France's counterintelligence chief told the Financial Times that al-Qaeda's next attack against Western interests will likely fall on Asia, probably in Japan, Singapore, or even Sydney, Australia. A serious attack could destabilize the Far East economy, sending ripples throughout the global markets and creating the fear and withdrawal that Osama bin Laden wants to produce:

In an interview with the Financial Times newspaper Friday, Jean-Louis Bruguiere added that several Asian countries are less prepared than Britain or the United States for such an attack.

"We have elements of information that make us think that countries in this region, especially Japan, could have been targeted" by the Al-Qaeda network, the investigating magistrate said.

"Any attack on a financial market like Japan would mechanically have an important economic impact on the confidence of investors. Other countries in this region, such as Singapore and Australia, are also potential targets."

Despite the threat, he added, "we are somewhat neglecting the capacity or desire of the Al-Qaeda organisation to destabilise" the region.

Bruguiere has some extensive experience in the field. He predicted the kind of commercial-airline attacks on Western interests that wound up as the 9/11 attacks after stopping a similar plan against the Eiffel Tower in 1994. He has worked against Islamist terror for at least two decades, thanks to France's war against Algerian separatists, and believes that the Asian targets present too easy an opportunity for AQ to dismiss.

Japan and Australia have both provided military and political support to the United States in our prosecution of the war after 9/11. Undoubtedly, bin Laden would love a chance to undermine those alliances by striking at both the economies and the symbols of freedom in either or both countries. As Bruguiere notes, symbols play a large part in AQ attacks. The World Trade Center as a symbol held such significance for bin Laden that he attacked it twice (1993 and 2001), as well as going after the Pentagon and probably either the White House or Capitol Hill. The London attacks targeted the Tube, the subway system that allows for free movement throughout the British capital.

Bruguiere claims that none of these potential targets have sufficiently prepared to defend against such an attack. One could question whether a free society could ever meet that standard, but in the case of Australia, such a diagnosis surprises. Australians lost scores of its own citizens in the Bali attack, and they understand clearly that their staunch defense of liberty and freedom makes them a target. Japan may have more illusions; they seemed genuinely shocked when their aid workers got kidnapped in Iraq. If so, they need to shed those illusions quickly. Being nice to terrorists wins nothing but disdain from Islamofascists, as they repeatedly demonstrate.

We need to strip ourselves of any illusions about this as well. A successful attack on any of these economic powerhouses will have a serious impact on our own economy. The West needs to band together to protect our combined assets and present a united defense against AQ lunatics. Given our relationship with Japan and Australia, it should be a far easier task there than in Europe.

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