Terrorist magazine Inspire hacked by American intelligence

June 11, 2013 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- A terrorist magazine that made its name by encouraging jihadists to strike Michigan Avenue was recently hacked by American intelligence.

Inspire has been a thorn in the side of U.S. intelligence for a few years, ever since radical Islamists began posting the splashy, full-color magazine on the Internet - the magazine first aimed to recruit young Muslim men in Chicago and then across the Midwest as it grew in popularity among would-be jihadists, American intelligence agencies figured a way to hack into the Inspire site and tinker with the product.

The terror magazine was recruiting in the heartland as far back as three years ago, making its name by egging on young radical Islamists to wage one-person war on America. An edition in 2010 showed the Chicago skyline as a backdrop for mowing down pedestrians with pickup trucks.

A year after a U.S. drone strike in the Middle East took out Inspire's top editors, the magazine last month came out with a new edition that U.S. intelligence operatives covertly sabotaged, rendering two dozen pages blank and turning others into jibberish.

Now, the magazine is again available to those with access and those on Inspire's list, and even includes new material about the Boston Marathon bombing and other timely incidents not in the hacked version.

One section reads: "The war is yet to cease, it has barely started. Yesterday it was Baghdad, today it is Boston. The question of 'who and why' should be kept aside. You should be asking, 'where is next?'"

There are the usual imposing photos of terrorists with bloody knives; a picture of the British street corner attack and lots of guns.

"When one reflects on the Boston events, his attention is drawn to the tumult made by the fact that the Tsarnaev brothers were Muslims. To Americans, your belongingness to Islam is enough to classify you as an enemy."

It ends with a terrorist's wish, one project to carry out, detonating even one bomb in any crowded area.

"Terrorize the American society until they cease to fight and assault Muslims& as for me here in Yemen, whenever I move around with explosives around my waist, I wish I am in America."

American intelligence agents first preferred to just farm the magazine for information. But that changed when terror suspects were overheard discussing Inspire, in some cases, getting bomb recipes from it as with the Boston suspects. Now, the strategy is to change editorial copy in the magazine; alter terrorist weaponry instructions and render them useless.

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iteam, chuck goudie

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