Japanese Female "Hostage" Had Recent Contact With Anti-US Iraqi Terrorists in Baghdad? (Breaking)

Chunichi Shimbun, Yahoo News Chat, Channel 2 Website, etc. ^ | 11 April 2004 | AmericanInTokyo

[AmericanInTokyo]

Breaking. Sorry, its just a quick English synopsis of the Japanese news (link).

Chunichi News in Japan (Nagoya daily newspaper) is reporting from Middle East sources that one of the Japanese *hostages* taken by a new Islamic terrorist group two days ago, MS. NAHOKO TAKATO, is reported to have made contact in Baghdad recently, before the kidnapping of her and two other Japanese, with an affiliate terrorist organization "Army of Muhammand". The casts in some doubt the actual situation surrounding this Islamic terrorist "kidnapping" the other day and the subsequent demands that Japan withdraw its Self Defense forces from Iraq in support of the Coalition.

Breaking hard.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Other developments:

**One Japanese paper on the web now reports that more questions have arisen about the demand note sent by the terrorists to Japan. Japanese investigators are reported to feel that a "Japanese national may be working within this group" because of the way the letter was written, similar to Japanese Red army demands out of the Middle East. They have sent an anti-Japanese terrorist counter intel group to Amman from Tokyo to dig into this.

**Six or so serious questions centering around the Japanese nationals' "kidnapping" are making their way around the web in Japanese.

**Yahoo Japan chat board ( http://messages.yahoo.co.jp/bbs?.mm=NW&action=m&board=552019567&tid=a5a4a5ia5afa4gffckdcbfm94bab&sid=552019567&mid=1&type=date&first=1 ) in Japanese is burning up at this hour. About four posts every 30 seconds, most of them strongly suspicious of this "kidnapping."

**The webpage of left-leaning activist Ms. Takato had been hoping for e mail messages of SUPPORT for her release and in support of the issue of Japanese withdrawl from Iraq under pressure. Instead, it has been FLOODED by irate Japanese expressing their demands for her apology, an explanation, and her responsibility. They have had to close down the board.

[Rams82]

So this could have been staged??

[inkling]

Thanks for the reports -- keep us informed! That whole hostage situation seemed a little odd to me.

[Pukin Dog]

Old news. Washington knows that the Japanese "hostages" were ALL anti-war activists. It was a setup. There are suspicions that the American hostage is playing the same game coordinated with Al-Jazerra and the insurgents.

[Blood of Tyrants]

The minute I heard that she was an "activist", I suspected that activist was a Commie News Network code word for Saddam loving America hater.

[nuconvert]

Very Interesting, thanks.

[Skywarner]

The Japanese aren't the only ones suspicious of this "kidnapping" of the three Japanese citizens.

First, the Islamofascist kidnappers say that Japan has 48 hours to begin withdrawing their forces from Iraq or the three being held will be burned alive....

The, when the 48 hours are up, the Islamofascist kidnappers just LET THEM GO?!?!??!!

It doesn't add up.

Of course, I'm not expecting the alphabet media to cover this story.

[Alia]

WOW!

[XHogPilot]

bump

[ladyinred]

So did they stage this so they could pull out without looking chicken or what?

[Mo1]

Are you serious???

[Pukin Dog]

The idiot girl emailed all her friends to warn them about how she was about to "drastically change the Iraq war" the day before she was 'kidnapped'. She even mentioned it on her own web site.

[LibWhacker]

Awwww, rats . . . And to think I was hoping they wouldn't cut her throat.

[Blood of Tyrants]

"Yahoo Japan chat board in Japanese is burning up at this hour."

Makes me wish I could read Japanese.

[Alia]

I think she was "threatened" with being burned alive.

[Pikamax]

link to that?

[nuconvert]

Update Pong

[AmericanInTokyo]

Old news? The case itself is only about 50 hours old. However, having said that, we had doubts about this expressed on FR on Thursday.

[Pukin Dog]

No link, just a heads up. I was told about it this morning.

[Pukin Dog]

By 'Old News', I only meant that both the American and Japanese governments already knew it was a hoax.

[TomGuy]

Hmmmm....wonder if they get any funding or are associated with Peaceful Tomorrows or a similar humanitarian concern principally funded by Mrs. T H Kerry?

[Happy2BMe]

Hmmm... terrorsits helping terrorists to terrorize?

Ping.

[atomic conspiracy]

"There are suspicions that the American hostage is playing the same game coordinated with Al-Jazerra and the insurgents."

According to his family in Mississippi, the captured American, Thomas Hamill, is an employee of Kellogg, Brown, and Root, a division of HALLIBURTON. This makes him a devil incarnate to the jihadis and their cheerleaders, the conspiracy theorists and media-conformist tools in this country. Suspicions aren't facts, it is the butcher-apologist conspira-liars themselves who trade in the idea that they are.

[Pukin Dog]

Never said it was fact. Suspicions remain.

[teletech]

Now, all we have to do is connect this to the sham RAT "9/11 commission" here at home. I smell RATS all over this uprising in Iraq. I hope the truth, the WHOLE truth, comes out and SOON!

[river rat]

I think this lady just made a mess in her Easter basket...

Semper Fi

[Eurotwit]

Thanks, if this is staged...well...

I have followed this story here.

The sad thing is that world is now so polarised that the "peace" activists will probably still hail these people. Hopefully some center of the road people will be appaled.

That is if this is a hoax. I am still holding back a little.

[null and void]

I think she was "threatened" with being burned alive.

Yup. I guess the joke would be on her and her friends if they really do it.

Just how monumentally stupid does one have to be to deliberately put themselves in a situation where their very lives are utterly under control of islamofascists????

[Stentor]

You were on it first. Thanks.

[Alia]

Just how monumentally stupid does one have to be to deliberately put themselves in a situation where their very lives are utterly under control of islamofascists????

Well, obviously people like this (Rachel Corrie) were never taught about the Nasty Wolf hiding in the woods on the way to grandma's... It blows me away too. "Fire is good!" Stick your hands in it. See rapist there? JUST TRY TO TALK HIM OUT OF RAPING YOU -- YOU CAN NEGOTIATE WITH YOUR RAPIST feminist mantra of the early 70s". The long list of liberal mantras coming home to roost, no? "This is your brain on liberal indoctrination".

[Alia]

..ps - love the tagline. lol

[null and void]

Thanks. It's how one of my imaginary FRiends described me on the Favorite FReeper thread.

I figured I'd use her words to tootle my own horn...

[atomic conspiracy]

"Suspicions remain" So do suspicions that NASA faked the Moon landing, and that innocent people are child-molesters. Unwarranted suspicion is a good way to demonize an innocent person without having to take responsibility for it. It won't wash. What is your point? Is there anything at all to warrant these "suspicions"? There is plenty to rebutt them: Hamill's employment, the circumstances of his capture, his background, the obvious concern and fear his family has expressed. If he were, say, an Evergreen College grad researching depleted uranium in Iraq, or an NGO volunteer, that would raise suspicion.

[A Citizen Reporter]

"There are suspicions that the American hostage is playing the same game coordinated with Al-Jazerra and the insurgents.

Well, I can tell you that I was highly suspicious as I watched the taped that was aired on Fox News this morning. For one thing, we had an incredible close-up shot from a "journalist", who was just standing by and taking the shot? Then, although 2 of the "kidnappers" were pictured with ski masks, there was one man who was on the other side of the car, peering into the camera shot. He jumped into the front seat before the car took off.

[Mike Darancette]

So this could have been staged??

Either that or she delivered her countrymen to the Saracens.

[armymarinemom]

I do hope they can tie this group into the Occupation Watch group that dear Medea runs.

[Pukin Dog]

Oh shut up.

I passed along what was shared with me. I made no statement of fact. I said that there are suspicions about Hamill and ALL of the 'kidnappings' That is what I said. My point? I did not make one, did I? I shared what I was told, so back off.

[VOA]

So this could have been staged??

Probably.
Given that the Japanese Government basically called the "bluff" by the
Islamic thugs.
And now (a couple of hours ago), I heard the Japanese hostages were probably gonna'
be released because it was "against Islamic law" to hurt them.

Funny, I guess it wasn't against Islamic law to kill all the Muslims in the WTC
on 9-11....

Islam: It's whatever the murdering Islamics say it is...today.

[Liberty Valance]

bump

[SuziQ]

Leave her to them!

[atomic conspiracy]

Shut up.

Back off.

You're in no position to give me orders. You brought up these suspicions. I objected to them. You seem to have a real problem with that and you have responded with backpedaling and an adolescent temper tantrum. You have agreed that there was no point in raising them. You're the one backing off.

[Pukin Dog]

I brought up that there were active suspicions, to which you went wacko, suggesting conspiracy theories and other nonsense. I am perfectly capable of saying "shut up" without anger. Do you really think I care what you think? I see no backtracking in my comments, only clarification, so that others don't have to go weird over a comment I make. I'll decide what I ought to share, not you.

[victoryatallcosts]

Frankly, I hope that this prompts Japan to send some real forces to the Middle East. It isn't widely known, but Japan probably has the second, third, or fourth strongest military in the world (depending on what you think of Chinese capabilities and Russian readiness).

Frankly, the thought of American Marines and tough Japanese Infantry fighting side by side against Moslem savages is an appealing one.

Prime Minister Kozumi is a good man and he's been a good ally against terror. The United States, Britain, Japan, Israel, Australia, Poland, and perhaps a few other nations here and there (Canada minus Quebec might be an acceptable candidate) would make a hell of an Alliance.

[Sacajaweau]

Think she'll get a warm, consoling welcome from her government when she gets off the plane? I'd recommend she find a new country as a home...and not here either.

[RonDog]

See also, from the lndependent/UK (via CommonDreams):

Published on Friday, April 9, 2004 by the lndependent/UK

'Pull Out or We Kill Hostages,' Japan Told

by Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad and David McNeill in Tokyo

Iraqi insurgents threatened to burn alive three Japanese hostages in three days' time unless the Japanese government agreed to withdraw its troops from Iraq. "Three of your sons have fallen into our hands," said a statement from the kidnappers. "We offer you two choices: Either pull out your forces, or we will burn them alive. We give you three days starting the day this tape is broadcast."

A video grab from Arab television Al Jazeera aired on April 8, 2004 shows two of the three Japanese citizens,
including one woman, said to be taken hostage by an Iraqi group. The television said a statement by the hitherto unknown Iraqi group called Saraya al-Mujahideen had given Japan three days from the airing of the video to withdraw its troops from Iraq before it killed the hostages. Passports shown on the video gave the woman's name as Takato Nahoko (R) and the two men as Noriaki Imai (L) and Soichiro Koriyama (not in picture). Al Jazeera via Reuters Television

A video shown on Arab television showed the Japanese captives, two men and a woman, blindfolded and crouched on the floor of a concrete room with an iron door. Four masked men dressed in black stood behind them holding automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. The gunmen compelled the three Japanese to lie on the floor and pointed knives and swords at their chests and throats. They then showed their passports.

The documents identified the hostages as 32-year-old Soichiro Koriyama, a freelance journalist carrying a press card for a Japanese weekly magazine, Nahoko Takato, a 34-year-old children's volunteer worker and 18-year-old Noriaki Imai, who had gone to Iraq to study the effects of depleted uranium shells on the local population.

The Japanese government demanded the release of the hostages and said that it had no plans to withdraw its 530 troops based in Samawah in southern Iraq, part of a contingent of 1,100 men being sent to take part in reconstruction work.

A spokesman for the Japanese government, Yasuo Fukuda, said: "There is no need for us to leave. We are there to bring humanitarian aid to the Iraqi people."

The sight of the hostages on Japanese television will pile pressure on Junichiro Koizumi, the country's prime minister, who sent 550 ground troops to Iraq despite much opposition and, his critics say, in breach of the constitution.

Mr Koizumi's government got round the constitution's ban on foreign military engagement by arguing that the troops were on a humanitarian mission to bring water and other supplies to Iraq.

The kidnapping is in keeping with past attacks on members of the US-led coalition who are deemed soft targets and were not expecting, when they met US requests for help a year ago, to be subjected to such savage retaliation. Italy and Spain have both been singled out for punishment over the past year.

Separately eight South Koreans were seized by masked gunmen on a road north of Baghdad. Seven of the hostages, members of an evangelical Presbyterian church, were released and one escaped.

They left for Iraq on 5 April, when the road between Baghdad and Jordan was cut off by US Marines besieging Fallujah and fighting rebels in Ramadi. South Korea has 460 doctors and military engineers based in Nasiriyah. They are being replaced by 3,600 troops who will be deployed in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The guerillas may have discovered, as happened in Lebanon in the 1980s, that kidnapping foreigners, particularly journalists, puts intense pressure on their governments. It is also true that Sunni and Shia militants in Iraq are often highly suspicious of foreigners and journalists of any description, including Iraqis.

Gary Teeley, 37, a British civilian contractor, has also been kidnapped in Nasiriyah where there has been heavy fighting this week between the Army of the Mehdi, loyal to the firebrand cleric Muqtada Sadr, and Italian troops. Mr Teeley is said to have been working at a US air base. Two Arab-Israelis have also been abducted.

Unfortunately, the Coalition Provisional Authority chose to hire private companies to provide security. This has blurred the distinction between foreign civilians and military in Iraq. The latest kidnappings will make it increasingly difficult for foreign companies to play a role in the Iraqi economy. It will also make it next to impossible for the US to find any other countries to join its coalition.

© 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd

[Texas_Jarhead]

thanks for the update, keep us posted

[Alia]

gee, that wasn't below the belt, what?

[jpsb]

If this was staged then I think the Japanese will burn them alive and they deserve it.