Louis Engelbrecht, Caleb Richardson, Chapin Bartlett, and Dan Wadman

Philosophy and Ideology Aum Shinrikyo Began as a yoga group followed the religious teachings of their leader Shoko Asahara He taught a form of Buddhism to his followers with odd touches of Hinduism Quickly became a doomsday cult preaching that the end of the world would come around 1997-1998, but later moved up to 1995. they were told that when Armageddon eventually came to pass, only Asahara’s followers would be safe

Terrorist Strategy The most dangerous weapon that Aum Shinrikyo has had access to is Sarin nerve gas. the main asset harm that the cult pursued was always people. They tried to target innocent people, indiscriminately, for their attacks easy to lose track of how many people were hurt or killed in an incident while also focusing on a destroyed building, or some other physical object much more focused attack that people should fear

Tactics and Techniques Aum Shinrikyo could not operate against the law openly because they lived in a modern society so they had to employ discrete methods to avoid detection of the authorities. The first instance was when a lawyer was about to expose incriminating evidence against the group, Aum Shinrikyo poisoned the lawyer and his family to silence them. Using various chemical and biological agents, Aum Shinrikyo committed to an ideology of mass murder and discreet individual actions in order to bring about the apocalypse They made a small play for political power, but it was quickly forgotten

Types of weapons Botulinum (1990 to 1995) Anthrax (1992 to 1993) Sarin (1993 to 1995) VX Nerve Agent (1990 to 1995) Phosgene gas (1994) Cyanide (1995) The substance used depended on the circumstances and perceived effectiveness

Impact on japan After the initial practice run of Sarin release in the city of MatsumotoThe Japanese Defense Agency began training to respond to Sarin, perform on-site inspections and to carry out a decontamination of any poisoned sites. The hospitals also started to carry high volumes of PAM (the antidote to Sarin) In 1997 decided not to outlaw the cult, but in 1999 a new law was passed which gave the Japanese Government authorization to continue police surveillance of the group due to concerns that the Aum Shinrikyo might launch future terrorist attacks

Impact on American politics & policy After the Sarin exposure in 1995 America began to establish major nation security policies in the US and spent billions of dollars on reactionary plans and supplies for numerous biological threats over the next four years The attack led to widespread reconsideration of such threats among national security groups, alerting them as never before to the “killing power of religion”. Many officials were convinced that a new era of terrorism, whose motivations would be religious, apocalyptic and concerned with Weapons of Mass Destruction, had dawned

conclusion Today, Aum Shinrikyo is much more minor. Most members are in hiding, or have been arrested, but a new spin-off of the cult has formed. This spin-off is known as Aleph, To date, Aleph has not been involved in attacks of any kind, so it could be believed that they are truly just a religious group, now, practicing their beliefs. Although they have thus far been peaceful, Aleph should probably be monitored, as it is a spin-off of a notorious terrorist organization As a terrorist organization, Aum Shinrikyo was a tad hard to take seriously the group didn’t have a specific goal in mind, so when it came to their plans and attacks they had no message, making it hard to judge whether or not they were effective