Within the past week, I read two headlines in the same day that made me laugh out loud. For the life of me I can’t remember now what the other one was, but I remember this one. I read it in a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece (headlined “Al Qaeda Goes Viral“) about al Qaeda’s new English language Internet magazine, Inspire.
Of course, as I laughed, I also worried. It’s one thing is this is just another instance of unintentional comedy on the part of the terrorist organization (like the guy who set his underpants on fire). But if al Qaeda has now advanced to the point that they’ve developed a sense of irony — if they were intentionally engaging in self-mocking wordplay — then we’re really in trouble. One of bin Laden’s great weaknesses is that his people seem either culturally or pathologically incapable of thinking like us. This would indicate a great leap forward in propaganda capabilities.
If they HAVE learned more about us, it could be for the same reason that I happened to remember this headline several days later. It seems that the editor of Inspire is from Charlotte. Or sorta kinda from Charlotte:
CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) – A Charlotte man who used to run a pro-Jihad blog from his parent’s home is now reportedly in Yemen, authoring the first al-Qaeda online magazine in English.
Samir Khan, 25, shut down his website in 2007 under local media scrutiny. According to national news reports, Khan is now running a website called “Inspire.”
The magazine has a flashy and slick appearance. One of the articles shows readers how to construct a bomb using kitchen items.
There are also articles included in the publication reportedly written by Osama Bin Laden. Anti-American sentiments are a constant theme throughout 60-page publication.
Yes, the guy who wrote “How to Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom” once ran a terrorist blog from the home of his mom, right up the road in the U.S. of A.
Yet another reason for South Carolinians to eye Charlotte warily.
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