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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
Can we get a fatwa on what constitutes a halal sports section? It can't just be bouzkashi! #inspireeditorialmeetings
How can we fact check whether the "bomb in the kitchen of your mom" recipe works? #inspireeditorialmeetings
"I dunno, I feel like this 'The Jihadi case for Israel' piece is just sort of contrarian for its own sake..." #inspireeditorialmeetings
"I'm sorry, Ayman, but we're can't publish your piece on Yemeni basketweaving as jihad. It's too in the weeds." #inspireeditorialmeetings
"AP or Chicago Manual of Style? Which one is under the thumb of the global Zionist conspiracy?" #inspireeditorialmeetings
"Yeah, I didn't like the hed either, but Osama's really attached to it. He thinks that pun is hilarious." #inspireeditorialmeetings
"You know we should really get Mark Thiessen to do a guest op-ed." #inspireeditorialmeetings
"Did you pick up the phone or did you just pull this quote from Zawahiri's press release?" #inspireeditorialmeetings
I'm looking forward to the spinoff, al Qat Fancy
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