Ex-Congressman Gets A Year For Lobbying On Behalf Of Terrorist-Funding Charity

Mark Deli Siljander, former congressman and deputy US ambassador to the United Nations, was sentenced last Wednesday to 366 days in federal prison for his role as an unregistered foreign agent for an Islamic charity found to have connections to al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

“A Missouri charity [Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA)] secretly funneled more than a million dollars to Iraq in violation of United States economic sanctions,”  an Attorney from the office of the Western District of Missouri said in a news release. “IARA then hired a former congressman to lobby the government on its behalf after it was listed as a specially designated global terrorist organization.”