Photo 1. Portrait of Dr. Nakagawa that he personally gave to me

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1 New Information Revealed By Aum Shinrikyo Death Row Inmate Dr. Tomomasa Nakagawa Anthony T. Tu, Professor Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado Visiting Professor, Juntendo University School of Medicine Tokyo, Japan The first terrorist attack initiated by Aum Shinrikyo was the release of sarin gas in Matsumoto City on the night of June 27, This attack poisoned 500 people, and killed 7 people. On the morning of March 20, 1995 Aum released an even larger amount of sarin on the Tokyo Subway, causing 5,000 poisonings and 12 deaths. All thirteen senior member of the cult were sentenced to death and much important information about the group s criminal activities are still kept secret by the cult members who are on death row at the Tokyo Detention Center in Japan. In order to learn more information about the cult s chemical and biological weapons, I interviewed Dr. Tomomasa Nakagawa, a senior member of the cult. On December 14, 2011 the Japanese Government granted my first request to meet with Dr. Nakagawa (Photo 1). I have met with Dr. Nakagawa at the Tokyo Detention Center in Tokyo three times, December 14, 2011, June 11, 2012 and October 16, Photo 1. Portrait of Dr. Nakagawa that he personally gave to me Normally the meeting time with a death row inmate is limited to 10 minutes, but I was granted a 30- minute meeting; this was a rather exceptionally long time. It might be due to the fact that I helped the Japanese Police identify the location of the Aum s sarin manufacturing. 1. How did Aum Shinrikyo get the idea to make Sarin and VX? Dr. Nakagawa said Mr. Murai and Mr. Tsuchiya made the decision to use sarin and he was not involved in the decision. Tsuchiya got the idea to use sarin from a translated version of a book entitled, The Story of Poisons, written by D. Vachiavarov and G. Nedelchef of Bulgaria.

2 Dr. Nakagawa said the idea to use VX came from the article I wrote in 1994 for the September Issue of Chemistry Today. In this article I mentioned that sarin could be detected from the soil by analyzing its degradation product, methylphosphonic acid. The Japanese Police read my article and asked me to help them with their case against Aum Shinrikyo. The Japanese Police used this method to find the methylphosphonic acid in the soil around the area of the 7 th Satyan at Aum Shinrikyo s sarin manufacturing site. I also briefly mentioned VX in this article. I only mentioned that VX can be made from CH3- P(O)Cl2 through CH3P(O)Cl, OC2H5. At that time Tsuchiya was making sarin from PCl3 through many intermediates. One of the intermediate compounds they had was CH3- P(O)Cl2 and Tsuchiya immediately got the idea that he could make CH3P(O)Cl, OC2H5 from it and eventually make VX. Tsuchiya started to make VX one month after he read my article. Apparently, both the Japanese Police and Aum Shinrikyo read my article at the same time. Most scientists think that the Russians helped Aum Shinrikyo make sarin. However, Dr. Nakagawa clearly told me that they did not receive instruction from Russia. He said it was not very hard to make sarin. They simply learned to make it from literature that they had obtained from libraries in Japan 2. Biological Weapons Program According to Dr. Nakagawa, Aum initially emphasized BW more than CW. After realizing that the BW program would be a complete failure, they switched to a CW program. Dr. Nakagawa answered, Ebola virus is a hemorrhagic disease that is highly infectious and moreover with a high mortality rate, naturally it is a good candidate for BW. However, Aum did not have the Ebola virus nor did they know how to cultivate it. But the Aum sent a member to Kinshasa, Congo to look into the virus. They found out that it was not easy to get the virus; even in the Congo because the virus is found in monkeys. They seriously considered two biological agents. One is botulinum toxin and the other is anthrax toxin. Dr. Seiichi Endo was head of the Aum s BW program. The cult leader, Asahara, had great confidence and trust in Dr. Endo and told him to start growing both botulinum and anthrax bacteria. Asahara was quite excited and thought he could wipe out a large portion of Tokyo s population. In April 1990 he organized a seminar on Ishigaki Island in Okinawa; people thought he would teach his disciples about the Aum s teachings and the coming Armageddon. But now we know the reason was to evacuate the cult members so that they would not be exposed to the botulinum and die. Aum actually sprayed the botulinum solution at several places in Tokyo, but nothing happened. The main reason for the failure was due to the lack of proper knowledge of how to grow botulinum bacteria. The next bio agent the Aum produced was a large amount of anthrax. Only three strains are relatively well studied; they are the Ames, Vollum, and Sterne strains. The Sterne strain is nontoxic; therefore it is frequently used for vaccine production. The Sterne

3 strain lacks a protective capsule so it is destroyed by macrophages when it enters the human body. In the US there is a general belief that Endo used a non- virulent strain by mistake. Dr. Nakagawa said that this is not entirely true. He said Endo knew his anthrax was nontoxic, but he had confidence that he could convert it to a virulent strain through genetic engineering. But it was a complete failure. Dr. Nakagawa said Endo simply did not know anything about bacteriology, since he was a virologist. Both anthrax and botulinum are bacteria, not viruses. 3. Aum s Chemical Weapons Program Because of the BW projects failure, Asahara lost confidence in Endo. Mr. Murai introduced Masami Tsuchiya to Asahara, and Tsuchiya recommended the use of sarin as a chemical weapon to Mr. Murai and Asahara in January Tsuchiya made not only VX, but he also synthesized many other poisonous gases for the group. Immediately after the Yomiuri Daily reported that Japanese Police had found organophosphates in the soil around the 7 th Satyan, Aum Shinrikyo was on alert. They started destroying all the chemical weapons that they had produced. But they had too much sarin and its precursors so they could not destroy it all in 3 days. They hid the sarin precursor, difluoro compound, until they used it in the Tokyo Subway attacked on March 20, On September 19, 1994 the Japanese Police asked me how to search for methylphosphonic acid after they read an article I had published in Chemistry Today. In this article I mentioned sarin could be detected from it degradation products in the soil. After the Japanese Police asked me for help I received analytical methods from the US Army of how to detect sarin degradation products monoisopropylmethyl phosphonate and methylphosphonic acid. The finding of methylphosphonic acid by the Japanese Police lead to the eventual collapse of Aum Shinrikyo. Dr. Nakagawa said they stopped making sarin at the large facility of the 7 th Satyan once they heard the report (Photo 2). Photo 2. The author in front of three sarin manufacturing sites at Kamikuishiki

4 Left: Jivaka prefab where the sarin used for the Tokyo Subway attack on March 20, 1995 was made. Middle: Kushiti Galva prefab (Tsuchiya s lab). The sarin made here was used for the Matsumoto City attack on June 26, Aum Shinrikyo used diethylaniline to neutralize the acid produced at the 1 st and 5 th step reactions. I had always wondered where they got the information that told them to use diethylaniline in sarin synthesis. Dr. Nakagawa told me that Mr. Tsuchiya discovered the method of using diethylaniline by trial and error. He also told me that among the many basic compounds used they had also tried triethylamine, but no sarin was produced. 4. More than Sarin and VX in the Aum Shinrikyo s Arsenal I was shocked to learn that Aum Shinrikyo had more chemical weapons than anyone had anticipated. They actually synthesized 20g of soman (GD), 20g of tabun (GA), and 20g of cyclosarin (G7) in April Mustard gas was made in a larger quantity, 200kg, in December They also made phosgen and used it once. They did not use these chemical agents, with the exception of phosgene, because only relatively small quantities were synthesized (Fig 1). Fig. 1. Chemical agents made by Aum Shinrikyo other than sarin and VX. These facts are not well known to the public. Why didn t the Japanese know about these deadly chemical agents? There are probably two reasons that account for this. One is that the police investigation focused on the collection of information related to Aum s criminal acts. If some chemical agents are not used then they remain outside of the police investigation. The second reason is attributed to the methods of Japanese Police investigations. In Japan, the special inquiry office conducts questioning of a criminal; they do not know any science or chemistry. Therefore, when it comes to questions involving chemistry, the officer simply lets the criminals write the answers themselves. So the criminals do not have to answer if it was not asked. 5. Different Ways to Make Sarin

5 The Aum Shinrikyo made sarin mainly in the laboratory at the Kushiti Galva prefab (Tsuchiya s lab). Aum Shinrikyo made sarin using 5 steps, and they modified the steps depending on the attack the sarin was to be used for (Fig 2). Fig.2. Aum Shinrikyo basically used 5 steps for sarin synthesis. For the Matsumoto City attack they started from the 2 nd step. For the Tokyo Subway attack they started from the 5 th step. For the 7 th Satyan sarin mass production they started from the 1 st step but they stopped sarin production at the 3 rd step. A. Sarin Used for the Matsumoto City Attack The sarin used for the Matsumoto City attack was made from the second step; the first step was omitted. They used it in Matsumoto City on the night of June 27, B. Tokyo Subway Attack They had a large stock of the sarin precursor, difluro- methylphosphonic acid, so only the final step was used to make sarin overnight. Because they were pressed for time, they did not purify the final product and used it in the condition in which it was obtained. If the sarin had been purified, there would have been more casualties. C. Sarin Manufacture at the 7 th Satyan The 7 th Satyan was a huge building and Aum Shinrikyo tried to make 70 tons of sarin here. They gained experience in making sarin on a laboratory bench starting from the

6 second step, by purchasing P(OCH3)3. They never had experience making the first step, even at their lab. Asahara was anxious to make sarin in large quantities at the 7 th Satyan and 70 tons was their goal. Because of their lack of experience, they failed many times to make P(OCH3)3 from PCl3. This caused the first step reaction mixture to leak through to the outside twice. Japanese Police were unable to detect the identity of noxious gases at that time. By trial and error, the Aum eventually succeeded to the third step of sarin production. On January 1, 1995 Yomiuri Shinbun published in a newspaper that the Japanese Police detected organophosphates from the soil of Kamikuishiki, where the 7 th Satyan was located. This news alerted Asahara and he ordered the Aum to stop the manufacture of sarin and they tried to destroy all the sarin and its precursors that they possessed. So, at the 7 th Satyan large- scale production of sarin was also stopped at the 3 rd step. 6. Where Did the Methylphosphonic Acid Come From? In November 1994, there was a noxious gas leak from the 7 th Satyan and the Japanese Police were able to detect methylphosphonic acid in the soil. A. Methylphosphonic Acid In the Soil The discovery of methylphosphonic acid (MPA) in the soil as, reported by the Japanese Police, really puzzled the senior members of Aum Shinrikyo. How can one discover the sarin degradation product, MPA, without sarin being produced? Aum Shinrikyo s members thought the Japanese Police fabricated this information. Matsumoto s sarin was made at Tsuchiya s lab. Tsuchiya s lab and the 7 th Satyan were next to each other. Dr. Nakagawa said the soil around Tsuchiya s lab was heavily contaminated by sarin and its precursors. So he thinks the MPA that the Japanese Police found came from Tsuchiya s lab, not the 7 th Satyan. B. Methylphosphonic Acid from Inside the 7 th Satyan The Japanese Police said they detected methylphosphonic acid from the soil near the 7 th Satyan. But the Japanese Police published two articles saying that they also found methylphosphonic acid inside the 7 th Satyan. By interviewing Dr. Nakagawa I found a great discrepancy between the data published by the Japanese Police and the actual sarin manufacturing at the 7 th Satyan. Japanese Police said they found methyphosphonic acid, thus they obtained direct evidence of sarin manufacturing at the 7 th Satyan. But there was no sarin manufacture at the 4 th and 5 th steps. This mystery should be solved in the future by further investigation.