Inspire No. 5, Spring 2011, p. 23
In July 2010, Inspire, a fancy quarterly English language jihadist propaganda magazine attributed to Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and distributed through its abstruse al-Malahem media outlet, has for the first time surfaced online. These days mark the publication of its fifth issue.
Although the magazine’s link to AQAP and its authenticity have – due to its varying quality and its somewhat eclectic scope of topics – been contested by some commentators, others, both within academia and governments, claim it to be a genuine source of AQAP thought.
Ronald L. Burgess, director of the US Defense Intelligence Agency, only this month referred to Inspire in a statement before the Senate’s committee on armed services, saying that “propaganda in AQAP’s English-language online magazine, Inspire, encourages followers to commit individual acts of terrorism in support of al-Qaida’s agenda”.
So while one should thoroughly scrutinize the glossy’s origin (which is still missing a bin Laden centerfold, by the way), one should as much focus on its audience and reach.
In terms of language, the magazine is almost as creative as it is artistic when introducing the term “open source jihad” or OSJ which it declares “America’s worst nightmare”. Except for last November’s “special issue”, sections labeled open source jihad have so far been contributed to all issues of Inspire, namely:
No. 1, p. 31 – 44:
- Make a bomb in the Kitchen of your Mom (author: AQ Chef)
- How to use Asrar al-Mujahideen: Sending & Receiving Encrypted Messages (author: Terr0r1st)
No. 2, p. 51 - 59:
- The ultimate mowing machine (author: Yahya Ibrahim)
- Tips for our brothers in the United Snakes (sic!) of America (author: Yahya Ibrahim)
- Asrar al-Mujahideen 2.0 extras (author: Terr0r1st)
No. 4, p. 37 – 46:
- The Burning Building / also: Destroying Buildings (author: AQ Chef)
- Training with the AK / also: OSJ Gun School (author: Abu Salih)
- Advice for those who want to help al-Malahem Media (author: Terr0r1st)
No. 5, p. 22 – 25:
- Training with the AK 2 / also: OSJ Gun School (author: Abu Salih)
Feel reminded of the meanwhile classical 1957 Total Resistance by Hans von Dach or the 1971 Anarchist Cookbook? So do I. It seems like there’s nothing really new under the Oriental sun, but at least they’re calling this rather poor publicity stunt ‘open source’. Without a doubt, everyone concerned should nevertheless carefully follow that source, since it may be of value to both sides of the front line.
Further in-depth analysis can also be found at Christopher Anzalone’s worthwile “Views from the Occident” blog.
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“The National Crime Squad (DNR, Dienst Nationale Recherche) of the Dutch National Police (KLPD; Korps landelijke politiediensten) has threatened to shut down Public Intelligence if we do not remove the issues of Inspire magazine which are made available on this site.”
http://publicintelligence.net/dutch-police-threaten-to-shut-down-public-intelligence/
It is the knowledge in the wrong hands that represents a potential threat. The mere fact that someone knows how to make a bomb does not make him a terrorist just as someone who knows how to shoot a gun does not automatically make him run amok. So in most hands such knowledge would be rather harmless. But someone who has rogue intentions would most certainly do everything to put them into effect by acquiring all necessary knowledge and means. It would be an interesting piece of research comparing the effect of public knowledge and special or secret knowledge on terrorists actions. The benefits for officials being able to observe terrorists’ plots better when terrorists communicate publicly and draw their resources from the public rather than from clandestine sources might outweigh the feared costs of permitting the spreading of potentially harmful information within the public. It seems clear that for terrorists it is often comparably easy to identify open societies’ weak spots due to the mass of information that we share while terrorists expose little or nothing. Allowing them to exchange their information publicly too could change that.
However, terrorists then also have more possibilities to deceive officials and it is quite likely that they will do so. Reliability of public information from a peaceful majority within open societies might be much higher than from a minority of rogue elements. While open societies are somewhat self-critical, terrorists are rather not and would probably not allow public criticism.
Now, should we allow them to communicate publicly or not? I do not know.
Let’m communicate their plans in public, then when we overhear them talking about nuking DC, we BUST THEIR SORRY ASSES!!!!!
Now the LAST thing the FBI wants if for them to go completely secret, exchanging information between terrorist agents by word of mouth alone, face to face (like back before telegraphs even existed). Then they WILL be able to make unstoppable plans, and 9/11 will repeat itself.
I think the FBI doesn’t want to shut down public terrorist communications. But if they do they are making the worst mistake of their lives and endangering fellow Americans in the process.
So if they DO stop public communication from terrorists, the next time we hear from Al Qaida will be when they demolish another building, and hundreds at a minimum end up dying.
Ok but what about terrorists’ incentives to deceive us with the information they give us? However, there are indications that they fall back to old communication techniques which are harder to monitor. Would allowing them to communicate openly really change anything? They wouldn’t really talk about relevant stuff anyway, would they? At least, we would just have some more information of doubtful relevance. Maybe it is better to have no information or just information from clandestine intel (Non-Open Source Intelligence or NOSINT, as we define it) with higher reliability than having just more noise. With such a lack of different, critical and reliable open sources OSINT cannot contribute much without further proof from non-open sources.
I have to agree with Florian here….to offer this to law enforcement makes sense….to me a pressure cooker is used for food so when the occurrence happen in Boston…I was searching what it meant for I refuse to believe it was the same device….however I am appalled that you would so openly publish this with out any regards to those that are harm by these actions….
You are right and in the light of the horrible events at the Boston marathon and considering other similar incidents involving improvised explosive devices (IEDs) we must conclude that providing links to copies of the magazine containing instructions for making IEDs is clearly not appropriate.
Although we had good intentions when we published this article, we underestimated the implied risk. Therefore, we have modified the article in response to your post. Thank you.
I would like to thank you for reconsidering the open post and appreciate that you like I felt it was the right action to take in disallowing an open link….We all have our individual beliefs and may agree that some political situations are handle inappropriately but never should those actions of opposition take the life of a child waiting to celebrate with his father….while I believe in free speech and press…we must hold our morals accountable…we may not have the power to stop those that have easily found these article from their actions but we can know going forward that another will not…so I applaud you in taking this action…and I would like to thank you for modifying the site….
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