“Kick Ass” and “Sexy Tanja” may seem like run-of-the-mill porn video names to most, but German investigators have discovered more than 100 encrypted al-Qaeda documents within, with inside information on some of the group’s most daring plots, self-criticisms, training manuals, and its vision for the future, embedded deeply in the videos.
The porn was found on a digital storage device and memory cards in the underwear of Maqsood Lodin, a 22-year-old Austrian arrested last year in Berlin. Yassin Musharbash, an investigative journalist with the German newspaper Die Zeit, was the first to report on the documents.
Future plots are listed in “Future Works”, and include the possibility of attacks in Europe similar to the siege in Mumbai in November 2008, and seizing cruise ships “to pressurize the public". This would probably mean dressing passengers in orange jump suits, as if they were al Qaeda prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, videotaping their execution, and demanding the release of particular prisoners, Musharbash told CNN.
“Future Works” also suggested that al-Qaeda was under pressure from Western intelligence, and without a major attack in years. Part of the response, according to the document, is a twin-track strategy: low-cost, low-tech attacks to keep security services preoccupied while it plans large-scale attacks on a scale similar to 9/11. The idea of using European jihadists is also discussed.
While a major gun attack on Europe is yet to materialize, Musharbash says it is still on al-Qaeda's radar. Lodin and a man called Yusuf Ocak, who allegedly traveled back to Europe with him, are now on trial in Berlin, where they are pleading not guilty.
