Just because you’re a paranoid terror wannabe doesn’t mean they aren’t watching you — and hacking your jihadi online fanzine. The Washington Post reports that British intelligence vandalized the debut issue of Inspire magazine after the United States reportedly turned down a similar plan.

Inspire billed itself as “the first magazine issued by al-Qaida in the English language” when it launched in June 2010. It urged lone-wolf terrorists to take up arms with a mixture of new and recycled al-Qaida propaganda. It’s accessibility in English made it a splash in the Western press. With ludicrous articles like “Make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom,” some thought it was a fake.

But among its target audience, it caused a panic. When downloaded from online file-hosting services, the PDF’s first few pages looked just fine. The rest of it, however, was filled with a continuing stream of gibberish characters.

Online jihadis had a mini-freakout. Al-Qaida fanboys spread rumors that Inspire contained a virus. Jihadi forum administrators warned users to steer clear.

The Post reports that the Brits were responsible for turning Inspire into a junior jumble all along. They took up the idea of hacking the magazine while American officials debated similar action, according to the Post. Cyber Command chief Lt. General Keith Alexander argued the mag was a danger to troops and in need of a takedown. The CIA prevailed, arguing that an attack  would expose their tradecraft and cut off a source of intelligence info.

Jihadi forums and media have been the subject of all kinds of cyber trickery over the years. Some of it can be directly attributed to governments. The source of other incidents is less clear. American, Saudi and Dutch authorities have set up honeytrap jihadi sites to collect intelligence on potential terrorists.

The Taliban’s website has been hacked and defaced with images of the insurgent group’s most brutal crimes. Elite jihadi forums have been attacked. And the password for a video featuring Osama Bin Laden was tampered with, delaying its release.

As the wrangling among U.S. officials illustrates, messing with jihadi media can be a tricky call. Unless spooks are willing to consistently disrupt the releases, they risk losing an intelligence source in exchange for only a temporary strike.

Alternatively, occasional mischief against jihadis online might actually be beneficial. It could be scaring users just enough to stop them from planning operations, but not enough to push them completely into hiding.

A corrected first issue of Inspire eventually came out, and since then al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula’s production arm has been able to put out four more issues – in addition to issues of its Arabic language Sada al-Malahim — without similar disruptions. Either the Brits have lost interest in messing around with Inspire or concluded it’s too difficult to do on a regular basis.

Image: Inspire

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