Foreign Policy 2015-03-04

amongotherplaces,isnowfacingtrial.His

attorney has announced that he has been

diagnosed with schizophrenia.)

The informant system, in other words,

worked.ButTeausant’scasealsohighlights

what many terrorism experts and intel-

ligence o cials fear is a new threat over

which they have little control: the grow-

toreport,whentheyobserveothersoldiers

inginfluenceofInspire.“It’sthebranding

reading Inspire.”

of al Qaeda. It’s glamorous,” a former CIA

Manyo cialshavealsonotedInspire’s

clandestine intelligence o cer posted to

possible connections to the Boston Mar-

Yemen told me. Bruce Ho man, a profes-

athon bombing and the recent attack on

CharlieHebdo’so ceinParis.Accordingto

aU.S.DefenseDepartmentreport,Tamer-

lan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the brothers

TOPUTTHISINANOTHER

behind the marathon plot, “learned how

to make bombs from the Inspire maga-

PERSPECTIVE, BECAUSE

zine article: ‘Make a bomb in the kitchen

I DOWNLOADED ALL 13 ISSUES OF

of your Mom.’” And Inspire’s spring 2013

INSPIRE PUBLISHED TO DATE AS

issue featured an article titled “Wanted

RESEARCH FOR THIS COLUMN,

Dead or Alive for Crimes Against Islam”

that included a picture of Stéphane Char-

IN THEORY I COULD GET 130 YEARS

bonnier,CharlieHebdo’seditor.Duringthe

IN PRISON IN BRITAIN AND NEARLY

attackonthemagazinethisJanuary,which

200 YEARS IN AUSTRALIA.

killed 12 people, including Charbonnier,

oneofthegunmenaskedforhimbyname.

Alarmed, Western governments are

scrambling to stop the magazine from

do go don’t use the subway.” Eventually,

sorandterrorismresearcheratGeorgetown

finding readers. The first line of defense

Teausant concocted a plan to join the

University, has called Inspire the “Vanity

is closing websites on which the maga-

Islamic State. On a March night in 2014,

Fairofjihadipublications.”AndFrankCil-

zine is published—but the e ect is lim-

the 20-year-old, his head shaved beneath

lu o, director of George Washington Uni-

ited. Robert Grenier, former chief of the

ablack-and-whitekufi—ashort,brimless,

versity’s Center for Cyber and Homeland

CIA’s Counterterrorism Center, told me,

roundedcapoftenwornbyMuslims—took

Security, told a congressional hearing in

“Youcanshutdownasite,buttheyhaveso

a train to Sacramento and then another

2013, “I think [AQAP’s] greatest hallmark

manyoptionsavailabletothemthatitwill

to Seattle. There, he got on a bus to Can-

has been Inspire magazine and the role

quicklypopbackupsomewhereelse,soit

ada, where an Islamic State contact had

that it plays in radicalizing and lone-wolf

really is something like whack-a-mole.”

supposedly arranged a flight from Van-

jihadists, especially in the West.”

This strategy has also spurred a heated

couver to Syria.

debate about freedom of speech, includ-

But Teausant’s journey ended at the

LONG BEFORE THE TEAUSANT CASE, the maga-

ing proposals for censorship that would

U.S.-Canadianborder,wherehewashand-

zine,whichisnowinitssixthyearofpub-

bemoreathomeinChina.In2013,Demo-

cu edbypolice.Hisarrestwasnotacoin-

lication, had been a focus of intelligence

craticCongressmanAdamSchi suggested

cidence: The contact he had been texting

o cialsandmembersofCongress.In2011,

suspending the right to free speech when

wasactuallyanundercoverFBIinformant,

theHouseHomelandSecurityCommittee

itcomestoInspire.“Idon’tthinkalQaeda

andtheIslamicStateliaisonwasalsosome-

andinparticularRepublicanmemberPeter

hasaFirstAmendmentrighttoputoutits

oneatthebureau.TheFBIhasabout15,000

Kinghadexpressedconcernthatpeoplein

propaganda,toencouragepeopletocom-

paidinformantsonitsbooks,accordingto

the military could download it. “We have

mit acts of terrorism,” he told the Wash-

a 2008 budget request; most spend their

learned,” King said at a hearing, “that, for

ingtonPost.ThisJanuary,attorneyMartin

days searching websites for people like

instance,inbarracks…Inspiremagazineis

London wrote an op-ed in the New York

Teausant and making contact in order to

availabletomembersofthearmedforces.”

Times in which he asked, “Is this publica-

build cases against them. (Teausant, who

A witness, a senior Army counterintelli-

tion protected by our First Amendment?

wasinitiallyidentifiedafterpostingangry

genceo cial,agreed:“Thatisoneofthose

Not on your life!” The federal govern-

comments on Facebook and Instagram,

behavioralindicatorsthatwewantsoldiers

ment,hesaid,should“movedecisively

dom, the police are tracking down any-

message: ‘Jihad—just do it!’” One person

onewhopullsthepublicationo theweb.

arrested for possessing Inspire was Mel-

According to a May 2013 article in Lon-

bourne resident Adnan Karabegovic. In

don’s Times, “Downloading Inspire has

2012, the then 23-year-old was charged

to block Inspire on the web. It is criminal

ledtomorethan20peoplebeingarrested

with having six issues of Inspire on his

incitement that has produced lawless

and prosecuted in Britain in the past 18

computer and faced 90 years in prison.

action,andnosentientjudgewouldtoday

months.” Possession of the magazine is

The court eventually dismissed five of

sayotherwise.”Londoncalledanyonewho

enoughtoleadtoarrestunderSection58of

the counts against him, but Karabegovic

opposesdrasticaction“FirstAmendment

Britain’sTerrorismAct2000.(Abroadlaw

is now awaiting trial for the single count,

fundamentalists.” The suggestion, how-

grantingsweepingpowerstolawenforce-

which could still cost him 15 years.

ever,alarmedMartyLederman,aprofessor

ment,theactprohibitspossession,without

To put this in another perspective,

at the Georgetown University Law Cen-

a“reasonableexcuse,”ofsomethinguseful

becauseIdownloadedall13issuesofInspire

ter. “Mr. London does not specify what

toaterroristandcarriesasentenceofupto

published to date as research for this col-

‘actions’hebelievestheAttorneyGeneral

10yearsinprison.)Evenjournalistsdoing

umn,intheoryIcouldbefacing130years

should take ‘against’ Inspire,” Lederman

researcharenotnecessarilyprotected.“We

in prison in Britain and nearly 200 years

wrote on the blog Just Security. “Crimi-

wouldn’tsayjustbecauseyouweredoing

inAustralia.

nalprosecutionofpublishers?ofreaders?

it for journalistic purposes you would be

mailingrestrictionswithintheU.S.?asking

immune.Youhavetobecareful,”aspokes-

PICTURES OF MUSLIMS beingtorturedatAbu

allies to shut down servers? some form of

manforScotlandYardtoldtheGlobalPost.

Ghraib, humiliated at Guantánamo Bay,

cyber-sabotage?”

Australiahasenactedasimilarlaw,and

andslaughteredbythethousandsinGaza

Elsewhere, some governments have

in 2011, the country’s then intelligence

and by the tens of thousands in Iraq are

already gone to extremes, including tak-

chief, David Irvine, said that Inspire is of

all powerful weapons in the hands of a

ingapageoutofGeorgeOrwellandjailing

great concern because it is “intended to

good editor. Especially an editor with a

people who dare read so much as a single

resonate with a youthful, audience: the

devoted following and an online maga-

paragraph of Inspire. In the United King-

i-jihad generation. It sends them a simple

zine unstoppable by jet fighters, guided

GLOBAL MASTER OF ARTS

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indication of the turn to a more hard-line

theArabianPeninsula,andthenaviesthat

be so wild to think that legislation similar

approachcamefromanotherseniormem-

surroundourchildreninIraq,taxesthatgo

tothatintheUnitedKingdomandAustra-

ber of AQAP, Ibrahim al-Rubaish, writing

toIsraelsothatitcancontinuetoattackus

lia might follow, allowing the state to jail

in the same issue: “[Awlaki’s and Kahn’s]

andconfiscatemoreofourland.”Inother

people simply for reading. Republicans,

writing with the ink is replaced now with

words,aviolentmagazineisrespondingto,

however, aren’t the only risks: Congress-

writing with their blood. And this is what

andinmanywayscapitalizingon,aviolent

man Schi , who suggested that the First

will have a greater impact.”

U.S. foreign policy.

Amendment shouldn’t apply to Inspire,

Ahallmarkofthatforeignpolicyhasbeen

is now the most senior Democrat on the

RUBAISH’S WORDS ARE a reminder that the

overreaction. America responded to the

House Intelligence Committee.

real danger with Inspire is not the show

9/11 attacks by invading Iraq, only to dis-

Excessive regulation would be unac-

and tell on the pages. Anyone who wants

coverthatSaddamHusseinhadpalacesof

ceptable in the United States. If Ameri-

to build bombs can easily find instruc-

massluxury,notweaponsofmassdestruc-

cans have to live with the danger of guns

tionselsewhereontheweb.Thetruethreat

tion. The results were the deaths of, per-

because of the Second Amendment, then

comes from Inspire’s ability to deliver to

haps, hundreds of thousands of innocent

they’ll also have to live with the danger of

Muslims the message that they are under

Iraqis, the loss of thousands of American

publications like Inspire because of the

constant assault and the only thing left

soldiers, and the waste of a trillion dollars

First Amendment. To paraphrase an old

to do is to fight back wherever and how-

or more. Then the country overreacted to

pro-gunslogan:Wordsdon’tkillpeople—

ever they can. “We fight you because you

the threat of terrorism by engaging in tor-

people kill people.

Θ

attacked us and continue to do so,” wrote

ture and secretly unleashing the National

theauthorofarecentInspirearticle,direct-

Security Agency to conduct mass surveil-

JAMES BAMFORD (@WashAuthor)isacolum-

inghiswordsatAmericans.“TheAmerican

lanceofAmericans.

nistforFOREIGNPOLICYandtheauthorof

peoplepaythetaxesthatpayfortheplanes

Now,theUnitedStatesmaybeteetering

TheShadowFactory:TheUltra-SecretNSA

which bomb us in Afghanistan, the tanks

yet again toward overreaction, this time

from9/11totheEavesdroppingonAmerica.

thatdemolishourhousesoverourheadsin

with regard to Inspire. Given the recent,

He also writes and produces documenta-

Palestine, the armies which occupy us on

sharp right turn in Congress, it might not

riesforPBS.

84 MARCH | APRIL 2015

Illustration by EDMON DE HARO

translated, but he lives, at least in part, in

Zurich. The brilliance of his 2005 novel,

Maidenhair,liesinhisskeweringofthedis-

connectbetweenhardscrabbleRussiaand

bourgeois,defenseless,self-satisfiedSwit-

zerland.Andhismasterlylatestnovel,The

Starobinets’sdebutcollectionofshorthor-

Light and the Dark, reflects not Russia’s

ror stories, AnAwkwardAge, Moscow has

complex present, but its past: During the

beendestroyedbyawarbetweenhumans

1900 Boxer Rebellion in China, a soldier’s

and androids. And veteran satirist Victor

loveletterstranscendtimeandplace.

Pelevin’s work, TheHelmetofHorror, cre-

atesanightmarishworldwherecharacters

who meet in an Internet chat room find

themselvestrappedinavirtuallabyrinth.

IN THE PAST,RUSSIANS

For all their virtue, though, modern

Russian works may never satisfy the nos-

LOOKED TO THEIR

talgiathatAmericansharborforthecrowd-

pleasing grandeur of bygone writers’ nov-

LITERATURE FOR A DESIGN AND

els. This may have something to do with

PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. the fact that Russia’s literary culture has

changed.Russiastillproducesmorebooks

than most other countries: Some 120,000

new titles were published in Russian in

2013,accordingtogovernmentfigures.But

reintegrating into the European context.

O ering another theory of why so few

today, Russia’s writers are content provid-

But it gradually went back to its former

Russian books find Western readers, Will

ersvyingforattentioninavibrantmarket-

practices,andpeopleturnedawayfromus.”

Evans,atranslatorandfounderoftheDallas-

place of entertainment and information.

A glib case can be made that characters

basedDeepVellumPublishing,saysAmeri-

Inthepast,Russianslookedtotheirlitera-

inRussiannovelsareincomprehensibleto

cans“readRussia”inaparticularway.Given

tureforadesignandphilosophyoflife.The

anewgenerationofWesternreaders—like

the Cold War and its unsettled aftermath,

stern God of Russian Orthodoxy provided

the chemotherapy patients in Solzhenit-

Americanreaderstendto“politicize[Rus-

animmutablebaselineofgoodandevil,but

syn’s 1967 Cancer Ward, changed forever

sian literature], read it for big ideas and

authors were the country’s spiritual legis-

bythepoisontheyhaveingested,Russians’

politicalinsight.”Indeed,justasinthemid-

lators. In the works of Tolstoy and Fyodor

liveshavebecometoogrimtoelicitimme-

20th century, when superpower politics

Dostoyevsky,AlexanderPushkinandAnton

diate empathy. The #FirstWorldProblems

wereprojectedontoPasternak,someofthe

Chekhov,Russiansfoundtheirmoralnuts

su ered by the suburban protagonists of

newRussianauthorsbestknownintheWest

and bolts, wrestling with the forces of his-

writers like Jonathan Franzen, the argu-

carry political freight. Zakhar Prilepin, for

tory that threatened to break them apart.

mentgoes,arenothingliketheavalanches

example,whosenovelsSinandSankyawere

Writers, in short, were asked to live more

ofdespairthattheirRussiancontemporaries

published recently in English, is a former

deeplythanordinarymortals.

face.Tobesure,beingsetinaviolent,feu-

paramilitarypoliceo cerwhodidtoursin

Today,Putin’spromisedrenaissancenot-

dal,andunfamiliarworldisnotnecessarily

Chechnyaandbecamearadicalopposition

withstanding, Russian writers are no lon-

an impediment to a book’s U.S. sales; just

activist.Then,afterRussia’sannexationof

ger deified at home, let alone abroad. Yet

look at Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell

Crimealastyear,hesurprisedhisadmirers

atleasttherighttopublishinRussiaholds

cycle. In that case, however, the reader’s

by praising the volunteers in Novorossiya

good;incomparisonwiththecenturiesthat

guideisCromwell,constructedbyMantelas

(eastern Ukraine). His hyperrealist depic-

came before, the past 23 years have been

anoutsider—amanofalmostmodernsen-

tion of the cynical post-Soviet generation

largelyfreeofcensorship.EvenifRussiais

sibilityprojectedintoalatemedievalworld.

“in search of fathers” in Sankya is sharp

nowenteringanothercycleofoppression,

Perhaps that need for a detached per-

and vital, and he has drawn comparisons

writerswillbetheretodocumenteveryturn

spectiveiswhymanyoftheRussianauthors

toTolstoy.

ofthescrew—andthebestamongthemwill

best known to Western readers are them-

Tellingly, some Western readers are

produceclassics.

Θ

selves Westernized. Boris Fishman and

also drawn to surreal visions of Russia:

GaryShteyngart,forexample,arenowNew

Many books making it into English trans-

OWEN MATTHEWS (@owenmatth),authorof

Yorkers. Russian author Mikhail Shishkin

lation today conjure horrific dystopias. In

Stalin’sChildren,wasNewsweek’sMoscow

is lavishly praised in the West and widely

one of the tales in young Muscovite Anna

bureau chief from 2006 to 2012.

88 MARCH | APRIL 2015

Illustrations by ELIAS STEIN