Despite the fact that his middle name is "Deli", I doubt he's kosher.

Posted by: jewdog at January 16, 2008 3:27 PM

"— money that turned out to be stolen from the U.S. Agency for International Development...."

I wondered why a US diplomat with USAID would be assassinated in Khartoum. Is there a connection?

Posted by: CTYankee at January 16, 2008 3:29 PM

Dang-it, Robert. Your quick! And, here I thought I had the scoop... *grin*

Here's a little more info from the following article:

http://www.kansascity.com/115/story/447332.html

Siljander, who operates a Washington D.C. public relations firm, was hired to lobby Congress to remove the charity from a U.S. Senate Finance Committee list of non-profit organizations suspected of being involved in supporting international terrorism.

Cheers

Posted by: Doctor Bulldog at January 16, 2008 3:31 PM

I'm deeply disappointed President Jimmy Carter was not caught up in this terror ring. Hey Feds, just look for the old dude with the glazed eyeballs, that's him.

Posted by: Alarmed Pig Farmer at January 16, 2008 3:31 PM

$130,000 bridge is very cheap for terror outreach.
A very creative solution for the problem we have.

Is the congressman the one on the far left in the picture?

He had a very nice table cloth on his head.

Posted by: ssa at January 16, 2008 3:34 PM

BLOOD MONEY!! I'm for hanging the man!

Posted by: champ [TypeKey Profile Page] at January 16, 2008 3:22 PM

----------------

He needs to be convicted first. Then hung. Due process. Rule of law.

Posted by: Hyman Roth at January 16, 2008 3:35 PM

$130,000 bridge is very cheap for terror outreach.
A very creative solution for the problem we have.

Is the congressman the one on the far left in the picture?

He had a very nice table cloth on his head.

Posted by: ssa at January 16, 2008 3:35 PM

I wonder who funds the 'Edinburgh Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies'? Our un-friends the House of Saud?

Time for Infidel intelligence agencies and police to look very closely into the backgrounds, finances and affiliations of *everybody* working in such 'Centres of Islamic Study' and 'Centres for Muslim-Christian Studies', all over the Infidel world.

Posted by: dumbledoresarmy at January 16, 2008 3:38 PM

"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...."
-- from the article above

This will remind us of so many others. But I am reminded especially of one Edward Abington, former American consul in the Arab-occupied part of Jerusalem, who lobbied hard, and succesfully, for an extra $400 million in American money for the "Palestinians," and once he managed to help fleece the ever-put-upon taxpayers, quickly retired and then, just as quickly, signed up as a paid agent -- fabulously paid, with an annual salary of $700,000 (not exactly what he was earning when he was working for his own government) -- of those same "Palestinians" no doubt glad to toss him back a small part of that $400 million in Amerian aid, so that he might lobby on behalf of the Slow Jihadists, or the Fast Jihadists -- I hardly remember, and it hardly matters.

And where to we begin with all the paid agents, directly or indirctly paid (those lecture fees! those consultant's fees!) by Arab and Muslm -- especially Saudi -- interests, where do we start listing all the former ambassadors (google "James Akins") or humbler diplomatic fry (google "Eugene Bird" and while you are at it, google Mrs. Eugene Bird as well), and former intelligence agents (google "Raymond Close") and former political operatives (google "Fred Dutton") and all kinds of former presidents happy to accept Saudi millions for their favorite cause -- their own "presidential libraries" built to the greater glory of themselves.

Google, google, google, but be sure to include "jihad watch" and then you will be sure to have the broad lineaments of the incredible scandal drawn for you, the kind of thing that Paul Sperry has so usefully compiled in his own book "Infiltration," a book with a sensationalist title, but with well-researched contents that, alas, are not the figment of his, or anyone else's, imagination.

Posted by: Hugh at January 16, 2008 3:39 PM

How is this any different than the US, Canada, UK, Europe, pledging Billions of dollars to a known terrorist state? Hmmm... Where, of course, some are already wondering where $2 Billion went.

Posted by: Sounder at January 16, 2008 3:39 PM

20 years in the lectric chair!

Posted by: GrennBeck at January 16, 2008 3:41 PM

Mr Siljander was at one time 'the US ambassador to the United Nations'.

It might be interesting to look back over his record there.

Everybody - read the first article that Robert linked, from Tulsa in November 2007.

It's downright scary. It's a 'conversion' story/ testimony cast along the lines of - 'how I stopped being an evil evangelical Islamophobe and learned to love the beautiful RoP [tm]'.

After reading it, I can understand, I think, exactly what was the problem with all those people whom Bostom and Bat Yeor tell us about - the Christians and Jews, and others, from other societies, who made fatal alliances and agreements with plausible Muslim neighbours; even those who cheerfully opened the gates of their cities to Jihad armies (and often, not long after, wound up dead). People whose actions we look back on now and say...But, how could they be so BLIND? How could they be so *stupid*.

Nope. They were, I think, people just like Mr Siljander, who listened just one too many times to the smiling talk of this or that charming and plausible Muslim, and who, if they read the Koran, did so with eyes wide shut.

Posted by: dumbledoresarmy at January 16, 2008 3:57 PM

Two more notes:

has anybody read Siljander's book? Because he wrote one. From the article Robert linked (Nov 2007)

"Toting his new book--'A Deadly Misunderstanding: A Congressman's Quest to Bridge the Muslim-Christian Divide', Siljander explained how, according to his studies, the two religions aren't so different after all." (!!!!)

Second point to note - he was "a Republican congressman from MICHIGAN".

Posted by: dumbledoresarmy at January 16, 2008 4:03 PM

How is this any different than the US, Canada, UK, Europe, pledging Billions of dollars to a known terrorist state? Hmmm... Where, of course, some are already wondering where $2 Billion went.

Posted by: Sounder

Yes, well that is legal sedition, the other is illegal sedition.

Posted by: Sneakyzionistcrusader at January 16, 2008 4:06 PM

If convicted, hang, then draw and quarter, then incinerate the remains. I don't care anymore about how well meaning these people are. It seems that the well-meaning people so often do the most damage.

Posted by: patagonianplato at January 16, 2008 4:08 PM

dumbledoresarmy,

Good point. After reading his conversion speech, I am not convinced that he knowingly committed the crimes he is accused of...

It seems to me that this is a case of some radical Islamists who found a rube to act as a shill in congress...

Such is the cost of trusting those who conspire to do us harm...

Cheers

Posted by: Doctor Bulldog at January 16, 2008 4:17 PM

shoutout to 'traeh'

if you're reading here today.

I wonder whether some of those politicians (senators was it, or congresspersons?) who received your Robert Spencer book mailout are connecting the dots - this story about Siljander, and the other story about Coughlin.

Looks like the USA is going to have to clean house from the ground up. I just pray to God that some brave non-dhimmi investigators somewhere will keep on pulling on the loose threads (e.g. Siljander, Coughlin) till the whole damned thing unravels.

The rest of us from other Infidel lands should be watching and taking notes. Because whatever's worked for the Mohammedans in the USA has doubtless happened, is doubtless happening, here.

Every local politician in every Infidel land - from shire/ city/ town council level up - needs to be examined, by their suspicious non-dhimmi constituents - for possible or actual ties with the Mohammedans.

There is, of course, bribery and corruption involved.

But over and above that, Siljander's story as given in the November 2007 article, if even partly true, shows us something else. The power of deception.

Siljander's co-option/ seduction seems to have begun through a friendship.

"Nassim Matar, a Lebanese-born, Washington, D.C.-based real estate broker (!!!)

"The two are longtime friends, but Matar...explained that their friendship had a bit of a rocky start.

'Mark had a different view of being a Christian,' he said, a fact he discovered after having Siljander over for dinner.

"Matar is a professing Christian himself, from a Greek Orthodox background, *but his wife is Muslim*"...Islamochristian alert?

Deception deception deception. Flattery. Delusion. Illusion. Confusion. Mohammedans appear to be, to employ Rowlings' poetic language, masters of two things - the Confundus charm and the Imperius charm.

Posted by: dumbledoresarmy at January 16, 2008 4:28 PM

"Congressman Siljander is affiliated academically with the Edinburgh Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies."
-- from the article above

The sometime Director of the Edinburgh Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies (sound familiar? sound espositoesque? like to guess as to where major funding for it comes from?) is none other than Carole Hillenbrand.

And who, you ask, is Professor Carole Hillenbrand? She became the first non-Muslim winner of the King Faisal Prize for "services to Islam," in 2005, for her book that tells the story of the Crusades "from the Muslim point of view."

And Edinburgh is where that Anglican clergyman and apologist for Islam Montgomery Watt (see Ibn Warraq's comments on Watt, on his view that Islam was better than the possiblity of loss of faith, and so he was there, he saw as part of his mission, the Defense of Islam - and he has been followed in his apologetics for Islam by later Anglican clergymen, even higher up the line, such as the current resident of Lambeth Palace).

Small world, isn't it?

Posted by: Hugh at January 16, 2008 4:31 PM

The traitor was writing a book.

Former Michigan congressman Mark Siljander will recount his spiritual journey in which he “discovered commonalities between Islam and Christianity” in Reconcilable Differences: The True Story of the Quest to Bridge the Divide Between Islam and Christianity, slated for a summer 2008 publication by HarperSanFrancisco. Siljander also served as US ambassador to the United Nations.

A convert practicing Dawa?

Posted by: kevin at January 16, 2008 4:41 PM

kevin, thanks for the 411 on this parasite. He shouldn't be allowed to make a penny off his book. That would make blood squirt from my eyes. And they're glass.

Posted by: tsarbomba29 at January 16, 2008 4:48 PM

I commented at Debbie Schlussel's site that perhaps we have someone here who became a closet Muslim.

Posted by: Shy Guy at January 16, 2008 5:00 PM

I didn't see dumbledore's comment. Same book, new title, I presume.

Posted by: kevin at January 16, 2008 5:20 PM

Follow the money.

Posted by: MP at January 16, 2008 5:20 PM

I have to say that I have great respect for Debbie Schlussel and feel for her in her horror at the level of betrayal.

This is a lesson for all of us that anyone is capable of being subverted by the enormous sums of money that has been handed to the most evil and despotic group of people to ever become powerful on this planet.
The fact that we even have a few people in Washington that have not been taken in by the siren song of this is frankly a surprise.

What is truly frightening is while we were going on with our lives they have been working against us for what is starting to look like thirty years.

I also have doubts at times about the capability of our Justice Department.

However, at this time because of several cases they have brought forth lately, have to say they deserve our respect and commendation for the ability to learn from past mistakes.
Apparently there are 'cops on the beat' who are still trying to bring charges that will stick.

The wording of the indictments that we have been seeing lately understand that it is hard to convict anyone for Terror, 'but ya can get um for something else' and jail is jail after all.
Not to mention the lose of prestige and power and just plain pain in the a## hassle that comes from an indictment.

So I just want to give a great big JihadWatch Poster
ATTABOY!!!!

I am one US citizen who is glad you guys and gals are doing your job so well.

Thank you

Posted by: Aunt Bea at January 16, 2008 6:34 PM

to kevin and shy guy

I think we all now understand Spain during and post-reconquista a little better, don't we?

How do you tell Ents from 'things that look like Ents but ain't', as Treebeard puts it in Lord of the Rings?

What happened to the Jews in Spain was tragic - though, given the capacity of Islam for deluding and confusing, some of the Jews in Spain had been suckered into shilling for the Muslims precisely as was our supposedly devout evangelical Mr Siljander.

In effect, Spain in their desperation threw the baby (the Jewish community) out with the bathwater (the Moors); the paranoia of the Inquisition becomes totally comprehensible given the bottomless depths of taqiyya-deception that we are discovering is possible for crypto-Muslims (who may pose as Jews, as Christians, as god knows what else)..the deepcover moles and double/ triple agents of the Cold War have got NOTHING on these guys.

by the way, shy guy - I grieve for what happened to the Jews of Spain - stuck between frying pan and fire, rock and a hard place. Attacked by the frantic Christians, they were probably also badly damaged and demoralised, just like the Christians, by the deepcover crypto-muslims within their own ranks. (Personally, as a Christian, I think the Spaniards shouldn't have worried about the crypto-Jews, the marranos, who weren't into world conquest. But they were driven crazy by the very real and present danger presented by the crypto-Muslims).

Frankly, the history of Muslim infiltration of other faith communities, and of whole societies, using deceivers - it's all there already, in the Hadith - makes the Chinese and the Russians look like amateurs.

shy guy - perhaps you need to look very very carefully at every member of the Knesset. And at every person in the IDF, Mossad, Shin Bet, and the Police Force. And at every academic. And even at your rabbis. Don't look at the obvious suspects - the peaceniks, etc. Look - isn't this awful? - for those who are the Jewish equivalents of Mr Siljander.

Posted by: dumbledoresarmy at January 16, 2008 7:03 PM

Debbie Schlussel is "shocked".

I'm shocked that Schlussel is shocked. I don't care if Siljander used to be "pro-Israel" and an "Evangelical Christian" (as she reports). I don't care if he was a nice guy who mentored her when she was a young up-and-coming whatever.

Bottom line: He was Middle Eastern.

If we don't wake up fast and put ALL people with Middle Eastern Islamic-sounding names and faces under maximum suspicion proactively, I guess we will be "shocked" when a major attack or several major attacks killing hundreds of thousands if not millions of us happens -- and we can console the surviving families and ourselves with our continuing, assinine "shock" scrambling and flailing around ever after the fact.

Posted by: cantor at January 16, 2008 7:48 PM

who would have thought that a US congressman would sell themselves........

at least, he didn't keep the money in his freezer......

Posted by: ??? at January 16, 2008 8:33 PM

I don't know if this is much different than the millions of dollars Arabs pump into U.S. universities. The Universities soak up millions of dollars, and, in return, they tow the "Islam is a peaceful religion" line.

No telling who else has been bought and payed for.

Posted by: rational at January 16, 2008 8:39 PM

cantor:

Bottom line: He was Middle Eastern.

No, he isn't.

Siljander is a Scandinavian-sounding name. I expect he is Norwegian or Swedish. Nothing Middle Eastern or Islamic about it.

This is not a racial problem. This is an ideological problem.

But if you're going to regard with extra suspicion all the people of Middle Eastern descent, don't leave me out.

Cordially
Robert Spencer

Posted by: jihadwatch at January 16, 2008 9:21 PM

"Time for Infidel intelligence agencies and police to look very closely into the backgrounds, finances and affiliations of *everybody* working in such 'Centres of Islamic Study' and 'Centres for Muslim-Christian Studies', all over the Infidel world."

Posted by: dumbledoresarmy at January 16, 2008 3:38 PM

Best "advice" of the day, imho.

Posted by: awake at January 16, 2008 9:51 PM

Atlas Shrugs has a post up with video that'll turn every stomach . . .

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/01/breakingformer.html

Here is video of terror aiding Mark Siljander addressing students as to the importance of getting a core of young people together "cross pollinating" with Muslims and the importance of the fatwa for the United States & the rest of the world. This is unbelievable.

Posted by: heroyalwhyness at January 16, 2008 10:32 PM

Siljander was a ex poster boy for Jerry Falwell and now he is a Dhimmi.

Posted by: Teejay at January 16, 2008 11:25 PM

Something that may be sheer coincidence.

The person whose 'friendship' seems to have drawn Siljander down the primrose path is described as 'Nassim MATAR', "a Lebanese-born, Washington, D.C.-based real estate broker".

The Jihad chief who benefited from all that lovely money - all that zakat - is named Gulbuddin HekMATYAR.

I may be reading too much into this, but - what if Mr 'Matar' wasn't in fact 'Lebanese-born'? What if he wasn't what he seemed, at all, at all, he with his Muslim wife (and what are HER family ties, I wonder? - who are her uncles, her brothers, her cousins? - how could Mr 'Nassim Matar' get away with marrying a Muslim woman, without having to convert?, and without having a ton of trouble from her relations?).

Posted by: dumbledoresarmy at January 16, 2008 11:30 PM

I hope my posting above isn't too murky.

What I'm getting at, is that the family names of two key figures in this case appear curiously similar. Of course, they're different people - but what if they were related in some way? As I said, it's a long shot, and the simplest explanation - pure coincidence - is probably the right one.

Nevertheless I hope the people investigating this case are going through 'Nassim Matar''s entire life history - and that of his wife - and their family and business connections - like a bucket of salts.

Posted by: dumbledoresarmy at January 16, 2008 11:35 PM

He sold out--and for a relatively paltry sum.

Moments like this make me glad that I honestly believe in God.

The struggle continues . . .

Posted by: JSobieski at January 17, 2008 12:09 AM

Posted by: jihadwatch

Siljander is a Scandinavian-sounding name. I expect he is Norwegian or Swedish. Nothing Middle Eastern or Islamic about it.

Silander is Scandinavian, but Siljander very doubtful.

For former Congressman there is NO Santa Claus

But

http://illustratedpig.blogspot.com/2008/01/would-you-trust-this-skurk.html

Posted by: shiva at January 17, 2008 2:33 AM

heroyalwhyness,

thanks for the Atlas link. All jihadwatchers should view this video. It is sheer criminal lunacy. And you were dead-on about it turning my stomach. I suggest that everyone take pepto before watching it.

I find it impossible to believe that the “Holy Spirit” would guide someone to betray their faith, their country, and their civilization.

Posted by: patagonianplato at January 17, 2008 8:12 AM

cantor:

Bottom line: He was Middle Eastern.

"No, he isn't.Siljander is a Scandinavian-sounding name. I expect he is Norwegian or Swedish. Nothing Middle Eastern or Islamic about it."

Yes I see subsequently that the name is probably Finnish (lots of Finnish sites with the name "siljander" in them). Consider the brunt of my comment to be collateral damage, legitimate in my view.

"This is not a racial problem. This is an ideological problem."

Names aren't racial either. Nevertheless, this problem has an undeniable racial dimension, most Muslims are non-white, most whites are non-Muslim. Also, we live in an era where if you criticize merely "cultural" features of 3rd world peoples, you are branded a "racist". So far, the vast majority of Muslim jihadists/terrorists have been non-white. Therefore, our #1 concern now, to prevent a terrorist attack by Muslims using some form of WMD, which could be much more horrific than anything to date, in a location and at a time we probably cannot predict, will have to include what only Mike Savage it seems has the balls to scream from the rooftops as it were, "We need racial profiling!"

"But if you're going to regard with extra suspicion all the people of Middle Eastern descent, don't leave me out."

Speaking of Mike Savage, he is the first to say he himself, looking Middle Eastern, would likely be terribly inconvenienced by the same measures he is calling for. All measures of self-protection are imperfect, and the bigger and more complex the threat and the societies needing protection, the more the imperfections. Among them will have to be collateral damage. I can't see the logic of an "affirmative-action" and "color-blind" screening process against attacks, when the vast majority of those who might attack are non-whites. The day that 50% of Muslim terrorists/jihadists are white, that will be the day to institute a profiling system that is 50/50 (or if 40%, 40/60, etc.). Until that day, we would be irrational and unconscionably reckless to insist on color-blinders and completely exclude out of hand race while protecting ourselves.

Posted by: cantor at January 17, 2008 12:55 PM

Is this the money weapon at work? The result of successful influence peddling by entities that have lots of money to spread around for those suitably positioned to help their cause? One wonders. Surely this is an issue that is worthy of being discussed by the presidential candidates. How do we get the issue of national security starting in the loyalties of our elected representatives on to the agenda? How do we put these concerns in their face so that they can't be ignored?

In any case, this affair should retire once and for all the fantasy that national security is simply a Democrat vs Republican thing. It's not. As always, it's a loyalty thing. It's also a "Follow the money thing." It's a "Who benefits?" thing. It's a "Which-way-do-the-rats-scamper-when-the-lights-go-on" thing. It's a holding public servant to account thing. And that means the electorate must aggressively hold their representatives to account. Write to your elected representatives. Demand that they interrupt their presidential campaign long enough to pay attention to their present responsibilities and to keep order in their own house -upper and lower.

Sometimes it's perfectly sane to be paranoid. Maybe that time is now.

Posted by: Chatillon at January 17, 2008 3:45 PM