Republican Treason
Republicans like claiming they are tough on terrorism, but the evidence shows they are weak when it comes to combating terrorism. Osama bin Laden is still free as a bird and al-Qaeda stronger than ever. Terrorism has grown throughout the world while Bush remains friendly with Saudi Arabia, one of the nations that helps fund and train terrorists.
But some Republicans go further than this it seems. One Republican in particular has been indicted for actually helping al-Qaeda...which strikes me as outright treason.
From Truthout:
A former congressman and delegate to the United Nations was indicted Wednesday as part of a terrorist fundraising ring that allegedly sent more than $130,000 to an al-Qaida and Taliban supporter who has threatened U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan.
The former Republican congressman from Michigan, Mark Deli Siljander, was charged with money laundering, conspiracy and obstructing justice for allegedly lying about lobbying senators on behalf of an Islamic charity that authorities said was secretly sending funds to terrorists.
A 42-count indictment, unsealed in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo., accuses the Islamic American Relief Agency of paying Siljander $50,000 for the lobbying - money that turned out to be stolen from the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Siljander, who served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, was appointed by President Reagan to serve as a U.S. delegate to the United Nations for one year in 1987.
A Republican Congressman and Ronald Reagan appointee being paid with taxpayer money to launder money for al-Qaeda...sounds treasonous to me.
Of course Republicans have committed treason before, like when they illegally outed a CIA agent out of petty spite. That action als endangered America's war against the terrorists. Over and over Republicans show themselves to be unwilling or unable to fight terrorism.
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al-Qaeda | Treason
Well...
Submitted by mole333 on 17 January 2008 - 11:29am.
Sorry...it sounds at best the kind of lobbyist BS we all hate, and at worst he definitely broke the law. Money laundering...money stolen from the U.S. Agency for International Development...it sounds pretty bad to me. Of course you are right that this is how the prosecutors are portraying it and the media reporting it, but I can't say it looks good.
I would be extremely reluctant to jump on the bandwagon of
this prosecution. The defendant may be a Republican but the underlying acts complained about may be or at least should be constitutionally protected.
Of course, I do not know the underlying facts except as reported in the newspapers by the prosecutors but suggest people thinking about this case read widely. Here, for example, is the Washington Post story and here the NY Times coverage .
The claim is that the former Congress Member worked with an Islamic charity which Mr. Bush and his friends say helps terrorists. What did the guy do? He tried to keep the charity off the list of "terror charities." This is not the first of this sort of prosecution and each one of them makes me very uneasy. It seems to me that these sorts of charges are deeply entangled in the fairness of the Bush Administration's charges against Islamic charities and our Constitutional freedom of association.