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Islamic Charity Indicted Tradecraft at Work By: Douglas FarahThe Justice Department’s announcement of the indictment of an Islamic charity for financiallyaiding a terrorist tied to al Qaeda and the Taliban, as well as a former U.S. congressman for lobbying on behalf of the group with money stolen from the U.S. government, presents severalinteresting facets. The indictment is here.If the government is right, an Islamic “charity,” headquartered in sleepy Missouri and directed bythose with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood-led regime in Sudan, stole U.S. money aimed athumanitarian relief and then used that money to lobby the U.S. government in order to be able toraise more money.That would not be the random operation of unsophisticated people, but a complex operation thatdemonstrates knowledge of how the U.S. system works, and how to exploit the holes in thesystem.First is that the Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA), with ties to Sudan, morphed over theyears, using different names, while retaining essentially the same people and same organization.This is standard among charities seeking to avoid scrutiny of the IRS and others.Second, the IARA allegedly felt it was worth a significant amount of money (allegedly pilferedfrom a USAID project that the IARA failed to complete) to be removed from a Senate BankingCommittee list of suspect charities.It does not appear to have worked. The organization was designated by the TreasuryDepartment’s Office of Foreign Assets Control in October 2004.According to the indictment, at this point they hired Mark Deli Siljander, a former congressmanwho ran as a conservative evangelical and then set up a lobbying firm in Northern Virginia.Siljander was reportedly paid with U.S. taxpayer dollars stolen by the IARA, and then allegedlyknew the money was illicit and set up accounts to launder the money to make it appear to belegitimate.In interviews with the FBI, the indictment says, Siljander knowingly lied about taking moneyfrom IARA and attempted to obstruct the investigation.Siljander’s lawyer says he will plead not guilty on all charges.The IARA, in turn is charged with funneling money to benefit Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a SpeciallyDesignated Individual with a long and sordid past as one of the most vicious warlords to emergeduring the cycle of wars in Afghanistan. A one-time ally of the United States, he also hasextensive ties to Iran and has urged the fighting against NATO troops in Afghanistan.Like many suspect charities, the IARA chose an out-of-the way place to operate from, in thiscase, Columbia, Missouri. As U.S. Attorney John F. Wood said:
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