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Japanese Take Cover as North Korea Fires Missile Near Japan

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Hours after North Korea threatened to use nuclear weapons to “sink” Japan and reduce the United States “to ashes and darkness,” it launched a missile early Friday morning from Pyongyang, the nation’s capital, that flew eastward over the Sea of Japan.

Initial reports via Twitter said the missile “fell into the Pacific Ocean about 2,000 km to the east off Hokkaido.”

The BBC reported that as soon as news of the launch was released, Japan advised its residents to take shelter. A previous North Korean missile test overflew the Japanese island of Hokkaido.

Citizens were advised “to take shelter in buildings, or underground, stay away from windows,” according to one report.

The launch followed an inflammatory statement from the Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee that called for the breakup of the United Nations Security Council, which it called “a tool of evil” made up of “money-bribed” countries that move at the order of the United States.

“The four islands of the archipelago should be sunken into the sea by the nuclear bomb of (the regime). Japan is no longer needed to exist near us,” the committee said in a statement.

North Korea also directly vilified the U.S.

“The army and people of the DPRK are unanimously demanding that the Yankees be beaten to death as a stick is fit for a rabid dog. Now is the time to annihilate the U.S. imperialist aggressors,” the statement said, using the acronym for North Korea’s official name, The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“Let’s reduce the U.S. mainland into ashes and darkness. Let’s vent our spite with mobilization of all retaliation means which have been prepared till now,” the statement said.

South Korea was also mentioned as a target.

“South Korean puppet forces are traitors and dogs of the U.S. The group of pro-American traitors should be severely punished and wiped out with fire,” the North Korean statement said. (For more from the author of “Japanese Take Cover as North Korea Fires Missile Near Japan” please click HERE)

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Why the Melted Fuel Under Fukushima Could Poison Our Planet With Nuclear Radiation for 1000s of Years

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Six years ago, an absolutely devastating tsunami caused a triple meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power facility. It was the worst environmental disaster in all of human history, and even though six years have passed since that time, nobody knows where the three melted cores are. Just recently, authorities believe that they spotted some melted fuel underneath reactor 2, but even from a distance the level of nuclear radiation that was detected was being described as “unimaginable”. Essentially what we are talking about are three enormous “dirty bombs” that are continuously emitting tremendous amounts of nuclear radiation into the air, water and soil. Some of the radioactive elements that are being released have half-lives that are measured in tens of thousands of years, and so the poisonous effect of these “dirty bombs” could potentially be with us for generation after generation.

Personally, I don’t know why the big mainstream news outlets in the U.S. are almost entirely ignoring Fukushima these days. Fox News did a story on the “unimaginable” radiation at Fukushima just a few days ago, but that was about it.

To me, it is certainly newsworthy that nuclear radiation inside reactor 2 at Fukushima is at the highest level ever recorded…

Radiation levels inside a damaged reactor at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant have hit a record high, and are the worst since the plant suffered a triple meltdown nearly six years ago. The latest readings now pose a serious challenge as officials prepare to dismantle the stricken facility.

Radiation levels inside the containment vessel of reactor No. 2 at Fukushima has reached 530 sieverts per hour—a figure described by experts as “unimaginable.”

Previously, the highest level of radiation measured at Fukushima was 73 sieverts per hour, and just a small fraction of that amount would be fatal to most humans…

Needless to say, this plant is not fit for human life. Just one dose of a single sievert is enough to cause radiation sickness and nausea. Exposure to four to five sieverts would kill about half of those exposed to it within a month, while a single dose of 10 sieverts is enough to kill a person within weeks.

At 530 sieverts per hour, the radiation is so intense that even robots can only last for a couple of hours in that environment. The Japanese hope to eventually remove the melted fuel from these reactors someday, but first they have to figure out if it is even possible.

And the truth is that the level of radiation in reactor 2 may actually be far higher than 530 sieverts per hour. That is because the recent reading was taken “some distance from the melted fuel”…

The 530 sievert reading was recorded some distance from the melted fuel, so in reality it could be 10 times higher than recorded, said Hideyuki Ban, co-director of Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center.

Experts are also warning that the levels of radiation may be much higher than 530 sieverts per hour in reactors 1 and 3. Nobody knows, because the melted fuel in those reactors has not even been located yet.

Even though so much time has gone by, there is still very much an urgency to this crisis. In a newly published article, Mike Adams of Natural News explained why this is the case…

In effect, Fukushima has become the world’s largest dirty bomb, and the remaining fuel rods could explode (achieve criticality) at any moment. Even right now, the radiation is so intense that robots built to explore the wreckage can only survive for a few hours before their circuits are destroyed. Thus, there’s almost no scenario in which Japan, Tepco or anybody in the world figures out how to clean up the wreckage, reclaim the melting fuel rods and reestablish control over the nuclear reactions that are still ongoing.

You can’t even successfully build a containment vessel on top of it all because the melting nuclear fuel has already burned a massive hole in the floor and is melting its way into the ground water.

What most people don’t understand is that the melted nuclear fuel under Fukushima is going to be with us for a very, very long time. Some of the fuel rods contained plutonium-239, and plutonium-239 has a half-life of approximately 24,000 years…

Do they think a one-meter hole magically appears in nuclear containment vessels due to random chance? No, it’s melting fuel rods, you morons. And some of that fuel is MOX fuel, which contains plutonium-239 that boasts a half life of 24,000 years. So sometime in the year 26000 A.D. the Fukushima nightmare will be HALF as toxic as it is right now. What a wonderful, progressive future to look forward to, eh?

Plutonium-239 is one of the most dangerous substances known to humanity. As nuclear expert Steven C. Jones once explained, it would not take much plutonium-239 to kill every man, woman and child on the entire planet…

To give one an example of how lethal radiation is, one pound of plutonium evenly distributed into everyone’s lungs would kill every man, woman and child on Earth. There are literally “tons” of radioactive plutonium (among other radioactive elements) that have been released into the air and ocean environments since March 11th. Another critical fact to remember is that radioactive plutonium, for example, remains lethal (killing life) for thousands years as it has a half-life of 24,000 years. Some other radioactive elements such as uranium have a half-life of 4.47 billion years.

And remember, more radioactive material is being released from Fukushima every single day. The following comes from an interview with Kevin Kamps, the radioactive waste monitor at Beyond Nuclear…

There are claims that “it’s all contained, don’t worry about it.” It is indisputable that there is a daily flow of radioactively contaminated groundwater into the ocean. The figures something like 80,000 gallons per day of relatively low-level radioactive waste water. Then you’ve got those storage tanks – we’re talking 800,000 tons of highly radioactive water stored in tanks. Every day they pour a hundred tons of water on each of these three melted down cores. Sometimes they lose those tanks. They leak, they overflow – it is an ongoing catastrophe.

Are you starting to understand how serious this is?

Once nuclear material escapes from Fukushima, it literally gets distributed all over the planet.

That means that it is getting into our air, our water and our food supply.

And I find it extremely interesting that the EPA was moving to dramatically raise the “safe limits” on radioactivity in our drinking water right at the end of the Obama administration. The following comes from a Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility press release dated December 22, 2016…

“Following Japan’s Fukushima meltdown in 2011, EPA’s claims that no radioactivity could reach the U.S. at levels of concern were contradicted by its own rainwater measurements showing contamination from Fukushima throughout the U.S. well above Safe Drinking Water Act limits. In reaction, EPA prepared new limits 1000s of times higher than even the Fukushima rainwater because ‘EPA experienced major difficulties conveying to the public that the detected levels…were not of immediate concern for public health.’”

Why in the world would the EPA do that?

Here are some more of the details…

The documents obtained by PEER revealed that the EPA plans to raise maximum allowable limits of iodine-131, cobalt-60 and calcium-45 to more than 10,000 times the levels allowed under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Others would be hundreds or thousands of times higher under the new guidelines.

The agency’s justification for withholding the new proposed limits from the public until after the proposal had been adopted was that it wanted to “avoid confusion.”

Radioactive material is also getting into our food supply. If you love to eat fish this next item may be a bummer, because it is being reported that radiation from Fukushima was recently found in salmon off the coast of Oregon…

Fish contaminated by radiation from the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan have been detected 6,000 miles away of the US west coast.

Salmon carrying traces of caesium 134 particles – the so-called fingerprint of the Fukushima – were found by researchers in the seas off Oregon.

One we eat something that has been contaminated, radioactive material will often migrate to key organs in our body, and once it is there it can poison us indefinitely. In a previous article I included a quote from author Helen Caldicott, the author of “Crisis Without End: The Medical and Ecological Consequences of the Fukushima Nuclear Catastrophe“. I am including the quote once again in this article because it is absolutely imperative that we all understand the danger that we are facing…

Internal radiation, on the other hand, emanates from radioactive elements which enter the body by inhalation, ingestion, or skin absorption. Hazardous radionuclides such as iodine-131, caesium 137, and other isotopes currently being released in the sea and air around Fukushima bio-concentrate at each step of various food chains (for example into algae, crustaceans, small fish, bigger fish, then humans; or soil, grass, cow’s meat and milk, then humans). After they enter the body, these elements – called internal emitters – migrate to specific organs such as the thyroid, liver, bone, and brain, where they continuously irradiate small volumes of cells with high doses of alpha, beta and/or gamma radiation, and over many years, can induce uncontrolled cell replication – that is, cancer. Further, many of the nuclides remain radioactive in the environment for generations, and ultimately will cause increased incidences of cancer and genetic diseases over time.

The amount of cesium-137 that has been released at Fukushima is equivalent to hundreds of Hiroshima bombs.

But because we can’t see, touch, taste or hear the danger, to many people it may not seem real.

Nuclear radiation is a silent killer, and unless a miracle happens the consequences of the Fukushima nuclear disaster will be felt for generations to come. (For more from the author of “Why the Melted Fuel Under Fukushima Could Poison Our Planet With Nuclear Radiation for 1000s of Years” please click HERE)

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Japan Overtakes China as Largest Holder of U.S. Treasuries

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China’s holdings of U.S. Treasuries declined to the lowest in more than six years as the world’s second-largest economy uses its currency reserves to support the yuan. Japan overtook China as America’s top foreign creditor, as its holdings edged down at a slower pace.

A monthly Treasury Department report showed China held $1.12 trillion in U.S. government bonds, notes and bills in October, down $41.3 billion from the prior month and the lowest investment since July 2010. The portfolio of Japan decreased for third month, falling by $4.5 billion to $1.13 trillion, according to the data. Collectively, the two nations account for about 37 percent of America’s foreign debt holdings.

China’s foreign reserves, the world’s largest stockpile, declined for the fifth straight month in November to $3.05 trillion — the lowest since March 2011 — amid support for the sliding currency. That stockpile has fallen from a record $4 trillion in June 2015. (Read more from “Japan Overtakes China as Largest Holder of U.S. Treasuries” HERE)

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US Security Benefits When Japan, south Korea Share Intelligence

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South Korea recently announced it would restart negotiations with Japan for a military and intelligence sharing agreement. Washington should encourage this growing security cooperation.

Moon Sang-gyun, spokesman for South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense, said Sept. 27 that North Korea’s “nuclear and missile threats are escalating by the day, so our security situation is becoming more critical.”

My own recent private discussions with government officials in Seoul confirmed South Korea’s intent to move forward on the agreement, formally called a General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA).

The GSOMIA would be the first military pact between Seoul and Tokyo since 1945. Though historic, the agreement is simply a legal framework of required methods to protect classified information that allows for the bilateral exchange of intelligence about North Korea’s nuclear, missile, submarine, and conventional force threats as well as potential military and cyberattacks.

History Impeded Progress

While Washington has strong alliances with both South Korea and Japan, the security relations between Seoul and Tokyo have been extremely limited due to territorial disputes and bitter historical animosities dating to Japan’s brutal, 35-year occupation of the Korean Peninsula between 1910 and 1945.

In June 2012, South Korea and Japan were within an hour of signing a General Security of Military Information Agreement, but Seoul canceled at the last moment. The reasons: fierce domestic criticism and legislative backlash over the secretive nature of the talks and the prospect of signing a pact with Korea’s former colonial oppressor.

The head of the opposition party at the time accused the South Korean government of seeking “to give access without restriction to military facilities and intelligence in seeking to forge a military intelligence treaty with a country that invaded our nation in the past.”

In reality, under the planned agreement Seoul and Tokyo would retain authority for deciding what data are shared.

Despite the collapse of the agreement, Seoul and Tokyo continued to quietly improve bilateral security relations. They exchanged observers during military exercises and engaged in trilateral naval and missile defense training exercises with the United States.

The U.S., South Korea, and Japan signed a limited intelligence sharing agreement in December 2014, but it still required Washington to be the intermediary for information provided by Seoul and Tokyo. While that agreement was an improvement, it still didn’t enable effective, real-time security cooperation during a crisis or attack.

Recent progress was enabled by the December 2015 bilateral agreement on South Korean women forced into sexual slavery—they were known euphemistically as “comfort women”—during the 1910-1945 Japanese occupation.

The landmark agreement was a stunning success achieved through diplomatic perseverance, as well as political courage by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Park Geun-hye to push back against nationalist elements in their respective countries.

This past March, the U.S., Japanese, and South Korean leaders pledged to increase military cooperation against the growing North Korean threats.

On Oct. 14, South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo explained that “the need has heightened” for the bilateral agreement because of North Korea’s two nuclear tests and breakthrough successes on several missile systems in 2016.

Seoul is also probably more receptive given China’s heavy-handed threats of economic, diplomatic, and military pressure against the U.S. in deploying the missile defense system known as Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, in South Korea.

Critical for Allied Security

A bilateral General Security of Military Information Agreement between America’s critical northeast Asian allies would improve deterrence and defense capabilities against Pyongyang’s escalating nuclear and missile threats. Currently, for example, U.S. military officers must turn off live feeds from South Korean or Japanese sensors when representatives of the other ally enter a command or intelligence center.

Removing the intelligence-sharing constraints would be in South Korea’s national interests, since it would enable access to North Korean threat data from Japan’s high-tech intelligence satellites, AEGIS ships, and early warning and anti-submarine aircraft. South Korea could provide information on the North’s missiles detected by long-range air search radar.

Both South Korea and Japan have extensive, highly capable militaries. Given Pyongyang’s large submarine fleet and successful launch of a submarine-launched ballistic missile this year, coordinated trilateral anti-submarine and counter-mining operations are increasingly important.

The GSOMIA also is necessary for a comprehensive allied missile defense system in Asia. Integrating South Korea, Japanese, and U.S. warning sensors and tracking radars would enhance real-time missile defense security for all three countries. However, to date, South Korea has refused to integrate its Korea Air and Missile Defense system into the more comprehensive and effective allied ballistic missile defense system.

Despite the clear and present danger from North Korean missiles, South Korea insists on maintaining an independent and less capable missile defense system to protect its citizens and U.S. forces in Korea against the North’s nuclear, biological, and chemical missile attacks.

In addition to signing the agreement, South Korea should integrate its missile defense system into the comprehensive allied system with linked sensors to improve deterrence and defense capabilities for the forces of all three countries.

What Washington Should Do

U.S. interests in Asia—ensuring regional stability, protecting maritime freedom of navigation, and peaceful resolution of disputes—benefit from greater multilateral cooperation.

Washington therefore should continue policies to augment bilateral and trilateral military cooperation efforts with Seoul and Tokyo, particularly in missile defense against the North Korean threat.

Strong trilateral security cooperation also can affirm recently improving South Korea-Japanese relations and form the basis for addressing other regional and global security challenges.

The U.S. will remain the guarantor of regional stability and should:

• Publicly highlight the need for greater South Korean-Japanese military and diplomatic cooperation as a vial component of comprehensive security efforts against North Korea’s growing military threat. While the immediate need is on missile defense and anti-submarine operations, Japan and South Korea should discuss potential joint peacekeeping missions, counterterrorism, counterpiracy, and disaster response operations.

• Step up trilateral military exercises to increase transparency, augment familiarity of operations necessary during a crisis, and improve combined capabilities.

• Continue to affirm unequivocal military support for South Korea and Japan, including the U.S. extended deterrence guarantee of the nuclear umbrella, missile defense, and conventional forces.

• Maintain robust, forward-deployed military forces in South Korea, Japan, and the Western Pacific to deter, defend, and defeat security threats to U.S. national interests and American allies. The U.S. presence also should allay South Korean concerns over Japan’s defense reforms and slowly growing security role.

• Privately counsel both South Korea and Japan to make progress on implementing the December 2015 “comfort women” agreement and refrain from comments and actions that could incite nationalist responses in either country.

• Propose an annual trilateral meeting of the three countries’ foreign and defense ministers (a “2+2+2 meeting”) to develop a joint strategic vision and integrate roles, missions, and capabilities.

A Necessity

U.S. national interests and ability to defend them are enhanced by greater cooperation among our allies. This is particularly true between South Korea and Japan, which recently have overcome strained bilateral relations.

The growing military capabilities of North Korea and China, and their willingness to use them to test international resolve, have increased tensions and the risk of military incidents or clashes.

While the actions by Pyongyang and Beijing are inimical to allied interests, they have crystalized the necessity that South Korea and Japan overcome historic differences to address current and future threats.

Washington should welcome and encourage growing South Korean-Japanese security cooperation. (For more from the author of “US Security Benefits When Japan, South Korea Share Intelligence” please click HERE)

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THANKS, MR. OBAMA: Japan Prepares Warplanes and Naval Forces to Repel China’s Rising Ambitions

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Japan is providing regional partners with the tools required for future showdowns with China in the South China Sea.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met Tuesday with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte and agreed to gift the Philippines two large patrol ships and five surveillance aircraft, according to Reuters.

The promised vessels and aircraft will be in addition to the 10 coast guard ships Japan promised to the Philippines as part of a $158 million soft loan agreement in 2015. The first of the 10 ships arrived in August.

Abe will reportedly also give Malaysia two used coast guard vessels, reports the Nikkei Asian Review. Along with the ships, Japan will provide technical support and repair services.

Japan agreed to furnish Vietnam with $1.7 million in used patrol vessels and equipment in September last year. The two sides decided to accelerate and enhance the patrol boat program during a high-level meeting in May.

The Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam are all engaged in territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea.
China claims the vast majority of the South China Sea, through which roughly $5 trillion in global trade passes each year. The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled against China’s claims in mid-July; however, China has completely rejected the ruling and the authority of the arbitration tribunal.

Between 2010 and 2016, there were 45 incidents in the South China Sea, and China’s coast guard vessels were involved in 68 percent of these incidents, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) revealed in a recent report.

Over the past five years, China has spent roughly $1.74 billion annually on its coast guard. The annual coast guard budgets for the Philippines and Vietnam have only been around $100 to $200 million.

China’s total coast guard tonnage increased from 110,000 to 190,000 between 2010 and 2016. The total coast guard tonnage for the Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam are only 20,000, 6,500, and 15,000 respectively.

China is able to engage in provocative behavior in the South China Sea because other claimant states lack the coast guard capabilities to stand up to China.

“We’re seeing bullying, harassment and ramming of vessels from countries whose coast guard and fishing vessels are much smaller, often to assert sovereignty throughout the South China Sea,” Bonnie Glaser, a CSIS regional security expert, explained in an interview with Reuters. “The evidence is clear that there is a pattern of behavior from China that is contrary to what law enforcement usually involves.”

Japan’s coast guard budget by comparison is around $1.5 billion, which suggests that Japan has the ability to boost the capabilities of some of China’s neighbors.

Chinese ships, including several coast guard vessels, have reportedly returned to the Scarborough Shoal, stirring concerns in the Asia Pacific and beyond.

China’s stance on Japan’s involvement in the South China Sea has been fairly consistent. “Japan is not a concerned party in the South China Sea issue, and it has no right to intervene in relevant disputes,” explained Chinese Ministry of National Defense spokesperson Colonel Wu Qian at a press conference last month.

China has told Japan that if it expands its operations and attempts to participate in a freedom-of-navigation drill in the South China Sea, it will cross a “red line.” (For more from the author of “THANKS, MR. OBAMA: Japan Prepares Warplanes and Naval Forces to Repel China’s Rising Ambitions” please click HERE)

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Japan Executes Two Prisoners Amid Protests

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Human rights campaigners have condemned Japan’s use of the death penalty after two inmates were hanged, bringing the number of executions to 16 since the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, took office in late 2012.

The executions were carried out on Friday, just weeks before Japan is to host the G7 leaders summit: Japan and the US are the only two G7 nations that retain the death penalty, while European countries are among the most vocal critics of Japan’s secretive executions.

Yasutoshi Kamata, 75, was hanged in Osaka for the murders of five people – including a nine-year-old girl – between 1985 and 1994, according to Japanese media.

Junko Yoshida was convicted of killing two men in the late 1990s to obtain life insurance payments. The 56-year-old, who was executed in Fukuoka, is the first woman to be hanged in Japan since 2012.

Campaigners accused Japan of resisting the global trend towards the abolition of the death penalty in the mistaken belief that the punishment acts as a deterrent. (Read more from “Japan Executes Two Prisoners Amid Protests” HERE)

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Watch: Huge Explosions at US Army Base in Japan as Warehouse Burns and Emergency Services Rush to Scene

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vast-US-military-presence-on-Okinawa-is-a-source-of-friction-with-islandersSeveral huge explosions were heard today at a US army base in Japan.

At least 10 fire engines rushed to the scene in Sagamihara city, south of Tokyo, amid reports of a blast sparked by an unknown cause.

Footage shows several small bangs and one huge explosion, which witnesses described on social media as like “a fireworks display.”

Pentagon spokesman US Navy Commander Bill Urban confirmed there are no injuries.

The site is part of a US army complex next to the capital where three deliberate explosions were reported in April, in what police suspect was an act of left-wing Japanese extremists. (Read more from “Huge Explosions at US Army Base in Japan as Warehouse Burns and Emergency Services Rush to Scene” HERE)

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Japanese Confirm Beheading of Kenji Goto

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Photo Credit: International Business Times By Priya Joshi. The Japanese government has confirmed that a video showing the beheading of hostage Kenji Goto appears to be genuine.

The one minute-long footage was released by Islamic State (IS) on Saturday (31 January).

The video titled ‘A Message to the Government of Japan’ shows Mr. Goto dressed in an orange jumpsuit, kneeling on the ground as the executor, believed to be Jihadi John, delivers a scripted speech in which he threatens to inflict more brutality on the citizens of Japan.

He says: “Abe, because of your reckless decision to take part in an unwinnable war, this knife will not only slaughter Kenji, but will also carry on and cause carnage wherever your people are found. So let the nightmare for Japan begin.”

The Japanese, UK and US governments have strongly condemned IS for the latest execution of a hostage. (Read more about the beheading of Kenji Goto HERE)

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As Japan Grieves Over Second Citizen Slain by ISIS, Jordan Still Holding Their Breath

By Bill Neely. As Japan reels from the apparent beheading of a second citizen by ISIS, another country half a world away is holding its breath.

With the purported beheading of journalist Kenji Goto — just days after ISIS murdered another Japanese citizen — Tokyo has been dragged squarely into a conflict it has long sought distance from. Goto’s image is everywhere and Japan’s bleary-eyed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has vowed the country will “never, never forgive” the terrorists who took him.

But while the world’s attention focused on the fate of two Japanese hostages — and collectively expressed outrage over their murders — ISIS has threatened to kill another captive whose fate has much greater significance in the battle for control of large swathes of the Middle East.

Jordanian pilot Lt. Muath al Kasasbeh was on a bombing run over Syria in December when he was forced to eject and immediately captured by ISIS fighters. His continued captivity — and ISIS threats to murder him — are a national trauma for Jordan.

Kasasbeh’s case underscores how ISIS has Jordan in its crosshairs. The terror group loathes the moderate Muslim regime and its king, viewing Jordan as a treacherous country for its decades-long alliance with the United States. ISIS is at Jordan’s border and wants nothing more than to destabilize the country and ultimately make it part of its ‘caliphate.’ (Read more from this story HERE)

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Japanese Hostage Assumed Murdered by ISIS

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By Martin Fackler. Japan’s prime minister expressed outrage on Sunday at an image released Saturday that appeared to show the decapitated body of one of two Japanese hostages captured by Islamic State militants, and President Obama condemned what he called a “brutal murder.”

The kidnappers had threatened to kill the men if a Friday deadline passed for a $200 million ransom from Japan. On Saturday, a video appeared in which one of the hostages, Kenji Goto, a 47-year-old journalist, was shown holding a photo of what appeared to be the decapitated body of the other hostage, Haruna Yukawa, 42, an adventurer.

The prime minister, Shinzo Abe, said that while experts were still analyzing the photo, it had “a high chance of being real.” Speaking on a television debate show, Mr. Abe condemned the apparent killing of Mr. Yukawa as an “outrageous and unforgivable act of violence,” and demanded the immediate release of Mr. Goto. (Read more about the hostage assumed dead HERE)

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Japan Left Speechless After the Supposed Killing of a Hostage

By Fox News. Japan’s prime minister said Sunday he was “speechless” after an online video purportedly showed an Islamic State militant killing one of the two Japanese hostages.

Shinzo Abe told Japanese broadcaster NHK the government is still reviewing the video, but it was likely authentic. Abe offered his condolences to the family and friends of 42-year-old Haruna Yukawa, who was taken hostage in Syria last year.

Abe did not comment about the message in the latest video that demanded a prisoner exchange for the other hostage, journalist Kenji Goto.

“I am left speechless,” he said, stressing he wants Goto released unharmed. “We strongly and totally criticize such acts.” (Read more about Japanese hostage assumed murdered by ISIS HERE)

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Green Party Says Western Militaries Bad, ISIS Rebels Good

Joining al Qaeda or ISIS should not be illegal, the leader of the Green Party has said. She could see no conflict between that and her party’s wish to downgrade much of Britain’s military. The party plans to turn a number of British military bases into nature reserves, convert military engineering firms over to manufacturing renewable energy technologies, and scrap the nuclear weapon deterrent.

Speaking to Andrew Neil on today’s Sunday Politics, Natalie Bennett, leader of the Green Party confirmed that the Green Party’s policy document states that “it should not be a crime simply to belong to an organisation or have sympathy with its aims, though it should be a crime to aid and abet criminal acts or deliberately fund such acts.”

“This is a part of our policy that I think dates back to the age of the ANC and apartheid South Africa,” she said.

When quizzed on whether that meant people would be allowed to be members of al Qaeda or ISIS, she replied “Exactly. What we want to do is make sure we are not punishing people for what they think or what they believe. (Read more from this story HERE)

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ISIS Says Countdown For Japan’s Hostages has Begun

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NY Post By Mari Yamaguchi and Elaine Kurtenbach. Japan promised Saturday not to give up “until the very end” on efforts to rescue two Japanese hostages threatened with beheading by Islamic militants demanding a $200 million ransom, after a deadline passed with no word from the captors.

Militants affiliated with the Islamic State group posted an online warning Friday afternoon that the “countdown has begun” for the extremists to kill 47-year-old Kenji Goto and 42-year-old Haruna Yukawa. The extremists gave Prime Minister Shinzo Abe 72 hours to pay the ransom, and the deadline expired Friday.

The posting, which appeared on a forum popular among Islamic State militants and sympathizers, did not show any images of the hostages, who are believed to be held somewhere in Syria. (Read more on how ISIS says countdown for Japan’s hostages has begun HERE)

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Was the New ISIS Hostage Video Filmed Indoors?

By Associated Press. The video of two Japanese hostages being held by the Islamic State group seems, like past IS videos, made in an arid, desert setting. But suspicions are emerging that the message was not prepared outdoors at all.

An expert in these videos said it was more likely completed in an indoor studio with a false backdrop made to appear that it was outdoors.

Kenji Goto, a journalist, and Haruna Yukawa, who runs a security company, are seen kneeling in orange jumpsuits with a masked man holding a knife between them. The hostage-holders are threatening to kill the men if the Japanese government does not pay a $200 million ransom.

The video, posted on militant websites Tuesday and identified as being made by the Islamic State group’s al-Furqan media arm, appears to have been filmed in the same location as those showing American hostages James Foley, Steven Sotloff and Peter Kassig and British captives David Haines and Alan Henning. (Read more from this story HERE)

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