Shooting ourselves in the foot

Former GOP congressman indicted on terrorism charges, posted Jan. 16 on "AMERICAblog," talks about the indictment of former congressman, Mark Deli Siljander, for fundraising for Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a supporter of both Al Qaeda and the Taliban. The blog is covering a story from CNN about this incident. Allegedly, Siljander helped raise over $130,000 for the Islamic American Relief Agency. This is a fundraiser in the US that has been long expected of supporting Islamic terrorists. In the indictment, the US government claims that a member working for this fundraiser was a fundraiser for Osama bin Laden at one point; this case being brought forth is part of a long investigation against the fundraiser that started back in 2004. The specific charges against Siljander are for money laundering, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice. This is because he accepted money, about $50,000, from that fundraiser that he knew had been stolen from the U.S. Agency for International Development, he lobbied for other senators to support the charity despite although authorities had warned that it was supporting terrorists, and for lying to government prosecutors when questioned for this case. I would think it would be clear what I think of this man, and what any up-right American should think of him, but my only question now is how could anyone, in all faithfulness, do this and still be able to live with himself? Yet, this story is only starting to come out and there are still a lot of unknowns that need to be answered before I can understand what this former congressman's motives were. But one thing is for sure, with important people who have lots of influence in our country doing things such as this, I can better understand how terrorist groups can still find ways to get money and function. My only hope is that this is a totally isolated matter and I definitely plan to follow this story to see the outcome and what happens to the former senator and the Islamic American Relief Agency.