Mark D. Siljander

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Mark Deli Siljander
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan's 4th district
In office 1981 – 1987
Preceded by	David A. Stockman
Succeeded by	Fred Upton
Born	June 11, 1951 (age 56) Chicago, Illinois
Political party	Republican

Mark Deli Siljander (born June 11, 1951) is a former Republican U.S. Representative from the state of Michigan who was indicted January 16, 2008 in connection with his work for an Islamic charity accused of funneling money to an Afghan warlord.

Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Political career 3 Private career 4 Religion 5 2008 indictment 6 Controversy 7 Bibliography 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Early life and education

Siljander was born in Chicago, Illinois, where he attended the public schools, graduating from Oak Park and River Forest High School in 1969. ^[1] He received a Bachelor of Science degree from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1972 and an Master of Arts from Western Michigan in 1973.^[1] Siljander was awarded an honorary doctorate in humanities from Coral Ridge Baptist University, Jacksonville, Florida, and a Ph.D. in international business^[2] from George Wythe College, Cedar City, Utah, an unaccredited institution,^[3] where he is listed as a faculty member.^[2] 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.^[1]

[edit] Political career

Siljander served in the Michigan House of Representatives from the 42nd District, 1977–1981, and was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1980. He was elected by special election to the United States House of Representatives 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.^[1] The Fourth Congressional district at that time was in southwestern Michigan and included Three Rivers and Kalamazoo.^[4] Time reported on Siljander's election:

"I'm part of the silent majority that was heard Nov. 4 [when President Reagan was elected]," says Siljander. "My support comes from morally concerned citizens who are sick of the situation in this country." Siljander pledges to battle the Equal Rights Amendment, pornography, abortion, school busing and "big spending." He will champion the neutron bomb, the MX missile and prayer in public schools.^[5]

Siljander won 74 percent of the vote against his Democratic opponent, Johnie A. Rodebush, in 1981. In 1984, Siljander sponsored a single-sentence amendment which read, "For the purposes of this Act, the term 'person' shall include unborn children from the moment of conception." Alexander Cockburn referred to the Siljander Amendment as "the most far-reaching of all the measures dreamed up by the conservative right to undercut Roe v. Wade."^[6] It failed 186-219.^[7] Debbie Schlussel, who interned in Siljander's office, stated that Siljander was known then as "the most pro-Israel Congressman on Capitol Hill".^[8]In 1985, Siljander proposed legislation which would deny Most Favored Nation status to countries that discriminate on cultural, ethnic or religious grounds.^[9][10][11] Siljander was defeated in the 1986 Republican primary by his successor Fred Upton. Siljander's defeat was attributed to a controversial mailing he made during the party primary asking fundamentalists to "break the back of Satan" by praying and fasting for his re-election.^[12] He served on the 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.^[1] He was an unsuccessful candidate in 1992 for nomination to the 103rd Congress. He stated then his message was, "not religious values as much as it's common-sense American traditional values." He campaigned on a budget freeze, a ten percent flat tax and a line-item veto.^[13]In the Republican primary, Siljander came in second to Henry N. Butler, a law professor at George Mason University.^[14] Leslie L. Byrne won the general election. ^[1]

[edit] Private career

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In 1994 Siljander joined the board of directors of Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian right legal fund.^[15] In 1997, Siljander joined the lobbying firm Advantage Associates, which then employed 12 former members of Congress. Other members of the firm include firm president Bill Sarpalius, Bill Alexander, Ron Coleman, Bill Grant, Robert B. Hanrahan, Jerry Huckaby, Jerry M. Patterson, Howard Wallace Pollock, Richard Ray, Richard T. Schulze, and Bill Zeliff.^{[citation needed]} Siljander ended his ties with Advantage Associates prior to 2000.^[16]

Now a resident of Great Falls, 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.^[1] 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 has met with leaders throughout the Islamic world.^{[citation needed]} Siljander has also regularly briefed both Congress and the Whitehouse on areas of Islamic extremism and counter-terrorism. Siljander currently consults for top US based security contractors on areas of terrorist threats and conflict resolution.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Religion

In 1986, Siljander signed a statement of outlining his religious beliefs.^[17] 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. At one point, Siljander read from the Qur'an at a prayer breakfast. Most, unaware that this was not a reading from the Bible, cheered. When he announded to the surprise of the VIP audience that he was actually reading from the Qur'an, a member of the audience (anonymous for reason) objected, stating: "How can you read the book of the devil at a prayer breakfast?"^[18]

He described himself as "trained as an evangelical Christian; I was a poster boy for Jerry Falwell."^[18] He is widely traveled, and claims to have visited over 120 countries.^[19] In November 2006, Siljander gave a speech at Regent's Park College, Oxford, entitled "Overcoming the Muslim Western Divide: Seven Bridges to the Common Ground."^[20][21] Siljander has studied Aramaic, Arabic, and Hebrew languages.^[22]

[edit] 2008 indictment

On January 16, 2008, Siljander was indicted in the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri on five counts including money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction.^{[23] [24]} As part of the same investigation, several supporters of the Islamic American Relief Agency were indicted for raising funds that were allegedly sent to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whom the United States has later 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. Hekmatyar, a long time CIA and US ally, is believed to be working in combination with the US backed government of Pakistan: ^[25][26]

Siljander's associates face 42 counts on charges of money laundering, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice and material support of terrorism. The Islamic American Relief Agency is a 25 year old charity that had been receiving support from the US government for many years and been openly supported by Washington insiders until the listed indictments were filed.^{[27] [28] [29] [30]}

Siljander himself faces only five counts, none of which are related to terrorism and are confined to money laundering, obstruction and conspiracy related to accusations of lobbying. Siljander alleges that his lobbying consisted of using USAID funds to subsidize the writing of his book intended to provide strategies to undermine the influence of Islamic extremism.

The alleged underlying crime stemmed from a Ziyad Khaleel, who had worked with the charity in question as early as 96 and had purchased a satellite phone for Bin Laden. Even though he was part of the charity, and all of this was known to the FBI, it took over four years for the US Government to stop giving millions to the Charity and put it on the blacklist.^{[31] [32]}

"It's not clear whether Siljander ever engaged in the lobbying push," said John Wood, U.S. attorney in Kansas City.^[33] Nevertheless, IARA paid Siljander with money that was part of U.S. government funding awarded to the charity years earlier for relief work it promised to perform in Africa, the indictment says.^[34] Prosecutors allege Siljander was paid $50,000 by the Islamic American Relief Agency for the lobbying, money that was assigned by the U.S. Agency for International Development to support the efforts of their work. On January 28, 2008, Siljander appeared for a brief hearing in Kansas City, Missouri and pleaded not guilty in Federal court before a U.S. Magistrate Judge.^[35]

The source of the accused misused funds, the USAID, indicates that none of their funds were misused: "According to the most recent USAID Office of Inspector General report, which covers October 2006 to the end of March 2007, "OIG oversight activities during this period did not identify any instances where terrorist organizations received USAID funds." USAID audit procedures should be enough to prevent terrorist financing."^{[36] [37]}

Further, the USAID indicates that there is no mechanism for effectively monitoring "blacklisted" groups: "USAID cannot confirm or deny whether an individual passed or failed screening." This secrecy was part of the focus of comments OMB Watch submitted to USAID, which stated, "PVS will more than likely result in the creation of a secret USAID blacklist of ineligible grant applicants, based on PVS results. Organizations and individuals erroneously listed as having ties with terrorism will have no way of knowing they are deemed as such, or why. Innocent and well deserving grantees will have no formal means of appealing such decisions."^[38]

It has recently been admitted by the Bush Administration in conjunction with a variety of organizations that efforts to effectively screen groups from potential involvement in support of terrorism have been plagued with errors at every level. "The decision, announced Tuesday at a meeting of U.S. officials and representatives of nonprofit groups, was made after lawmakers and several large aid organizations said that the global screening requirements were onerous and unwarranted. An official of the U.S. Agency for International Development had earlier promised to defer the program, which initially was to have taken effect Monday."^[39]

[edit] Controversy

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U.S. Attorney Bradley Schlozman, one of the appointees in the Justice Department dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy, had been largely responsible for the management and development of the Siljander case. His history up to this point was as a Republican Party appointee working in the Civil Rights Voting division pushing for tougher voter ID laws.^{[40][41] [42] [43] [44]} A second news release Schlozman was made to correct errors in the initial press release which tried to tie Siljander to terrorist organizations.^{[45] [46] [47]}

Schlozman resigned from the DOJ and is currently under a cloud of suspicion. ^{[48] [49] [50] [51] [52]}

That the source of the funds alleged to have been sent to support terrorism was the US Government itself, is an unanswered question. The group involved is known to have had wide support in Washington and was not "blacklisted" as "giving material support to terrorist organizations" until well after the period covered by the indictment.^{[53] [54]}

Additionally, endorsements of Siljander's recent book demonstrates that he still has support from the Heritage Foundation, currently managing his legal defense fund, former Secretary of State James Baker, former Attorney General Ed Meese and other conservative leaders and foundations, despite the current indictment.

A report released in a Justice Department audit performed by Justice Department Inspector General Gerald Fine, on March 18, 2008, indicated that the FBI and other agencies had, since 2003, proven incapable of managing watch lists or coordinating activities. These lists covered not only individuals but organizations and charities, such as the charity that had employed Congressman Hanrahan as a lobbyist and had given funds to former Congressman/Ambassador Siljander.^[55]

FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) wiretaps were used to support "domestic" charges against Siljander. A number of legal experts believe that the use of FISA intercepts in domestic cases may be outside the scope of the Act. As some charges against Siljander are unrelated to any foreign activity or any relationship to terrorism in any form yet supported by FISA wiretaps, this case may provide a challenge to other FISA related cases. ^{[56] [57]}

Rumors claim that Siljander's newly moderated religious views are seen by some as a betrayal of his staunch support of Israel and the Christian Right. However, there is no substantiation that there is any relationship between these issues and the current legal case. ^[58]

Siljander alleges he never engaged in lobbying for this group but passed that on to others. Records indicate that a different former Congressman, Robert Hanrahan (R-IL) had represented the accused Islamic charity and had been responsible for lobbying Senator Grassley on behalf of the group. Former Congressman Hanrahan, now a professional fundraiser and tobacco lobbyist, has signed an affidavit indicating this. Thus US Attorney John Wood's ^[59] statement indicating that Siljander may not have been lobbying for the group may contradict the heart of the indictment brought by Wood.^{[60] [61] [62] [63]}

[edit] Bibliography

• Siljander, Mark D. A Deadly Misunderstanding: A Congressman's Quest to Bridge the Muslim-Christian Divide. New York: HarperOne, 2008.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Announcement of October 2005 Lectures at the University of Edinburgh Edinburgh Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies
• Global Strategies, Inc. References List
• Ex-lawmaker charged in terror conspiracy

Preceded by David Stockman

Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan's 4th congressional district 1981–1987

Succeeded by Fred Upton