A sad addendum to a heartwarming story — and an interesting insight into the mind of a jihadists: none of the Canadians’ kindness had any effect, evidently, in turning him from the jihad ideology. From the National Post, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:
A Montreal businessman who became a national media sensation in the 1990s when he fathered Quebec’s first quintuplets pleaded guilty in an Arkansas courtroom yesterday to attempting to ship military equipment to the terrorist group Hezbollah.
Naji Antoine Abi Khalil, a Lebanese-born Canadian, admitted he had accepted a payoff in exchange for agreeing to falsify shipping records and send night-vision goggles and infrared aiming devices for M-16 rifles to Hezbollah agents in Athens.
He faces a maximum sentence of 30 years for attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and two related offences.
He is also facing up to 20 years for a separate money-laundering conviction in July.
Hezbollah, the so-called ”Party of God,” is the Iranian-backed Shiite terrorist faction that pioneered suicide car bombings in Beirut and continues to attack Israelis from its stronghold in southern Lebanon.
After his wife, Lina, gave birth to five babies at Jewish General Hospital in Montreal in April, 1992, Khalil became a fixture in the Canadian press, featured in stories with headlines such as ”Quints Are Well But Dad Dazed” and ”Quints’ Mom Wants To Sleep.”
The story of the immigrant family was published in a book titled La Merveilleuse histoire des quintuplets (The Wonderful Story of the Quintuplets). Canadians showered them with gifts, offering jobs, clothing and free rent.