Al-Qaeda's "Inspire" Magazine Targets US Commuter Trains With Homemade "Derailment Devices"

The magazine that helped the Tsarnaev brothers pull off the Boston Marathon bombing – while also purporting to teach wannabe jihadis how to “make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom” – is homing in on its next target: America’s crumbling transportation infrastructure.

“Inspire,” the Al Qaeda propaganda magazine, will dedicate its next issue to America’s passenger and commuter trains. The focus on rail transportation comes at a time of great anxiety over the scarcity of resources devoted to repairing America’s vulnerable trains, which is advantageous to a group aiming to reestablish maximum relevance.

Derailments in the Bronx, Philadelphia and New York City’s Penn Station have made commuters anxious. The effort to rescue New York City’s deteriorating subway system has been one of the most closely followed stories of the summer, according to the Washington Times.

“Issue No. 17 is headlined, “Train Derail Operations,” and will spell out ways to create rail disasters in a transportation system that lacks the stiff security procedures of airline travel.

It’s competing Sunni extremists group, the Islamic State, for more than a year has advocated using vehicles to mow down innocents. Its murderous followers have weaponized vehicles in Nice, Berlin and London, creating hundreds of deaths and injuries.

Adding trains to the terrorist’s priority list would put at risk virtually every mode of transportation and placed added pressure on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.”

Furthermore, two of the deadliest terror attacks in European history were carried out on public commuter trains. The 7/7 London tube bombing, when four suicide bombers killed 52 people on the London Underground. And the Madrid train bombings, when a terrorist cell linked to Al Qaeda killed nearly 200 people on a Madrid Cercanias train. Now Al Qaeda wants to replicate those attacks in the US.

A “trailer” for the new issue was being shared on the social-media app Telegram, a popular venue for sharing extremist content that has often been used by terrorists for recruiting.

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) put out a report on Friday saying al Qaeda has teased the Inspire articles with a trailer appearing on Telegram app channels operated by its fans.

“The trailer highlights that derailments are simple to design using easily available materials, that such a planned attack can be hard to detect, and that the outcome can substantially damage a country’s transportation sector and the Western economy in general,” MEMRI said.

The New York City subway is featured in the promotional video, which depicts derailment devices that the narrator says could easily be attached to tracks, causing a derailment.

“Simple to design,” the promo says in English script, mentioning “America” several times. “Made from readily available materials. Hard to be detached. Cause great destruction to the Western economy and transportation sector.”

The magazine’s push is part of a rebranding effort for Al Qaeda as the group seeks to regain the upper hand in recruiting from ISIS, which was recently driven out of Mosul, and has also suffered other setbacks like the death (and miraculous rebirth) of the group’s founder, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Al Qaeda, which is trying to reassert itself by forging alliances with other jihadist groups outside its home in South Yemen, wants to revive its formerly fearsome reputation…and the most effective method would involve an attack.
 

Putin Warns America "Has A False Sense That It Can Do Anything Without Consequences"

In the first episode of Stone’s hugely anticipated Showtime series, which aired Monday night, Russian President Vladimir Putin pulled no punches claiming US is to blame for the rise of Al-Qaeda and its late mastermind Osama bin Laden, which it empowered to fight Soviet troops in Afghanistan, adding that there is proof the CIA supported terrorists in Russia’s Chechnya.

“Al-Qaeda is not the result of our activities. This is the result of activities of our US friends. This all started in the times of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, when the US security services supported different movements of Islamic fundamentalism in their struggle against the Soviet troops in Afghanistan,” Putin told Stone, adding that the “US side has nurtured both Al-Qaeda and [Osama] bin Laden.”

“It always happens like this. Our US partners should have been aware of it. It is their fault,” Putin said.

Putin also had plenty to say about his rise to power and his relationship with "our American friends..." (as Axios reports)

His rise

On his career choice: "By job distribution I was obliged to go" into the KGB, "but I wanted to go there."

On his rise to power: Declined P.M. role when Yeltsin first offered it. "I told him that it was a great responsibility and that meant I would have to change my life, and I wasn"t sure I wanted to do that." When he accepted, first thought was, "where to hide my children."

Life and death

On bad days: "I"m not a woman so I don"t have bad days.... I"m not trying insult anyone, that"s just the nature of things.... There are certain natural cycles, which men probably have as well, just less manifested...but you should never lose control."

On sleep: Putin says he always slept 6-7 hours a night, even in times of crisis, and doesn"t have nightmares.

On death: "One day this will happen to each and every one of us. The question is, what we will have accomplished by then in this transient world, and whether we"ll have enjoyed our life."

His interactions with the U.S.

On calling Bush after 9/11: "I certainly understood that heads of state need moral support at such times."

On anti-Russia rhetoric in U.S. presidential campaigns: After the election they tell Russia "don"t pay too much attention to that," just posturing.

Russia before Putin

On Mikhail Gorbachev: He "didn"t understand what changes were necessary and how to achieve them."

On Boris Yeltsin: "Just like any of us he had his problems, but he also had his strengths," including the ability to accept responsibility.

On the end of World War II: The Soviets gave the U.S. the excuse to create NATO and start the Cold War by acting "primitively."

On the collapse of the Soviet Union: "25 million Russians found themselves abroad in one night, and that was one of the greatest catastrophes of the 20th century."

Finally, the Russian president argued that the US has “got a false sense that it is able to do everything without any consequences,” in particular after the Soviet Union’s collapse.

“In such a situation, a man or a country begins to make mistakes… The state begins to function ineffectively. One mistake follows another. That is the trap in which, as I believe, the United States got caught into,” Putin reflected.

"I believe that if you think you are the only world power, trying to impose on the whole nation the idea of their exclusiveness, this creates an imperialistic mentality in society, which in turn requires an adequate foreign policy expected by society. And the country"s leaders are forced to follow this logic. And in practice this might go contrary to the interest of the Americans.... It demonstrates it"s impossible to control everything."