A Terrible Crime

But the criminals aren't the ones doing the time.

A well-known Columbia [Missouri] businessman and cultural leader was sentenced yesterday to three years in federal prison for illegally siphoning more than $200,000 to family, friends and charities in Iraq during sanctions between 1991 and 2003.

[...]

“I made a mistake, and I am deeply sorry,” [Shakir] Hamoodi told Laughrey before he was sentenced yesterday. “All money sent was used by friends and family.”

Hamoodi, an Iraqi-American former nuclear scientist with the University of Missouri and World Harvest store owner, could have faced up to 71 months in prison. Laughrey said Hamoodi’s efforts to diffuse cultural ignorance toward Muslims and educate local residents about the practice of Islam over the past 20 years weighed heavily in her decision. Hamoodi, through attorney J.R. Hobbs of Kansas City, had requested probation.

[...]

Federal agents in September 2006 searched the Woodberry Court home of Hamoodi, who has been an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq. Investigators found no proof that Hamoodi was aiding the Iraqi government through his financial contributions.

[...]

Hamoodi conspired to help other Columbia residents filter money into Iraq for their families, the court found, but he was the lone defendant.

[...]

Since his home was searched, Hamoodi said, other students have called his children terrorists, his neighbors keep a distance from him and his business has suffered. More than 20 supporters gathered after the sentencing to express their support for the Hamoodi family as their children continue their education and expenses pile up during his absence.

  Columbia Tribune

The man has been an upstanding contributing community member for 20 years. When I was living in Columbia, I met him a few times at his wonderful imported foods store and at a protest march when George Bush declared war on Iraq. He told us at that time about his family in Iraq and his fears for their future under the threat of bombs. He is a lovely person. How many tens of thousands of American citizens from other countries are sending money to families in their home countries? Let them pray that their country doesn't get itself on our enemies list.

(h/t Jean)

And then there's this:

A former Michigan congressman and U.S. delegate to the United Nations was sentenced yesterday to a year and one day in prison for lobbying for a Columbia Islamic charity that had been identified as funneling money to a global terrorist.

Mark Deli Siljander, 60, a Republican who served in Congress from 1981-1987, pleaded guilty in July 2010 to obstructing justice and acting as an unregistered foreign agent in connection with his work for the Islamic American Relief Agency, based in Columbia.

In his plea agreement, Siljander acknowledged that he lobbied between March and May 2004 on behalf of the IARA for the organization to be removed from a U.S. Senate Finance Committee 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.

[...]

After a short recess, Laughrey said she had no choice but to sentence Siljander to time behind bars.

“I came in this morning with the thought that I would sentence you to a longer time in jail,” she said after announcing the sentence.

Although no real harm had been done by Siljander’s actions, she said, there was the potential for harm, and that’s why a prison sentence was necessary.

“For me, the real harm is that you kept lying to the government,” Laughrey said. However, she added, “This is not a case about somebody aiding a terrorist.”

  Columbia Tribune

He should have been lobbying for the MEK instead.