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…