Thanks to a hack by British intelligence operatives, would-be bombers downloading a recipe for making bombs from a suspected Al Qaeda online magazine may end up making cupcakes instead.
British intelligence MI6 operatives who hacked into the site also removed articles by slain leader Osama bin Laden, UK-based The Daily Telegraph reported.
"When followers tried to download the 67-page colour magazine, instead of instructions about how to 'Make a bomb in the Kitchen of your Mom' by 'The AQ Chef' they were greeted with garbled computer code," the report said.
The "code" was actually a web page of recipes for “The Best Cupcakes in America", published by the Ellen DeGeneres chat show.
It even included a recipe for Mojito and Rocky Road Cupcakes, the report said.
"The little cupcake is big again. Self-contained and satisfying, it summons memories of childhood even as it's updated for today's sweet-toothed hipsters," read the cupcake recipe page.
Both recipes replaced the original magazine's recipe for a pipe bomb, which The Telegraph reported as using "sugar, match heads and a miniature lightbulb attached to a timer."
Also removed by the cyber attack were articles by bin Laden, his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri and a piece called “What to expect in Jihad."
The report said British and US intelligence planned separate attacks after learning that the magazine was about to be issued in June last year.
According to the Daily Telegraph story, British intelligence continued to target online outlets publishing the magazine because it is "viewed as such a powerful propaganda tool."
It said the magazine is produced by radical preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, a leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and his associate Samir Khan.
Al-Awlaki and Khan are thought to be in Yemen, and associated with radicals connected to Rajib Karim, a British resident jailed for 30 years in March for plotting to smuggle a bomb onto a trans-Atlantic aircraft.
— with reports from TJD, GMA News
