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Bozita

(26,955 posts) Wed Jan 11, 2012, 10:05 PM Jan 2012

Former Michigan congressman Mark Siljander (R) sentenced to year in federal prison

Former Michigan congressman Mark Siljander sentenced to year in federal prison
Published: Wednesday, January 11, 2012, 8:00 PM Updated: Wednesday, January 11, 2012, 8:36 PM
By The Associated Press

KANSAS CITY — Former Southwest Michigan congressman Mark Siljander, accused of accepting stolen funds on behalf of a Missouri charity with alleged terrorism ties, was sentenced Wednesday to a year in federal prison.

Four co-defendants of Siljander, who served in Congress from 1981 until 1987, also were sentenced in U.S. District Court in Kansas City. Sentences ranged from probation to nearly five years in prison for Mubarak Hamed, the former executive director of the Columbia-based Islamic American Relief Agency.

Prosecutors said Hamed conspired to hire Siljander to lobby for the charity's removal from a government list of charities suspected of funding international terrorism. The charity closed in October 2004 after being designated a global terrorist organization by the U.S. government.

-snip-

Siljander, sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison, pleaded guilty to obstruction and acting as an unregistered foreign agent. Prosecutors said Siljander received $75,000 from the charity to push for its removal from the list, and that $50,000 of it was part of unused grant money that was supposed to have been returned to the U.S. Agency for International Development after it terminated its grants for two relief projects in Mali, Africa, with the charity in 1999.

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http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2012/01/former_michigan_congressman_ma.html

6 replies

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Former Michigan congressman Mark Siljander (R) sentenced to year in federal prison (Original Post) Bozita Jan 2012 OP

no case of IOKIYAR, search his name on the other forum alp227 Jan 2012 #1

More proof that Western Michigan Republicans are basically a bunch of crooks MrScorpio Jan 2012 #2

So say we all. knitter4democracy Jan 2012 #5

Funny, the scroll on MSNBS (the Pre Joe show) didn't mention what party he was from underpants Jan 2012 #3

Didn't this guy have Republican David Stockman's old district? n/t Vogon_Glory Jan 2012 #4

Yup Bozita Jan 2012 #6

alp227

(32,026 posts)

1. no case of IOKIYAR, search his name on the other forum

Reply to Bozita (Original post)

Thu Jan 12, 2012, 12:43 AM

Jan 2012

not too much sympathy there.

MrScorpio

(73,631 posts)

2. More proof that Western Michigan Republicans are basically a bunch of crooks

Reply to Bozita (Original post)

Thu Jan 12, 2012, 12:48 AM

Jan 2012

We really need to get them out of Lansing too

knitter4democracy

(14,350 posts)

5. So say we all.

Reply to MrScorpio (Reply #2)

Thu Jan 12, 2012, 08:00 PM

Jan 2012

*sighs* So say we all.

underpants

(182,824 posts)

3. Funny, the scroll on MSNBS (the Pre Joe show) didn't mention what party he was from

Reply to Bozita (Original post)

Thu Jan 12, 2012, 07:05 AM

Jan 2012

I knew that that meant he was a Republican

Vogon_Glory

(9,118 posts)

4. Didn't this guy have Republican David Stockman's old district? n/t

Reply to Bozita (Original post)

Thu Jan 12, 2012, 03:09 PM

Jan 2012

Bozita

(26,955 posts)

6. Yup

Reply to Vogon_Glory (Reply #4)

Thu Jan 12, 2012, 09:45 PM

Jan 2012

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_D._Siljander

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]

Although the 4th (and its successor, the 6th) has traditionally been a bastion of moderate Republicanism, Siljander was an outspoken social conservative. 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]

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