Our entry yesterday about the Canadian Hezbollah agent arrested in the Middle East was merely the tip of an iceberg. In today’s National Post Stewart Bell reveals that Hezbollah has been using Canada as an “offshore base” for raising (and laundering) money, and purchasing weapons and materiel to carry out attacks against Israel.

Hezbollah agents shopped for blasting devices, night-vision goggles, powerful computers and camera equipment used to record attacks against Israeli forces, according to dozens of CSIS wiretaps obtained yesterday.

The Canadian operation was so successful that CSIS agents overheard suspected Hezbollah operatives in Vancouver in early 1999 congratulating each other in a monitored telephone conversation.

“Ali Adham Amhaz informed Mohamad Hassan Dbouk that he was watching the latest news on today’s operation involving Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Amhaz congratulated Dbouk for Hezbollah’s success in their improving ability which was making Israel retaliate for the attacks.”

Even as they lived in Canada with their families as immigrants the Hezbollah operatives apparently remained disdainful of their new surroundings, denouncing “the Canadians and the Zionists” in a wiretapped conversation.

This article contains a possible explanation for why Chrétien and his cronies refuse to denounce Hezbollah: they’re afraid.

The extent of Hezbollah operations in Canada first came to light in the 1990s when an agent named Mohammed Hussein al-Husseini was arrested for deportation. He told CSIS about a vast cross-Canada network.

He also confessed that agents had spied on Canadians and sent information about Canadian life and infrastructure back to Lebanon “in case there’s a problem with Canada.”

Read the whole article; the extent of Hezbollah infiltration into Canada is really startling.