Security concern are escalating at Caracas (Simon Bolivar) international airport in Maiquetia, after the discovery of a shipment of five (5) missiles in transit from Colombia to Tel Aviv (Israel).  German airline Lufthansa is claiming that the security seizure at their air cargo depot is a "misunderstanding."

A Lufthansa spokesman told reporters that Venezuelan officials had stopped a shipment of "five pieces of cargo" ... each weighing 65 kilos and destined for Israel. The Lufthansa employee was emphatic that "the freight is neither rockets nor weapons!"

He declined to specify what the contents of the five packages were, and also did not identify who had dispatched the items or the recipient, citing data protection regulations.

The five pieces of cargo had been declared at Venezuelan transit Customs & Excise as "dangerous materials" and it is claimed that they had otherwise met all required Venezuelan transit regulations covering air transport. Lufthansa: "We believe this is a misunderstanding."

The Lufthansa depot has been closed and a Lufthansa cargo employee is currently being interrogated ... as Venezuelan officials released information that five fighter-plane missiles (apparently headed for Israel) had been seized.

The missiles (used on French Mirage and American F- 16 fighter planes) allegedly belong to the regular Colombian Armed Forces ... they were discovered,  Saturday, when an alert customs officer spotted them as they were about to be loaded onto a Lufthansa flight to Israel.  A Lufthansa employee has admitted to reporters that the seized cargo was made up of "missile parts" and said that Lufthansa is trying desperately to sort out the internationally embarrassing situation with local authorities before it becomes an international incident.

Venezuela’s Minister of the Interior & Justice (MIJ) has meanwhile confirmed for the Venezuelan media that five missiles were indeed heading to Israel from Colombia ... he said he would not go further into details of the missiles, but they could be attached to F-16s or Mirage fighter jets and were found in a hanger belonging to the German airline, Lufthansa.

• The news has also broken in Israel where the local media is claiming the seizure to be a "sequester" of parts of five missiles en route from Colombia to Israel ... including capsules of liquid nitrogen used as missile fuel.

The Israelis fear that the incident is gaining all too much attention in the Latin media and are keen to damage-control the situation before it gets out of hand.  The seizure/sequestering took place Saturday night at Maiquetia ... the Israelis are denying that the Colombian shipment was of complete missiles and are claiming that it was only "missile parts" and that previous shipments had already passed through Venezuelan transit muster without complaint ... previous shipments have amounted to the assembly of at least a dozen missiles.

Questions are now being raised as to the United States' involvement in the covert missile operation as well as the surprising role of the Colombian armed forces ... especially considering US president George W. Bush and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's nefarious claims that Venezuela is deliberately feeding cross-border Colombian National Liberation Army (ELN) and Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels with significantly less sophisticated weaponry -- which allegations the Venezuelan government has vociferously denied as being part of the US disinformation effort against the democratically-elected government of President Hugo Chavez Frias.