Marc Ambinder reports at The Atlantic Al Qaeda is now publishing an English-language magazine.
As the U.S. struggles to manage its efforts to influence opinion about Al Qaeda abroad, Al Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula has produced its first English-language propaganda magazine. …
The table of contents teases an interview with the leader of AQAP who promises to "answer various questions pertaining to the jihad in the Arabian Peninsula." It includes a feature about how to "make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom."
AQAP’s first effort to post the magazine to jihadist websites failed Wednesday, as many of the pages were contaminated with a virus. (I half seriously believe that U.S. cyber warriors might have had a hand in that little surprise.)
The US is quite worried about Al Qaeda’s new publishing ambitions, which mark a more sophisticated effort to engage the English-language world and to recruit English-speaking Muslims to join the cause.
This is a logical – and surprisingly overdue – next step by the largely information-savvy Al Qaeda. It will be interesting to see how the magazine is received, if and how Al Qaeda adapts to feedback, and ultimately if Al Qaeda can adhere to a regular publishing schedule.
True/Slant had a piece a while back about the Arabic version of Al-Q’s mag, including a pdf version of it on their site: http://trueslant.com/nealungerleider/2009/11/04/new-issue-of-al-qaeda-magazine-sada-al-malahim-released/Hasn't anyone explained to Al-Q that getting into the publishing biz these days is suicide? But I can only imagine the names on the masthead. And the adverts in such a mag must be interesting, to say the least. If it doesn’t include an Editor’s Note from Osama, I’m not subscribing….