The Al Qaeda Magazine is urging lone-wolf jihadists to carry-out attacks against U.S. business leaders including Warren Buffett, the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and Bill Gates, founder and technology advisor of Microsoft.
The notorious terrorist magazine also encouraged attacks on Michael Bloomberg, founder and CEO of Bloomberg LP, industrialists brothers Charles and David Koch, Larry Ellison, chairman and CTO of Oracle Corporation.
Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, and former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, as well as Jim Walton, who was misidentified in the caption as his late father Sam Walton were also included in the Al Qaeda Magazine’s list of targets.
One person who was on the list (name redacted per his request to ValueWallk) was shocked after learning that he was included in the target list. He said, "Why me? I am non-plussed. Why I am included?"I was just in REDACTED for an Islamic finance forum. I quoted Mohammed. I'm sympathetic to the Islamic community."
Al Qaeda Magazine aims to disrupt the revival of the U.S. economy
According to NBC News, the article in the Al Qaeda Magazine started with a photo illustration showing a gun and blood-spattered pictures of some of the U.S. business leaders. The terrorist magazine indicated that its goal was to disrupt the revival of the U.S. economy.
The article indicated that the names of the “economic personalities” and “wealthy entrepreneurs” will be removed from the list if they would withdraw their money from U.S. banks, invest outside the country, and denounce support for Israel.
The Al Qaeda Magazine is published online in the Arabian Peninsula. Samiri Khan, an American-raised jihadi, once edited the terrorist magazine. Khan together with cleric Anwar al-Awlaki was killed in a drone attack in 2011.
The Al Qaeda Magazine published the article, "How to Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom." which provided the materials needed to create explosives.
This is the second time for the Al Qaeda Magazine to name U.S. business leaders as targets for terror attacks. In December 2014, Bernanke and Gates were named as potential targets.
Al Qaeda is focusing on lone-wolf attacks
According to a senior U.S. intelligence official, the article showed that Al Qaeda is focusing on lone-wolf attacks. The terrorist group appears to be following the strategy of the ISIS.
On the other hand, NBC News counterterrorism analyst, Evan Kohlman of Flashpoint Intelligence commented that most of the content of the terrorist magazine were “somewhat aspirational.”
"There is compelling evidence from the Boston Marathon bombings and other various thwarted terror plots that homegrown jihadists have specifically looked to the magazine for guidance on what targets to attack — and have taken that advice quite literally," he added.
One person on the hit list is frightened and he asked NBC and ValueWalk to remove his name from the article.
