[Vision2020] Tokyo terrorized by September 11 threat

[Burt Sid]

http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/waiwai/news/20050907p2g00m0dm022000c.html

Tokyo terrorized by Sept. 11 threat


Election day this Sunday is the prime time for Al Qaeda to carry out a
terrorist attack on Tokyo, experts tell Shukan Taishu (9/19).

Though some experts say the likelihood of Islamic terrorists striking
Japan is low, it's not impossible.

"Countries where there's a high likelihood of a terrorist attack meet
two conditions -- a large Islamic population base that feels alienated
and will offer clandestine support for terrorists' preparations, and a
weak defense. I don't think Japan meets either condition. Of course,
there is the Iraq problem, with our country following the United
States, which means that the possibility (of a terror attack) cannot
be ruled out," Yuji Ono of the Middle East Research Institute of Japan
tells Shukan Taishu.

Military analyst Motoaki Kamiura agrees the possibility of a terror
attack on Japan is limited.

"Still, if they're going to do it, the most likely time for an attack
will be during the election. When terrorists attacked Madrid, it came
three days before a general election. The result was that the ruling
party lost and Spanish troops were withdrawn from Iraq. If there was a
terrorist attack on Japan at this time, it could deal an enormous blow
to the government that has sent Japanese troops to Iraq," Kamiura
says.

Terrorists pick politically sensitive times for their attacks, the
men's weekly says, pointing out that the train explosion terrorists
caused in Madrid in March 2004 occurred around election time and that
the July terrorist bombings in London happened while Britain was
hosting the G-8 Summit. Shigeharu Aoyama, head of Japan's Independent
Institute for Comprehensive Research and a former Kyodo News hack,
points out that Japan is definitely a target, based on what he heard
from a confessed terrorist he interviewed in Iraq in late 2003.

"He told me and my friends that if a single Japanese Self-Defense
Force member set foot in Iraq, there would be terrorism in Tokyo. He
said that the Arab world knows Tokyo well and that they were preparing
to carry out a terrorist attack," Aoyama tells Shukan Taishu. "When I
countered that the SDF would not be in Iraq to fight, he was furious
and said that any friend of the United States was an enemy of his. He
said that if Japan was helping the Americans get Iraq back on track,
that made Japan an enemy."

Police in Japan are certainly not taking the threat of terrorism
lightly, with a cop force of 13,000 hitting the streets to protect
sensitive spots vulnerable to terror attacks during the campaign.

"The bombings in London and Madrid have contributed to the irregular
upgrading of security," a reporter on the police beat says. "The
Metropolitan Police Department is aware that the likelihood of an
attack is greater the closer we get to election day and is increasing
security accordingly. Don't forget, the election is timed for Sept.
11, the exact same day of the terror attacks on New York."

A political beat reporter adds that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi
has already acted to curb terrorists with ideas of ruining his
election.

"It wasn't given a great deal of media coverage, but Koizumi came home
from the summit and immediately ordered the government take every
possible safety step," the reporter tells Shukan Taishu. "There are
about 20 different facilities that have been marked down for extra
security. I suppose the reason things were kept quiet was to avoid
sending people into a panic." (By Ryann Connell)

September 7, 2005