I'm still trying to verify this, but if the Daily Rotten is correct, the "nuclear weapon plans" found in the Al Qaeda safe house are actually a download of an ancient (gag) article from the Journal of Irreproducible Results. Given their idiocy in so many other realms, why would this not surprise me? And why would it also not surprise me that few journalists would know the difference?

Anyway, if it can be verified, perhaps we can all sleep a little better tonight.

[Update at 7 AM]

It's twue, it's twue! This is delicious.

Just google the words, "the de-vice basically works," and you'll get a plethora of links to this document (this one, from Barking Spider, is just an example--it can be found at a number of sites) titled "How To Build An Atomic Bomb." Look carefully at the pictures of the terrorist document from the BBC at the Daily Rotten page (or go directly to the source, if you don't trust them) and compare.

It's worth pointing out that this article was part of a series. The previous ones were:

• Let's Make Test Tube Babies! May, 1979

• Let's Make a Solar System! June, 1979

• Let's Make an Economic Recession! July, 1979

• Let's Make an Anti-Gravity Machine! August, 1979

• Let's Make Contact with an Alien Race! September, 1979

The next one was a primer on how to clone your neighbor's wife in a single weekend, using common kitchen utensils.

This may provide a hint about some of Al Qaeda's nefarious plans for our future.

[Further Update: 5:40 PM PST]

In actually reading the satirical document in question, this paragraph jumped out at me (and remember this was over twenty years ago).

Worldwide controversy has been generated recently from several court decisions in the United States which have restricted popular magazines from printing articles which describe how to make an atomic bomb. The reason usually given by the courts is that national security would be compromised if such information were generally available. But, since it is commonly known that all of the information is publicly available in most major metropolitan libraries, obviously the court's officially stated position is covering up a more important factor; namely, that such atomic de-vices would prove too difficult for the average citizen to construct. The United States courts cannot afford to insult the vast majorities by insinuating that they do not have the intelligence of a cabbage, and thus the "official" press releases claim national security as a blanket restriction.

This seemed particularly ironic to me under the circumstances. Of course, to not even be able to recognize the difference between an actual nuclear bomb manual, and an obvious send up of same, implies that one has a level of intelligence that would make a cabbage look like, well, Stephen Hawking--it would imply something more on the order of a lobotomized fern.

So can they really be this stupid, or is this some kind of reverse mindfuck on us to make us believe that they're really, really stupid? That all of this apparent idiocy--the mindless threats, counting on a population that they've been repressing to support them once they're out of power, expecting Muslims worldwide to come to their aid when they're getting their asses blown up, attacking the American Media by literally sending an anthrax-laced envelope to "American Media," asking for flying lessons that don't involve takeoffs or landings, stealing joke plans for bombs from scientific satire magazines--is actually a fiendishly clever ploy, and once we've destroyed their power structure, killed most of them, chased the rest up into their caves, blown up the caves, and starved out the rest, and let our guard down, that's when they're going to hit us with something really big?

I have to confess, that I find both explanations so improbable that I no longer know what to think--the notion that they are really that bereft of mental capacity almost defies biology and the nature of the human genome, but the other explanation absolutely beggars logic. Anyway, I find the former more comforting...

You know, maybe they aren't that stupid. What if they were browsing the web some day and came across it. "Hey Abdul, you need to read this, it's so funny!"

Then it got left behind. And we thought they were serious. Just wait until the archeologists of the future start talking about the significant news outlets of our time. "Most people got their weekly news from The Onion, America's most respected source, while other chose the New York Times or the satire and comedy paper, The Wall Street Journal."

Consider:

1) Some Al Queda web surfers might not be so conversant in English that they can distinguish between real and satirical prose. Don't assume that all of their supporters are as gullible.

2) Our own news media bought into the farce. What's their excuse? If an Arab weak in English is a lobotomized fern for being fooled, then what are America's news reporters?

JRF wrote: "Our own news media bought into the farce. What's their excuse? If an Arab weak in English is a lobotomized fern for being fooled, then what are America's news reporters?"

I already commented on that in the previous post. They are on a similar mental plane, based, if nothing else, on their questions at Rumsfeld's press briefings.