Image, via Wired, said to be from the al Qaeda-affiliated magazine “Inspire,” which may also be a recursive psyops folly concocted by Western spies. Or, you know, maybe not.
Wired Danger Room reports on a proposal published last summer in a purported al Qaeda publication, “Inspire” magazine, which “was all about convincing U.S. Muslims to do whatever they could locally for the jihad.”
One suggestion: constructing an “ultimate mowing machine” — tricking out a pickup truck by welding “blades” to the grill, to “mow down the enemies of Allah.” Baroque proposals like that fuel speculation in national security circles that Inspire may be the work of a western security service — a spoof on terrorist propaganda, rather than an authentic vehicle for it. If so, Osama bought it hook, line, and three-quarter ton sinker.
Osama bin Laden “did not endorse” the Ford F-150 of Doom, and “seem[ed] taken aback,” according to a U.S. counterterrorism official quoted by ProPublica.
“He complains that this tactical proposal promotes indiscriminate slaughter. He says he rejects this and it is not something that reflects what al-Qaida does.”
More: “New Details in the bin Laden Docs: Portrait of a Fugitive Micro-Manager” (ProPublica)
“Osama Drew The Line at Building a Ford F-150 of Death”
“Qaeda Pushes Snack Attacks, ‘Ultimate Mowing Machine‘” (Danger Room)
“Al Qaida’s English-language Terrorism Blueprint” (Investigative Project)
Update, 9am PT: Mother Jones published a related item on this earlier today, with more analysis.