Japan's Poison Gas Apocalyptics

...One of the sect's followers, assigned to the AM, the apex of the morning rush hour...

...The story of Asahara's own grave illness intimidating the Japanese as a result of a U.S...

...In addition to some 10,000 followers in Japan, it has six centers in Moscow and one in the North Ossetian capital Vladikavkaz...

...Saprykin, a Russian member of the sect, as noting that the Officers of Japan's Ground Self Defense Force, the cult's "followers included chemical-troop servicemen...

...been consumed in four On June 27, 1994, in what months...

...By launching mysterious mass destruction attacks Once he had convinced his followers they themselves were around the globe, he sought to prove his prophecy about the being victimized, Asahara could retrofit his compound to procoming Armageddon...

...Clearly the break out in the near future, and much of mankind, except facilities were built following a blueprint drawn up by milifor Aum Shinrikyo believers, will die...

...Despite suspicions, Aum Shinrikyo was allowed to thrive and expand without interruption...

...In nhindered, Aum Shinrikyo was well on its way to March, the Russian news agency Itar-Tass quoted Dmitri U amassing the capability to inflict enormous ruin...

...Reportedly, the practice of forcing new members to turn over their assets to Aum also began at that time...

...For example, Asahara designed his organization to mirror the Japanese government—complete with foreign affairs, defense, and other "ministries...

...injured...

...tied his arsenal, the less the attacks would be seen as corn- chemical attacks...

...Furthermore, as the Economist wrote, "Gas poisoning carries with it a special aura of horror...

...One of them, a sergeant in the First Airborne Brigade, was even arrested for taking part in the plot to firebomb Aum's Tokyo headquarters...

...The sect apparently con- ties...

...Japan's prime minister Tomiichi Murayama also warned of possible sarin stockpiles still in the hands of the sect when he addressed the nation shortly after the arrest...

...The Tokyo Metropolitan Police text...

...Capitalized at V10 milAsahara himself present...

...Nor is it likely that if used for its declared told him, "Let's test it [the sarin] in Matsumoto," a city 125 purpose, such a quantity of potassium cyanide could have miles northwest of Tokyo...

...There is evidence to suggest the cult was making preparations to overthrow the Japanese government, once its ranks swelled sufficiently...

...The sect made particular efforts to establish ple...

...The goals undoubtedly were to wants to survive should hasten to join his sect...

...Nor has the sect's potassium cyanide been found—and the need for international cooperation in finding that deadly arsenal is as pressing as it was last March...

...pain on the greatest number of people...

...No political or any other demands were made in con- Department has concluded the sect undertook extensive nection with the attacks and no claims of responsibility research into the manufacture of biochemical weapons were issued...

...Chemical ne reason for the cult's heavy emphasis on Russia weapons were chosen not just because they are relatively was its belief that it could exploit the chaos following easy to manufacture, but because the aim was to inflict the the collapse of the Soviet Union to procure weapons greatest psychological pain on the greatest number of peo- and technology...

...He deemed that the more he diversi- duce sarin on the pretext of defending against persistent U.S...

...Rearmy branch that took part in U.N...

...It was murder for murder's sake...

...Aum" is a Buddhist term from Sanskrit, referring to the "passive" female deity (who signifies wisdom or voidness...

...Instead, he called on his followers to "proceed with the salvation project, and die without any regrets...

...For now, the answer is fortunately that it cannot...

...CI The American Spectator July 1995 25...

...gas public, convincing many to attack was thus invented...

...One by Aum Shinrikyo officials of any involvement in the affair...

...At any rate, Aum Shinrikyo's use of sarin comprises the fast recorded case of its employment by anyone other than a military agency...

...chemical warfare capability took place when sarin was tested Asahara claimed that potassium cyanide was "a common on Asahara's intended human targets...

...It has outlets in New York and Bonn...

...As reported by both substance used for gold plating," and acquired for use on Yomiuri Shimbun and Sankei Shimbun, the chief chemist of Buddhist statues, but such an innocuous purpose would not the sect, Masami Tsuchiya, confessed that the head of the normally require the surreptitious method used by the sect to cult's Science and Technology Agency (STA), Hideo Murat, buy the substance...

...On the pretext of finding out the flock to his cult as the only remaining safe haven...

...To convey his supreme truth, Asahara would deliver an links to the Russian military—partly to recruit members of the unforgettable message...

...characteristics of the offensive weapons that have allegedly In this way, he hoped to transform Aum Shinrikyo from a been (or might be) used against the cult, Asahara set his folcult into a universal religion...

...Approaches the Land of the Rising Sun, published this year, Japanese authorities now say the huge amount of chemiAsahara suggests the end will come as early as in 1997...

...There has been a tendency to view Aum Shinrikyo as an exclusively Japanese phenomenon, and now that Asahara is behind bars, international concern over the attacks will likely be short-lived...

...Some fifty-eight present and former soldiers of Japan's Self-Defense Forces were identified as members of Aum...

...cals confiscated from the sect could have produced 5.6 tons • Sarin tests conducted by Aum indicate that from the out- of sarin, enough to inflict huge losses...

...Sarin, the nerve gas used in that attack, is a "G-group" gas discovered by an I.G...

...Some observers still be expected...

...It is more than possible, then, that some of the copy cat attacks launched around Japan since the Tokyo subway attack were also masterminded by the cult...

...closed after the bombing that twenty-four sheep carcasses Last December the cult bought 160 500-cc bottles of potasfound at a remote sheep station 400 miles from Perth showed sium cyanide, which in gaseous form can cause mass casualtraces of an acid linked to sarin...

...He expected the masses to pralidoxime methyl iodide...

...The very name Asahara also used deception on the outside world...

...In this sense the medium was the cally to manufacture weapons of mass destruction...

...Supporting this conclusion are several indicators of intent as well as of the types and quantities of destructive arms Aum sought to acquire or manufacture: • In April, the Tokyo daily Mainichi Shimbun quoted Asahara as prophesying a few years ago that "nuclear and 22 The American Spectator July 1995 chemical weapons will be used in Armageddon, which will sarin," according to Japanese press reports...

...then had been Chizuo Matsumoto—declared himself "emancipated" from earthly ties...

...The next stage in readying the sect's lion, Tatomi-cho ceased to exist soon after the purchase...

...message...

...But if armed with the kind of mass destruction weapons now increasingly accessible, such an outfit could cause devastation on a gargantuan scale, even if it eventually fails to achieve its apocalyptic mission...

...Australian Justice Minister Duncan Kerr dis- suggests Asahara was not content even with that arsenal...

...was to get his followers to believe they were the victims of Other observers have said the gas attacks were aimed at some sinister plot...

...such as sarin is clearly indiexplanation is that Asahara cated...

...In fact, if the using botulinus bacillus...

...This explains the lack of any demands made "mineral exploration...

...Such attacks would be subway system were aimed at the Japanese government given aimed to punish or bargain, but also to demonstrate perhaps that the Kasumigaseki train station is the hub for top govern- that the fulfillment of the prophecy is inevitable and that sect ment offices...

...Documents also reveal Aum Shinrikyo was looking to buy Russian tanks and other military equipment, as well as receive military manuals and training from the Russians...

...Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Defense Troops (successors to the Soviet Military Chemical Forces) into its ranks...

...When she is united with the "dynamic" male Aab (who signifies compassion without attachment), Enlightenment, or "eternal bliss," is reached...

...T he May 16 arrest of Shoko Asahara, leader of the Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo (Supreme Truth), has been greeted with obvious relief in Japan...

...The site of the STA, was reportedly found in possession of a classified attacks (i.e., the airtight subway system), their timing, and document on uranium enrichment technology...

...disciples and to prevent the outside Asahara in April 1994, two This argument is closer to months before the sarin the truth, but fails to take world from interfering with his grand attack on Matsumoto, he into account the huge quan- design, Asahara made an impressive use of said: "With the poison gas tities of lethal weapons attacks that have continued Asahara was seeking to deception internally as well as externally...

...Even if the delivery method of the poison gas was primitive by military standards, and its top chemist Tsuchiya claimed the cult had disposed of its sarin stockpile as a way of destroying evidence, it must be assumed that at least some of Aum's sarin arsenal is still intact and unaccounted for...

...His constant search for the the main production facility for sarin, was outfitted with an airmost exotic weaponry imaginable was meant to give the purifier, and gas masks were distributed among the followers...

...When properly purified, the substance is extremely lethal—a human being can be killed by one tenmillionth of his weight in sarin—but in the Tokyo attacks, the gas was either mixed incorrectly or contained impurities...

...To assure the cooperation of his disciples government building, but in locations meant to assure wide- and to prevent the outside world from interfering with his spread harm...

...Perhaps the nuclear truly aimed at the whole bomb will come next...

...may be valid only with respect to his motives...

...Asahara apparently One Aum member, a pharmacist at the Aum-affiliated hospital thought that proving the doomsday prediction would natu- in Tokyo's Nakano district, reportedly also procured a quantity rally force the populace to also accept his claim that only of drugs to act as antidotes to sarin, including atropine and Aum believers would be spared...

...calculated manner in which Asahara has tried to realize his In the Tokyo attack the poison gas was not released inside a global aspirations...

...It is unlikely that Internally, the main ploy was to get by helicopters and other airsuch an arsenal was meant craft wherever we go...

...Internally, the main ploy much wider plot...

...Farben chemist in 1938, and later supplied to the Nazis...

...inspections of Iraq's portedly among the equipment found by the Japanese police at chemical weapons plants in 1993 have concluded that the the sect's compound was also a poison-gas detector assigned sect's chemical production facilities seemed "larger, more to the Soviet Armed Forces...

...However, the mateappears to have been a trial Chemical weapons were chosen rial was not found among run of the gas delivery sys-the toxic agents confiscated not just because they are relatively tem, a section of the city 500 by the Japanese police last . yards long by 100 yards wide easy to manufacture, but because the aim March during raids on the was covered...

...When of his cult—"The Supreme Truth"—is no coincidence, either: his disciples arrived in Australia armed with dangerous for Asahara, there is no alternative to his sect and no room for chemicals, they told authorities they had come to carry out other religions...

...Defensive" theories ignore Asahara's own grand design, Asahara made an impressive use of deception preaching of global doomsday, with its suggestion of a internally as well as externally...

...The sect may have up to 30,000 followers in Russia...

...Japan's Home Affairs Minister Hiromu Nonaka admitted as much when, in the wake of Asahara's arrest, he warned that "the case is not over, because Aum members may still have sarin and weapons...

...Aum's crusade was to begin by securing its Japanese base...

...Given that the production of the nerve gas began with the completion of the Kamikuishiki manufacturing facility last June and proceeded continuously until late March, the nightmare may not be over...

...Seven people was to inflict the greatest psychological cult's Kamikuishiki corndied and more than 200 were pound...

...nounced himself the second coming of Christ...

...Asahara's disciples • The attacks in Matsu- were apparently looking moto and Tokyo were aimed into substances of even specifically at unprotected civilians, without political pre- greater lethality...

...Either way, the Aum Shinrikyo plot must be taken seriously around the world...

...But a year later the group changed its name to Aum Shinrikyo, and Shoko Asahara—who until Avigdor Haselkorn is a strategic analyst and defense consultant...

...The attacks confirm the emergence of a group that not only prophesied doom but also took concrete steps to convince the rest of the world of the coming apocalypse its leader predicted...

...A building searched by police at train lines that were targeted in March had continued on the sect's Kamikuishiki compound is said to have been schedule, three of the five trains targeted would have dedicated exclusively to producing biological and germ arrived at the Kasumigaseki station between 8:09 and 8:14 weapons...

...proper—erroneously, for by this logic, any country hosting the sect's offices could have been subjected to an attack with hue the outside world has probably concluded mass destruction weapons whenever Asahara determined the Asahara and his cult are insane, such judgment local authorities were encroaching on his activities...

...Until 1986, Aum was an "ordinary" sect that focused on "individual enlightenment" under the name of Aum Shinsen no Kai, or Aum Group of Mountain Wizards...

...A less likely but more ominous explanation for Aum's motives may be that Asahara actually aimed at finishing off the human race...

...In fact, the jailing of the sect's top leaders, have claimed the sect attacked only when it felt threatened by including Asahara, may paradoxically advance the timetable the Japanese authorities, and that the attacks on the Tokyo of attacks by hard-core believers...

...C an one terrorist group, even if fanatically dedicated, realistically threaten doomsday...

...A Japanese magazine reported that Kiyohide Hayakawa, Aum's "construction minister," wrote in a memo that the cult was to launch a coup in November 1995...

...The March attacks should set off alarm bells around the world, for by its own twisted logic, the Aum Shinrikyo terrorist campaign was—and may still be—a carefully hatched plot with global implications...

...In join the cult in order to sur- To assure the cooperation of his a sermon delivered by vive the impending doom...

...Such complacency is totally misplaced...

...On 24 The American Spectator July 1995 that occasion, two handbills denouncing the cult and its leader were also left in front of the Aum headquarters...

...It Portraying the cult's activities as defensive in nature is difficult to find signs of irrationality in the systematic and ignores that poison gas is inherently an indiscriminate killer...

...The American Spectator July 1995 23 Detailing Aum Shinrikyo's intentions and capabilities still randomly unleashed against civilians around the world may does not solve the question of motivation...

...In March and April, Izvestia sophisticated, and of better quality than Iraq's chemical gas reported on links between the cult and high Russian officials, plants, and are good enough to produce highly purified especially Security Council Secretary Oleg I. Lobov...

...day before the attack on the Tokyo subway system, a sect What the world is witnessing, they implied, is simply the ful- member has confessed, he was ordered to firebomb Aum's fillment of Asahara's doomsday prophecy, and whoever own headquarters in Tokyo...

...gain public sympathy, to convince Aum's members they If this is the cult's motivation, then new poison gas attacks were under attack, and to throw off police investigators...

...since 1988, we are sprayed acquire...

...The use of poison gases Instead, the most likely victims of some sinister plot...

...In his book Disaster tary chemical-weapons experts...

...Japanese their coordinated nature all suggest the intention was to authorities now say that the STA was organized specificause mass casualties...

...In a 1992 book, Asahara pro- lowers to work making those weapons themselves...

...In an address broadcast on Radio Moscow two days after the subway attacks, there was no hint of him scouring for new recruits...

...his followers to believe they were the only for a limited use...

...An investigative set the gas was intended for large scale operational, rather than report carried by Tokyo's TBS television network in April laboratory, use...

...attacks an aura of the supernatural...

...Between April and May of 1994, Satian 7, ing from a single, human source...

...Among other offenses, leaders of the sect were implicated in the March subway gas attacks in Tokyo that killed 12 people and injured 5,500...

...Indeed, with the jailing of Asahara the probability of new attacks by some of his diehard followers may have increased...

...In March 1994, the sect set up a front company, Tatomiducted sarin tests in Australia in September 1993 with cho, specifically to buy the cyanide...

...Such an argument limits the danger to Japan leaders have nothing to do with them...

...At least some of Aum's deadly subin the aftermath of the attacks, as well as the insistent denials stances were acquired by using dummy corporations...