Nico Hines,
Washington
July 1 2010

Al-Qaeda has launched its first English-language propaganda magazine designed to encourage would-be terrorists into acts of violence.

The online publication, apparently aimed at British and American readers, includes features such as ‘Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom’. However, the magazine suffered an inauspicious launch – with only the first three of the 67 pages legible due to an apparent computer glitch.

Until now, al-Qaeda has relied on Arabic websites to carry its message, but Bruce Riedel, a Brookings Institution scholar and former CIA officer, said the new magazine was intended to build on recent success in the radicalisation of Western citizens.

“[It] is clearly intended for the aspiring jihadist in the US or UK who may be the next Fort Hood murderer or Times Square bomber,” he said. “The trend we’ve seen in the last year and a half is less global terrorism and much more homegrown domestic terrorism within Muslim communities.”

Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical US-born cleric living in Yemen, is thought to be behind the publication called Inspire. US authorities say his online sermons, given in English, have already inspired several terrorist plots in America.

The 39-year-old propagandist is said to have helped inspire three of the 9/11 hijackers; the perpetrator of the Fort Hood massacre last year; the Christmas Day underwear bomber and the failed Times Square bomber.

The first edition of the magazine, published by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, includes an article by Mr al-Awlaki entitled ‘May our souls be sacrificed for you’, as well as “a detailed yet short, easy-to-read manual on how to make a bomb using ingredients found in a kitchen”.

It also contains part one of a treatise on ‘What to expect in Jihad’ and translated messages from Osama Bin Laden on “how to save the earth”, and his second in command Ayman Al-Zawahari.

Anwar al-Aulaqi, another US citizen now working under the al-Qaeda umbrella in Yemen, is also featured. Michael E Leiter, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said yesterday that Mr al-Aulaqi was suspected of being directly involved in the handling of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the son of a Nigerian banker, who tried to blow up an airliner on Christmas Day last year.

Alongside the didactic invocation of violence, the magazine appealed for user generated content. “We also call upon and encourage our readers to contribute by sending their articles, comments and suggestions to us,” the editors wrote in the introduction.

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