First Attack by Al Qaeda in Japan?

There was a scare today at a U.S. military base outside Tokyo when two small explosions occurred shortly after 11 p.m. there. While no one was injured, investigators are looking at the possibility that it was an attempted terrorist attack.

Intelligence reports in Japan and Pakistan suggest al Qaeda has established a small but powerful presence in Japan, which leads some wondering whether or not today's events are the first attempt at an attack by al Qaeda in Japan.

Pakistani intelligence sources tell ABC News they have had several reports that Pakistani militant organizations working with al Qaeda had established networks in Japan as far back as 1999.

A Pakistani intelligence source says these networks were set up following the direct orders of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the top al Qaeda leader who is now in U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay. Mohammed reportedly had a "deep interest" in conducting operations inside Japan.

The source also tells ABC News around two dozen Pakistanis had been sent to Japan on student visas in the late 1990s to set up "sleeper cells," and those individuals had linked with operatives from the leading Indonesian terror group, Jemaah Islamiya.

The source said the mission of the sleeper cells was to draw up plans for terror attacks and that some of their plans were seriously considered by top al Qaeda leaders.

One potential plan involved planting several bombs at and around stadiums during the 2002 World Cup. The plan was never carried out, but the intelligence source says he believes these networks are still in place and are still "actively planning operations against U.S. and Western targets in Japan."

He added, "If these explosions [today] turn out to have been terrorist attacks, these networks are the first place to look."

Back in Tokyo, no arrests have been made, and the investigation is ongoing.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/200 ... ck_by.html

Anytime someone farts it seems like someone jumps up and cries "terrorist".

I'm not ruling anything out, of course. But It will be interesting to see if anything more develops out of this.

Just saw that as well. I'm interested to see what comes of the investigation. You would think ABC would downplay this if it is terrorism since they are part of the liberal media and they want the terrorists to win.

Perhaps you missed the memo. NBC is now a "liberal smear merchant", while ABC/Disney is now in the "fair and balanced" camp along with FoxNews.

there's still no evidence to suggest this was al qaeda. this article is kind of silly. it says there was a bomb and that they think al qaeda might have a presence in japan. theres nothing to connect the two. there's been other terrorist attacks in japan from non-muslim groups.

Seriously.

Seriously.


Al Qaeda is the fucking Kaizer Soze of the war on terror.


I would suspect either a giant robot or a school girl raping tenacle before Al Qaeda.

There are many people here who don't like the US Military presence at all. I'm willing to bet my tatami it was from one of those organizations. Or some crazy nut

ok how can you not be able to pick out an al-queda terrorist living in fucking japan??!!

theres been plenty of terror attacks that had nothing to do with al qaeda.

LeninFlux is just a Conservative Fear Merchant. Like how I even got the capital letters in there too?

Could you elaborate on this?

Possible terror threat = ratings. Got to keep the numbers up, responsible journalism be damned.