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Jihad In America Alert: "Lebanese man gets 5-year sentence for helping Hezbollah," from AP, with thanks to Joe:
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A federal judge sentenced a Lebanese man to the maximum five years in prison for conspiring to help the group Hezbollah, turning aside his plea for mercy "if not for me, then for my kids."U.S. District Judge Harvey Schlesinger imposed the maximum sentence, plus five years' probation, Thursday for Fadl Mohammad Maatouk.
Maatouk, who came to the United States on a temporary visa in 1999, pleaded guilty in January to conspiring to help Hezbollah, which is on the U.S. State Department's list of terrorist organizations.
He admitted that in a 2003 telephone call with his brother, he agreed to lend a machine gun to a Hezbollah member, who planned to use it to protect one of the group's leaders in southern Lebanon. He also said he gave Hezbollah members camouflage fatigues while visiting Lebanon in 2003.
Maatouk was arrested in March 2005 on unrelated charges of selling drug paraphernalia and sending money made from criminal activity to Lebanon.
He told the judge Thursday that he had not meant to break any laws.
Of course not. That drug paraphernalia? For kids, to play water games! Those fatigues? More water-gun fun! That machine gun? Uh...
Posted by Robert at May 28, 2006 6:19 AM
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Hmmm, machine gun, selling drug paraphernalia and sending money made from criminal activity to Lebanon. And he only got 5 years? They should have locked him up and thrown away the key!
Posted by: Bohemond_1069![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 28, 2006 7:39 AM
WITHOUT nourishment or sustenance.
Posted by: arjun.sevak at May 28, 2006 8:14 AM
"Maatouk, who came to the United States on a temporary visa in 1999..."
-- from the article above
He arrived on a "temporary visa." For what? To study English? Go back, find out who granted him the visa, all along the way. Then fire those people, and make sure that anyone involved, however tangentially, in the admission of people later discovered to be aiding, in any way, the Jihad, will lose their jobs and may suffer worse. Change the damn INS mentality. Do not admit, for any reason, people whose background strongly suggests that they support the Jiahd -- whether against Israel, or against India, or against the Philippines, or anywhere. Period.
Probabilies are involved. Likelihoods. Statistics. Things like that. The tender solicitousness for this or that "individual" who attempts to enter this country, on some phony visa, especially if that individual is a self-described "Palestinian" (for the "Palestinian" Arabs are the shock troops of the Lesser Jihad), is mispolaced.
Unless there is a very good case to be made that a "Palestinian" is a Christian, and not an islamochristian, that "Palestinian" should not be admitted into the United States. Nor, for that matter, people from Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, or anywhere else in the Muslim countries, unless the one admitted is clearly a non-Muslim suffering persecution.
That's it. No divine right to being admitted to any country. Anywhere. By anyone. No need for risks to be taken more than have already been taken -- to the obvious grief of people in Western Europe and, to a lesser extent, North America.
The INS needs a thorough epuration.
Posted by: Hugh at May 28, 2006 8:49 AM
"He told the judge Thursday that he had not meant to break any laws"
In that statement lies the problem. To many muslims, the only law they recognize is the law of the Quran so from his point of view he was following Allah's will as given in the Quran and that isn't breaking any laws.
Posted by: czekmark` at May 28, 2006 12:44 PM
How much mercy does Hez-b-allah show to kids in Israel? Or our troops in the region?
The judge was far too lenient.
And, once again, during a time of war, trials like this one should be military tribunals, not civil court cases.
These are spy/saboteur/terrorist infil-traitors working against us, and our allies, in the War against Islamic Imperialism, and the captured and convicted need to be sentenced by soldiers, as warriors, and not mere criminals.
This economically near-fatal misunderstanding, by every level of the legal profession and law-makers, will waste billions of dollars in the years to come as they all pussyfoot with known terrorists.
Folly, thy name is Congress and the Courts.
Posted by: profitsbeard at May 28, 2006 1:04 PM
The sentence is rediculasly light. A jihadist is committed for life to kill infidels. Five years is just a bump in the road to Paradise for these guys.
However the judge gave him the MAX sentence, he did all he could do. The problem is our criminal justices system is not exquiped to combat Jihad. So we end up give foolish slaps on the wrist to life long jihadist. Jihadist who must be taken out of commission for a life time, not just set free after 5, 10 or 15 years. The will all wind up back in circulation conspiring to kill as many infidels as possible.
The jihadist count on us being too foolish to effectively combat them. Cases like this just reinforces , not deter, their assumptions and confidence of ultimate victory over western notions of civilization.
To make things even worst, we train our CIA onto the civilian population to spy on these guys to do.........nothing. We know of active terror supporters operating right now in these United States, plotting and conspiring with known terrorist organisations over seas ( as confirmed by our Commander In Cheif George W. Bush in defending this policy ) and we are mearly listing to them and monitoring them. As Bush boldly stated " If someone in America is calling Al Quida , I want to know about it! " Notice there are no round ups of such people.
What are we waiting for? For them to strike? As in 9/11? Yes we knew of those terrorist as well. The same process unfolds in Israel as well. After a dispicable terrorist bombing of a cafe, Israel kills a known bomb maker or commander of terrorist cells in retailiation. If they knew about these guys why not take them out anyway?!? Why wait for some innocent poeple to get killed before taking out a guy they have apparently known about for some time?
It is just foolish. The jihadist see this and "logically" conclude that their chossen opponets are fools by our after the fact one step behind the terrorist stike actions.
When we let this guy out, we going to wait till he contributes to a terrorist action before locking him up again? He knows the depths of our foolishness and is just waiting for another crack at the infidels. This is a microcosim of Camp Gitmo which is in it's self a microcosim of the larger War On Terror being waged not to win.
----Nossy
Posted by: Nostrodamus at May 28, 2006 3:56 PM
I hope after the 5 years are up, he is deported.
Posted by: eve_anne_gelical at May 28, 2006 10:58 PM
And what happens to his family? I presume they will not be allowed to stay here. He overstayed a "temporary visa." Well, so did they, and they should return to Dar al-Islam, among people just like themselves.
Posted by: Hugh at May 28, 2006 11:02 PM
Read the article again, friends:
He received FIVE YEARS OF PROBATION and I don't see anything about a possible deportation. Sad to see Abu Gonzales drop the ball AGAIN.
Posted by: kj at May 30, 2006 11:54 AM
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