Al-Qaeda's Inspire magazine editor sought over Boston marathon bombing

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/al-qaeda/10026315/Al-Qaedas-Inspire-magazine-editor-sought-over-Boston-marathon-bombing.html

The US and Britain are intensifying a search for the editor of al-Qaeda's English-language magazine, after its bomb-making recipes were followed by the Boston marathon bombers to devastating effect.

Yahya Ibrahim, a jihadist who has edited Inspire since the magazine's founding editor-in-chief was killed by a US drone strike in Yemen in 2011

By Jon Swaine, New York

7:05PM BST 29 Apr 2013

The CIA is believed to have stepped up efforts to find Yahya Ibrahim, a jihadist who has edited Inspire since the magazine's founding editor-in-chief was killed by a US drone strike in Yemen in 2011.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving Boston bomber, has reportedly confessed to investigators that he and his brother, Tamerlan, learned how to build explosives by reading the controversial online publication.

The Tsarnaevs killed three people and wounded more than 200 near the finish line of the Boston marathon by detonating bombs in pressure-cookers, as had been recommended in the magazine.

An FBI analysis obtained by NBC News found that bombs thrown at police by the brothers during their later shoot-out also matched instructions from an article titled "How to Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom".

Officials fear that while senior al-Qaeda leaders have been set back by President Barack Obama's "targeted killing" campaign, further low-level plotters may be provoked to act by the magazine.

"Inspire clearly is a powerful propaganda tool," a CIA source told The Daily Telegraph, adding officials were concerned about its ability to push "potential jihadists to conduct violent action".
"I can guarantee you there is a significant effort to figure out who is putting this out," Aki Peritz, a former CIA counterterrorism official now of the Third Way think-tank, told The Daily Telegraph.
"They are intensifying investigations into who is behind this publication, and where the money for it is coming from," added Philip Giraldi, former senior CIA officer.

Ibrahim, who writes his articles and editor's letters in Americanised English, is believed to be a nom de guerre for a propagandist tied to the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
He took over editing duties after Inspire's editor-in-chief, a US citizen of Pakistani origin called Samir Khan, was killed in the same drone attack as Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical cleric, in September 2011.

Scott Stewart, former State Department special agent and vice president of Stratfor security, who has closely analysed the magazine, said that he suspected Ibrahim may have similar roots to Khan's.
"Yahya Ibrahim is a distinct individual," said Mr Stewart. "His presence has been there since issue one, and he speaks in a distinct voice. He is obviously very proficient in English, and it would not be surprising if he were someone, like Khan, from an immigrant family to the US".

Michael Leiter, a former National Counterterrorism Centre director, told The Daily Telegraph that US officials would consider prosecuting Ibrahim and other editors for giving material support to terrorists.

"The US and the British are extremely engaged in finding the producers," he said. "It is a key element to understanding AQAP and the radicalisation of English-speaking Muslims like the bombers in Boston."

A mysterious former friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev known as Misha, who was last week blamed by relatives for radicalising the bomber, on Monday denied any involvement in the attacks.
Mikhail Allakhverdov, a 39-year-old Armenian-Ukrainian convert to Islam in Rhode Island, confirmed that he had been interviewed by the FBI, but said he was cooperating in order to clear his name.

"I wasn't his teacher," Mr Allakhverdov told the New York Review of Books. "If I had been his teacher, I would have made sure he never did anything like this".

Amid reports that Russian spies recorded Tamerlan discussing "jihad" on the telephone with his mother, Zubeidat, it emerged yesterday that the Tsarnaevs' parents had cancelled plans to travel to the US.

Peter King, the New York congressman who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, yesterday accused Russian authorities of doing "a bit of a dance" and said the FBI would have investigated the Tsarnaevs more thoroughly if Moscow had informed Washington about its full findings.