When nine young men of a common religion in the UK were recently charged with plotting to blow up various tourist sites -- Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and the London Eye -- police reportedly found two issues of an English language Al Qaeda magazine named Inspire, published in Yemen. The UK Telegraph reports that articles recovered in the raid include titles like "How to make a pipe bomb in the kitchen of your mom," and "What to expect in jihad."
A few more issues were online at Public Intelligence's website; both government officials and terrorism specialists consider them to be authentic Al Qaeda publications, although Public Intelligence recommends scrutiny.
In a "special issue," published in November 2010 focuses on "Operation Hemorrhage": the explosion of a UPS plane after take-off from Dubai airport in September 2010; the issue opens by bragging about their cost savings in the operation, a bargain basement blowout at $4,200.
Next, an editorial signed by "Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula" explains how they did it: by sending an explosive package through each through UPS and FedEx -- one blew up upon leaving Dubai; the other made it to London before being intercepted thanks to a tip from the Saudis. The editorial laments that the American media did not properly credit Al Qaeda with the attack. It questions whether President Obama is wilfully ignorant, incompetent, or just clueless: "We would like to ask: Why didn't the enemy reveal the truth about what happened with the downed UPS plane? Is it because the enemy could not discover why the plane was brought down? Or was it because the Obama administration wanted to conceal the truth so it doesn't expose the failure of his administration especially that it was during an election season?"
Al Qaeda concludes that because they did not get proper credit, they are just going to lay low and repeat the act. So much for the theory that if you just ignore them, they will fade away.
Al Qaeda also has a bone to pick with the Saudi government for "interfering" with this special delivery meant for "Jewish synagogues" and "proving their love for Jews" in the process.
They brag that their confidence in the mission's success was so great that they dropped a copy of Charles Dickens's novel Great Expectations into one of the packages. Claiming that both packages were destined for synagogues in Chicago ("Obama's city"), they singled out a "gay and lesbian" synagogue for one of them.
Next is Ikrimah Al-Muhajir of the "Explosives Department" with the "technical details": "We have been blessed by Allah to be able to sidestep the metal detection equipment. That capability was a result of avoiding the use of metal altogether in our detonators. We have developed five such detonators." A photo of an airport body scanner accompanying the detailed construction and composition of the explosives features the caption: "Metal detectors are amateurish."
A 67-page "2010 summer issue" of the magazine features a page of "collection of quotes from friend and foe" around the world – with one such "friend" apparently being late-night comedian David Letterman, who joked, "In [President George W. Bush's book] Decision Points, he will reveal all the bad decisions and mistakes that George Bush made as president…this is volume one."
Letterman would perhaps be touched to know that by including him in this section, Al Qaeda considers him a political leader on a par with French President Sarkozy, US Secretary of Defence Bill Gates, and King Abdullah of Jordan.
Osama bin Laden himself weighs in on page 8, with an essay entitled, "The Way To Save The Earth." Bin Laden attacks "Bush Junior" on "global warming," and adds that Noam Chomsky is right in identifying capitalists as "the real terrorists."
On page 33 is the 8-page mom's kitchen pipe-bomb recipe from the "Al Qaeda Chef," followed by the article on things to expect in jihad, and lists expectations such as: language barrier; culture blending; bring a friend; and pack light because you'll be moving around a lot.
One of the editions has a list of emails at the end, in case anyone wants to contact or contribute to the publication. But they take care to add that lately they have been having problems getting to their emails.
