The political wing of the Red Army guerrilla organization has grown "very strong, bigger than before," according to four imprisoned members of the group in a recent interview in Beirut.

"You would be surprised at how many sympathizers we have in Japan," Masao Adachi, leader of the group, said in an exclusive interview for The Japan Times. "Why would the Japanese government be so worried about us if we were not a threat?"

Adachi also claimed the group has members in Japan ready to carry out suicide missions. Kozo Okamoto, the sole surviving member of the suicide team that attacked Israel's Lod Airport in 1972, said he has no regrets about participating in a massacre that left 26 people dead and 80 others wounded. "I had a mission," he said, "and I do not regret anything."

The men claimed they had no "direct cooperation" with other terrorist groups. In addition, they denounced the sarin gas attack on Tokyo's subway system, for which members of Aum Shinrikyo have been accused, as "a fanatic practice, a crazy act and a bad one."

The men described the attack last year by Tupac Amaru rebels on the Japanese embassy in Lima as "a tactical mistake" because "they were too soft with the Peruvian government." The Red Army members said guerrillas should have killed the hostages immediately instead of engaging in long, drawn-out negotiations with the Peruvian government.

Adachi, Okamoto, Haruo Wada and Kazuo Tohira were arrested last year in Lebanon and charged with using forged passports. Japanese requests for their extradition have thus far been denied.