This is from December 4, so it’s a little old but nevertheless relevant to set up for the next article ...
Ten Chechen guerrillas entered Japan about two months ago and are planning to carry out terrorist acts here.
| Oh, they'll blend right in with the locals! |
Shukan Bunshun makes that alarming claim after speaking to a number of sources close to the government as well as military specialists, who warn that Japan’s government has been receiving highly credible reports that point to the Chechens’ presence in this country.
"Hi, there! We're Chechens, renowned as international thugs and pimps!"
"Hiya! We're the Japanese, renowned as international bad hat!"
"Wanna have a contest to see which of us is the baddest?"
"Ichiro! Kill them all. And their little dogs, too!" |
According to one of the sources, described as someone "connected to the Ministry of Justice," the guerrillas, who are known terrorists, have smuggled themselves into Japan and authorities here are now desperately searching for them. "The target of this secret search operation is, to put it bluntly, a squad of Chechen independence guerrillas," the source says.
| Whose interests are, of course, deeply entwined with Japanese policy... |
Anyone who knows the history of Chechnya, a province in the southwest of Russia, should be shocked by the disclosure. An especially bloody insurgency between local guerrillas and the Russian military has raged there for the past decade, leaving tens of thousands of people dead. The guerrillas want independence from Russia for their province, whose indigenous population is mostly Muslim.
| And the remainder of which is required to become so... |
The last time Chechen rebels made the world’s headlines, it was for one of the most shocking terrorist acts in recent years. A little over a year ago, a group of armed Chechens stormed a Moscow theater and took 700 people inside hostage. After Russian security officials pumped a potent sleeping gas into the theater, more than 100 of the hostages died from the substance. No surprise then that Japanese officials have apparently greeted the reports of Chechen guerrillas entering their own country with extreme alarm.
| "Ichiro! What the hell is this?" |
The reports originated with the security officials of various countries who then relayed them to their Japanese counterparts, warning them to be on alert. The authorities here, however, are frustrated because they have no records to go on to show that the guerrillas ever entered the country. "These guys are pros, so it’s believed they used phony passports," the Justice Ministry source explains.
| Keeping an eye on boat traffic in the Kuriles? |
So why did they chose to come to Japan? A source with Justice Ministry connection explains: "The initial information said the Russian Embassy in Tokyo and the consulate-generals in Osaka and Hokkaido might be bombed, which naturally caused serious concern. But more recently, even more ominous information is starting to come in." The source is referring to reports that put the number of the terrorists here at 10. "Any military expert knows that 10 is the minimum number of people needed to form a military unit," the source says. "Let’s not forget that these Chechen guerrillas are, after all, military men."
| Forget that idea. They're no more military men than Saddam was. They're gangsters. |
Taisei Ugaki, a military commentator, says that in such a unit each fighter would have a specific role to play when bombings and other such terrorist attacks are undertaken. "You would have a commander, a mastermind, people with skills in bomb-making and communications and someone else in charge of obtaining smuggled materials," he says. "As long as we don’t know what these people’s capabilities are, we can only guess what their objective might be."
| Well, we know they like to do things in large groups. And that they like to use women as boomers, once their function as breeding stock's been fulfilled... |
Another source of worry for Japanese authorities is the link between the Chechen rebels and al-Qaeda.
| ... which is kinda like the link between my teeth and my gums. |
According to a recent U.S. State Department report, al-Qaeda has sent some of its people to Chechnya to help local guerrillas plan a nerve-gas attack aimed at killing Russian civilians. That’s a chilling development, considering a message received two weeks ago by a Saudi newspaper in which al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for four bombings in Turkey that killed more than 50 people. It added that one of its next targets would be Japan.
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