Q: Your book starts off with a bang. Literally, when the Kensington Royal Hotel in Tokyo is bombed. As in real life, hotels are now ideal targets for terrorists. Why?
Ed Fuller: Hotels are called “soft targets” when compared to Embassies, military bases, etc. In international countries, American branded hotels become targets. Condoleezza Rice commented recently that, after 9/11, hotels became known as “soft targets” as they are unable to be hardened much like a U.S. embassy. Many times, they don’t have the stand-off distance or the physical security measures in place such as an embassy.
