Aum Shinrikyo

Executive Summary:
Aum was rich, well equipped, did the research into NBC [ Nuclear, Biological and Chemical weapons ], tried mass murder and largely failed.

A summary from Risk: The Science and Politics of Fear by Dan Gardner [ a rather good book ] at pp 305 et seq tells us that it was founded by Shoko Asahara, got rich, recruited scientists, did serious research into mass murder weapons with little success. Their nine biological attacks were not even noticed [ Gardner 306 ].

Accumulating hundreds of millions of dollars made them potentially effective. They recruited graduates of biology, chemistry, physics and engineering from the best universities and gave them first class research facilities. 20 working on biological weapons and another 80 working on chemical weapons meant they were well equipped and serious.

Buying a 500,000 acre sheep station in Oz to mine uranium for nukes means they were very serious. They were in the market for off the shelf kit like small arms, tanks, surface to surface rocket launchers, jet fighters and even tactical nukes. When Ebola arrived Shoko personally led 40 followers to central Africa to get plague samples. They failed.

They spread botulinum toxin, which causes botulism from trucks near the Imperial Palace, Parliament and American naval bases. No one even noticed. Another botulinum attack in June 1993 and anthrax attacks all failed. Chemical weapons were more effective. They produced mustard gas, sodium cyanide, VX and Sarin. The latter two are nerve gases. They had enough Sarin to kill 4.2 million people.

They carried out an attack in Matsumoto on 27 June 1994 with Sarin, getting 7 kills with 660 injured. On 25 March 1995 they used five attackers in the Tokyo underground. There were 12 dead, 42 serious and 984 affected.

They had first class arrangements and did not do as well as Timothy McVeigh on the OKC Job. Tim got 186 kills and 800 casualties using an old fashioned ANFO bomb.

Gilmore Commission ex Wiki
QUOTE
Gilmore Commission is the informal and commonly used name for the U.S. Congressional Advisory Panel to Assess Domestic Response Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction........... Chaired by former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore, this congressionally mandated commission functioned from 1999 to 2003. Five reports were presented to Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and the entire the United States Congress each December 15 from 1999 2003. Of the Gilmore Commission's 164 recommendations, 146 have been adopted in whole or in part by the Congress and the federal government. The reports can be found at www.rand.org.
UNQUOTE
There is no mention of any secret reports but then there would not be. They are entirely likely to exist though. Some of the results, such as hassling air line passengers range from silly to worthless to futile. They are expensive. That is rather point for certain types of businessman.

 

Aum Shinrikyo As Failures
QUOTE
III. A RETROSPECTIVE: THE LESSONS OF AUM SHINRIKYO
The 1995 Sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway marked a turning point in the history of terrorism. Indeed, it has become the defining incident for all discussion about terrorist use of CBRN weapons. For the first time, a nonstate group had used a chemical weapon against civilians. Subsequent investigations by the Japanese authorities, the press, and the U.S. Congress revealed that Aum had even more sinister terrorist ambitions. Beginning in 1990, cult scientists sought to develop biological weapons, and on a number of occasions, Aum members sprayed biological material in an attempt to kill large numbers of people, including members of the Japanese royal family. Testimony during the trials of the Aum leadership also alleged that the cult had unsuccessfully attacked U.S. military bases in Japan, including the naval installation at Yokosuka.
UNQUOTE
Go there and search for THE LESSONS OF AUM SHINRIKYO to see what they say. It is mainly long winded drivel.

 

Aum Shinrikyo ex Wiki
QUOTE
Aum Shinrikyo (also known as Aleph) is a Japanese new religious movement. The group was founded by Shoko Asahara in 1984. The group gained international notoriety in 1995, when it carried out the Sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subways.
UNQUOTE
They got rich by extortion.

 

Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway
QUOTE
The Sarin attack on the Tokyo subway, usually referred to in the Japanese media as the Subway Sarin Incident (地下鉄サリン事件 Chikatetsu Sarin Jiken?), was an act of domestic terrorism perpetrated by members of Aum Shinrikyo on March 20, 1995.

In five coordinated attacks, the perpetrators released Sarin on several lines of the Tokyo Metro, killing twelve people, severely injuring fifty and causing temporary vision problems for nearly a thousand others. The attack was directed against trains passing through Kasumigaseki and Nagatachō, home to the Japanese government. This was and remains the most serious attack to occur in Japan since the end of World War II.
UNQUOTE
A subway is a good place for gas attacks. So is the inside of a civil airliner. 12 kills really is not a lot when the aim is thousands.

 


Aum Shinrikyo Leader Hanged For 13 Sarin Gas Murders In 1995  [ 6 July 2018 ]
QUOTE
Shoko Asahara, the doomsday cult leader who masterminded the Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995, has been executed alongside six of his followers.

Thirteen people were killed and thousands more injured when members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult dumped bags of sarin on packed rush hour trains, piercing the pouches with sharpened umbrella tips before fleeing.

The nerve agent caused horrendous deaths and injuries, and prompted mass panic, turning Japan's busy capital city into something resembling a war zone.

Born Chizuo Matsumoto, Asahara, 63, was hanged today after he had been on death row for nearly 14 years. 

As many as 12 of his followers were still awaiting execution but it was not immediately clear how many had been executed today. 
UNQUOTE
Aum Shinrikyo was a terrorist organisation with big ideas, aiming for the full Unholy Trinity of NBC [ Nuclear, Biological and Chemical weapons ]. Their failures far outran their successes. This is moderately reassuring.

 

https://www.afp.gov.au/news-media/platypus/bizarre-brush-japanese-sect-marked-early-afp-foray-international-counter

Bizarre brush with Japanese sect marked early AFP foray into international counter terrorism Australian Federal Police
FedPol had a major story on their hands; a change from drunks fighting etc.

 

Banjawarn Station  
Was big enough to test nukes. They were thought to have tried doing just that.

 

How a Japanese cult tested nerve gas on sheep at an Australian Outback property before fatal attack [ 23 May 2020 ]
The Mail dug this one out of the archive to fill the space.

 

 

Errors & omissions, broken links, cock ups, over-emphasis, malice [ real or imaginary ] or whatever; if you find any I am open to comment.

Email me at Mike Emery. All financial contributions are cheerfully accepted. If you want to keep it private, use my PGP key.  Home

Updated  on Saturday, 26 June 2021 21:36:14