Tenzo Okumura
DPJ lawmaker given warning over views on 9/11 terror attacks
TOKYO —
A ruling Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker who was criticized by The Washington Post for what it described as a ‘‘bizarre’’ conspiracy theory on the Sept 11, 2001, terror attacks received a stern warning from a senior DPJ lawmaker on Thursday.
DPJ Administration Committee Chairman Tenzo Okumura told Yukihisa Fujita, who serves as director general of the International Department of the DPJ, to watch what he says given the importance of his post, according to a participant at the meeting.
In its editorial dated March 8, The Washington Post presented Fujita’s views on the terror attacks, including his argument that some hijackers remain alive and that ‘‘shadowy forces’’ with advance knowledge of the plot profited from stock trading.
The U.S. daily described his views as a ‘‘bizarre, half-baked and intellectually bogus’’ conspiracy theory and said they ‘‘seem to reflect a strain of anti-American thought that runs through the DPJ and the government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.’‘