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Report: Al Qaeda planned 2002 World Cup attack
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-02-15 14:01 A senior member of the Al
Qaeda terror network told U.S. authorities the group had plans to carry out
attacks in Japan during the 2002 World Cup soccer tournament, local media
reported Saturday.
U.S. authorities advised Japan of the information, which is believed to have
come from the militant Islamic group's third-ranking official, Khalid Shaikh
Mohammed, the daily Sankei newspaper reported, citing anonymous government
sources.
The attacks were not carried out because Al Qaeda did not have a network in
Japan, which hosted the 2002 event jointly with South Korea, according to the
Sankei.
The report said Mohammed was familiar with Japan. During a three-month stay
in 1987, he reportedly studied rock-drilling machinery at a plant in central
Japan, the newspaper said, citing Japanese security authorities.
Mohammed, a mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was captured last
March in Pakistan and is in U.S. custody.
Kyodo news agency carried a similar report.
Concerns about possible terror threats against Japan or Japanese abroad have
intensified in recent months. Many fear that the government's decision to send
its military to Iraq to help with reconstruction efforts could draw such
attacks.
Last November, an alleged Al Qaeda operative threatened to attack Tokyo if it
sent troops to Iraq.
Earlier this week, there were two mortar attacks on a southern Iraqi town
where the Japanese troops are based. But Japan's defense chief said they did not
appear to be aimed at the soldiers.
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