A New War Brewing? - Intelligence Officials Warn, Hizbollah About To Explode

'US and Canadian intel agencies say Hizbullah attack imminent'

Jerusalem Post, Israel - 50 minutes ago

COM STAFF US and Canadian intelligence agencies warned Thursday that a Hizbullah attack on Jewish targets around the world could be imminent. ...

Report: Hizbullah operatives conduct surveillance on Jewish ... Al-Bawaba

Report: US, Canada warn Hezbollah set to strike Jewish targets Ha'aretz

EXCLUSIVE: Hezbollah Poised to Strike?

ABC NewsHot Air -

United Press International

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Officials Say "Sleeper Cells" Activated in Canada
By RICHARD ESPOSITO and BRIAN ROSS
June 19, 2008—

Intelligence agencies in the United States and Canada are warning of mounting signs that Hezbollah, backed by Iran, is poised to mount a terror attack against "Jewish targets" somewhere outside the Middle East.

Intelligence officials tell ABC News the group has activated suspected "sleeper cells" in Canada and key operatives have been tracked moving outside the group's Lebanon base to Canada, Europe and Africa.

Officials say Hezbollah is seeking revenge for the February assassination of Hezbollah's military commander, Imad Mugniyah, killed by a car bomb in Damascus, Syria.

The group's leaders blamed Israel, an allegation denied by Israeli officials.

There is no credible information on a specific target, according to the officials.

Suspected Hezbollah operatives have conducted recent surveillance on the Israeli embassy in Ottawa, Canada and on several synagogues in Toronto, according to the officials.

Latin American is also considered a possible target by officials following Hezbollah's planning.
A senior US counter-terrorism official told ABC News, "There are concerns Hezbollah might be ready to do something along those lines."

Officials say the CIA, the NSA, and British and Canadian intelligence agencies began to pick up a steady stream of information - from electronic intercepts, human sources and surveillance - about a possible Hezbollah attack on Feb. 17, just days after the Beirut funeral of Mugniyah where Hezbollah leaders publicly declared they would seek revenge.

"They want to kill as many people as they can, they want it to be a big splash," said former CIA intelligence officer Bob Baer, who says he met with Hezbollah leaders in Beirut last month.

"They cannot have an operation fail," said Baer, "and I don't think they will. They're the A-team of terrorism."

Alarms were first raised in Canada, where as many as 20 suspected Hezbollah members have been under surveillance after as many as four suspected "sleeper cells" were activated, including one known as "Rashedan," intelligence officials tell ABC News. The members also received instruction to send their family members home to Lebanon, according to officials.

Intelligence officials said the recent Hezbollah activities were being coordinated with the help of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards.

"Hezbollah would not carry out an attack in the west, or wherever this attack is going to occur, without approval from Tehran," said Baer, the former CIA intelligence officer.

Baer says his Hezbollah contacts told him an attack against the US was unlikely because Iran and Hezbollah did not want to give the Bush administration an excuse to attack.

While US officials say there is no credible information of a Hezbollah attack on American soil, the Homeland Security Secretary, Michael Chertoff, told Fox News two weeks ago, that "they make al Qaeda look like a minor league team."

Toronto has long been considered an important city for Hezbollah fund-raising and organizing, according to officials.

Pro-Hezbollah rallies and billboards depicting Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, have outraged Jewish groups.

"Because of lax immigration policies, it became a center for Hezbollah operations outside the Middle East," said Malcolm Hoenlein, of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations.

Hezbollah Supporters Attack Motorcade of US Envoy in Lebanon
By VOA News

18 June 2008

Security officials in Lebanon say supporters of the militant group Hezbollah have attacked a U.S. envoy's motorcade with stones to protest her visit to southern Lebanon.

U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey says a Lebanese security guard was slightly wounded in the attack against U.S. envoy Michele Sison Wednesday in Nabatiyeh. Officials and witnesses say at least 100 Hezbollah supporters also surrounded the house of local official Abdullah Bitar as he met with Sison, throwing stones and shouting anti-U.S. slogans.