A review of the new issue of al-Qaeda’s Inspire magazine shows that the terror organization is seizing on the success of the Boston Marathon bombing to not only encourage Muslims in America to rise up but to shape its support system for the “lone mujahid.”
The “special issue” of the glossy magazine is widely devoted to the “BBB” — “Blessed Boston Bombings” — and brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as it analyzes what they did right, but puts a forward-looking spin on how to mold, as the administration calls them, “lone wolf” independent jihadists in the future.
The magazine is so fresh it also lauds the Oklahoma tornado as a “soldier of Allah” and praises Michael Adebolajo’s speech as he stood on a Woolwich street with bloodied hands and blades after he hacked British soldier Lee Rigby.
And with the “BBB” and Woolwich murder to rally the jihad troops, al-Qaeda seems fully intent on embracing, encouraging, and aiding a metastasizing strategy that President Obama recently branded as a concern but not as monumental as the imminent defeat of the “core of al-Qaeda.”
“Today, the core of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan is on a path to defeat. Their remaining operatives spend more time thinking about their own safety than plotting against us. They did not direct the attacks in Benghazi or Boston. They have not carried out a successful attack on our homeland since 9/11,” Obama said in a May 23 speech, calling the threat “more diffuse” with al-Qaeda affiliates such as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
Obama said his counterterrorism strategy will hinge on “finish[ing] the work of defeating al-Qaeda and its associated forces” and “addressing the underlying grievances and conflicts that feed extremism.”
AQAP’s slick English-language magazine follows up Obama’s claims of a terror group on the run by trumpeting the tangible results from its open-source jihad guidance within just the first 10 issues of publication.
“The responsibility for fighting America and allies is not limited to Al-Qaeda, it is also the duty of every Muslim,” the magazine notes in Issue 11 next to a graphic of a flaming iPad in bragging that the Chechen brothers were “inspired by ‘Inspire’.”
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev reportedly told investigators that the brothers reaped bomb-building guidance from the magazine, which once featured the article “How to build a bomb in the kitchen of your mom.”
A unifying theme throughout the latest edition is a belief that the Boston bombings proved America is more vulnerable because of its stubborn resistance to recognize the threat.
“As Obama confessed his intelligence failure after the operation of Umar Farouq the Nigerian in 2009, he is obliged to confess the same failure once again after the Boston Marathon operation, and more,” one article states.
The goal after Boston, the cover story proclaims, “is not to unfold the details of the Boston Marathon operation, rather we will focus on the indications of this operation in the development of this blazing war.”
The article even notes how “some analysts speculated that the Boston Marathon operation was executed by local extremists; white radicals or racists.”
“It was not long until these speculations were dissipated after the men behind the bombings were identified, especially that they were Muslims. It is worth noting that one of the brothers was under the United States Watch List.”
The piece also references the 2009 “operation of Nidal Hassan” as one of the post-9/11 jihadi attacks on American soil, even though the administration still refers to the Fort Hood massacre as “workplace violence” while claiming to characterize it otherwise would jeopardize Hasan’s prosecution.
“It also seems that Obama will have to announce a new type of Lone Jihad which is impossible to counter and stop, except when basic cooking ingredients and building material become illegal!” the story continues. “Yes, this is the only solution. A Lone Jihad operation like that of Boston Marathon requires nothing more than a few utensils, some matchsticks, a box of nails and a clock for timing. Another ingredient which I should mention is a group of American citizens gathered in a ceremony, sports event or just surprising time and place.”
“Obama is obligated to announce that he is out of options to counter operations inside the US boundaries. And the Intelligence community has no more options. So the American people are to face their fate alone.”
The issue doesn’t just analyze the methods of the Tsarnaev brothers, but the Washington response and holes in readiness as well as the economic impact.
“It is worth to note that coordination is still missing between the 16 agencies of the IC,” one article notes of the U.S. intelligence community. Praising the lockdown of Boston as a successful terror attack in and of itself, the author adds “the Boston Police and the FBI were asking for people’s help desperately – whilst they were locking them indoors!”
The issue says that Al-Malahem, the media arm of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, has released a new pocket-friendly “guide book on how to become a successful lone mujahid taken from Inspire’s Open Source jihad,” a new film with English subtitles called “He Takes Among You Martyrs VI,” and another English-subtitled film called “The Spider Web” in which “7 year old child exploited to direct an American missile.”
There’s also a full-page poster for a new subtitled film coming soon: “Convoy of Martyrs 2.”
The issue wraps up with a “Mujahid’s Wish” poem of sorts describing would-be bombers training in Yemen wishing that they were in America.
“They have one gentle project to carry out; detonating even one bomb in any crowded area. They wish to be lone mujahideen like Tamerlan,” it says. “…Brother residing in the West, grab your chance and walk steadfastly towards your goal.”
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), who’s reviewed some of the unreleased material retrieved from bin Laden’s Pakistan compound, said Sunday of the fight against al-Qaeda “we are in a wrong direction here if we think we can pull back and let this thing go.”
“Saying that this thing is over and we can all just rest easy and start to change the policy to try to address this I think is dangerous to our national security and I don’t think it fits the facts on the ground,” Rogers added. “Whatever our politics are Republican or Democrat, conservative, liberal, doesn’t matter when you`re talking about national security.”
“Americans, you should understand this simple equation: as you kill you will be killed,” reads Inspire‘s letter from the editor. “The war is yet to cease, it has barely started. Yesterday it was Baghdad, today it is Boston.”
“The question of ‘who and why’ should be kept aside. You should be asking, ‘Where is next?'”
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