Right wing republican senator indicted

Mark Deli Siljander (R) was indicted Wedensday as part of a terrorist funding ring. The former UN Delegate appointed in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan, and former Senator for the state of Michigan is accused of aiding in the aiding and distributing of over $130,000 to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whom the United States has designated as a global terrorist. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is said to be affiliated with both Al Qaeda and the Taliban and has threatened U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan.

The Islamic American Relief Agency sent the money to Hekmatyar in 2003 and 2004. The money was masked as donations to an orphanage and placed in a bank account in Peshwar, Pakistan. The IARA paid $50,00 to former Senator Siljander for lobbying purposes, the payoff was stolen from U.S. Agency for International Development.

Siljander did not issue a statement, but his lawyer said he would plead not guilty.

He certainly doesn't have the résumé of an accused Al Qaeda aider. An archconservative Republican from Michigan, Siljander was elected in 1981 with the support of fundamentalist Christian groups and said he won because "God wanted me in."

He once objected when a participant at a prayer breakfast tried to read from the Koran, telling the host, "How can you read the book of the Devil at a prayer breakfast?"

During his time on the Hill, Siljander campaigned to have gay-themed books removed from public libraries (targeting books like The Lord is My Shepherd and He Knows I’m Gay), introduced a bill to condemn Louis Farrakhan’s “racism and anti-Semitism,” and campaigned for the sale of F-16s to Israel.