 to 1987, admitted that he lied to federal authorities about the charity’s payments to him, telling them that the money was to have assisted him in writing a book about reconciling differences between Muslims and Christians.
Before hearing his sentence, Siljander accepted responsibility for his conduct and pleaded for mercy.
“I stand before you broken in so many ways,” Siljander said. “I did something wrong. I mistreated the system I believed in and I mistreated my family and friends.”
U.S. District Judge Nanette Laughrey noted that Siljander’s lobbying ultimately was ineffective, but she said he needed prison time primarily to serve as a deterrent to others.
“When you look at this objectively, it was not the case of someone aiding a terrorist and it would be wrong of me to do that,” Laughrey said.
In a letter filed under seal with the judge, but quoted in a public filing, President Ronald Reagan’s attorney general, Edwin Meese, praised Siljander’s “exemplary life of service to the public” and “altruistic desire to promote world peace and harmony.”
Bill Richardson, a Democrat and President Bill Clinton’s Ambassador to the United Nations, added his own praise in a similar letter.
“Whenever I needed a partner to support my work on human rights, I knew I could count on Mark to be there and to commit his talents and efforts to helping other people,” Richardson wrote.
Gonzalez asked Laughrey to ignore the lofty endorsements and sentence Siljander to up to four years in prison, suggesting that he had abused the faith he purported to hold so dear.
“He uses that as a way into his various paydays,” Gonzalez said.
Of the remaining defendants, Laughrey heaped the most time on Hamed, the charity’s executive director who sent more than $1.5 million meant for humanitarian work in Iraq without getting the proper permission from the government.
The money went through a middle-man in Jordan, Khalid Ahmad Jumah Al-Sudani, whose ties to terrorists earned him a special terrorist designation in 2004.
Hamed, who later cooperated with authorities against other defendants, apologized to Laughrey.
“I had no intention for hurting this country or violating its national security,” Hamed said.
The remaining defendants, each of whom received probation, became ensnared in the case because of Hamed’s decisions, Laughrey noted.
Mustafa violated the sanctions when he sent $800 to his brother in Iraq to keep him from losing his home. Mustafa’s brother had declined to join Saddam’s Baath Party and could not depend on government support.
Laughrey appeared touched by Mustafa’s contrition.
“You never lied to the government,” she observed. “You never tried to make excuses. You were truthful. And when it became apparent IARA was not operating within the law you cooperated immediately.”
Bagegni, the only IARA board member who lived in Columbia, signed checks as directed by Hamed. Laughrey called his transgression a “technical violation” and said he played a “very, very minor role.”
“I also appreciate your substantial contributions to the community,” Laughrey said.
To contact Mark Morris, call 816-234-4310 or send email to [email protected].
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/01/11/3365477/...y.html#storylink=cpy
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Re: صدور الحكم في قضية الارهاب (Re: Ahmed Elyas)
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Former Michigan Rep. Mark Deli Siljander, 60, to one year and a day in prison for obstruction of justice and acting as an unregistered foreign agent. Siljander now lives in Florida.
• Mubarak Hamed, 55, the charity’s executive director, to four years and 10 months in prison for sending more than $1 million to Iraq in violations of U.S. sanctions. Hamed, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Sudan, lives in Columbia.
• Abdel Azim Elsiddig, 55, a part-time charity fundraiser, to two years of probation for acting as an unregistered foreign agent. Elsiddig, an Illinois resident, is a naturalized U.S. citizen.
• Ali Mohamed Bagegni, 57, a charity board member, to six months of probation and 50 hours of community service for violating the Iraq sanctions law. Bagegni, a Libyan and naturalized U.S. citizen, formerly was a teacher in Columbia.
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Re: صدور الحكم في قضية الارهاب (Re: Ahmed Elyas)
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Prison for ex-Rep. Siljander: He aided terrorist-linked charity
(from NATION NOW)
January 12, 2012 | 1:30pm
He’s a Christian, a family man and a former Michigan congressman, and now Mark Deli Siljander will also become a prisoner after helping an Islamic charity designated as a terrorist group and suspected of having ties to Al Qaeda.
"I did something wrong," Siljander pleaded with U.S. District Judge Nanette Laughrey before she sentenced him to a year and a day in federal prison for obstruction of justice and acting as an unregistered foreign agent, according to the Associated Press. "I mistreated the system I believe in. I mistreated my family and friends. I should have known better. I failed too many people, including myself and my family. I ask for your mercy."
The story begins in 1999, when the Columbia, Mo.-based Islamic American Relief Agency lost two federal grants in Mali.
According to the U.S. Treasury, the relief agency’s African branch had begun consorting with Osama bin Laden and the group Maktab Al-Khidamat, an Al Qaeda precursor. It would later be accused of directly financially supporting Bin Laden.
It’s possible the Missouri office didn’t know the African branch had ties to terror groups at all; prosecutors didn’t allege that folks in the office knew of such ties, according to the Kansas City Star.
Instead, the American group fell into trouble for attempting end runs around the various financial clamps the U.S. has placed on adversaries in the Arab world.
As it turns out, the relief agency’s American office didn’t return all of the federal money it received. It paid $50,000 of the unreturned grant money to Siljander — who received $75,000 overall — to lobby Congress to take the charity off a Senate list of organizations accused of financing terror groups.
But Siljander, a Michigan Republican who served in Congress from 1981 to 1987, never registered as a foreign-paid lobbyist and later lied to investigators about what he was doing, claiming he was getting paid to write a book about Christian-Islamic relations.
Meanwhile, the charity’s former executive director, Mubarak Hamed, quietly funneled more than $1 million of the charity’s money to Iraq, which was then under punishing American economic sanctions.
The operation fell apart in 2004 when the U.S. Treasury suspected the larger charity was part of the global financing network that transnational terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda need to operate. The charity shut down after the government designated it a terrorist organization.
Criminal charges came three years later as officials pieced together the Missouri office’s involvement in violating the Iraq sanctions and foreign lobbying requirements.
Hamed received a five-year, 10-month sentence Monday for violating the sanctions, and three other charity fund-raisers and board members also received probation.
Siljander might have been facing a heavier sentence if not for tearful family testimony and help from some powerful friends. Former Reagan administration Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese praised Siljander’s “exemplary life of service to the public” and Democratic former American U.N. Ambassador Bill Richardson added his own in sealed letters to the court quoted in a public filing by The Star.
"I came in this morning with the thought that I would sentence you to a longer time in jail," judge Laughrey said, according to the AP, but added that no real harm had been done. She laid down the sentence as a matter of course.
"For me, the real harm is that you kept lying to the government," she said.
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Re: صدور الحكم في قضية الارهاب (Re: Ahmed Elyas)
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Ex-congressman sentenced in terror funding case
By BILL DRAPER, Associated Press – 4 days ago
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A former Michigan congressman and U.S. delegate to the United Nations has been sentenced to a year and one day in prison for lobbying for a Missouri-based Islamic charity that had been identified as a global terrorist organization.
Mark Deli Siljander, 60, a Republican who served in Congress from 1981-1987, pleaded guilty in July 2010 to obstructing justice and acting as an unregistered foreign agent in connection with his work for the Islamic American Relief Agency, based in Columbia, Mo.
In his plea agreement, Siljander acknowledged that he lobbied between March and May 2004 on behalf of the IARA for the organization to be removed from a U.S. Senate Finance Committee list of charities suspected of funding international terrorism. The charity closed in October 2004 after being designated a global terrorist organization by the U.S. government.
IARA had lost its status as an approved government contractor in 1999, when the U.S. Agency for International Development terminated grants for two relief efforts in Mali, Africa. Prosecutors said $50,000 of the $75,000 Siljander received from the charity came from unused grant money that was supposed to have been returned to USAID after it terminated the Mali grants.
Siljander also acknowledged that he failed to register as an agent of a foreign entity and had lied to FBI agents and prosecutors acting on behalf of a federal grand jury.
In court Wednesday, Siljander's 20-year-old son Mark Jr. told U.S. District Judge Nanette Laughrey that while the charges against his father had been devastating, they also had brought family members closer together.
He told of how his friends had turned against him after his father, a devout Christian, had been connected in the media with terrorist organizations. He asked the judge to help keep the family together.
Siljander's wife, Nancy, also pleaded with Laughrey to give her husband probation and not send him to jail. Siljander, clearly choked up after his wife's statements, apologized for his actions.
"I did something wrong," he said. "I mistreated the system I believe in. I mistreated my family and friends. I should have known better. I failed too many people, including myself and my family. I ask for your mercy."
After a short recess, Laughrey said she had no choice but sentence Siljander to time behind bars.
"I came in this morning with the thought that I would sentence you to a longer time in jail," she said, after announcing the sentence.
Although no real harm had been done by Siljander's actions, she said, there was the potential for harm, and that's why a prison sentence was necessary.
"For me, the real harm is that you kept lying to the government," Laughrey said. However, she added, "This is not a case about somebody aiding a terrorist."
Four co-defendants also were sentenced Wednesday. Among them were former IARA executive director Mubarak Hamed, who sent more than $1 million to Iraq through the charity in violation of U.S. sanctions. He pleaded guilty in June 2010 to illegally transferring the money and obstructing the administration of laws governing tax-exempt charities.
Hamed, whose attorney characterized him as a loving family man who devoted his life to charitable causes around the world, was sentenced to 58 months, or nearly five years, in prison.
"You painted yourself as a man devoted to charity," Laughrey said. "I find that not to be credible. When confronted by the government, you lied. You continued to do what was in your best interest, in the best interest of your organization."
The original indictment alleged the charity sent about $130,000 to help Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whom the United States has designated as a global terrorist. 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.
Authorities described Hekmatyar as an Afghan mujahedeen leader who has participated in and supported terrorist acts by al-Qaida and the Taliban.
Prosecutors said Siljander, who now lives in Great Falls, Va., lied to the FBI about being hired to lobby for the charity. He told investigators that the money he received was a donation to help him write a book about Islam and Christianity.
Three others involved in the charity were sentenced Wednesday to probation.
Abdel Azim El-Siddig, of Chicago, Ill., a former fundraiser for the charity, was sentenced to two years of probation for conspiring to hire Siljander to lobby for the charity's removal from the list of those suspected of having terrorist ties, while concealing this advocacy and not registering with the proper authorities.
Ali Mohamed Bagegni, a native of Libya who is a naturalized U.S. citizen and former resident of Columbia, was sentenced to six months of probation for his role in the conspiracy. Bagegni was a member of the board of directors of IARA.
Ahmad Mustafa of Columbia, a citizen of Iraq and a lawful permanent resident alien of the United States, also was sentenced to six months of probation for illegally transferring funds in violation of federal sanctions.
Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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Ahmed Elyas
فيس بوك
تويتر
انستقرام
يوتيوب
بنتيريست