AUM SHINRIKYO: THREAT TO US INTREST?

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06837357
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: July 13, 2023
• Document Release Date: January 4, 2022
• Case Number: F-2017-01316
• Publication Date: November 1, 1995

Approved for Release: 2021/11/30 C06837357
MOO
DIRECTOR OP CENTRHAL INTELLIOSNO*
NOVEMBER 1995
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Terrorism Review
Page
Articles
Highlights
7 Aim Shinrikvo� hreat to US Interests?
Aum
fugitives who may have stashes of chemical agents pose the greatest
danger to the Japanese population
-SeCrEr
DI TR 95-011
November 1995
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II
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So6et
Aum Shinrilo: Threat to
US Interests.
Articles in the Japa-
nese press have speculated that Aum Shinrikyo
had planned to assassinate President Clinton and/
or to attack US interests in Japar
Aum fugitives who may have stashes of chemical
agents pose the greatest danger to the Japanese
population.
Anti-US Propaganda
Aum Shinrikyo portrayed the United States as an
enemy of the Japanese people to reinforce cult leader
Shoko Asahara's preaching of nuclear Armageddon
and an impending military conflict between Japan and
the United States. Asahara's claims that he and his
people already had been the victims of gas attacks by
US military aircraft were intended not only to rein-
force his assertion that the United States is an enemy,
but also to divert attention from Aum's sarin labora-
tory from which leaking gas had been suspected. The
cult leader sought to use anti-US propaganda as a
plausible ruse to hide his plans to take over the Japa-
nese Government.
The Japanese press has carried stories of threats by
Aunt Shinrikyo to US facilities or President Clinton,
but these are speculative and do not appear to be sup-
ported by documentary information. For example. an
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DI TR 95-011
November 1995
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S7A�t
article in Shukan Gendai, reportedly a sensationalist
weekly, claims that "the cult... secretly had put
together a plan to assassinate US President Clinton
come what may." Among the "evidence" cited to sup-
port this claim is a reference to security countermea-
sures in Washington, with the inference that
Washington believed Aum followers were planning to
use sarin against the President. The article also cites a
passage in the cult's periodical Vajrayana Sacco in
January 1995 that "it would not be strange" if Clinton
were assassinated
The Shukan
Gendai article also raises the possibility of Aum "link-
ing up" with other anti-American groups to "carry out
the deed,"
ret
Until the five Aum fugitives are captured, the threat of
a retaliatory attack cannot be ruled out. Nevertheless,
Aum's past behavior suggests that Japanese rather
than Americans would be the most likely targets.
Events such as the APEC summit, for example, which
commanded extra attention and security, could pro-
vide enough of a distraction so that surviving Aum
members could mount an attack elsewhere in Japan.
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