Al-Qaida warns of Tokyo attack if Japan sends troops

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=2&id=279811

PARIS — Members of the al-Qaida international terrorist network has warned Japan that they will attack Tokyo as soon as Japanese troops are deployed in Iraq, Radio France reported Friday.

In a statement sent to an Arabic magazine, the al-Qaida members said they will infiltrate deep into Tokyo and attack the Japanese capital as soon as Japan's Self-Defense Forces troops set their feet in Iraq, according to the report.

The members admitted al-Qaida's involvement in Thursday's deadly attacks on British targets in Istanbul and said Japan will be easily destroyed and the Japanese will come to face the reality, the radio report said.

The attacks in Turkey's largest city killed at least 27 people and injured some 450 others in almost simultaneous explosions.

The statement also warned that "a major new operation" will be carried out between next week (following the end of Ramadan) and mid-February at the time of the Feast of Sacrifice, Id al-Adha.

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Ballsy move for a group that Bush said had been pretty much neuturalized.

[Paschall]

1. Ballsy or dumb...

Reacting to troop movements is one thing, but trying to dictate them is another. Puts Japan in a bad situation, but gives the White House another selling point for the deployment of JDF in Iraq. "Can't bow to terrorists..."

This does not seem particularly in character with Al-Qaeda, at least as it appears to have operated in the past.

[R Hickey]

2. Maybe it's not always Al-Qaeda doing the bombing

There are too many dogs in this fight to tell who actually is setting off each and every bomb.

[Paschall]

3. Precisely

And if your objective is to inspire fear, what better way than claim you belong to the Fearsomest of the Fearsome?

Thus we have the expanding violence from numerous quarters, all under the banner of the soon-to-be truly global war on of terror that Shrub promised us.

I'm going to have to replace my desk soon. It can't take much more head banging.