U.S. Hacks And Stops Publication Of Al-Qaeda’s Online Magazine

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U.S. intelligence operatives hijacked and sabotaged the publication of an issue of al-Qaeda’s prominent English language online magazine, Inspire, in an apparant attempt to stop the organization’s online propaganda, officials told the Washington Post.

When the May 14 issue appeared online, the text on the second page was illegible and the following 20 pages were blank. It was promptly removed from the web.

“You can make it hard for them to distribute it, or you can mess with the content. And you can mess with the content in a way that is obvious or in ways that are not obvious,” one intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity told the Post.

The following May 30 issue of the magazine appeared online and depicted the Boston Marathon bombing as support for the magazine’s own mantra that “a single lone jihad operation can force America to stand on one foot and live in a terrified state, full of fear . . .”

The U.S. decision to subvert the publication of the magazine was part of an ongoing debate within the Obama administration over the response to online publications that promote radicalization, according to the Post.

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