Posted on 07/24/2006 6:07:48 PM PDT by Alouette
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel has put its diplomatic missions abroad on high alert for possible attacks by Hizbollah or local Muslims angered by Israel's offensive against the Lebanese guerrilla group, security sources said on Monday.
Several other countries including Brazil -- home to the largest overseas Lebanese community -- the United States and Canada said they had tight security checks in place to reduce the threat of Hizbollah agents slipping in amid an exodus of evacuees pouring out of Lebanon to escape the fighting.
A senior source from a Western nation taking in refugees confirmed that such "sleeper agents" were considered a threat.
"In general, our foreign representations are always on an alert status, but this has been significantly stepped up given the fighting in the north (Lebanon) and all that entails regarding threats abroad," an Israeli security source said.
"The refugee situation must be watched," the source said.
Israel blamed Hizbollah for car bomb attacks on its embassy and a Jewish center in Argentina in 1992 and 1994, which killed scores of people. Hizbollah said it did not operate outside Lebanon, and its main sponsor, Iran, also denied involvement.
But shortly after the Israeli offensive began, Hizbollah said any previous constraints on its operations were void.
"As long as the enemy pursues its aggression without limits and red lines we will pursue the confrontation without limits and red lines," said the guerrilla group's leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah.
MASS EXODUS
Israel's strikes have displaced hundreds of thousands of people. Foreign powers have provided emergency evacuation for diplomatic staff, tourists, and Lebanese who are also their nationals.
But many of those with dual nationality have been living in Lebanon for years, away from the scrutiny of international intelligence, a senior Western security source told Reuters.
"We're spending a lot of time working out how we stop Hizbollah agents sneaking out amid the mass of evacuees, how we can screen for these people," said the source, whose country has taken in thousands of refugees.
In Brazil, home to an estimated nine million Lebanese immigrants and their descendants, the government said it was on guard against the threat of sleepers.
"That concern always exists," said Manoel Gomes Pereira, head of the foreign ministry's department of Brazilian communities abroad. He said border controls by Syria and by Brazilian police at home helped reduce the risk.
Brazil estimates about 70,000 Brazilians are currently in Lebanon.
The United States has long said it was concerned that the tri-border area between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay was a center of fund-raising and money laundering for Hizbollah.
In Canada -- which has evacuated almost 7,000 people so far from Lebanon and has an estimated ethnic Lebanese population of 250,000 to 400,000 people -- Public Security Minister Stockwell Day said everyone leaving was being checked carefully.
"We've got a very sophisticated system to do that and we have a high level of confidence that no people will be getting in (with) any kind of false documentation. We won't be bringing terrorists in with a group of evacuees," he told Reuters.
In Washington, U.S. officials said evacuees to the United States were subject to the same security screening as all other travelers, including running their passport details against consular systems and security watchlists.
The United States has brought almost 12,000 citizens out of Lebanon.
(Additional reporting by Dominic Evans in Beirut, Raymond Colitt in Brasilia, David Ljunggren in Ottawa and Caroline Drees in Washington)
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Intuitively, that number is way too high. Lebanon, itself is a small country, has a total population of only 3.8 million. Even taking into account high Arab birth rates, it's difficult to see how there can be so many Lebs in one (large) country so far away. That number, BTW, would account for 5% of the total Brazilian population.
Still, regardless of the correct number, it only takes a handful to cause a heck of a lot of trouble.
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