Montrealer charged in U.S. for aiding terrorists

NEW YORK - The chairman of a Canadian shipping company was charged with
attempting to aid terrorists by sending night-vision goggles and other
equipment to the Hezbollah, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

Naji Antoine Abi Khalil, 39, of Montreal , who holds dual citizenship in
Lebanon and Canada, was charged Monday night and ordered detained by a
federal magistrate judge in Manhattan, federal prosecutors said.

Prosecutors identified Khalil as chairman and general manager of New Line
Services, an import-export company based in Montreal.

The night-vision goggles probe grew out of Khalil's dealings with a
government confidential witness while he was the subject of a long-term
money laundering investigation by the FBI's Little Rock, Ark., office,
prosecutors said.

They allege Khalil was recorded in numerous meetings with the witness,
including one in Beirut, Lebanon, in August 2001 in which he said he
travelled worldwide collecting money to be laundered through Bank Al-Madina
in Beirut.

During recorded meetings in a Los Angeles hotel room in 2002, Khalil was
introduced to an undercover agent posing as a heroin dealer, prosecutors
said.

Khalil allegedly accepted $100,000 US in cash from the agent to be laundered
through the Beirut bank. Khalil was charged with conspiring to engage in
money laundering in a complaint filed in Arkansas.

Prosecutors said Khalil's arrest on the terrorism-related charge occurred
after he flew from Canada to New York to meet May 17-18 at a Manhattan hotel
to discuss a shipment of stolen electronics to be sent abroad.

During the meetings, which were videotaped by law enforcement agents from an
adjoining hotel room, the government witness told Khalil he had a customer
who wanted to ship night-vision goggles to the Hezbollah in Athens, the
government said.

Khalil responded that it was not a problem and that he had "friends," the
government said.

The witness then introduced Khalil to another undercover FBI agent who was
posing as the customer and Khalil agreed to create a fictitious bill so the
items being shipped and the identity of the shipper were concealed,
prosecutors said.

Khalil was arrested May 19 in Manhattan after the undercover agent showed
him a crate filled with 14 pieces of night-vision equipment, including
infrared aiming devices designed to be mounted on military rifles, the
government said.

Prosecutors said Khalil accepted a down payment of $2,500 for the shipment
to Greece and was then arrested. He was being held without bail pending a
hearing Friday.

If convicted, he could face 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

His lawyer did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.


© Canadian Press 2004