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East Asia
Japan won’t bow to terror threats
2003-11-18
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Monday Japan would not be intimidated by terrorists after a reported Al Qaeda threat to attack Tokyo spooked share and foreign exchange markets.
"Lemme get this straight: You guys with the turbans, you say you're gonna beat up on us? The guys with the bushido? Oh, hold me, Katsumi! I am so frightened! Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh..."
The London-based Saudi newspaper Al-Majallah reported that it had received a statement from Al Qaeda warning Japan not to sent troops to Iraq and claiming a suicide bombing against Italian forces last week. “Terrorist threats have been made everywhere in the world. We must not give in to the threats,” Koizumi told reporters. The foreign ministry said Japan was investigating the credibility of the threat. “We are collecting information related to the report through the Japanese embassy in London,” a ministry official said. “First, we need to confirm the credibility of the report.” In an e-mail received by the Saudi weekly, Abu Mohammed al-Ablaj, purporting to be an Al Qaeda leader, warned the Japanese against sending troops to join the US-led coalition in Iraq. “If they want to destroy their economic power and be trampled under the feet of the combatants of Allah, let them come to Iraq,” he said. “Our strikes will reach the heart of Tokyo.” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda played down the report. “We have received a lot of similar information since September 11th,” he told reporters.
Posted by:Fred Pruitt

#8  How Japan reacts will be interesting, no?

Akihito turns the samurai loose on the mutts.
Posted by: Anonymous   2003-11-18 5:11:36 PM  

#7  You can bet your ass that Islamic murderers will carry out a soft target hit on Japan. How Japan reacts will be interesting, no?
Posted by: Lucky   2003-11-18 12:32:41 PM  

#6  The airport in question is Narita

Same thing when they were building the new Osaka airport. Aparently someone was not pleased that they had to reduce the size of a few mountains to get the earth needed to build the new airport on water. Novel idea, but due to a critical decision made during construction to save costs, the airport is now sinking a couple of inches every year.
Posted by: Rafael   2003-11-18 11:37:37 AM  

#5  they had riots and such over the placement of an airport not that long ago.

The airport in question is Narita and they are still pissed about it. The government did the eminent domain thing and took the land from some farmers. Couple of times a year one of the far left groups fires homemade rockets or mortars at the airport. They never hit anything and the government tries to keep it quiet, the tourists might get nervous. They also fire on US bases in Japan with the same mortars, happened at Yokota and Camp Zama this year. I think they aim at empty parts of the bases to keep from hurting anyone.
The far right drives around the bases with black vans with big loudspeakers on top blaring speeches telling the US to go home. They just do this during the day because it wouldn't be polite to disturb peoples sleep at night. It's a Japanese thing.
Posted by: Steve   2003-11-18 11:05:45 AM  

#4  There's a lot of wierd politics in Nippon, and some of the fringes get real violent. Hell, they had riots and such over the placement of an airport not that long ago. Wierd.

If the fundieboomers look around, they'll find sympathizers. Unfortunately.
Posted by: mojo   2003-11-18 10:40:16 AM  

#3  Hell,they gave birth to the concept of the suicide bomber.

Good point... (mental image of Japanese judges holding up cards with 3's and 4's on them after an Al Qaeda attack).

Seriously, Al Qaeda might find some willing allies amongst Japanese leftists (eliminating the need to infiltrate Arab shooters). It was a Japanese group (Japanese Red Army) that shot up the Tel Aviv airport in the 70s as a favor to the Palestinians. Are any of those groups still active?
Posted by: snellenr   2003-11-18 10:00:06 AM  

#2  Typical Islamo insanity.Don't these' fools realize that Japan is the Home and Birthplace of the Samuri and Ninja.Hell,they gave birth to the concept of the suicide bomber.
Posted by: Raptor   2003-11-18 7:51:03 AM  

#1  trampled under the feet of the combatants of Allah

LOL. Sorry, makes me laugh every time I read this.
Posted by: Rafael   2003-11-18 1:17:07 AM  

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