A federal grand jury has re-indicted a defunct Columbia, Mo., charity, accusing it of sending money to benefit an Afghan terrorist who has attacked U.S. forces there.
The indictment also accuses former U.S. Congressman Mark Deli Siljander of money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice.
Grand jurors added the new charges to an existing indictment that accused the Islamic American Relief Agency and five of its officers and associates of sending money to Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s reign in violation of U.S. sanctions.
According to the new charges, the charity sent about $130,000 in 2003 and 2004 to bank accounts in Pakistan, allegedly for an orphanage housed in buildings owned by Glubuddin Hekmatyar, an Afghan mujahedeen leader.
The U.S. government designated Hekmatyar as a global terrorist in February 2003 because of his links to al-Qaida and the Taliban.
“By bringing this case in the heartland, we are making it more difficult for terrorists to operate around the world,” U.S. Attorney John Wood said at a news conference.
The charges also accuse Siljander, a Republican who represented Michigan in Congress from 1981 to 1987, of receiving almost $50,000 from the charity in 2004. Siljander, who operates a Washington public relations firm, was hired to lobby Congress to remove the charity from a U.S. Senate Finance Committee list of nonprofit organizations suspected of being involved in supporting international terrorism.
Siljander did not return messages to his office seeking comment about the charges.
His Kansas City lawyer, J.R. Hobbs, said that Siljander vehemently denies the charges and plans to plead not guilty soon.
Hobbs noted that Siljander was not named in the indictment as a defendant who allegedly sent assistance to Hekmatyar.
“Mr. Siljander is … world renowned for his efforts to bridge the Muslim-Christian divide,” Hobbs said.
Because the fresh accusations have been tacked on to the existing litigation against IARA and its officers, they could slow the resolution of a criminal case already moving at a snail’s pace. The existing case was filed in March 2007, and complications about classified evidence have slowed progress. No trial date has been set.
“This constitutes a substantial expansion of an already complex case,” said Curtis Woods, a criminal defense lawyer in Kansas City who is representing Mubarak Hamed, IARA’s former executive director.
The fresh accusations are the latest twist in a federal investigation of the charity that goes back long before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
In 1999, the U.S. Agency for International Development revoked grants to the agency, stating they would “not be in the national security interest” of the United States.
In October 2004, federal agents raided IARA’s offices in Columbia on the same day the U.S. Treasury Department designated the organization as a supporter of international terrorism.
Supporters of the organization cried foul, pointing to a list of worldwide humanitarian projects that the charity had supported.
If established, the link to Hekmatyar would be the most serious terrorism allegation in the criminal case.
Hekmatyar leads the Hezb-e-Islami-Gulbuddin, a fundamentalist faction of mujahedeen, and was prime minister of Afghanistan for periods in the mid-1990s. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, Hekmatyar has organized an alliance with Taliban leader Muhammad Omar and the remnants of al-Qaida in Afghanistan, according to GlobalSecurity.org.
In a video broadcast on Al-Jazeera last year, Hekmatyar announced that he and his followers supported Osama bin Laden. His group also has been blamed for attacks against coalition forces in Afghanistan.
According to the indictment, IARA sent money to accounts in Peshawar, Pakistan, purportedly to develop an orphanage in buildings owned by Hekmatyar.
That orphanage in the Shamshatu refugee camp has been under scrutiny for some time. In 2005, federal prosecutors filed declassified documents in a civil lawsuit in Washington that alleged IARA had been supporting the children of Afghan “martyrs” at the orphanage.
IARA supporters, however, cautioned that the word “martyr” can have a much more benign interpretation than “suicide bomber.”
The allegations against Siljander elaborate on information provided in the March 2007 indictment, including identifying the former congressman as a lobbyist for IARA.
According to prosecutors, IARA transferred about $50,000 in federal international aid grant money to pay for Siljander’s work to clear the charity’s name before the Senate Finance Committee. But instead of just sending the money to Siljander’s firm, the charity transferred it through accounts controlled by Siljander at a couple of other charities.
When questioned by FBI agents about the funds in December 2005 and by prosecutors in April 2007, Siljander allegedly said the money was to have assisted him in writing a book about bridging the gap between Christianity and Islam.
Siljander operates Global Strategies Inc., which helps its clients resolve international business, political and illegal issues, according to its Web site.
A gallery of photos on the site includes Siljander posing with former U.S. Presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, as well as politicians Newt Gingrich, Trent Lott and Bob Dole. Foreign dignitaries in the photos include President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and the Dalai Lama.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Timeline
Feb. 1985: Islamic African Relief Agency founded in Columbia, Mo., to support charitable work in Africa.
Nov. 1996: IARA’s Webmaster purchases satellite telephone that Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida use to plot 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa.
Feb. 1999: Charity changes name to Islamic American Relief Agency-USA.
Oct. 2004: Federal agents raid charity’s Columbia offices; U.S. Department of Treasury rules donations to charity illegal.
March 2007: IARA and five officers/associates charged with illegally sending more than $1.4 million to Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s reign.
Wednesday: IARA, the five officers/associates face new terrorism-related charges tied to $130,000 the charity sent to a Pakistani orphanage owned by an Afghan terrorist. Also Wednesday, a former U.S. congressman is charged with money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice in the case.
Individuals charged
Mubarak Hamed, the charity’s former executive director.
Ali Mohamed Bagegni, former charity board member and treasurer.
Ahmed Mustafa, former charity fundraiser.
Khalid Al-Sudanee, Middle East coordinator for a related charity based in Jordan.
Abdel Azim El-Siddig, former charity vice president for international operations.
Mark Deli Siljander, a U.S. congressman from Michigan in the 1980s and current congressional lobbyist.
http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/448158-p2.html
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar