The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder reports that the first-ever English-language magazine purportedly written by al-Qaeda officials has surfaced in the vibrant online jihadi community. The magazine, "Inspire," contains such violent (and unintentionally, one assumes, humorous) tips as "how to make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom." If the magazine is real, it raises an interesting question: What exactly happens at the Inspire editorial meetings? A number of foreign affairs journalists, combining their knowledge of terrorism with their experience at editorial meetings, are venturing a few guesses.
"What if we put
Osama on the cover of every issue? Worked for Oprah." #inspireeditorialmeetings
paul
mcleary
paulmcleary
Can we get a
fatwa on what constitutes a halal sports section? It can't just be
bouzkashi! #inspireeditorialmeetings
Alexander
Lobov
alexlobov
How can we fact
check whether the "bomb in the kitchen of your mom" recipe works? #inspireeditorialmeetings
AfPak
Channel
afpakchannel
"I dunno, I feel
like this 'The Jihadi case for Israel' piece is just sort of contrarian
for its own sake..." #inspireeditorialmeetings
Charles
Homans
chashomans
"I'm sorry,
Ayman, but we're can't publish your piece on Yemeni basketweaving as
jihad. It's too in the weeds." #inspireeditorialmeetings
Blake
Hounshell
blakehounshell
"AP or Chicago
Manual of Style? Which one is under the thumb of the global Zionist
conspiracy?" #inspireeditorialmeetingspaul
mcleary
paulmcleary
"Yeah, I didn't
like the hed either, but Osama's really attached to it. He thinks that
pun is hilarious." #inspireeditorialmeetingsCharles
Homans
chashomans
"You know we
should really get Mark Thiessen to do a guest op-ed." #inspireeditorialmeetings
Michael
Cohen
speechboy71
"Did you pick up
the phone or did you just pull this quote from Zawahiri's press
release?" #inspireeditorialmeetings
sethdmichaels
sethdmichaels
I'm looking
forward to the spinoff, al Qat FancyCharles
Homans
chashomans
Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at mfisher at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.
User Comments
Please type your comment and click Post. If you’re not already logged in you will be prompted to log in or register