Japanese police are investigating ominous phone calls threatening to assassinate U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and another American envoy. The calls to the U.S. Embassy specifically targeted Kennedy and Alfred Magleby, the U.S. consul general on the southern island of Okinawa. Kennedy, the daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis, has the honor of being the first woman to serve as U.S. ambassador to Japan. She was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2013 after helping with his re-election campaign. Tokyo police refused to comment on the threats. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki stated that the U.S. government takes threats to American diplomats very seriously. According to a State Department official, the Tokyo police department provides an armed security detail for Kennedy. Kennedy has drawn considerable attention since arriving in Japan. She has made well-publicized visits to the Fukushima nuclear plant demolished by a 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and to the annual commemorations of the U.S. atomic bombings of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The death threats came last month from an unknown caller speaking in English, and police started looking into the case on suspicion of blackmailing. No other details are known.
