“Republicans? Terrorists? Same Difference.” Bush Donor Bankrolls Al-Qaeda And Republicans

Emptywheel at Firedoglake on the Republican nexus of money and corruption:

It really is getting to the point where we ought to start going down the list of Pioneers and Rangers and asking how each has advanced the criminal plots of the GOP, because it’s sure beginning to look like the Pioneers and Rangers program is just a brilliant front for old-style Dirty Tricks.

It’s even worse than that:

WASHINGTON: A man charged with trying to help terrorists in Afghanistan has donated some $15,000 (€11,410) to the campaign committee of Republicans in the House of Representatives, and a resume in his name indicates various other links to the party.

Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari pleaded not guilty Friday in U.S. District Court in New York City to charges that include terror financing, material support of terrorism and money laundering.

From April 2002 until August 2004, the man, also known as “Michael Mixon,” gave donations ranging from $500 (€380) to $5,000 (€3,805) to the National Republican Congressional Committee, according to Federal Election Commission reports and two campaign donor tracking Web sites, http://www.politicalmoneyline.com and http://www.opensecrets.org.

A resume listed in his name and posted on an MSN group Web site on Jan. 8, 2007, identifies him as being an “industrialist and philanthropist” and references previous connections to the Republican Party.

The Republicans are the party of President George W. Bush and until last month was the majority party in the House and Senate.

The resume says that in 2003 Alishtari was named a National Republican Senatorial Committee “Inner Circle Member for Life” and was appointed to the NRCC’s “White House Business Advisory Committee.” The resume also says Alishtari was named the NRCC’s New York state businessman of the year in 2002 and 2003.
In 1980, the resume says Alishtari left the Democratic Party to become “a Conservative and later Reagan Republican.”

The NRCC did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment Tuesday about Alishtari’s apparent connections to the party.

Alishtari, 53, is from Ardsley, a community in affluent Westchester County, New York, according to the federal indictment charging him.

The 2007 resume identifies him as the founder of IDPixie LLC, which is described as an “ID theft protection agency.”

On campaign finance forms from earlier, Alishtari identified his occupation as either the owner, president or chief executive of a business called Global Protector Inc. or GlobalProtector.Net Inc.

In an indictment last week, the government said Alishtari accepted an unspecified amount of money to transfer $152,000 (€115,635) to Pakistan and Afghanistan to support a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan. He also stands accused of causing the transfer about $25,000 (€19,020) from a bank account in New York to an account in Montreal, Canada. The government alleges the money was to be used to provide material support to terrorists.

Also, the indictment says, Alishtari schemed to defraud investors by obtaining millions of dollars in a loan investment scheme that he called the “Flat Electronic Data Interchange,” which promised high guaranteed rates of return.

The charges carry a potential penalty of 95 years in prison.

Alishtari was detained pending a court appearance this week. Prosecutors said he was a danger to the community and a flight risk.