Can Al-Qaeda Save American Journalism?

Al-Qaeda in Yemen Sets Out to “Inspire” American Terrorists

Al-Qaeda in Yemen has apparently just put out the terror group’s first-ever English-language magazine, called Inspire.  It is apparently meant to “inspire” English-speakers to become terrorists (now there is a demographic Time and Newsweek haven’t targeted yet!).  From Marc Ambinder at The Atlantic:

“Inspire” includes a “message to the people of Yemen” directly transcribed from Ayman Al-Zawahari, Al Qaeda’s second in command, a message from Osama Bin Laden on “how to save the earth,”  and the cover includes a quotation from Anwar Al-Awlaki, the American born cleric who is believed to be directly connected to the attempt to destroy an airplane over Detroit by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on Christmas Day.

The table of contents teases an interview with the leader of AQAP who promises to “answer various questions pertaining to the jihad in the Arabian Peninsula.”  It includes a feature about how to “make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom.”

This is a bold move, entering the market right now, with a PDF-only publication at that.  I can only assume that the marketing geniuses of terrorism have a solid, unconventional business plan that will lead to profitability shortly.

Just think.  Osama bin Laden – who recently escaped the religious fury of Gary Brooks Faulkner and who remains at large from tens of thousands of NATO and Pakistani troops – could succeed where all the traditional titans of journalism are failing.

In fact, according to Max Fisher at the Atlantic – where they are all over this story, contradicting each other at that - the magzine is likely a fake.  He cites the poor English, the essays by people in prison in Guantanamo, and, an unexpected sense of humor.

But Fisher can’t be sure.  There is a chance the magazine was put out by the U.S. government.  More from a follow-up from Ambinder:

Whether or real or not, the U.S. government is quite worried about even the prospect of English-language Al Qaeda propaganda. So it would be within their interests  — and the interests of a number of countries — to sabotage any document that exists, whether it’s a hoax or not.

But there is also a chance that the magazine is 100 percent real.

And so come the reviews.  At Foreign Policy, they call it “terrible” and “don’t think we’ll be seeing an iPad app any time soon.”

From the AP comes this blurb:

“This new magazine is clearly intended for the aspiring jihadist in the U.S. or U.K. who may be the next Fort Hood murderer or Times Square bomber,” Bruce Riedel, a Brookings Institution scholar and former CIA officer, said.

Meanwhile, the Christian Science Monitor gets into jihadi 2.0 on the subject.

But while Al Qaeda central may be stuck on Web 1.0, associated groups appear to have forged ahead into more modern and interactive communication techniques, according to an article in the most recent issue of a counterterrorism journal produced by the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) at the US Military Academy at West Point.

The growth in Web 2.0 tools such as file-sharing portals and social networking sites has resulted in an explosion of user-generated jihadist content outside the usual sites.

It is actually hard to find a good tone on this story.  Do you just mock this?  What if this is real?  I know Americans can get radicalized on the internet, but should I really be worried about this stupid magazine?

Better to just mock it, and close with this unintentionally beautiful kicker from the Christian Science Monitor story:

But the downside for Al Qaeda is that radicalized Muslims may be able to satisfy their desire to engage in jihad by reading about it, instead of actually travelling to Pakistan for training – in much the same way that people read travel magazines for a few minutes of escape, though they have no intention of traveling to Bali or Bahrain.