What is it about influential conservatives and radical Islam? They hate it of course, except when they don’t. Granted that George Herbert Walker’s kid “Bandar” Bush has no problem kissing up to the most repressive, religiously totalitarian leaders in the Muslim world, but he’s just looking after the family business. Others like Grover Norquist have the kind of longstanding, deeply personal stake in radical Islam that would provoke Goldbergian books of drooling outrage if done by a prominent leftist with similarly pervasive influence in ideology and in the government. Rudy Giuliani, mister git-the-islamofascist-Muslims himself, doesn’t mind lobbying for a Yemeni shiekh who helped slip 9/11 suspects out of the country.
Then you have the Sibel Edmonds allegations. Color me skeptical, but if true, yikes.
Edmonds described how foreign intelligence agents had enlisted the support of US officials to acquire a network of moles in sensitive military and nuclear institutions.
Among the hours of covert tape recordings, she says she heard evidence that one well-known senior official in the US State Department was being paid by Turkish agents in Washington who were selling the information on to black market buyers, including Pakistan.
[…] She claims that the FBI was also gathering evidence against senior Pentagon officials – including household names – who were aiding foreign agents.
Come on. It defies belief that Republicans, who hate terrorism and Islamic weapons proliferation more than anything, would sell out their principles for a little dough. Other than the president I mean, but like I said that’s family business.
I mean, seriously.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former congressman and delegate to the United Nations was indicted Wednesday as part of a terrorist fundraising ring that allegedly sent more than $130,000 to an al-Qaida and Taliban supporter who has threatened U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan.
The former Republican congressman from Michigan, Mark Deli Siljander, was charged with money laundering, conspiracy and obstructing justice for allegedly lying about lobbying senators on behalf of an Islamic charity that authorities said was secretly sending funds to terrorists.
To be fair Siljander’s Congressional term dates back to when channeling illicit resources to angry jihadis was a core Republican value. Maybe he didn’t get the memo.
***Update***
No rightwing humiliation is complete without a proper dose of Malkinfreude.
When the AP first noted that a “former congressman” was “indicted as part of a terrorist fundraising ring,” Michelle Malkin wrote, “Any bets on which political party and which state the former congressman belongs to?”
Of course, as it turns out, Siljander was a Republican. (Malkin responded, “Oops.”)
Hahaha. Morons.
***Update 2***
Commenters have correctly pointed out that the Malkin bit wasn’t quite as comical as the Benen link let on. The full quote:
And bets on which political party and which state the former congressman belongs to? Keep in mind–both parties have flirted with jihadis.
Now I’m curious to know which Democrats have flirted with jihadis. Bonus points will be awarded for actual Democrats (e.g., not loopy fringe Chomskyites like Ward Churchill), Democrats who matter, and a gold star if he or she had a credible way of knowing about the shady connections in question.
John S.
I wonder how the shrieking harpies in Right Blogistan would have reacted if this story were about a Democrat. But then again, FOX will probably label him as thus anyway.
Jake
Hey, he was born in Chicago. Obama is the senator for Illinois. OMG! Obama turned him into an islamofascist!
Bwahahaaaa~
Jay
What business is the Bush family currently in that is connected to the Saudis?
Tim F.
You’re aware of Bush family connections with BCCI, I assume. That adds to the other business dealings that are too obvious to mention.
Caidence (fmr. Chris)
Gee, this is certain to get Bush’s approval rating down below 27%…
and if it doesn’t, that 27% has to re-apply for citizenship. Their failure to be attentive to American interests must have been a result of misplaced applications that were to be denied application. I demand they be re-evaluated.
we’re so screwed. so so screwed.
peach flavored shampoo
I launder money every two weeks. Damn jeans pockets.
Jen
Ugh, Grover Norquist. Least aptonymic use of a Sesame Street name, EVAH, until someone finds a vegan CookieMonster Smith.
RandyH
Who says it’s not a core Republican value? Seems to me that if their strategy for retaining power is to keep Americans scared of some bogeyman which only they can protect us from, they might have to fund that bogeyman to keep him in business and loyal to the republican side. Remember the free campaign commercial bin Laden did for Bush in 2004?
Zifnab
Aren’t we still selling old F-14 parts on the open market? An open market that is the primary market for Iran to purchase parts for their F-14s from? Didn’t we just cut Saudi Arabia in on a $123 million weapons deal? Hell, Reagan was selling Iran weapons straight back to the 1980s. You remember Iran in the 1980s, right? The funny little turbine clad people shouting “Death to America” while burning our flag and holding our embassy soldiers hostage?
So the only thing I have to ask is…
when did this become illegal?
Anne Laurie
You know, Tim, I’m almost starting to believe that the modern Republicans have only one principle, and that happens to be “Profit uber Alles”.
But then, I’m sure Rep. Siljander would be all in favor of building more nuclear facilities in America, John… if only for the, um, resale potential.
Scotty
Could they have also considered charging him with treason?
Jake
The fact she opted for snark rather than a 48 pt headline: OMG! DEMONCRATS R TERRISTS?!?! tells you all you need to know.
Jen
Malkin commenterfraude:
I’m just going to shameless crib from cleek. It’s like they’re fucked retarded. And as a sweet lil’ knitting mama type, those are not words I say too often. But. Damn.
Jay
You didn’t answer my question Tim. You said:
I asked:
You tell me that:
BCCI has been out of business for years. So I’ll ask again what business does the Bush family currently have that is connected to the Saudis?
Jen
Oh man, the crazy train just keeps going…
The combined IQ of the entire panel of approved commenters over there is not even up to John Cole +3.
VidaLoca
Zif,
You probably mean turban-clad here — although done your way it does create an interesting image :)
Jen
Fucking retarded. I can’t even curse properly, I’m so rusty.
Jay
No the US isn’t. The only other country to use the F-14 is Iran.
Bubblegum Tate
Read House of Bush, House of Saud for a full rundown.
Bubblegum Tate
Actually, they finally figured out that maybe we shouldn’t do that not quite a year ago.
Incertus (Brian)
The fact that Malkin busted her self on such a silly matter is a whole pile of awesome. That just made my whole day.
empty
To be fair to the guy, the IARA is accused of sending the money to Gulbuddin Hekmetyar who was our BFF during our glorious struggle to provide a faith based alternative to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. A truly nasty character, he was our highest aid recipient during that period. He was having some supply problems when
Tom HanksCharlie Wilson came to his aid. This is in Crile’s book. I don’t know if it made it to the movie. Small world!TrishB
I think the innards of a GE90 might be a little to heavy to make a stylish chapeau.
Jen
?
bbbbut I thought we were going to save this information, which will soon be on Page One of the NYT, as an October surprise!
Dennis - SGMM
As a result of some recent embarrassments, the order was given to cut up and crush all remaining F-14’s save one that will be displayed in a museum. The spare parts have been embargoed and scheduled for destruction although how many of them are out in the wild is unknown. It’s a non-issue though as the Russians are more than glad to sell first-line aircraft to just about anyone with the money to pay for them.
Jake
Hordes of beanie propeller hat wearers does not exactly strike fear into the heart of … anyone.
Tim (the other one)
“Gulbuddin Hekmetyar”: OK folks, say that 5 times fast !!!!
Dennis - SGMM
ZOMG! Hordes of Islamofacists wearing improved gas turbans! Save us, Rudy, save us!
Tsulagi
The only thing a valiant patriot warrior can do faster than slapping on a Purple Heart bandaid is claim they’re a victim.
HyperIon
Prince Bandar bin Sultan is “Bandar” Bush.
see, he’s such a good friend that he’s an honorary family member. you seem to imply that Bandar is GW. why?
Zifnab
Spelling has not been my friend today.
Jen
I know…it hasn’t even shown up on the NYT yet… the WaPo and Yahoo aren’t mentioning that he’s Republican in the headline…clearly it’s all part of the October surprise.
gypsy howell
Was?
Hahahahahaha.
Only profoundly unserious people think that Republicans are in fact supporting and funneling arms and money to the very people they’re trying to make us fear.
Tim F.
Jay, did you start asking dumb questions before or after you stopped beating your wife? A President can’t have any business other than being president. We pay his salary. Outside dealings are illegal. As that book referenced above points out nicely sucking the Saudi tit has been a Bush tradition for generations and it will be again. Pretending otherwise through clever wording just makes you look like a pedant.
But even in the context of your illogical question you still don’t have a point. In government just like in his private life, junior’s job basically consists of kissing Saudi ass in exchange for an oil supply. The entirety of our mideast policy that doesn’t revolve around Israel focuses on that.
Tsulagi
Daily Show doesn’t need writers with these morons around.
That is funny. They know their “family values” image is a bit tarnished. That GOP is pretty much synonymous today for Gay Old Perverts. But they still want to desperately cling to the illusion they’re the party for national security. Once again, reality bites them in the ass.
Tim F.
Bandar bin Sultan is Bandar “Bush.” I decided to label junior “Bandar” Bush for the fun of it.
HyperIon
oh, that makes perfect nonsense.
keep up the lame work.
Matt
I loathe Malkin as much as anyone, but the full quote is:
That’s not quite so damning.
Peter Johnston
There’s a huge, constantly-updated listing of news links on this developing Sibel Edmonds ‘nuclear treason’ story over at http://www.mimico-by-the-lake.com/EDMONDS.HTM
Matt
Also I think the “oops” is in reference to the dude’s forthcoming book presumably being scuttled by this news.
Paul Verbesey
As much as I detest Michelle Malkin, you completely misrepresent her statement. In fact she specificly notes that Republican lobbyists are also in bed with jihadists, and the “oops” you reference clearly relates to the timing of his soon to be published book, and is not an embarrassed apology as you imply. Why do you feel the need to be a jerk like her?
Jonah Pantload
You Libtards are all going to love my next book “Librul Islamofascism”.
It’s going to be all about how those Muslim religious fanatics who hunt and kill gays, kill women for not wearing the right clothes and want to merge Church and State into a giant caliphate are really all a bunch of pansy, brie eating Libruls.
DR
BTW, The U.S. is still financing Muslim extremists: where do you think the vast amount of cash given to Pakistan, whose intelligence services have been supporting Al Qaeda since its inception, is going?
So based on this, the entire U.S. government should be tried for treason and terrorism.
Actually, that’s not such a bad idea :-)
Pb
Did anyone get a timestamp on that “full quote”? And, as Tim says, which Democrats have flirted with jihadis. Of course, Sibel Edmonds had some Democrats in her list, so we’ll see about those… maybe… one day…
Jay
Tim the answer to my question that you would not answer is that the Bush family doesn’t have any current business with the Saudis. You so saying:
is lame.
Do you have ESP or some inside information of future Bush family business plan?
If your cheap shot had any substance you would be showing how GWBs policy towards the Saudis has been different from the prior administration.
GWB in the last eight years can be attacked on a lot of things. It is amazing that some people need to come up with such lame crap.
MJ
President Clinton’s library was funded by gifts of millions from the Saudi royal family and Saudi businessmen.
The Bush family isn’t the only ones that milk off the Saundi tit Tim.
Pb
Ahem.
etc., etc. See also, the Carlyle Group, and some of the work that Booz Allen Hamilton have done in the past… actually, there might be a bit of a merger in the works there, too.
Jen
The Democrats ARE jihadis, haven’t you read Liberal Fascism? Actually, maybe that’s the sequel, Liberal Jihadi. I guess fascists aren’t exactly like jihadis. Indeed, that is central to my point. (You haven’t wasted nearly enough time at S, N if this is over your head.)
Even if Malkin’s quotes are funnier in their misinterpretation, I stand by the humor of the comment thread. The only comment on the “we sure are going to need our second amendment rights when we have to take back the government because it’s all jihadi” was an “amen, brother”. Not a single, “we’re going to need our guns when Bush refuses to put his crap in the U-Haul on 1/19/09”, a far more plausible scenario if you ask me….
JWW
I do think, if you look just a few years back! Bill Clinton did exactly the same thing and your homework would show, some of them were invited to the Washington.
Jen
What *is* your native language, JWW? You should probably stop translating it into Farsi and then into English on babelfish.com.
Herb
Jay, Jay, Jay, Jay….As CEO of the United States government, Bush just signed a pretty big arms deal with the Saudis. That’s not business?
Oh right…any generic president is going to say, “Hey, you know what the American people need? They need to sell some guns to Saudi Arabia….” Yeah right.
JWW
Tim,
We have and will continue to “Sleep with the Enemy”. You nor any other will ever make the seperation. Politics are what they are!
What you find is right, was at the cost of somebody’s blood you have never met, and most likey will never hear of!
Hypatia
It sure didn’t.
Jimmm
He’s obviously not a REAL Republican. Y’see, when a Republican does something bad, it’s apostasy and a betrayal of St. Ronnie. Giving aid and comfort to Ay-rab terraists? That there is a core Democrat value. But when a Republican does it, then everybody knows that that person ceases being a REAL Republican.
/hinderaker
Jimmm
I know Malkin is an incredibly petty child-stalking liar. But for some reason I feel the need to be fair here: John misquotes Malkin (maybe it was Mike Medved): It’s quite possible she amended her posting afterward, but all I see on her garbage dump of a site are carefully constructed weasel words:
And her “oops” moment:
I despise Malkin like few others in the wingnutosphere. But she steps in it often enough that we don’t have to gin up gaffes for her.
Bubblegum Tate
I just love this phrase–and the fact that Jonah busted it out with a straight face.
Jake
Psst! It’s Tim F. Or were you trying to blame John for something he didn’t do?!
In all seriousness, I suspect Tim F. is coming down with just a touch of Malkinitis. He checked out the stoopid too many times and the stoopid done clung to him. I recommend he watch Jon Stewart wax Jonah G’s ass tonight. That ought to clean out his system.
GSD
The cornerstone of the Bush/Petreaus ‘surge’ is the Terrorist Welfare Program wherein the US gives weapons, ammunition and a $300.00(US supplied) stipend to over 60,000 of Saddams old henchmen, Baathists and dead-enders.
I am sure they’ll put the funds to good use once we stop paying them off.
Besides, I am sure they are pious religious folks, just like the old Afghani mujahadeen were.
Mr. Siljander aint got nothing on the Feds.
-GSD
cleek
JWW’s right: pie is really fucking delicious. i think i’ll go have some, right now!
Jay
The Bush family isn’t profiting from it.
Clinton sold to them, so did Bush Sr, Reagan, Carter and Ford. So any generic president is going to sell arms to the Saudis. This isn’t anything new and if a Dem wins in November it will continue.
Bob In Pacifica
If you go to Edmonds site, she’s not allowed to actually write or talk about what she knows, but she’s put up pictures of people she claims are involved. I noted that my very own Representative, Tom Lantos, is there. About a week ago, right after his picture was posted, he announced he was retiring for health reasons.
There’s a proposal here on the Cali Coast to name the new under construction at Devil’s Slide after him.
++++
There’s a book, PRELUDE TO TERROR by Joseph Trento, which goes into what was dubbed the Safari Club, the group of nations and their intelligence agencies, along with off-the-book CIA operations (think Edwin Wilson at the start) that began all this.
Good place to start looking.
Li
Speaking of buisness, I think we should all take a look at Siljander’s web site. It is very illuminating. Let’s look at the list of services they offer:
http://www.gsi.cc/services.html
■ International marketing and financing of advanced hydrogen fuel cells
(Bush’s favorite non-starter energy flim flam)
■ Development for foreign trade and business requiring visits with heads of state
(Duh)
■ Project strategies for rebuilding post war Iraq and Algeria after the earthquake of 2003
(Speaks for itself)
■ Funding of start-ups, expanding entities, emerging technologies and trade programs
(Money for terror cells)
■ Servicing one of the largest insurance companies in Asia
(We love you long time!)
■ Marketing of US Government Employees Association
(Marketing for an employees association?)
■ Promotion and marketing of Boeing Aircraft in Southern Asia
(I seem to recall there being all of these boing gyro chips hitting the black market in Asia lately, all the rage for cruise missiles. I wonder)
■ Expanding client base for a fund management firm
(Sub-Prime)
■ Identify and negotiate crude oil projects
(!!!)
■ Negotiating settlement of foreign government debt for corporations & individuals
(International aid bullshit)
■ Marketing large scale services such as maintenance and cleaning to private and government sectors
(So they’re the cleaners too?!)
■ Coordinating international merger and acquisitions for over 25 clients
■ Establishing world-class board of advisors and directors for numerous companies
■ Expanding land development projects in South Korea
(Isn’t there a huge land development scandal in S. Korea right now?)
■ Developing a national sales team marketing telecom services
(Telecom companies. . .I mean, they wear horns around the office now, right?)
I would like to know who actually arrested this man; if it was FBI I wonder if it’s from one of those field offices that ‘forgot’ to pay their citizen tap bills. That action struck me as an act of defiance (or insolvency) and this might be a strike right at the very heart of evil.
Viva America!
JoyceH
Something this brings to mind for me – the right loves to indulge in wild hyperbole and accuse the left of ‘treason’ and ‘abetting the terrorists’ whenever they so much as voice an opinion that differs from the right, and particularly when they criticize Bush.
But when you look at REAL instances of treason and abetting terrorism, the Americans involved generally tend to be thoroughly conservative. Look at John Walker and Robert Hanssen and research their political leanings. Being dyed-in-the-wool conservatives didn’t seem to stop them from selling us out to the Soviets.
JR
Does Charlie Wilson not count for some reason?
craigie
Fixed.
PC
Here’s a very quick workup of one aspect of the Bush family and the Sauds:
“Arbusto Energy was formed by GWB in ’77 with backing from James R. Bath and Salem bin Ladin (brother of Osama bin Laden). In 1988 Salem bin Laden died and his business interests with Arbusto (-> Spectrum 7 -> Harken) were passed to Khalid bin Mahfouz. Khalid bin Mahfouz is an alleged funder of al Qaeda. In 1987 Ghaith R. Pharaon became the 3rd largest investor of Harken. Ghaith R. Pharaon was a known funder of al Qaeda and is the target of a dragnet due to his involvement in BCCI. James R. Bath was a former director of BCCI. James R. Bath founded Skyway Aircraft Leasing Ltd. Skyway Aircraft Leasing Ltd. provided Gulf Stream II jets to the Abu Dhabi National Oil Corporation. Abu Dhabi National Oil Corporation was controlled by Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, founder of the UAE and king of Abu Dhabi. In 1990 Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan covered the BCCI losses in exchange for a 78% shareholding of BCCI.”
This is the type of stuff that a few minutes on Wikipedia will tell you. Past performance is not necessarily predictive of future gains, but decades of ties between families might indicate a pattern.
I’d love to plug some of these datasets into the social network modeling software from DARPA.
Cernig
Jay, here’s the run-down on Bush family ties with the Saudis up to 2004. Is that close enough for you or should I look beyond the first page of Yahoo! search?
Tim F – If you want some real fun, go see what Debbie Schussel is saying about Siljander, she used to work as his intern. Then look up Siljander’s wikipedia bio. A Christian fundie who turned out to have signed on the dotted line for Mammon after all.
Regards, C
Pb
JR,
Yeah, I guess that would count; sure, he increased funding for an existing CIA operation, but he also later lobbied for Pakistan, and perhaps they were involved in that then as well.
Captain USA
AH HA HA HA HA HA!
Debbie Schlussel used to work for this guy!
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/2008/01/what_happened_t_2.html
Cain
Debbie seems to have quite a resume.
cain
maxbaer (not the original)
You have to fund the terrorists so that they can continue to terrorize us so that Republicans can continue to run on a platform of the terrorists are out to kill Americans. Basic triangle trade.
MJ
Do the Clintons not count for some reason? They are actual Democrats that still matter aren’t they?
MJ
Do the Clintons not count for some reason? They are actual Democrats that still matter aren’t they?