Japan "could have been targeted" by al-Qaeda

[Mulboyne]

Today's FT (no link) leads their Asian edition with a front page story entitled "Al-Qaeda 'preparing to attack' Asian city"

Al-Qaeda is preparing an attack on a big financial centre in Asia, such as Tokyo, Sydney or Singapore...France's top terrorist investigator warned yesterday. Jean-Louis Bruguiere told the FT...that several Asian countries were less prepared than the US or Europe for such an attack. "We are somewhat neglecting the capacity or desire of the al-Qaeda organization to destabilize the south-east Asia region...We have several elements of information that make us think that countries in this regian, especially Japan, could have been targeted."...His comments were echoed by critics of the Japanese government, who said it was woefully unprepared for a terrorist attack. Katsuya Okada, head of the opposition Democratic party...said yesterday: "It is not a question of whether terrorism will occur in Japan but when."

[Captain Japan]

Bloomberg picked it up...
Yen Drops on Report Al-Qaeda May Plan a Terror Attack on Tokyo
Bloomberg

Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) -- The yen fell against the dollar for a third day in four after a Financial Times report said al-Qaeda may be planning a terror attack on a financial center in Asia.

Any attack on Tokyo may dent consumer confidence and disrupt the economy, prompting overseas investors to curb purchases of Japanese shares. Faster growth has helped the Nikkei 225 Stock Average rise to a four-year high this week.

``A report on al-Qaeda's possible attacks on Asia, including Tokyo, is psychologically affecting markets here,'' said Akihiro Tanaka, senior currency dealer in Tokyo at Resona Bank Ltd. ``This is triggering yen-selling.'' ...more...

[blackcat]

Its OK
if there are hundreds of suicide pilots flying into japanese ships/buildings etc.

Bin Laden can make a movie about the 'beauty of the sacrifice" and how their spirits will go to yasukuni...whoops I mean Mecca??

ishihara could understand thier duty no doubt.

[karekora]

so japan thinks its next?

whats new?!

italy thinks its next to be targeted by AlQaeda.
France thinks its next.
Germany thinks its next.
USA thinks its next.
Japan thinks its next.

The whole world thinks its next. Its sick! Its almost as if they want to be targeted the way people are carrying on. "Oh, let it be me!..." Its almost as if if AlQaeda does strike your country, it must mean your country is worthy...

Please, Al Qaeda are extremeists, as London likes to call them now. extremists like to scare. But they dont need to actually do anything to scare these days do they?

The media does it for them.

easy job, al qaeda, huh?

[Taro Toporific]

Terror attack 'more likely on Japan'
The Age, August 31, 2005 - 4:29PM
Japan would be a far more obvious target for a forthcoming al-Qaeda terror attack than Australia, a United States strategic analysis group says.
In analyses of the regional terrorist outlook, US private sector intelligence group Stratfor said symbols of western financial wealth and military power abounded in the Asian region and in many countries security remained imperfect at best....
Japan has remained relatively vulnerable. The Japanese economic and political systems make attractive soft targets," Stratfor said.
"Japan's low crime rate and social mores have kept Japanese investigators from developing the skills and attitudes that law enforcement agencies in other parts of the world have acquired through years of hard experiences.
"Compounding this is the fact that Japanese intelligence has little or no experience conducting operations inside Japan itself."...more...

[Mulboyne]

Reuters: Islamist extremist sought foothold in Japan

A member of an Islamist extremist group banned in Pakistan entered Japan two years ago to try to establish a foothold in the country, a Japanese newspaper said on Friday. Japanese police had warned this month that Islamist extremists may tempt Muslim communities in Japan to turn radical and attack Japan, whose government has been a staunch backer of the U.S.-led war on Iraq. In a report that underscores such concerns, police learned from an informant that a member of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), a Sunni extremist group outlawed in Pakistan, had entered Japan to start an SSP branch, the Sankei newspaper said.

After checking immigration records, police found that a Pakistani man in his 30s had entered Japan in 2003 with a visa for religious activities and that he had told others while worshipping that he came to Japan to establish an SSP offshoot, the newspaper said. Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan is one of seven militant groups that were outlawed by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. "We will step up efforts to grasp the actual conditions of the Islamic community in Japan that could be used improperly by terrorists," the paper quoted a police source as saying.

Sankei said the man was detected both entering and leaving Japan that year, but did not make clear his current whereabouts. A spokesman for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department said he had no information on the case and declined to comment. The man had been seen at mosques near Tokyo and also had contact at train stations with a 27-year-old Pakistani in the trading business who had lived in Yokohama near Tokyo and a 40-year-old Pakistani and former employee of a Tokyo bookbinding firm, Sankei said.

Tokyo police have arrested the 40-year-old Pakistani on suspicion of violating immigration laws, and are continuing surveillance activities to track down the SSP network in Japan, the newspaper said. Japan, which has sent some 550 ground troops to Iraq on a reconstruction mission, has been on guard against possible attacks since being mentioned by members of Islamist militant group al Qaeda as a possible target. Prior to Japan's deployment of troops to Samawa in southern Iraq, al Qaeda had reportedly threatened to "strike in the heart of Tokyo" if Japan sent troops to Iraq. Japan dispatched its main contingent of troops to Iraq in February 2004.

In May 2004, Japanese police arrested several foreigners in a probe into the activities of Lionel Dumont, a French national with links to al Qaeda who entered Japan on a false passport in 2002 and stayed for over a year. There is no official data on the number of Muslims in Japan, but police sources have put the number around 90,000. They are mainly from Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Iran and Turkey, the sources said.