Why a Notorious Japanese Doomsday Cult Tried to Buy a $400,000 Laser From a Silicon Valley Tech Firm
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Just days before the March 20, 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system, an agent for Aum Shinrikyo — the Japanese apocalyptic cult that would go on to kill 14 people and injure thousands in one of the most notorious terrorist attacks in history — was on the phone with an American laser manufacturer.
For roughly two weeks, Aum operative Yasuo Hiramatsu had been negotiating with sales and technical representatives at Hobart Laser Products in Livermore, California for the purchase of a 3 kilowatt industrial laser welder worth approximately $400,000. The discussions grew detailed enough that Hobart’s representatives eventually patched in Aum’s Minister of Science and Technology in Japan to clarify the system’s intended use. The responses, according to an expansive 1995 US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations hearing held the following October, raised more questions than they answered.
The cult wanted the laser operable from inside a glove box — a sealed environment in which an operator manipulates equipment through thick rubber gloves, useful when biological toxins, contact poisons, or nuclear emissions are a concern. It planned to use the welder on canisters made of aluminum oxide, a material more resistant to chemical corrosion than stainless steel, including, Hiramatsu specified, “canisters within canisters.” Cash was available, and delivery was needed immediately.
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